The problem with football
Football (or soccer), for many, produces such a powerful imagery and symbolism that we cannot help seeing it as a representation for bigger things — and that is what it is, warts and all
Let me begin by saying that I don’t think there is a problem with football per se. Certainly at a time when the sport has got much of Europe (in particular the country I live in) and South America under its spell, I would be loth to attract the attention of fans by suggesting there is something wrong with the game. And yet, I suspect that many devotees might share my reservations.
Last Wednesday morning, a BBC reporter reflecting on the Italy vs Spain semi-final in the Euro2020 football tournament described Spain as by far the better team throughout the match. Unfortunately, it did not manage to capitalize on this superiority with a winning score, not even after the extra time. And so, for the third time in the tournament’s knockout phase, the outcome of a match was decided by a penalty shootout — which the superior team lost.
Who likes penalty shootouts?
Penalty kicks have been the subject of a surprisingly large number of scientific studies: a search on Google Scholar’s database of research papers…
