We witnessed blatant rivalries among school friends in the months of June and July. No, they were not participating in any competition, rather their favorite teams were. It was the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which turned our friends into foes. It was one occasion when two close pals did not necessarily support the same team. Arch rivalry sparked among the Brazilian and Argentine supporters. An Argentine fan wrote on his college friend’s Facebook wall about the rage that engulfed him upon learning that his friend, who was once an Argentine fan, is now a die-hard Brazilian supporter. The Argentine fan clearly felt betrayed by his friend - this happens only in football.
We witnessed taunting of friends. I remember a friend jeering an Argentine fan, saying “Could you properly digest the ek haali goal (or, the four goals)?” Another friend promised that he would donate money to the poor if his team made it to the finals. Statuses were updated even at the darkest hours of the night.
The world’s greatest sport has come to an end. The fun, celebrations, tears and laughters have come to an end along with it. Funny, angry, cheerful and cheerless comments on Facebook have come to an end too. The last one month has been an amazing virtual football journey. Living in the United States, where football (known as soccer to the Americans) is definitely not the number one sport. It's not even the third-most popular sport in this country.
I enjoyed the 2010 FIFA World Cup virtually, I traveled to friends living in the United Kingdom, Australia and other states of the United States to experience the football fever. My vehicle was my Facebook account, which took me to South Africa every day. Facebook fed me with details of which countries won and by what margin, what matches were coming up, whether a yellow card was fair or not, and whether the referees were partial toward certain teams. Never before in a World Cup, was the social network so closely involved.
The constant status updates on Facebook by the football fans must have touched the nonfans too. Every morning I woke up to some three-hundred Facebook updates, more than 90% of which used to be on football. While someone was cheering for one’s favorite country, another one was feeling sorry for the team one supported the night before.
The minute a goal was scored, someone on our friends list would comment on it. After five minutes, we would see at least ten messages commenting on the same goal and its possible consequences. Most of us will remember the day when Brazil bid good-bye to the championship. That day, the Argentine fans were all over Facebook, booing the Brazilian supporters. As for the Brazilian fans, they were too overwhelmed with their team’s loss to Netherlands. Argentina lost to Germany by 4-0 the very next day, and the Brazilian fans did not miss the opportunity to boo back the Argentine supporters. Bangladesh was sad, for its two favorites were thrown off the World Cup in a matter of just 24 hours. The minute Brazil lost to Netherlands, a friend wrote on her status, “Omaeegawddd!! My country just died at this moment!”
Facebook made the 2010 World Cup more enjoyable. The instant sharing of thoughts and information brought together friends and family spread across the world. It did not matter whether one lived in Australia, United Sates, United Kingdom, Canada or Bangladesh, the world’s greatest sport gave each an opportunity to converse about a common topic. The craze was also clear from the profile pictures, which ranged from favorite jerseys and footballers to the World Cup trophy and national flags of favorite teams. Some even took photos in their most favorite team's jersey and uploaded the photos on their profile; there were group photos in football jerseys too. It was a different kind of a festivity altogether, a festivity that brought people together to enjoy healthy entertainment.
During the last two weeks of the tournament, the football fans were busy commenting on octopus Paul’s predictions of the results of important matches. But of course, the creepily correct predictions of the mollusk did not make the matches any less entertaining. Although toward the end, a lot of us probably began to believe that whatever Paul prophesized would be true for sure. Therefore, there were pleas to the Almighty. For instance, a German fan’s status said, “God help us!”
The world’s greatest sport has come to an end. The countdown of the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil has already begun. The 2010 championship was a most exciting one and what added to the excitement was the constant sharing of information with friends and family through the planet’s most used social network.
By Wara Karim
Comments