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.
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