A few years ago, as I relaxed on my father’s new couch and watched the usual evening news on one of the television stations, I was hit by one of the news packages; some Argentine football pundits of the football legend Diego Maradona have decided to worship him as their ‘God’.
Has it gotten to that? I asked myself several times as I squirm restlessly in the couch.
Like the ‘Jew’ condemning his fellow ‘Gentile’ I begun to condemn these ‘useless Argentines,’ I chose to call them may be for lack of a better adjective to describe them. I even went to the extent to judge that ‘hell’ awaits them.
But now I see no difference between them and me - I have being enslaved by the excitements and intrigues of the game so much that I can now comprise church activities and other equally important programmes for the game. If there is any difference between them and me then it must be the fact that they are aware of this ‘unknown god’ but I am not.
If I were the only victim of this ignorance then I would not be writing this since many will term worthless it. In that case it would have been my problem to deal with. The unfortunate thing is that these victims are numerous, as many as the lovers of the game of football, you can imagine.
Football or soccer is arguably the most developed game (sport) with a huge fan base and is still pulls more fans. It is full of drama, suspense and a display of talent as well as dexterity. One pundit once said that ‘in the game of soccer thousands of people who are in need of exercise watch twenty two men in need of rest play’ and I think that there could not be better description than this. The excitements that characterize this game in that ninety minutes span makes it the finest product one can patronize and to some extent I can chose to agree to all this fuss made about the game. Moreover the build up to most football as well post match conferences and analysis contributes to the growth of the game. It is a wonderful game with wonderful fans.
Nonetheless, we have to restrict how we give ourselves to the game just because we think is a nice game. Matches from the English premier league, Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A and the European Champions leagues tend to turn the world upside down with clashes like Chelsea against Barcelona, Liverpool playing Real Madrid, inter Milan versus AC Milan and Manchester United against Arsenal. On occasions of such clash between the finest teams in Europe it is easy to miss church, a lecture or something important and get to the nearest pub, restaurant or game centre to watch the match. Tell me, has it not become a god?
Nowadays, especially in schools it is possible to spend close to six hours on matches involving the big teams in Europe. I once was a victim in a match between Liverpool against Manchester United. I had to be in the TV room nearly two hours before kick off to secure a comfortable seat and from that time to kick off was when both fans of Liverpool and Manchester argued, most of which were unnecessary and petty. The football match took additional two hours and almost an hour and a half minutes after the match for arguments. The funny thing was that we argued in the TV rooms, argued on the way to our rooms and it did not stop there, we continued arguing in our rooms. In fact my whole day was wasted on just a football match.
Yes, it might be my choice to have done that but the issue is that I’m not the only person; others are caught to this unrealized god of the contemporary world.
The purpose of this piece of literature is not to create an impression that loving football is bad or ungodly but as a wake up call to the public about how we have allowed ourselves to be enslaved by the game. Many are unaware to this making it even worse because as long as a person doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, he does not grow.
Our so called love for the game is affecting our religious life, academic life as well our productivity as individuals. There are a lot we can do with the time given us by our creator.
The Holy book in 1corinthians 10:23 says “everything is permissible- but not everything is beneficial.” Let us try to limit the time we make for the game.
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