8/01/10 – The Day Football Lost It’s Innocence

Over the years football has encountered it’s share of tragedies. In 1958 seven Man Utd players died in the Munich air disaster, in 1968 74 people were crushed during a Superclásico match at River Plate, in 1989 the Hillsborough disaster occurred and in 1994, Andres Escobar was murdered. This week’s tragic shooting of the Togo team bus though, has brought football out of it’s escapist bubble and into the real world. January 8 2010 was the day that football lost it’s innocence.

FALLEN HERO: Fans pay tribute to Andres Escobar. The defender was murdered in 1994 after scoring an own goal that effectively ended Columbia’s hope of progression in USA ‘94.

Played in over a 220 countries, the beautiful game has long been used as way of uniting enemies and allowing people across the world forget their problems if only for 90 minutes.

In July 2009, Iraq, a country ravaged by occupation, internal warfare and terrorism, witnessed it’s national team play in Baghdad for the first time in seven years. Iraq beat Palestine 4-0 in front of a 45,000 capacity crowd. The screams of pain that echo through the city’s streets every day were replaced by cheers of joy. Hussein Saeed, Head of the Iraq Football Federation said of the historic match: “We are here today because football is the message of love.” In a country where nothing, not even places of worship, are beyond attack, 45,000 people entered and left the stadium without a hint of violence.

THE LOVE OF THE GAME: A British soldier takes a moment to play football with a local Iraqi child.

That symbol of unity now seems a shattered image. The Togo team bus had entered the disputed are of Cabinda in northern Angola en-route to their team hotel when they came under fire. According to striker Emmanuel Adebayor, rebels surrounded the bus en-mass and shot at the coach for 30 minutes before leaving the bullet-riddled vehicle as swiftly as they had arrived. Striker Thomas Dossevi said: “We were machine-gunned like dogs.”

The footballers were ambushed for nothing more than publicity. Togo has no animosity with Angola, these rebels weren’t targeting Togo via these players. The three dead and countless injured were simply victims of a splinter groups flexing their authoritative muscles.

CRISIS OF FAITH?: Togo fans will be praying that a repeat attacks on other teams do not follow.

The other nations based in Cabinda are now just as desperate to leave, with Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Ghana players all wishing to return home instead of competing. The state of panic has made every player believe they could be the next victim given the attack’s success in creating hysteria.

The security for the World Cup too has been thrown into question. Despite being thousands of miles from Angola and far more secure, South Africa still has it’s own share of violence and political dissidents. There are more illegal guns in South Africa than Rwanda. No country is immune from terrorism and no travelling team can possibly be protected at all times.

So where does this leave football now? The shock and outrage shows the moral disgust felt by seemingly all peoples against the attacks. Has the ‘untouchable’ vale fallen from around the beautiful game, is it now just as much a target for violence as politicians, preachers or policemen? The answer I believe is still a resounding no.

Footballers are modern gods, idols to billions of people. Politicians are hated by large sectors of their population, police are seen as oppressors, preachers are known as just political mouthpieces. Footballers are simply footballers, they’re here to entertain. It seems almost certain the ACN will continue on and I feel it will be a sign of strength that nobody wanted this attack on Togo’s players, not even the rebel’s supporters in Cabinda. Football is the world’s game, we all play it and we all love it. That is why I believe that despite the beautiful game losing it’s innocence this week, footballers are still safe to play in even the most dangerous parts of the world.

ESCAPISM: Even in the most war torn areas, people enjoy the freedom of playing the beautiful game.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 6:14 pm by juleswhinfield.