What is football anyway?

A very good article by Marcela Araujo at the Guardian’s football blog. She quotes Menotti as saying “The World Cup has nothing to do with football,” Than says:

What is football anyway? Menotti meant that the USA as host nation would not have any adverse impact on the game since the World Cup is no more than “a big business venture orchestrated by Fifa”.

and says

Both views are valid. The problem with the World Cup is that it attracts a much broader audience than regular leagues. Clearly, some long-suffering fans who have put the hours in come rain or shine, who have learnt formations and memorised scorelines, who have experienced the range of emotions dealt by the cruel hand of fate and followed the ball since time began find the notion of fairweather fans enjoying the show only once every four years somehow offensive…

and finally I would disagree with this

Football nationality has nothing to do with real nationality, a leading Scottish-born sportswriter who lives in England said to me last week. Because football is not real, he added. But some of the exchanges ignited by the event feel real.

Well football may not be “real” but neither is “nationality”, nation states are constructs, just as football, only the effect of the later are far reaching.