Ball and Madness: What You Ought to Know

Considering the place occupied by football in the life of the fans, we discover that the time of the meeting goes far beyond everyday life. A German-born, already old-fashioned supporter’s song said something like this: “Football is our life, football king rules the world.”

One must realize that attachment to a favorite team can go very far. In Germany, a portrait of a couple of Borussia supporters in Dortmund was shot by a television crew. He: pre-retired, she: unemployed. The adventures of their “Borussia” literally give meaning to their life, which, without this breath of oxygen, would collide with the blocked horizons of the Ruhr. Now with the NBA중계direct broadcasting options, the sports mania has further increased.

Nothing is missing in a setting that has been built up little by little. The day of the match, the colors of the club are hoisted in the garden of the small pavilion where they live. “Provided they win” is the intimate prayer that Steffi (the most “hooked” of the two!) Internally repeats several times the day of the match. A real domestic ritual takes place before, during and after the meeting. A large showcase plays the role of altar.

Friends of the fan club are a community that is eminently united and supportive. This singular portrait, however, joins a reality shared by many. The same feeling of belonging is true of all those, and there are many, who fervently support this or that club. They commit, give volunteer hours in small clubs, or when it is a professional club, buy the full range of the perfect supporter, and invest their savings in travel to attend games “outside”. The real supporter identifies with his club, his team. The sometimes blind trust, the hopes he expresses through his behavior at the stage, are strangely similar to religious feelings. Like thousands of others, he only believes in his team, to suffer with her when she loses, but to vibrate with her when she wins and makes her dream. This attachment goes so far as to include funeral rites in some English clubs, where it became possible to spread his ashes on the mythical lawn after his death!

A global phenomenon: living to the rhythm of football

Other signs make it possible to bring this sport-spectacle become planetary of a true religion of substitution. The days, the weeks, the year are marked by a rhythm printed by this dominant sport. A football game in the evening, even for the spectator who attends the meeting in front of his television, can be the top of the day.

• Similarly, the weekend will culminate at the time of the visit to the stadium. The football season punctuates the calendar year and is a replacement for the high points that were once formed by the rites of the liturgical year of the churches. The league matches correspond to what is called in the churches the “ordinary time”.

International competitions become festive times, carefully brought about by the different stages of the competition. The preliminary rounds take place in autumn; the following spring, the events follow one another and culminate in the finals, where the passion is carried to its height. Time is literally occupied by football.

Last Words

The alliance with the media, primarily television, has led to a proliferation of retransmissions. Given the struggle of the channels, competitions previously considered minor gain notoriety and are now retransmitted. The diffused meetings are added to each other leaving no more emptiness, more dead time. It will be interesting to count, during the year 1998, the number of hours of retransmission, all chains confused, or to compare the number of days with or without football!