What's wrong with our football?

I follow football because I like it as a game.

Whether we like it or not, football, almost more than anything else, defines who we are as nation. The heart of England now beats at Wembley rather than Westminster Abbey. In a Britain crisscrossed by many social and cultural gulfs, football is something that can act as a vital bridge between otherwise alienated individuals and communities. It is one of the few neutral subjects (along with our weather) that one can use to open up a conversation with a total stranger!

But all is not well with our national game and as we face the new season, let me offer my own reflections on the recent World Cup disappointment for the England team. After all, what went wrong in South Africa was not the result of a disease unique to the exalted heights of international tournaments, but the effects of longstanding weaknesses throughout the system of professional football. Let me suggest three problems and the underlying issue that I believe links them.

Firstly, there were too many names and too little game. The contemporary fascination with celebrity (especially an overpaid and overexposed one) has had a corrosive effect on football. A lot of people on the pitch need reminding that they are not golden gods descended from on high for our worship. The fact that, in reality, most of our national team have feet of clay has been made painfully obvious.

Secondly, there were too many individuals and too little teamwork. Isn't it obvious that a team is more than a dozen star players wearing the same kit? If an orchestra can be something far greater than a collection of gifted soloists, why can't a football team? Isn't it possible to create a coordinated and integrated national squad focussed around a common goal? (or preferably, goals).

Thirdly, there was too much expertise and too little entertainment. I don't think it's just me, but football at this level seems to be becoming an increasingly dull and calculating collision of flesh and bone. More and more, the self-styled ‘beautiful game’ is neither a game nor beautiful. We could all have forgiven England being defeated if they had at least been fun to watch. At the start of the new season, could everybody on the pitch please remember that they are there for the benefit of the supporters? Can we bring entertainment back to the game please?

Now in reality I believe that all these complaints are linked. Let me cautiously suggest that what has happened is that, paradoxically, by taking football too seriously we have ruined it. We have thrown money and honour, column inches and airtime at the game and in doing so have polluted the thing we loved. We Christians have an old and wise rule that the surest way of ruining something is to turn it into a religion. Whether it be wealth, family values, patriotism, sex or a hundred other good things, the rule is the same: treat something as a god, worship it and you will wreck both it and your pleasure in it. Idolatry is condemned not just because it is bad for us but because it destroys the thing we worship. Only God can withstand being treated as God. We need to remember that football is a great game but a lousy religion.

So let’s put things in their proper perspective and if you are a player please re-evaluate why you play for your club, and country, and give us a good season of creative and compelling football.


J John is a popular author and speaker and heads up the Philo Trust, an evangelistic ministry. This article is published in Christian Today with the kind permission of the Philo Trust www.philotrust.com