To score in Russian: football suffering

In the final of the 2006 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane, the captain of the French national team, the legend of world football, was sent off for heading his opponent, Italian Marco Materazzi, in the chest. This story is remembered even by those who have never been interested in football: pictures with Materazzi and Zidane walked on the Internet for a long time, jokes and serious cultural studies were composed about what happened, they even erected a monument to this event … And, in general, rightly so – that episode became in some in a sense, a milestone in the development of football.

It’s not that Zidane hit (he later explained that he could not have reacted differently to the insult). And not that, largely because of his removal, the French lost the final. The fact is that Zidane soon publicly apologized, admitting that he had committed an inappropriate act and set an example of bad behavior. From that moment on, the zealots of the “male spirit” in the main male sport are counting down the beginning of the era of a new football – glamorous and devoid of … as it were softer … the primary signs of masculinity.

About the field, who dotted you …

It makes no sense to go into the reasons for the love of men for football. Volumes are devoted to the topic, and there are a great many reasons themselves – from the ability to give a relatively peaceful outlet for aggression to an indestructible desire to kick something that is badly lying. But one of the reasons, of course, has always been a violent clash of characters, that element of gladiatorship, which, it seems, is necessary for a man in any spectacle, with the possible exception of a striptease.

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• Passion for football

And football uninterruptedly provided players and spectators with an influx of gladiatorial emotions. This was taken care of by his ancestors, the British. 1950s-60s Welsh striker Phil Woosnam is credited with saying: “The rules of football are very simple: if you see something move, kick it. And if something doesn’t move, kick until it starts to move.” English football lived by these rules for most of the XNUMXth century. The crunch of bones resounded in British stadiums almost as regularly as the cries of “Goal!” move.

With more or less reservations, this approach was adopted by the whole of Europe. Fans not only were not against it, but also tried to match their idols in everything. Monstrous fights in and around stadiums in the 1960s and 70s were perceived as an integral part of football. Not good, of course, but what can you do – a man’s game.

Again, the British were especially different. The sad result was the final of the European Cup in 1985. The stadium in Brussels played the Italian “Juventus” and the English “Liverpool”. But even before the match began, a crowd of English fans tore down the fence separating them from the Italian fans. 39 people died in the fight and stampede. Football officials realized that this could not continue, and Liverpool was suspended for 10 years from international tournaments. In March 2009 I was in Liverpool for a Champions League match. The hosts hosted Real Madrid and won 4-0, which was a shock in itself. But I was even more shocked after the game, seeing how a crowd of drunken Liverpool fans surrounded a group of Real Madrid fans. The heartbroken Spaniards were slapped on the shoulders, encouraged with rude but good-natured jokes and treated to beer. Football has really changed.

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The hunting season is closed

But it is unlikely that the efforts of football officials and police officers at the stadiums led to these changes. Although their efforts cannot be discounted, of course. European football authorities have issued a great many directives aimed at combating violence in and around the game. And in the same England today, work with fans is set up in such a way that almost any offender can be found within a few hours.

But the very zeal of the authorities was the result of a more global phenomenon. Since the mid-1990s, a triumphal procession of tolerance, political correctness and other values ​​has begun in the West, which today in the USA and Europe have been elevated to absolute. And if being rude or offending someone is not good in principle, then how can it be good on the football field or in the stands?

For example, racist slurs in football are now subject to astronomical fines. And in the near future, UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) threatens to completely remove from the competition clubs whose fans meet black players with monkey hoots or show them bananas they brought with them.

This triumph of tolerance is important, if only because the football age is 20-30 years old. And that means that many of today’s players grew up on the ideas of universal love, kindness and acceptance from childhood. And their understudies – the current 17-year-olds – completely absorbed these ideas with their mother’s milk. The same applies to the fans – the public, for the most part, is quite young.

Well, the second reason is, of course, money. They have always been in big football, but they have flowed like a full-flowing river since about the mid-90s. When the great striker of the 80s, Diego Maradona, entered the field, the opposition defenders most often did not try to take the ball away from him – it was almost impossible. But it was possible to punch him in the legs so that he definitely didn’t score anything. Maradona was simply hunted, and fractures, severe bruises, torn ligaments and sprains accompanied him throughout his career.

Today’s stars are not to be hunted. And if some bonebreaker incapacitates a player of the level of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, then this is what will happen next. The football authorities of the 5-10 games will remove the bonebreaker from football, and his club will be fined a hefty amount for displaying brutality on the field. The administration of the club, in turn, will heavily fine the barbarian himself and will long humbly apologize to the sponsors for spoiling their image with the bloodthirstiness of their players.

