Sport cannot be the national idea

There is an impression that some politicians and media outlets wanted to turn sport into the Russian national idea. There is only one reason why: politicians think that any other ideas are very hard to realize. That is why the idea of creating normal living conditions for people cannot make its way into the category of national ones, maybe: politicians think that it is either too simple, or just unrealizable. This is the origin of the attention that sport has been getting in Russia.

Exaggerated expectations appeared all of a sudden from Russian football and hockey teams, which actually did not bring any joy to their fans. When the World Cup started, central television channels started such a big propaganda campaign that one could think that the Russian squad was the favorite of the whole event. The meetings between the players and the leaders of the country only made this impression grow more real. Why awaiting anything from the team that cannot do that?

Sport was turning into the national idea very quickly, television was adding more fuel to the fire every day and hour with its reports and news. Here we go guys: the bad game of the Russian squad and the disgusting mess in the center of Moscow – these are the results of the football-mania.

Sunday events showed that sport cannot be and must not be the national idea. The reason why is very simple: this idea is supported by drunk crowd that crashes everything around. This idea will only gather those people, who absolutely do not care about football, they will use football as an excuse for their madness.

Now they are scolding the Moscow government and police. The government installed those screens, the police did not prepare for the potential mess. The government wanted to do it to the best of their abilities, they believed in the culture of its people in contrast to the Japanese embassy that called upon their nationals to stay indoors. The government also believed in the “new national sports idea,” they believed it so strong, that they could not even suppose that such a terrible thing would happen. The crowd prepared for this bloody Sunday, and if the Russian team had won, the result would have been the same, they would simply have crashed cars for joy.

The Russian team was so loaded with responsibility, it was hypnotized with the need of the victory, but it failed to do even those little things it could do. Japan showed the beautiful game and they deserved the victory. Nothing special happened: Russian players did not believe in their victory and they lost, as always. They realized that it was just a game, and if the adversary was stronger, then it would be useless to fight, falling over themselves.

But pseudo-fans were not happy about the result of the match. They perceived it as the national defeat and rushed to beat up those “bastards,” as one of them yelled in the camera. They could not even realize the huge irony of the situation: they were turning cars over, and some of those cars were made in Japan. The screen that was airing the match also came from there. The Sunday crowd did not consist of fans, it consisted of hooligans. Football is not the national idea, is simply a game and nothing more. It is about time politicians should come to the realization of that and draw the line between the sport and the state. It is about time they should leave sportsmen alone, maybe there will be some results then. We have to remember that a team, which has worthy fans, will deserve the victory.

Sergey Borisov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov