"Football is the opera of the people," said Stafford Heginbotham, a toy manufacturer who went on to manage the Bradford City Football Club in England. With 265 million players worldwide, even more fans, mammoth stadiums and lavish professional salaries, soccer inspires passion bordering on religious fervor that shapes and sways culture.
Playing Styles
"A football team represents a way of life, a culture," says Michel Platini, retired French soccer star and president of UEFA, Europe's governing soccer body. National teams indeed reflect cultural mores and history and a pinch of stereotype. Brazilian players bring flair and creativity needed as part of everyday life in a developing nation that requires inventiveness and fluidity in the fact of obstacles. Dutch teams deliver tough, hard-hitting soccer. France bought a multiethnic team to win the 1998 World Cup Final, with creativity and toughness coming from Zinedine Zidane, of Algerian parentage, and phalanxes of fast, versatile mid-fielders and defenders ancestrally connected to Francophone West Africa. Asia soccer, as exemplified by South Korea's men's national team and China's women, features tireless conditioning and Latin-style possession.
Fan Commitment
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death," said Bill Shankly, the late manager of Liverpool's pro team. "I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." This level of fervor is typical of fans such as those of the Netherlands, whose male fans wear orange milkmaid outfits, contact lenses and wigs to World Cup contests or Norway's followers in head-to-toe Viking regalia. England's pro teams compose elaborate chants and song parodies, often of a humorously adult nature, to lampoon referee decisions or praise the skills of the home team. American fans model themselves on the rest of the world, with Barra Brava, the fan group allied to D.C. United, lighting sparklers during home games, jumping on the bleachers of RFK Stadium and noise making on snare drums, whistles, cowbells, bagpipes and an English hunting horn.
Political Identity
Teams become symbols of national, religious and cultural identity. Ajax of Amsterdam and Tottenham of London attract Jewish fans. When Celtic plays Rangers in Glasgow, security forces maintain neutral zones of empty seats to prevent Catholic-Protestant violence and discourage "sectarian singing." Basque people during Franco's rule could only safely display pride at matches involving Athletic Bilbao or Real Sociedad, Franklin Foer notes in "How Soccer Explains the World." A match between Barcelona and Real Madrid symbolically pits Catalan pride and separatism against the dominant Spanish culture. Hooligans in England confound social analysts, who find a mix of racists and radical nationalists as well as middle-class, employed, apolitical members.
Women's Teams
Women's soccer has flourished in Europe, particularly Sweden, Norway, England and Italy, as well as the U.S. and Canada. "Perhaps not surprisingly, North America and Europe are the two areas in the world where women have the most developed societal and legal rights," writes Richard Witzig in "The Global Art of Soccer." Close behind in success are teams in Asia and South America, specifically China and Brazil. "Women are the future of soccer," Platini stated, but as of 2011, the women's game does not flourish in areas -- Witzig cites Iran and South Africa as two examples -- where the culture does not support women's human rights.
References
- Soccer Training Info: Soccer Quotes
- "How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization"; Franklin Foer; 2010
- "The New York Times": In Brazil, Unpaved Path to Soccer Excellence; Larru Rohter; 2006
- "The Washington Post": How to Fit in With the Frenzied Fans of D.C. United; Dan Sreinberg; 2008
- "The Telegraph": Feyenoord's Latest Clash with Ajax Peaceful Thanks to Absent 'Friends'; Ben Findon; 2010
- "The Global Art of Soccer"; Richard Witzig; 2006
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