Ian Buruma on football as a form of war

Former Dutch football manager Rinus Michels in the mid-1970s coined the famous saying "Professional football is something like war". Writer Ian Buruma agrees with Michels in the daily România Liberă, even if the current World Cup is an exception: "Of course, soccer wars are rare ... but the notion that international sporting competitions inevitably inspire warm fraternity - an idea advanced by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic games - is a romantic fiction. The violence of British football hooligans, for example, reflects a peculiar nostalgia for war. ... Football is an opportunity to experience the thrill of combat, without risking much more than a few broken bones. Even when football doesn't lead to actual bloodshed, it inspires strong emotions - primitive and tribal - evoking the days when warriors donned facial paint and jumped up and down in war dances, hollering like apes. The nature of the game encourages this: the speed, the collective aggression. ... Not all football games are fraught with negative feeling and violence. This year's World Cup may well be a festival of brotherhood and peace."

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