On that day, most members of the Earth’s dominant species – the nearly 7 billion humans – will be preoccupied with 22 able-bodied men chasing a little hollow sphere. It’s only a game, really, but what a game: the whole world holds its breath as the ‘titans of kick’ clash in the FIFA World Cup Final.
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Indeed, the exuberant and vuvuzela-blaring spectators flocking to South African stadiums make up only a small part of the global audience following these games. Far more are following it on big or small screens all over the world. When a game is underway, it’s not just the fans of two participating nations who cheer or despair. For 90 scintillating minutes, human divisions like race, skin colour and literacy are blurred and forgotten.
At that moment, we are all citizens of Planet Football. On June 24 evening, standing at a street-side pub in the charming little Swiss town of Nyon, on the bank of Lake Geneva, I watched Japan play Denmark. The small crowd around the large flat-screen TV was a miniature global family, and included a solitary Japanese – a colleague from NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster. Evening light was still fading in Europe when Japan won 3-1 to enter the final 16. Seven hours ahead in time, and well past their midnight, the land of the rising sun erupted in jubilation. Distances and time zones didn’t matter.
Such scenes were being repeated as various teams advanced or dropped out in the tournament. This sporting event is tipped to be the most-watched television event in history. Hundreds of broadcasters are transmitting the World Cup to a cumulative TV audience that FIFA estimates to reach more than 26 billion people.
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