Soccer: A Diplomatic Ball

This magnificent game of dribble and shoot-on-goal is to many an opportunity to booze, wear funny garments, body-paint, walk nude or sing and dance. No matter the category you find yourself, soccer has become one of the most efficient instruments of global diplomacy and unity. Every time we are together, whether it is for the various continental club leagues, regional championships, nations’ cups, and the almighty World Cup, we are moved by the tears of winners and losers together. We celebrate our individual countries and clubs with a splendid display of national and club regalia, forgetting the issues at home, and holding ourselves only to the rules of the game, to win by fair play. In such gatherings, the only constitution that matters is the world football federation, FIFA.

We can all agree that our world is full of skirmishes and rough edges at every corner. It is appalling and real that we have not solved the problem of Darfur, Somalia, Sri-Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Uganda, nuclear armament, terrorism, immigration, discrimination, civil wars, and all other forms of bigotry. We are also confronted by a battle against natural disasters such as earthquakes, climate change, drought, famine, and what Fanon refers to as ‘rape of the environment.’ But throughout history, soccer matches have brought adversaries together in the same open space to wave their flags and sing songs of love to their national heroes. Even in countries at war, we come across youths sharing the pleasure of soccer on dusty roads and street corners. Albert Camus is known to have said that ‘everything I know I learned from football.’

Soccer players are the only group of diplomats who have fans in the most obscure areas of the globe. Sometime we cannot help but wonder how every youth in the hidden villages of Africa wants to emulate not President Bush or Blair, but people like Maradona, Pele, Beckenbauer, Zidan, Beckham, Essien, Ronaldo, Opong Weah, Zlatan, Eto, Figo, Ballat, Kanu, etc. We celebrate champion nations like Argentina, Brazil, France, Nigeria, Cameroon, England, Germany, Sweden, and rising African countries like Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ghana. Everywhere in the world one can be assured of fans of Man. United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juventus, Real Madrid, Bolton, etc. In the spirit of the game of soccer, we are champions of the ball. Whether it is the players on the pitch or the supporters in the stands, we feel what Shaggy, in this amazing soccer song calls the ‘rush.’ The rush of winning, losing or just good play by our favourite players.

However, in every aspect of our lives we cannot escape the curse of being human. In Nietzschean rhetoric, the curse of man is that he was ‘once a child.’ Even this beautiful game is sometimes susceptible to the cruelty of angry fans and overzealous players. We often hear rumours of match fixing and racism. But we should never allow the bigotry of the nonchalant few to overshadow the beauty of our game. Our soccer heroes have also taken their success on the pitch to numerous philanthropic and humanitarian endeavours. Many players and clubs have their own foundations and charities all over the world. We also encounter people like Beckham, Thierry Henry, George Weah, Ronaldo, etc as Unicef’s good will ambassadors, inspiring children and revealing destitution in the most wretched areas of the Earth.

As long as soccer exists, we must continue to feel the rush from all corners of the globe and celebrate the warriors who stand firm for our nations in the battlefield of soccer. Whether they win or lose, we must cheer them for engaging in the greatest diplomacy of our time. In a world full of civil wars, poverty, and other forms of human sufferings, we must never relent to feel the rush from a diplomatic ball.