Bar-On - The world through soccer: the cultural impact of a global sport

The World through Soccer

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bar-On, Tamir.

The world through soccer : the cultural impact of a global sport / Tamir Bar-On.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3473-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-3474-1 (ebook)

1. SoccerSocial aspects. 2. Sports and globalization. I. Title.

GV943.9.S64B37 2014

796.334dc23

2013049800

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

There is nothing like soccer. Nothing beats playing a soccer game on a hot summer afternoon. It feels really liberating. There is no rush like going to the soccer stadium. The forest of flags, the exalted songs, and the crowd feel like a combination of freedom and ritual communion. When the World Cup comes around, real fans dont want to miss even one game. The cafs, bars, and restaurants showing the games feel electric. The human bonding is intoxicatingminus the alcohol and drugs. After the World Cup, you follow your favorite clubs, as well as various regional and international tournaments. It seems that you can never get enough of the game: the millions of fans worldwide who form one transnational soccer tribe. You get the soccer virus early in life and it never leaves you. I got injected by the soccer virus. Dad injected me and mom let me play with reckless abandon.

For all that this beautiful game has given me, this book is my debt of gratitude. I dedicate this book to all those who have been involved with the beautiful game since it was first institutionalized in England in the latter part of the nineteenth century. These fans learn many lessons from soccer. The love billions of us feel for soccer adds spice, passion, and beauty to the world.

As a North American, I call the game soccer throughout the book but recognize that it is called football or variations of football in most of the world. In Spanish the game is known as ftbol, in French football (or lefoot), in Dutch voetbal, in Czech fotbal, in Portuguese futebol, in Filipino futbol, and in Esperanto futbalo. In Mexico, the game is sometimes called ftbol-soccer. When I quote others or use official titles such as the International Federation of Association Football, I maintain the original usage of the word football.

Most of all, I thank my mom, dad, and brother Saggy for their generosity, love, and wisdom. I thank Christen Karniski, Kellie Hagan, and the people at Rowman & Littlefield for believing in this project.

Lots of other people have been most kind in assisting me. I thank Ale, Maddy, and Darko Campa for their kindness. I thank Silvia Rivera, her mother, and family for providing me with an inviting environment and delicious meals on game days for Quertaro FC. I thank Oswaldo for suggesting player choices, in particular Xavi and Iniesta. I thank Fernando Arriaga Cervantes for informing me about the philosopher Mauricio Beuchot and the Sacred Flock, the fans of ClubDeportivoGuadalajara. I thank William Coffin for kindly giving me his copy of Foul!TheSecretWorldofFIFA:Bribes,Vote-RiggingandTicketScandals. I thank Jay Pence for lending me his copy of MyLifeandtheBeautifulGame:TheAutobiographyofPel. I thank Mario Vzquez for providing me with a few important Spanish-language sources about soccer. I thank my university, TecnolgicodeMonterrey (Campus Quertaro), in particular Anglica Camacho and Dr. Gabriel Morelos, for giving me the time to write this book. I thank Nereo Sanchez and Leslie Ortega for taking me around Pachuca and Real del Monte, the birthplace of soccer in Mexico. I thank Manuel Mancilla for generously sharing his passion for soccer and his unique paintings. I thank Andria Michels for her inspirational soccer paintings. I thank Neboja Vasovi for alerting me to the genius of Dragan Daji. I thank two assistants, Sophie St-Onge and Fernanda Martnez, for helping me with the bibliography and index. I thank my favorite teams, its players, and soccer fans in general as they have all inspired me. In particular, I thank my former teammates at Maccabi Toronto FC, FK Sarajevo, the McGill Redmen, and Armourdale Soccer Club. I thank my friends and teachers. I thank Mexico and its people. They are blessed with a shining, warm, and welcoming spirit. As the famous song and saying goes, ComoMxiconohaydos (There are no two countries like Mexico). Indeed, Mexico is unique and deep in my heart. I thank the game of soccer, which is precious like the oxygen we breathe.

The World through Soccer combines my passion for politics and culture with a love of soccer. I am a politics professor and neo-fascism scholar, as well as an insatiable soccer fan. I had an amateur soccer career that spanned more than twenty years and a website, footofgod.com, that was the largest soccer video clip archive worldwide until it was unceremoniously shut down in February 2001 by FIFA (Fdration Internationale de Football Association/International Federation of Association Football), the worlds soccer governing body. In the New York Times on February 13, 2001, Jack Bell wrote about footofgod.com shortly after its launch:

More than 10,000 people a day have discovered the Internet delight of www.footofgod.com. This independent Web site is the brainchild of TAMIR BAR-ON and KADIMA LONJI, soccer fanatics who offer more than 3,000 video clips of classic goals from around the world.

The site was launched in December and now has about 1,000 subscribers who get daily clips of great goals by e-mail messages.

GEORGE BESTs incredible dribbling exhibition that was voted the North American Soccer Leagues Goal of the Year when he played in San Jose in 1981? Got it. DIEGO MARADONAs 70-yard run against England in the 1986 World Cup (not to mention the infamous hand of God goal)? Got it (both). JOHAN CRUYFF? GIORGIO CHINAGLIA? PAOLO ROSSI? Got them all.

Two days after the appearance of the NewYorkTimes piece, the guardian.co.uk reported that footofgod.com has been forced to shut down after threats of legal action from FIFA and other copyright holders. Cahal Milmo of TheIndependent used more colorful imagery to describe the tribulations of footofgod.com:

If it wasnt already over, it is now. A football website showing free video clips of famous goals submitted by fans paid the penalty yesterday after the governing body of world football shut it down.