shaun botterill / getty images

universal >>>> South Korean fans watch their team's victory over Spain in the 2002 Cup

The World Cup | The Global Game   subscribe to TIME Printable Version email this story

Posted Sunday, June 4, 2006; 11.24BST
And so a duality within football—one that is with it still—was established. The game’s very simplicity means that it can be enjoyed anywhere. The rules are easy to understand, and no complicated equipment is required. To this day, many children in Africa use balls made of tightly wrapped plastic bags bound with string; in Ethiopia recently, kids could be seen playing with an outer casing of plastic bags that had been stuffed with condoms that, they said, gave the ball extra bounce. But second, and just as importantly, football very early became a mass-spectator product, one whose fans had a fervent identification with their chosen teams.

Fandom was originally—and most of the time remains—something reserved for local clubs. But as international competition grew, it quickly became associated with national teams, too. The first World Cup was played in 1930. Four years later, Mussolini’s Italy hosted the tournament (and won it) and since then nationalist sentiment has never been far from the Cup’s heart. Sometimes, naturally, this fervor takes on a nasty edge—witness the long-running rivalries, stoked by London’s tabloids, between England and both Germany and Argentina. But just as often, the World Cup has allowed fans to find a "soft" nationalism, one that celebrates national success without spilling over into hateful politics.

The pattern was set with West Germany’s unexpected victory over a gifted Hungarian team in the 1954 final, a moment that became the climax of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s brilliant analysis of postwar German reconstruction, The Marriage of Maria Braun. In the film’s final scene, you can hear a radio commentator at the game crying "Deutschland ist wieder ‘was" ( Germany is something again). Football had become an acceptable way for nations to say they were great without using guns to do so.

It’s not just big countries that think that way. For little Ghana, long a power in African football, but which had never qualified for the World Cup before this year, getting to Germany has been a source of astonishing—probably overdone—national pride. "Season after season we were just dying to get to the World Cup," says Kwabena Yeboah, editor of biweekly newspaper Africa Sports. "When it finally happened people compared it to the day Ghana won independence."

story continues

Outlets for soft nationalism are particularly important in societies where political expression is circumscribed. That’s true for three Islamic nations that have qualified for Germany: Iran (see Goals of Freedom), Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. "Football is the unifying field for Tunisians," says Chahir Chaqroun, a sportswriter for the Tunis Hebdo newspaper. "It is not easy to discuss politics or sensitive issues, so football works as a release valve." Hassan Mezouar, a marketing consultant whose father was president of a Tunisian team, echoes the point. "In football, there is no influence from politics or religion," he says. "Tunisians are far more excited about success in football than celebrating Independence Day, which for them is just another reminder of how far they still lag behind developed countries." Subtly, football is changing Tunisian society—especially because more women now attend games. "Once women are in the match they feel they are like their counterparts anywhere in the world," says Mezouar. "If women are now going to the stadium, this means that society is changing, and that these small steps will eventually lead to more changes." In Saudi Arabia, says political analyst Mai Yamani, support for the national football team is "a very good, apolitical way [of showing pride in Saudi identity], especially in a country where you do not have freedom of expression or organization."

Football’s simplicity, and the fervor of its fans, explain much of its popularity. But the World Cup would not have become such a focal point for the global community without a third factor: the worldwide spread of television. The first World Cup to be televised was the 1954 tournament in Switzerland, but it was the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, broadcast live to Europe in color, that really established the tournament as something you had to watch. (It helped that the Cup that year was won by a Brazilian team that was, in unshakable conventional wisdom, the finest the world has ever seen.)

TV has been crucial in expanding the appeal of football outside its heartlands of Europe and Latin America. In particular, as the economies of India and China have modernized, giving millions of households the opportunity to watch TV for the first time, the audience for football has massively expanded. Neither India nor China qualified for Germany, yet the level of interest in the tournament in both nations is breathtaking. "Everyone is watching football on the telly now," says Baichung Bhutia, captain of the Indian national team. "Not just games where India plays, but all the games." In India, to love football—rather than cricket, the traditional sport of the subcontinent—is a sign of modernity. "Who has time for cricket these days? You sit in front of the TV for five or six hours," says Rajesh Karabanda, managing director of Nivia, a sporting equipment firm. "At élite schools in urban areas the kids wouldn’t be seen dead playing cricket," says Bikram Singh, a sports coach in New Delhi. "Football is part of the new global India—it’s much more aspirational [than cricket]." (In neighboring Bangladesh, also a cricketing nation, university students destroyed dormitories and burnt furniture last week to pressure officials to buy two new televisions in time for the World Cup.)

The sports channel of cctv, China’s state-owned broadcaster, started a 100-day countdown to Germany in February, and has has been broadcasting a daily program on the tournament ever since. Sohu, one of China’s most popular Web portals, has offered 11 fans the chance to blog from Germany; last month, 150,000 Chinese entered a competition for the slots. There’s no nationalism involved here at all—just a generalized sense of wanting to be part of something modern and global. "Whether the Chinese team is in the finals or not doesn’t change a thing for me," says Liu Guolin, 28, who works in a Beijing travel agency. "There are great players and great teams out there. I can’t miss it. It is the biggest sports event on the planet."

BACK TO TOP

Printable Version

email this story

	From the TIME archive
	Officially Wrong Referee errors have marred an otherwise high-quality series   Sphere Of Influence What part does the new ball have to play?   Korea: Heavy Going The folks at home stay up late to support their team   The U.S. Bows Out With Honor Ghana delivers the knockout blow to Team USA's World Cup hopes   The Truth About Swiss Neutrality [June 14, 2006] The Crimson Tide hits Stuttgart to prove they are les Bleus worst nightmare   Party People [June 26, 2006] Germany stops worrying and lears to love itself   Jumping The Gun [June 16, 2006] No time for Italy to bring in a football amnesty   France: So Far, So Good [June 24, 2006] Are les Bleus united enough to go any further?   Technophobia [June 26, 2006] Why won't FIFA take the automatic route?   Japan's Soccer Samurais Are Left Feeling Blue [June 12, 2006] Asian champions in the doghouse after loss to Aussies   The World Cup Web Can't get to Germany? Experience the tournament online   Off To A Good Start [June 19, 2006] The first few days of the Cup have had it all   Mirror Images [June 19, 2006] Germany's coach and the U.S.'s compared   The Global Game [June 12, 2006] What football's success tells us about the modern world   Fair Play [June 12, 2006] Even Burma's generals realize the simple joy of kicks   New Pitch [June 12, 2006] Germany aims to demonstrate friendliness, creativity — and humor   Iran And Football [June 12, 2006] Football, politics and social change mixed in an uncertain cocktail   The Cup That Cheers [June 12, 2006] Moments that make the World Cup great   Global Game [May 22, 2006] Nike and Adidas are using the planet's grandest gathering to kick sale Search all issues of TIME Magazine Indicates premium content