Why did sport die, or on the eve of the big war?
Six rounds of the Russian Football Championship are behind us – it’s time to take stock. And the main football events of the 2019/2020 season also happened despite corona and pandemics. In general, we draw conclusions.
The main result of Russian football is this: we have a hope, a timid, painful one, but a hope that after a while we will finally get an adequate championship, where the results will be determined on the field, and not outside it - in offices that smell of gas. In recent years, everything has happened differently, namely, officials used the St. Petersburg Zenit as a toy in the likeness of the computer simulator Football Manager. Using people's money, they bought players for the fat club for inadequate, over-inflated sums, and most importantly, the entire refereeing corps worked for the St. Petersburg championship.
In the first round of the new championship, an incident occurred. And it was arranged by VAR - a system of video viewing of controversial issues. In the Spartak - Sochi match, referees Kazartsev and Eskov began a real deadly show, killing the Moscow team with frenzied refereeing. Moreover, several decisions were made such that their absurdity seemed obvious to everyone.
And then a scandal happened. The owner of Spartak, Leonid Fedun, threatened that his team would withdraw from the championship, and the multi-million army of Red and White fans was already ready to organize popular riots. In addition, Judge Eskov did not pass the lie detector test - he screwed up, like the entire judiciary. And then the rollback began in the opposite – adequate – direction. Apparently, the leadership - not the football leadership, but the higher one - quickly realized that things were headed for trouble, and therefore gave the command to judge the championship more or less adequately.
Well, on the one hand, it’s nice when politics leaves football, and purely sport remains. Yes, it’s poor, yes, it’s unsightly, but it’s a sport where teams try to be football clubs, and not subsidiaries of state corporations. On the other hand, it is sad that the level of this action is insignificant. And the match of the sixth round, where the two supposedly best teams of the championship played - Lokomotiv and the same Zenit, once again demonstrated the melancholy of Russian football. But these literally and figuratively zero clubs will very soon fight in European tournaments...
However, will they be? What's wrong with big sports these days, huh? Melancholy and pandemic. A week ago, the Champions League final took place, where Bayern, as expected, although not without problems, beat PSG. And all this in front of empty stands. They are also empty at NHL and NBA matches. Yes, they are empty everywhere. What is sports without spectators like?
It would seem impossible. But! We are entering a new century, plunging headlong into the matrix - and it threatens us not only with distance education, distance medicine, a digital economy for the poor, but also with the death of professional sports, which for a long time remained a substitute for war.
Yes, it’s a bold statement, I understand. But just remember the 1999 football match between Russia and Ukraine. What kind of massacre is this? What about WADA’s recent attack on all Russian sports and the betrayal and slander of Rodchenkov? This is a type of war, no doubt. It was sport that allowed aggression to be splashed out and provided a platform for self-affirmation - not only for people, but also for states. However, how can you take part in this game again if it was cancelled? After all, there is no war without spectators.
One hundred percent, the future belongs to the squalor called “esports”. However, it will not replace people with a real battle, sincere emotions that come from the very core, emanating from primitive instincts. And therefore - including, because, of course - this will only increase the madness and aggression of people, states, nations. And there will be war.
It’s all the more gratifying to see spectators at Russian Premier League matches. For now. Like, for example, in beautiful Stalingrad, where the local club “Rotor” returned to big-time football. This is seen as a farewell reflection of a great era. One where there were more means for self-expression.
Cherish this moment. There is still such an opportunity.
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