The 2014 FIFA World Cup hasn't been short on controversy, even while providing an exciting and dramatic event. But the oddest thing about those controversies is that they show football to be something that takes place within its own little universe, as an isolated bubble within our own.
FIFA's persistence in holding the tournament, largely for their own benefit (Oliver, 2014), in a country which has seen massive protests against hosting it, and Luis Suarez's astounding bite, give us a window on the extraordinary indifference, or lack awareness, of those within the football world for the world beyond.
2014 has shown us some of the best that football has to offer. The joyful play of the Colombian men's national team has epitomised it. From the sublime skill of James Rodriguez (BBC, 2014), to dancing as a team for a goal celebration (Greenberg, 2014), to bringing on Faryd Mondragon, their 43 year old veteran goalkeeper to sentimentally allow him to break a record. Even aside from Colombia there has been exciting play, with goalscoring records tumbling (Fottrell, 2014).
But it has also shown us some of football at its worst.
From the beginning, before a stadium was built or a ball kicked, there has been massive opposition in Brazil to lavishing money on a football tournament that is needed so much more sorely by various public services. Those protests have however been met with police suppression, that has been heavily criticised (T.Hughes, 2014).
Once the tournament was under way, many of the teams spent as much time fighting among themselves off the pitch as they did playing their opponents on it. Various teams suffered from threats of strikes and refusals to play unless financial bonuses were paid (I.Hughes, 2014).
And, of course, there was Luis Suarez. Brilliant and celebrated skill in one game and then the biting incident in the next (Rich, 2014).
It leaves you to wonder how these people - footballers, coaches and football administrators all - can do some of the things that they do, when they must know that they are under such scrutiny as they most certainly are. When there are fifty thousand people watching in the stadium, and a whole world beyond that, how can you bite someone?
Within the football world, people can find themselves in a bubble. Within that narrow, constructed context, isolated from wider contexts, they are fenced in. Such worlds are frequently self-justifying, and lack outside views and perspectives. They become too locked in to the celebration of the performance of function, and give too little concern for the benefits of concern for context.
It is those things that come from context, like perspective, that allow us to comprehend what is good and what is not, what is true and what is not, and how we might imagine a way to a better version of our world. Without context, our little worlds remain stable, structured, unchanging, but ultimately false, nothing more than a self-edifying illusion. And in such places, things like corruption and reckless lack of concern for the consequences of your actions are only too easy to get away with.
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References:
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+ John Oliver's 'FIFA and the World Cup'; on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); 8 June 2014.
+ The BBC's 'World Cup 2014: James Rodriguez's six World Cup goals'; 29 June 2014.
+ Stephen Fottrell's 'World Cup 2014: Top five World Cup record breakers'; on the BBC; 1 July 2014.
+ Chris Greenberg's 'The Top of the World Cup Goal Celebration Standings (GIFs)'; in The Huffington Post; 19 June 2014.
+ Thomas Hughes' 'Own Goal: How Brazil is Stifling the Right to Protest'; in The Huffington Post; 2 June 2014.
+ Ian Hughes' 'World Cup 2014: Boateng and Muntari expelled by Ghana'; on the BBC; 26 June 2014.
+ Tim Rich 'Luis Suarez bite: Fifa charges Uruguay striker with biting Giorgio Chiellini during World Cup clash'; in The Independent; 25 June 2014.
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