Football Fanatics: The World Cup’s enigmatic allure
Sports fanbases, by and large, derive from prideful regionalism and enthusiastic belonging. Association football provides different caveats compared to other sports due to their national team tournaments. National team matches or bouts ultimately diminish, albeit temporarily, the stark divide between domestic clubs and bring together fanbases from different communities. The fusion of all backgrounds and identities creates an atmosphere with an unparalleled effect distinguishable from club environments. Simply put, attending a Real Madrid match is holistically different than observing the robust surroundings at a Spain’s national team match.
One of the world’s most popular sporting events, the FIFA World Cup, will kick off this Sunday in what will definitely be a tournament of mesmerizing magnitude. Besides the amalgamation of multiple nations, the World Cup provides a rare showcase of unity despite the competitive background and bears witness to the lively fan bases derived from national pride and patriotism.
World Cup Symbolism
The World Cup’s far-reaching influence continues beyond the month-long tournament. Qualification for the World Cup alone has profound, hopeful implications for struggling nations.
Following Côte d’Ivoire’s last-minute qualification to the 2006 World Cup hosted in Germany, famous footballer Didier Drogba spoke to a TV camera and urged his home country struggling with civil conflict to cease fire and hold elections. Although the sole football campaign objectively conveys nothing more than a trivial sporting event, Drogba managed to recontextualize the situation and use the crowning achievement as a way to unite the polarized nation.
The World Cup’s allure proved equally influential for Honduras during the 2010 World Cup qualification campaign. Although just qualifying for the second time in the federation’s history, Honduras’ victory in the campaign’s last matchday represented a beacon of hope as the nation had recently experienced an administration change from a coup d’état months earlier.
Thin Line Between Pride and Perverse Patriotism
Although the World Cup provides profound symbolism to countries in dire need of hope, sports, in general, sometimes become politicized. Brazil’s signature yellow-and-green jersey has gradually grown ties with the right-wing faction of the nation’s political spectrum. Specifically, the traditional jersey, once emblematic of the five World Cups won by the most successful nation in the tournament’s history, currently represents support for right-wing Jair Bolsonaro and his current administration.
Amid the controversial process of naming Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup, multiple parties have criticized the nation for human rights violations during the build-up for the tournament. Rather than criticize the government and policies, other parties opted to blatantly degrade and dehumanize Qatari citizens. The French newspaper, Le Canard enchainé, released a cartoon that included racist and Islamophobic depictions of Qatari footballers.
Overt, perverse patriotism and racism rear their ugly head toward players of color during national play. Burgeoning Canadian star, Mark-Anthony Kaye, experienced racial abuse through social media from Canadian fans following his send-off against Costa Rica during qualifiers. Oftentimes, this national pride disintegrates and fans regress into racism against their compatriots and villainize players of color when they do not follow their lofty expectations.
Heartwarming Harmony
The World Cup, at times, overcomes racial barriers and presents sportsmanship and harmony between diverse fanbases. Following their last-minute defeat and elimination against Belgium in the 2018 World Cup, Japan’s national football team bowed to the visiting fans before cleaning up their locker room and leaving a thank-you note to Russian staffers.
In the same tournament, Mexico national team fans celebrated and paraded with South Koreans after the Asian side eliminated Germany and granted qualification for the Latin American team. I vividly remember walking through Koreatown and witnessing the mesmerizing fusion and harmony between Mexicans and South Koreans as they treated each other as companions rather than convenient neighbors.
I hope that the upcoming World Cup will again provide its allure, break down barriers and bridge the gap between communities while helping us momentarily forget about the global conflicts ravaging our world.
Hector Almendarez is a junior writing about soccer clubs and their passionate fanbases. He is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.