Without wanting to endorse the FIFA marketing machine, I’ve
been thinking about their slogan ‘Football unites the world’, and I have to say
for me, it has through this Women’s World Cup, whose final New Zealand game is
being played tonight. I didn’t engage with loads of overseas tourists, but it’s
made me appreciate the diversity and linkages of my own friends here, as I
encountered them, or re-encountered them, through football – and Facebook.
Looking back over my games:
The first game in Wellington (Spain v Costa Rica), I met up
with a young Colombian I’d first met earlier in the year in a random encounter during
a changeover between two different cultural shows at our local community access
radio. He was Colombian, I was Dutch (Kiwi), and we found common ground in a concern
over climate change issues. At that first (very cold and wet) football encounter
on 21 July we also united in backing underdog Costa Rica.
My next match was through complimentary tickets passed onto
me by a former work colleague (and Facebook friend) who responded to my call
for company at some of the upcoming Wellington games. Through her daughter who
was helping out at the games, she had four complimentaries for Sweden v South
Africa on 23 July. So I went – along with a Malaysian New Zealander who plays
weekly social indoor football at the Indian Cultural Centre, and two Maori-Samoan
sons of a friend of mine who already had tickets to that game through another
circle of friends.
Third Wellington game was NZ-Philippines, and the only way I
could get a ticket was by asking my non-footballing friend with a wheelchair,
whether she’d been won over by New Zealand’s unexpected victory in the opener
against Norway to be interested in seeing their next game live. She was, well
she was excited by going to see something a bit different anyhow. Over-confident
New Zealand fans (like me) expecting a walkover then had to eat humble pie when
WWC debutantes Philippines beat us 1-0 (the Filipinos in the crowd possibly
outscored the New Zealand fans on vocal support as well). But I was genuinely
happy for my Filipino workmates at this turn of events and gave one of them a
big hug when I saw her straight after the game.
For the Netherlands v US game, I’d arranged tickets for an elderly
couple from the Dutch Club, and for my former work colleague mentioned above;
and got shouted my own tickets by the Netherlands Embassy for services rendered
earlier in the year. At this even-stevens match, it was a delight to see after
the match two guys walking side-by-side with complementary ‘Netherlands’ and ‘USA’
tee-shirts.
For the last Wellington game – the quarter final decider
between Spain and Netherlands, I met up
with my Colomban friend again. Before the game, we checked out FIFA’s commitment
to ‘rewilding football’ and debated whether it was greenwash, or a genuine growing
commitment to environmentalism. After the game, I met up with my friend with a
disability, who had become a ‘rent-a-crip’ (she’s ok with the term) for another
friend of hers at this sell-out final game in Wellington. And with my daughter,
we discussed the anthropology of football crowds – among other things, before venturing
down to check out the fanzone.
In addition to the live matches, I’ve been posting blogs and
sending messages about the football to friends around the country – and cousins
in the Netherlands who have been following their team from a distance. So yes,
I would have to say that for me football has been uniting my little world of
people both near and far. And as regards the title of this blog – yes, ‘the world
did come to Wellington’ but then again, you could say ‘the world is already
here’. Keep it coming.
