Countdown begins for the ‘beautiful game’

In a few days’ time, the planet’s most anticipated sporting tournament will kick off. As usual,  it will last a month. During that time, much of the world will not pay a lot of attention to anything else. The World Cup is an event that brings different countries, cultures and dialects together, a gathering that casts aside, or pretty much keeps in check, politics, religions and races. Fans and audiences will be deeply “divided”, of course, but the division is part of an actual harmony in the big picture.
There are many reasons why football, or soccer, is the world’s most popular sport. Poor children don’t have to save money like they have to if they want tennis rackets or baseball bats or even running shoes. They can enjoy kicking a crushed soda can, attempting to make it past sandals used to demarcate a goal.
That is just one reason. Football has simple rules and yet few other sports come close when last-minute drama or heroism is concerned. It demands team spirit and yet individual brilliance, a mixture that few other sports, again, have been able to demonstrate as much.
Then there is the “rivalry” that American football fans or volleyball supporters virtually have no idea about. The upcoming World Cup in Russia seems to have survived a grand scale of international politics. Diplomatic tension caused by an espionage conflict between England and Russia has threatened to bring divisive politics into the greatest stage of the “beautiful game”. England’s announcement of the identity of its captain of its national football  team a few days ago, finally, puts to rest widespread fears of a major World Cup boycott.
With the rivalry comes the passion. Football’s ability to heal political conflicts shall not be underestimated. Mohamed Salah, arguably the most popular Muslim football player of the hour, is being taken to the hearts of millions of non-Muslim people around the world. The adoration given to the Egyptian and Liverpool footballer is so much  that it is said if someone can bridge the Muslim and Catholic worlds, he’s a candidate.
Only a few countries have dominated the World Cup. Yet a “democratic” thing about football is that everyone can embrace it wholeheartedly. Thailand doesn’t have to to share borders with Germany to be crazy about the sport, and the likes of Vietnam and Malaysia don’t have to be ranked in the top 100 to be passionate about it.
The game has been marred by alleged corruption within the governing body, and a very long delay in the utilisation of technology to create genuine fairness and prevent players from being corrupted by the temptations of cheating. The popularity of the sport, though, is undisputed, and the one-month World Cup tournament will continue to prove it.
This does not mean, however, that everyone involved should be complacent. The beautiful game has survived scandals, controversies and tragedies but there have been unmistakable signs that match-fixing or biased refereeing can turn off the audiences. Fair play is what makes football popular, as it has been a sport that gives everyone a chance to be hero. If that is taken away, the charming unpredictability will be gone and the whole sport will suffer. Football can bring smiles and joy to countries where people don’t have much to smile about.
No other sport can launch fireworks like football does when a national team qualifies for the World Cup. It’s this quality of the beautiful game that must be kept forever and at all costs.