The world, for the next month, will focus on the Fifa World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar.
People will be getting their tongues around the pronunciation. Students flipping their map books and internet to find where Qatar is. Thirty-two nations will be competing for the world trophy. Students will also be looking at the huge sums earned by international footballers.
There is no doubt that football is a game played by most nations in the world. Amateur football is popular in the world and parents must be thanked for supporting the amateur game.
The professional side of football is supported by huge numbers of people. Big companies invest very heavily in professional football. TV companies pay huge monies to invest in professional football. In South Africa we used the slogan “No normal sport in an abnormal society”.
The apartheid system led to the formation of the South African Council on Sport (Sacos) in 1973. In 1994 we saw the demise of Sacos because of the new political set-up.
Sacos promoted non-racial, mainly amateur, sport. Since 1994, because of the demise of Sacos, many amateur clubs in all codes have folded. Fewer students are involved in amateur school and club sport. This is something that people in areas of the poor in SA must address.
Nobody will try to stop international sport tournaments but the allocation of huge sums of money to professional athletes should be monitored.
If the reason for professional sport is to see that amateur sport is supported then more effort should be put in to seeing that money reaches amateur sport.
Having been a teacher for 40 years I know that school sport survives because of the voluntary efforts of the parents and teachers.
In SA business hardly invests in amateur school sport. Those companies which do invest must be congratulated. It is money well invested.
I am so glad that the slogan “No normal sport in an abnormal society” is now being adopted by many countries in the world.
Qatar’s attitude towards underpaying workers from different countries, government by royalty, bias towards people on their sexual orientation have been severely criticised by countries around the world.
I also believe that you cannot separate politics from sport. I hope this attitude of no normal sport in an abnormal society will continue to direct sport at an amateur and professional level. Enjoy the football and learn more about Qatar.
* Brian Isaacs.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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