What is it about soccer that fascinates so many people, that attracts hundreds of millions of people around the world?
There have been quite a few attempts to decipher the secret of this ancient ball game, but it seems that the following definition by Professor Oz Almog is the most apt:
The human urge to admire and worship, which is a compensation for the misery of our lives; and the need to temporarily remove inhibitions and social masks and express emotions spontaneously.
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Almog points out other factors that underlie this unnatural worship, but in my opinion, these two elements are perhaps the essence and core of the 'groupie' phenomenon: people, no matter how respectable they may be, have a desire to break free from the shackles of rationality and glide into the undefined spaces of madness.
But what, in the face of this desire, the social barrier appears, which does not allow for that temporary breakdown of madness - and this is where the game of soccer comes in and prepares it.
Thus, one can find a respected prime minister - who faces national questions that concern human lives, as well as macroeconomic issues that may affect the lives of millions - troubled by the victory of one Spanish team over its friend, and thus one can listen to three sports programs every day, in which elderly, respected people, some of whom are already grandparents, deal with fateful questions: Is a 21-year-old, whose IQ level is usually no higher than his age, fit to play, will he start as a striker, or as a right midfielder?
As the program progresses, by the way, most of the time, the panel members break out into a fierce verbal brawl, insulting and cursing each other, and becoming filled with anger and bitterness at the interviewee who is unwilling to smear the coach from the competing team, thus depriving them of moments of pleasure.
Do I wish to mock, God forbid, the phenomenon of the sick worship of sports and soccer, basketball, and tennis players in Israel and around the world? Absolutely.
And yet, I am convinced that phenomena of blind admiration leading to shameful violence exist in every society. Just for the sake of sport – around which we have gathered – I would like to present two scenes.
In the 33rd minute of the game, a radical (group) fan of the Hapoel Tel Aviv team burst in, approached the hated player of the opposing team – Maccabi, and began to hit him. The player did not remain unpunished, defended himself and hit the fan.
A few minutes later, dozens of fans burst onto the field, began to riot like a group of pagans who had never experienced a process of integration, and the poor referee was forced to stop the game.
And now for the following imaginary case:
The group of young men were walking through the streets of the Haredi city when they encountered one of the hated rabbis of the other faction.
A fanatical fan of the opposing team, unable to watch the rabbi walk peacefully, began to beat him. In response, members of the other team erupted in cries of anguish and promised to fight back, and the cycle of physical and verbal violence was not over yet.
