Geelmuyden.Kiese

TANKER

FOOTBALL''S SECOND COMING
27.03.2009

I really wish I enjoyed Football, because then there would always be something on. On the TV, On my mobile. On the Internet. In the paper. In my head! The network effects of this year’s media penetration will grow Football into an even bigger spectacle.

The Norwegian soccer season is under way, and this year every game of the national league is available to watch in some way, usually more ways than one. Three matches are available free on TV every week, in addition to new web ways of watching. No offside trap, no strained expression on the bench or contrived scoring celebration need be lost this year.

Google ”sex” and you get 728 million hits. “Football” returns 758 million, just from the English word. “God” only gets 456 million and clearly needs to SEO himself to keep up with footie. Just don’t tell me Football is a sport. Football is a religion, and this year Football takes another step towards the Divine; omnipresent and unavoidable. Even I, as someone who thinks Astroturf is on the Moon somewhere and has serious doubts about the whole God thing, even I believe in Maradona.

As religions come, Football has an impressive uniting ability. Hero players enjoy eternal life in the annals of the Game, where legend, anecdote and scoring tables make up the rich tapestry that forms a common basis for even the most fiercely irreconcilable enemies. In any makeshift bar in deepest Africa, they know better than me who Solskjær is and where he played.

Football is also a master integrator, way better than any world religion could ever dream of. The most tonuge-twisting names of new stars recruited to some second division side from countries that might as well be on the planet Naboo, become household names to the supporters in no time.

Neither does Football demand that its critics be put to death. Not even They Who Touch It with Their Hands are stoned, the free kick incurred referring the ball, not someone’s head. The game of soccer welcomes everyone and turns no one away, and even you beach volley dudes are welcome to do your own thing in peace.

Some predict that the media avalanche that is this year’s season will wash away all interest and content from the Game of Two Halves. On the contrary, Football is a network economy, and the more members to join te club, the bigger the story gets, because Football is a story that belongs to all. Even we non-soccer fans dislike the German style!

That is why we won’t see the end of football this year, not even the beginning of the end. If anything, we may just have seen the end of the beginning, as Jackie Charlton put it. Well if he didn’t he should have.

Dagfinn Fjelddalen