Sport is a human activity that has taken off since the beginning of the 20th century. It was mainly driven by football, the popular sport par excellence. Like almost all sports, football was born in the West, in Europe, in Great Britain more precisely. It subsequently developed to reach the most remote corners of the world thanks to English sailors and soldiers who set out to conquer it. But instead of being an instrument of colonization, it has become the means of dispossessing the colonizer of his power.
Today, we can say that football was created in England, but in the imagination of all observers of this rather unique sport, the country of football and footballers is Brazil. The process of dispossession has affected all continents; Today there is Italian football, an Argentinian style, a German, Spanish, Egyptian, Tunisian or Moroccan way of playing. Within each country, each club has its style, its playing identity. Raja, Wydad or AS FAR, it is not the same story nor the same way of playing, even if the standardization of tactics and the standardization of training has somewhat erased the differences.
Football is also about the uncertainty of results. It is one of the few sports activities that accommodates sports betting. This reality sometimes results in a reversal of hierarchies. A football club can move from the obscurity of the lower division competitions of the national championships to the light of continental competitions and vice versa. Money is not the only ingredient, unlike other sports. On the other hand, thanks to the new governance of world football, a modest club can become rich if its performances bring it to the firmament of the competitions in which it participates.
What happened this week in the European Champions League surprised all observers and supporters accustomed to the comfort of results conforming to classic logic. A logic which assumes that the richest clubs, those best endowed with talent and with the most experience in high competition always win. The opposite happened if we rely on the numerous surprises which punctuated the first two evenings of the new continental competition. Brest won away 4-0, an unexpected performance for a club still in the second division in 2019 and which, with the exception of last season, has always been near the bottom of the standings. Wednesday’s victory covers three months of the salaries that the club distributes to its players. Lille beat Real Madrid, a clean and flawless victory. The economic gap between the two clubs is abysmal; in principle, the sporting gap too. The Moroccans greatly appreciated the performance of Ayyoub Bouadi, this young Lille resident of Moroccan origin who celebrated his 17th birthday in the most beautiful way at the end of the match. Bayern, another juggernaut of world football, lost to Aston Villa. Another match surprised by the score: it was that of Benfica against Atlético de Madrid (4-0). This is very unusual for one of the teams most renowned for its defensive efficiency. On the other hand, Paris Saint-Germain’s defeat against Arsenal was less surprising: PSG has accustomed its supporters to defeats as soon as the level rises.
There are of course several explanations for the most unexpected defeats: poor performance or absence of the most talented players. This is the main reason: a winning team is first and foremost excellent players. Then come the bad choices of coaches, inadequate tactics, biased refereeing… It’s also a question of attitude. Some players have a bourgeois attitude towards work. You can’t make your team win without going all out and getting involved in all offensive or defensive actions. Attackers who are reluctant to defend penalize their teammates. Without this collective work to defend and attack together, nothing is possible, especially if the opponent is motivated and pushed by the energy of the environment and the support of the supporters. Those who compose their eleven without taking these balances into account have a strong chance of failing. Those who rest on their laurels too. Nothing is immutable.
In Morocco, we know this better than anywhere else. Many clubs, once at the forefront, are today in virtual anonymity, if they have not disappeared. New clubs replaced them: not necessarily rich, often modest but driven by the faith of overthrowing the hierarchy.
Football has just taught a lesson to the power of money. Hopefully the lesson is learned by Moroccan football: in the end it is he who interests us.
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