Talking about... Sport

Whether we are talking from a pulpit or over a garden fence, Nick Pollard helps us to give relevant answers to the big issues raised by contemporary popular culture...

"I couldn't believe it," my friend said to me recently. His wife was giving birth and he wouldn't leave the football match to be with her. He was at the FA Cup final, but he wasn’t a player or manager, simply a fan who didn’t want to miss the match.

There is no doubt that football (and indeed many sports) evokes a great deal of passion, commitment and sacrifice – concepts that are integral to the Gospel. Just think of how the recent World Cup provoked images of fervour among faithful fans, perhaps even in your own sitting room.

Certainly, when my friend spoke about the man refusing to leave the match, someone pointed out how different this was from the former Everton captain Brian Labone, who asked not to be considered for selection in England's 1966 World Cup squad because he was getting married that summer.

It's hard to imagine any of Labone's successors in the current England squad making a similar decision, which reflects the many changes in the game since 1966 and says a great deal about passion, commitment and sacrifice.

Of course, football is a big-money industry today, with television, sponsorship and merchandising income now a bigger factor on a club’s balance sheets than ticket sales. High-cost players and improved stadia have led to vastly increased ticket prices, demanding huge financial sacrifice from lower-paid fans who still want to watch their beloved teams on a regular basis.

Money has made its impact felt in football in other ways. In 2004, Wimbledon FC was uprooted from its traditional fan-base and moved 60 miles to Milton Keynes apparently for commercial reasons. Many Wimbledon supporters responded by disowning the new team, Milton Keynes Dons, dubbing them "Franchise FC".

A new club, AFC Wimbledon, was formed by disenfranchised fans unwilling to see their commitment and passion taken for granted any more. The new club has become the focus of enormous levels of commitment and sacrifice from the Wimbledon fans, and is climbing English football's non-league ladder.

With MK Dons suffering relegation this season, the day that the two teams meet – or pass each other – is potentially only a few seasons away. Some would see this as a fitting tribute to the passion, commitment and sacrifice of the Wimbledon fans in the face of the commercialisation of football.

Philosophical differences

Of course there are those who refuse to embrace these concepts, many philosophers amongst them. In the 19th century Arthur Schopenhauer condemned passion as blind, mindless striving. Contemporary philosopher Jacques Derrida expressed the post-modern concept of "ironic-detachment", the opposite to commitment where nothing really matters and everything is just a joke. While Machiavelli, back in the 16th century, called people to develop their power rather than sacrifice.

Perhaps it is football fans who can point us to the inadequacies of the ideas of the world's great thinkers such as Schopenhauer, Derrida and Machiavelli. Perhaps they highlight to all of us the life-affirming significance of everyday passion, commitment and sacrifice.

But perhaps they also show the importance of considering what – or who – we are passionate about, the object of our commitment and sacrifice. Certainly the fan who would not leave the match to be with his wife when she was giving birth did not show much passion, commitment or sacrifice for her. While Labone clearly put more weight on his commitment to his future wife than on his international career.

And here we see again the importance of Jesus' teaching. He said that we were to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength and to love others as we love ourselves. So, He says we are created for passion, commitment and sacrifice. And if that is fulfilled in our relationship with God and others, then perhaps the wonderful expression it can have in the football fan will find its rightful place and context.