After months of build up, the World Cup
is finally underway. As it approaches the end of the first week, in
what is a month-long bloated competition, something has become rather
clear. Hype is everything. We reproduce an article from Socialist Appeal (Britain).
and in the papers featuring well dressed affluent youngish people, some
with painted faces, watching games in which goals are scored every
minute and everybody seems to be winning. Indeed you would have
thought that the whole purpose of the World Cup was to get us all to
buy loads of Flatscreen TVs, mobile phones and credit cards. Given the
power that the official sponsors have in the higher echelons of FIFA,
this would not be a million miles from the truth. Alas for them, it
looks like the latest sales reports suggest that people have decided to
be a bit more careful about spending money on these goodies than these
companies were hoping for.
Still the main TV stations are determined that we should not miss a
minute (unless you are watching on ITV (UK commercial television) who seemed to have developed a
habit of showing adverts rather than goals!) and have set about giving
us … well the same rubbish coverage as usual. No controversy, experts
saying nothing, bland interviews and, of course, all the usual pathetic
national stereotypes and cliches we get at every World Cup –
freeflowing Brazilians having a constant street party, fouling
Argentinians/Italians (delete as applicable), niave Africans/Asians
(again delete as applicable), hysterical French, efficient Germans and
so on. It is as if the Empire was still with us! The impression we are
to be given is that they could all learn a bit from us plucky Brits who,
the commentators constantly remind us, invented the game, have the
best (i.e most richest) league in the world, won the cup in ’66 and so
on (and and on and on…). Of course, any connection between this and
reality is purely accidental. Needless to say, it all falls apart when
the actual games have to be played and we discover that Our Boys, who
earn more in a month than most people in a decade, are unable to beat
players from the so-called lower ranks of world football and can’t save
shots that my cat could have stopped. But, hey, don’t let’s wind down
the hype… there’s still TVs to be shifted.
But it doesn’t stop there. Being in Africa, we have to have something
of the country presented to us. Cue, endless shots of well dressed
affluent youngish people, some with painted faces,(hold it – this seems
rather familiar) blowing those infernal vuvuzelas. Bung in a few safari
shots from stock footage and everybody is happy. Or are they?
What about the empty seats in the stadia because ordinary black South
Africans cannot begin to afford even the cheapest tickets? What about
the street traders shifted away because they do not have official
status and certainly could never afford the fees involved? A report in
last weeks FT spells it out:
"On the freshly paved promenade, fishermen are protesting against an
official decision to bar them from a pier where they have made their
livelihoods for two decades. ‘Do we not exist in this country any
more?’ asks Khalil Adam, a bearded 30 year old who says that selling
fish provides his main source of income. ‘All of a sudden we have been
ejected off the pier. A council member told me we are too dirty to fish
there.’ "
Photo by Mikkelz.The report
continues by noting that 5,000 subsistence fishermen have been affected
by the exclusion. But there is more: "Last week, Amnesty
International reported that police were expelling homeless people from
‘exclusion zones’ around football stadiums." Farmers have had land taken
off them with no compensation in sight, many now have grave concerns
that little or no benifits will acrue to ordinary people. The money has
been found to build huge modern Stadia for the Cup whilst millions are
stuck in crumbling townships lacking all but the most basic amenities.
It is Ok for those in the nice padded seats inside the VIP sections of
the grounds, enjoying the prestige and pomp of a major sporting event,
but what about the masses? Apartheid has been overthrown but for many
South Africans the yoke of capitalism is still around their necks.The
honour of staging a World Cup will not be changing anything here.
But none of this matters to the sponsors with their TVs and mobile
phones, the officials in their blazers looking for the next perk, and
the myriad television stations beaming back the latest interviews with
Rooney and Stevie G. Don’t ask how much the workers who make the playing
kit and the all-too-round footballs are actually being paid? (Answer: a
fraction of what it costs to buy this stuff in shops). Don’t ask what
will happen to these grounds after the tournement is over in July
(Answer: you can’t eat them!). As with the London games in two years
time, this is all about making money and generating prestige for men in
suits whatever the costs. And we all know who will be bearing the cost
of all this (answer: look in the mirror).
Football generates billions for those at the top but it is the
ordinary fan who has to pay up for this, directly or indirectly. In
ancient times, those at the top in the Roman Empire organised games
with gladiators to keep peoples minds off the way things were falling
apart. It didn’t work. Sporting events like the World Cup play a
similiar role today in the context of the decline and fall of
capitalism.Don’t be fooled. Enjoy the football this summer but remember
who is benefiting and who is paying and get organised to do something
about it.