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Sport is almost a secular religion with its myths, rules and revered heroes, often competing with religion when games are played at the same time as church services, say two Brazilian researchers.
Professors Ricardo dos Santos and Francisco Teixeira, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, are editors of a book entitled: "Football and politics, the construction of a national identity". Their conclusion that soccer is like a secular religion is one of the findings in the book recently published by Brazil’s Mauad Publishing. In it 14 authors deal with class, race and geography in sport.
Published as national soccer teams from throughout the world were converging on Germany for the soccer World Cup, the researchers highlighted the way the game helped forge a national identity in Brazil, the only nation to have participated in every World Cup since the inception of the tournament in 1930.
"There we have the construction of an inclusive national identity," the researchers stated in an interview with the Humanitas Institute of the University of Valle del Rio de los Sinos, de Sao Leopoldo.
After the proclamation of the Brazilian republic in 1889, the sport was the first time that poor, black and mixed-race people were integrated in social institutions like clubs, street teams and schools, and even the national team.
Still, the researcher say there is no historical evidence, at least in Brazil, that soccer has won elections or has helped overcome social injustice.
However, the game has been used in Brazil by the State in the pursuance of its own interests and to consolidate its support, the researchers note. "This is clearly seen in the Getulio Vargas government (1930-1945 and 1951-1954) when sports were appropriated in a symbolic manner."
President Vargas used sport as a tool to build national identity, they stated, recalling that German dictator Adolf Hitler did the same in Germany when he promoted physical education in the formation of the Arian race.
Turning to the World Cup, the researchers say the tournament can be seen as an example of globalisation which mobilises the largest number of people on the planet. But it is also an event, they underline, where national identities are upheld, presented and celebrated.
(c) Ecumenical News International
Photo : WORLD NEWS
