The World Cup, soccer's greatest showpiece, which opened in South Korea and Japan yesterday, is certainly a global sporting phenomenon, possibly even bigger than the Olympic Games. To millions around the world soccer offers reassurance that their countries can take on the best. Across much of Europe and Latin America soccer is more a national obsession than a game. In countries like Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy and England soccer teams have become symbols of the nation, and their illustrious track records in the World Cup a source of great national pride.
America is the well-known exception. While more than 15 million Americans play soccer, not even 15,000 turn up for the average Major League Soccer game. But what about a country like India?
People are crazy about soccer here, but India has never played in the World Cup. Our team is ranked 123rd by FIFA, soccer's world governing body. And there is little hope that India will be good enough to make it into the World Cup any time soon.
India's soccer team was slightly better off in the 1950's than it is now -- it came in fourth in soccer in the 1956 Olympics. Since then, however, the game has moved on and Indian players have not. Over the last 40 years players in India have not developed soccer skills comparable to those of players in other nations. While Indians have held their own in the international arena in sports like cricket, we have traditionally fared poorly in contact sports. With little to show in performance at the highest level, Indian soccer stars have not become role models for kids in India.
As a result, nationalist fervor over soccer as an Indian sport (played in India by Indians) has not taken root in the collective consciousness as the passion about cricket has. But the appeal of international soccer in India is a different story. Across the country, from big cities like Calcutta to small villages in the outback of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, the pulse of soccer is throbbing in every vein. In the run-up to the World Cup, sales of color televisions have shot up. The matches are on all day here, so many will take leave from work to watch them, gathering at street corners to cheer.
On the streets of Calcutta, young men paint pictures of their heroes from Brazil and Argentina on the sides of buldings. In Calcutta, the heroes are inevitably from Brazil or Argentina. The people here seem to identify with the feints and the dodges, all the artistry of Latin America, rather than the cerebral, machine-like soccer of European nations. Could it be that our soccer fans find it easier to root for teams from financially depressed, often politically troubled countries, as opposed to those from affluent places like Germany or France?
This enthusiasm about the sport, which used to be restricted to club games at the local level, is a result of the new culture of globalization. Satellite television has made soccer a global game, taking it into living rooms around the world, even in India. (If there is one modern technology that has proliferated in India in the last few years, it is satellite TV.) And with the explosion of global marketing, popular interest in soccer and all its accouterments has grown with amazing speed.
Over the years, people here -- especially young people -- have become terribly brand-conscious consumers. And television has taught us how brands like Coca-Cola and Adidas are inseparable from the game. Being in step with world soccer has come to denote a certain kind of internationalism, being in step with a trendy, global culture, as much as eating at McDonald's or wearing a Nike T-shirt does.
So when people in places like Calcutta worship soccer stars like Zidane and Ronaldo, they are not just declaring their devotion to the game; they are also confessing their loyalty to Soccer Inc.
Written by Soumya Bhattacharya ,he is an editor at Hindustan Times.
NewsSource:Hindustantimes.com
America is the well-known exception. While more than 15 million Americans play soccer, not even 15,000 turn up for the average Major League Soccer game. But what about a country like India?
People are crazy about soccer here, but India has never played in the World Cup. Our team is ranked 123rd by FIFA, soccer's world governing body. And there is little hope that India will be good enough to make it into the World Cup any time soon.
India's soccer team was slightly better off in the 1950's than it is now -- it came in fourth in soccer in the 1956 Olympics. Since then, however, the game has moved on and Indian players have not. Over the last 40 years players in India have not developed soccer skills comparable to those of players in other nations. While Indians have held their own in the international arena in sports like cricket, we have traditionally fared poorly in contact sports. With little to show in performance at the highest level, Indian soccer stars have not become role models for kids in India.
As a result, nationalist fervor over soccer as an Indian sport (played in India by Indians) has not taken root in the collective consciousness as the passion about cricket has. But the appeal of international soccer in India is a different story. Across the country, from big cities like Calcutta to small villages in the outback of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, the pulse of soccer is throbbing in every vein. In the run-up to the World Cup, sales of color televisions have shot up. The matches are on all day here, so many will take leave from work to watch them, gathering at street corners to cheer.
On the streets of Calcutta, young men paint pictures of their heroes from Brazil and Argentina on the sides of buldings. In Calcutta, the heroes are inevitably from Brazil or Argentina. The people here seem to identify with the feints and the dodges, all the artistry of Latin America, rather than the cerebral, machine-like soccer of European nations. Could it be that our soccer fans find it easier to root for teams from financially depressed, often politically troubled countries, as opposed to those from affluent places like Germany or France?
This enthusiasm about the sport, which used to be restricted to club games at the local level, is a result of the new culture of globalization. Satellite television has made soccer a global game, taking it into living rooms around the world, even in India. (If there is one modern technology that has proliferated in India in the last few years, it is satellite TV.) And with the explosion of global marketing, popular interest in soccer and all its accouterments has grown with amazing speed.
Over the years, people here -- especially young people -- have become terribly brand-conscious consumers. And television has taught us how brands like Coca-Cola and Adidas are inseparable from the game. Being in step with world soccer has come to denote a certain kind of internationalism, being in step with a trendy, global culture, as much as eating at McDonald's or wearing a Nike T-shirt does.
So when people in places like Calcutta worship soccer stars like Zidane and Ronaldo, they are not just declaring their devotion to the game; they are also confessing their loyalty to Soccer Inc.
Written by Soumya Bhattacharya ,he is an editor at Hindustan Times.
NewsSource:Hindustantimes.com