Why? Yes, because Messi and Ronaldo receive salaries comparable to the budgets of small states. And for that kind of money, you should not wallow in a cast in a hospital bed, but go out on the field as often as possible. By stimulating ticket and merchandise sales, increasing the cost of television broadcasts and attracting the attention of sponsors. Football has become a huge business, and it does not need excessive brutality, since it is not economically justified.

Of course, injuries happen even now, no one is immune from them. Yes, and brawls between the players also arise. But to compare them with rampant youthful passions 30-40 years ago is still not necessary.

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• Confessions of a football fan

Unconditional surrender

The result was the football that Europe has today. After hard joints, the players quite often collapse onto the lawn and writhe in such a way that the inexperienced spectator is convinced: the doctor will no longer help, you need to call the priest. But after a couple of minutes, the players return to the game as if nothing had happened. The purpose of their suffering is to beg the referee for a more serious punishment for a player of a foreign team, to bring down the attacking impulse of the opponent, or simply to take a break and play for time. The fighters of bygone days used to finish the matches on broken legs, and at the same time their loyal fans, in principle, refuse to recognize such a spectacle as football.

And off the field, the image of a football player has changed dramatically. Violent revelers and fighters like Paul Gascoigne, Eric Canton or the same Maradona – football legends of bygone years – are dying out faster than dinosaurs. And they are replaced by secular lions and exemplary husbands. David Beckham, who ended his long career this year, was already famous for the second half not so much as a football player, but as the husband of the ex-soloist of the Spice Girls, a regular in fashion shows and a symbol of metrosexuality. A mysterious phenomenon, the essence of which, it seems, boils down to the fact that a man seems to look like a uniform gay, but no, after all, it turns out that he is not gay.

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The banner of glamor was picked up from his tired hands by the handsome Brioline Cristiano Ronaldo. A brilliant football player and part-time star of advertising campaigns for anti-dandruff shampoo and underwear from Armani. (The latter, by the way, made him an icon in the gay community, and Ronaldo, they say, is now forced to work hard to prove the traditionality of his orientation.)

The rules of big business are tougher than football, and footballers have to accept them. And the business has discovered the huge potential of football and football stars and is now tirelessly turning the game into a family spectacle, maximizing the reach of the audience (that is, potential buyers). Well, what kind of rampage is there when women and children are around, and advertising contracts bring in even more money than football earnings?

And who knows, Zidane would have apologized for his headbutt, if not for one circumstance. Yes, he let the team down in the decisive match, forgot about the duties of the captain and so on. But apart from all these considerations, Zidane also had a huge contract with a mineral water manufacturer. And in commercials, Zidane walked around against the backdrop of idyllic landscapes with the gracious air of a man who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And then there’s the fight in the final game…

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• Men who care… for themselves

Many considered Zidane to be the last true macho football great. And his apology became an act of unconditional surrender of the old football in the face of new circumstances.

“I did everything right”

Of course, there are still rugby and American football. There remains hockey, where the fights of the players are an integral part of the spectacle, and fights without rules, so loved by our national leader. But if we talk about football, then the last hope of true machos is Russia. Because we have gone our own way. Big money has already arrived in our football, and the ideas of tolerance and humanism got lost somewhere along the way.

In the penultimate match of the Russian championship that ended in May, Dynamo Moscow football player Alexander Kokorin attacked Alania Vladikavkaz player Georgy Chanturia with his fists. Before that, he allegedly said something impartial about Kokorin’s mother. Dynamo was suspended for seven matches. But here is what the president of the Dynamo club, Gennady Solovyov, said commenting on this event: “I support Kokorin, in such a situation you only need to beat him in the face. Yes, I would have killed him (Chanturia. – Approx. ed.) on the spot. I repeat, this was not said by a rabid juvenile fan, but by the president of the football club.

The State Duma adopts the Law on Fans, as violence in the fan environment has crossed all conceivable boundaries. Fans disrupt matches by throwing firecrackers at the players, chant that women and children shouldn’t come close to the stadium, and are quite ready to kill each other, which they do from time to time. At the same time, fans of the St. Petersburg “Zenith”, for example, also publish declarations in which – referring to the cultural traditions of the Northern capital! – explain that black players should not play in their club.

Or here’s another amazing story. In April of this year, after the game between the youth football teams of Terek Grozny and Amkar Perm, something incredible happened. One of the Perm football players was beaten right on the field by … the referee of the match, Musa Kadyrov (namesake of the President of Chechnya). He later explained everything by the fact that during the meeting the football player again said something bad about the referee’s mother. The Russian Football Union considered the egregious case and removed Kadyrov from refereeing for life. After that, by order of President Kadyrov, the unfortunate judge was employed in some boxing club, where he probably belongs. And Ramzan Kadyrov (president) also said that the judge may have violated the law, but “he did everything right.”

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• What does it mean to be a man?

In general, at least one thing for Russian men can be calm – domestic football is always ready to support their masculinity. Or, at least, their ideas about it.