Open Rants by NickSparrow

Bullfighting, Gladiator fights, circus, an online casino with professional croupiers, private tables with OppaGirls and support for many languages, where all the luxury and pleasure of playing in a real live casino is just one click away: can you put football on a par with these ambiguous, but nevertheless so captivating mass games? If you look at them, they all have some archetypal components, satisfying the deep needs of a person in a kind of collective action, a spectacle that provokes a strong emotional response.

Football matches, as they could be seen at the last World Cup, seem to be completely civilized events to which families go to have a good time. Truth, that was not always so. The history of football, in addition to its charm as a sports game, knows many other sides – as well as life itself.

Football can unite, which is now a popular slogan, but it can also divide, becoming a cause of a war or a factor for the escalation of international conflicts. Football can evoke strong emotions and serve as an inspiration for the manifestation of something important and enduring, but can itself be exploited to achieve the base goals.

Football is a widespread phenomenon, no matter how one treats it – with awe, disgust, or indifference. They are fond of people of different social strata around the world: throughout history, football was played at prestigious educational institutions, in diverse ports, remote slums, and even in Nazi concentration camps. If you look at the history of football, it is quite possible to see not only a summary of who became famous and won the matches but also to open a new shade of the world history of the last 150 years. In this regard, football is similar to the cinema.

World footballization

The International Football Federation (FIFA), which is the main football organization in the world, was formed in 1904. Even then, they started to raise the question of holding the World Cup began, but due to internal contradictions, this idea was implemented only a quarter of a century later – the World Cup was first played in 1930 in Uruguay. The great credit that the World Cup was finally organized belongs to the then FIFA President Jules Rimet.

Before the World Cup champions took to the stage under the auspices of FIFA, football was represented at a global level at the Olympic Games. In fact, until 1930, the countries that won Olympic football gold were considered world Champions, although these tournaments were far from reflecting the real balance of power on the world football arena.

Despite the fact that the world championships are held every four years, they have always been a reflection of trends in the world of football (both the game itself and the overall status of football in the world). This is happening now, despite the fact that club football is much more interesting-teams usually come to the fore only during major international tournaments (World Championships, European Championships, Copa America, African Cup of Nations, etc.)

Europe vs. Latin America

The main theme of the World Football Championships is the rivalry between Latin America and Europe. Traditionally, football has received the greatest popularity and development in these two parts of the world; moreover, football has become a “second religion” in South American countries.

Now, the dominance of European football over South American one is not in doubt. The point is not even that the Europeans won the last few World Cups, but that the Western European leagues are significantly superior to the South American in terms of economy and infrastructure. So, although there are international club tournaments in every part of the world, the most prestigious and monetary one is the European Champions League.

For quite a long time, the balance of power is such that all the most talented players from South America eventually find themselves in the big European clubs. There they get an opportunity to earn much more money than in their native lands, as well as to become visible. For many boys and their families who live in poor areas of Sao Paulo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and other Latin American cities, football is one of the few ways to overcome poverty. However, the same is true for African countries.

In our time, the confrontation between the European and South American teams is rather conditional, but at the dawn of the World Championships, everything was very serious. Only a few European teams (and not the strongest ones) decided to go to the first World Cup in Uruguay. Conversely, the second World Cup, held in Italy, didn’t arouse the interest of the South American teams. England, which fancied itself (obviously, by right) the best and strongest football country, arrogantly ignored all the “foreign” football games until 1950.

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