Sport: Arousal of savage instincts

Tuesday 29th November, 2022

What is this world coming to when sport sparks violence and engenders animosity instead of unity and friendship? Riots broke out in Brussels, of all places, on Sunday during a World Cup football match between Belgium and Morocco, which pulled off a 2-0 upset win. It was too much for some football-crazy Belgians to stomach. But their reaction cannot be condoned on any grounds; violence engulfed several other Belgian cities as well with rioters setting vehicles on fire, pelting police with stones, and inflicting heavy damage on public and private properties while the football fans of Moroccan descent were painting the town red.

Football riots in Belgium occurred only a few weeks after a sport-related tragedy elsewhere. More than 130 people including children perished in a stampede at an Indonesian football stadium, where a pitch invasion led to clashes and police excesses.

Sporting contests are full of uncertainties, but most people cannot come to terms with this reality, much less defeats. These events have become ruthless competitions where sporting spirit has no place. Sport has long ceased to be fun, as a result. We are said to be living in a civilised world! The so-called enlightened Western nations that never miss an opportunity to take moral high ground have also failed to be different although they urge other nations to be tolerant of even terrorist outfits responsible for heinous crimes against civilians.

Sports and nationalism are an explosive mix, which turns sporting encounters into wars of sorts. Cynics say that one need not be surprised even if a cricket World Cup final between some nations in this part of the world happens to trigger a nuclear war!

Some Saudis are reported to have fired into the air in celebration of their country’s shock win against Argentina in a recent football World Cup match. It was no mean achievement for Saudi Arabia, but why should rifles be taken out? Such is their patriotic fervour; they are not alone in celebrating victory so passionately although in other countries, sports fans do not go to the extent of discharging their automatic weapons.

Meanwhile, religion has also wormed its way into the world of sport. Some sportspersons openly seek the intervention of supernatural forces to clinch victory in competitions, but such invocations often go unanswered if instances of inconsistency in their performance and ups and downs in their careers are any indication. Sri Lankan cricketers are a case in point. They make a public display of their religious faiths as well as superstitious beliefs. Some senior cricketers are reported to be followers of Gnanakka, a former hospital orderly, who claims to be a medium of divine revelations!

Sri Lankan cricket has become a confluence of politics, dosh, gambling, religion and superstition; it sadly lacks the sporting spirit. What they follow is the very antithesis of the core theme of Newbolt’s Vitai Lampada. Besides, their thick gold chains, bracelets, talismans, etc., seem to be weighing them down and impeding their performance.

It is only natural that all efforts to bring about global peace and save lives lost in conflicts have come a cropper. How can tensions among nations or groups of people be defused and armed conflicts averted or resolved in a world where even sport, which is meant to bring peoples together arouses ‘savage combative instincts’ and leads to aggression and even mindless violence?

Reports on football riots in Brussels reminded us of George Orwell, who has pointed out in his famous essay, The Sporting Spirit (1945), that football provokes vicious passions. He has made an interesting observation about all forms of sport: “I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield.” How true!