Jag är rätt ointresserad av fotboll som sådan. Men däremot tycker jag hela buzzen (eller galenskapen) runt sporten generellt och VM speciellt är intressant. Kolla till exempel in PingMag som har gjort en gedigen genomgång av soccer ball design.
Eller den synnerligen udda statistiska kontrollen över vilket politiskt system som är bäst för att vinna i fotboll som tidningen New Republic gjort. Bland annat är icke-kommunistiska regimer bättre på fotboll än kommunistiska, demokratiska är bättre än fascistiska och tidningen drar några moderna tidens slutsatser:
- EU means ”experience unlimited.” […]44 wins, 24 draws, and 36 losses. […]a European nation without much of a history of football success can suddenly transform itself into an impressive performer.
- Liberated and in a winning mood. […]Countries that have just thrown off the yoke of communist or authoritarian oppression are extremely difficult to stop.
- Colonizers over colonized. […]Perhaps the imperial powers want to compensate for the psychological damage that accompanies the loss of empire and political decline. You might ask, shouldn’t this trend benefit England, the greatest empire of the last 200 years? It should, except that England planted rugby and cricket more firmly than soccer in most of its colonies.
- Never invest hope in an oil-producing nation. […]”paradox of plenty.” And, on the pitch, these countries lack a winning temperament and an innovative mindset. The ussr was the only oil-rich country ever to make it to the semifinals.
- Neoliberal shock therapy is a buzz kill. […]there’s good news for Thomas Friedman and other proponents of classical liberalism. Countries normally bounce back from their liberal setbacks. Brazil is the locus classicus of the genre, but Poland and Ecuador also prove that neoliberalism only hurts soccer in the short term.
- The caveat. There’s one iron law that overrides all the others. The political reality most likely to produce a Jules Rimet trophy at any given moment in history: whatever form of government has taken up residence in Brasilia that week.
(tips och tack till Erik)
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