5 ms·

Why is deciding what nation has the best ball kickers relevant to anything at all let alone be an exercise of power to hold said competition?

hiddencost 5y ago
It's been used as an indicator species: can your society support the infrastructure necessary to gather, train, and support a team; it's read as a marker of the health of the rest of the system.
- blocked_again 5y ago
  Brazil and Argentina is more successful than Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Norway, USA, Japan, Korea and Englad combined. What exactly is the takeaway here?
  - botverse 5y ago
    They perform better under heat?
  - mthoms 5y ago
    The parent said it was one marker for the health of the system. Not the sole marker. But I think you know that.
- pennaMan 5y ago
  When FIFA permits cybernetic implants for players I'll be interested in the marker the competition will yeild.
allendoerfer 5y ago
It is the most watched event of humankind. If you want to call the winner the world champion, it would really help, if there weren't some alternative tournament, which champion is better than yours. The simple fact, that Qatar bothered to buy the whole thing shows, that it is important.
- pennaMan 5y ago
  Organizing an event of such scale leads to corrupt goverments having a lot of spending to embezzle funds out of. Yes, it is important for some goverments. But not for the reasons you aspire it to be.
CamperBob2 5y ago
Apparently it has something to do with sublimating the base human territorial-identity drive that would otherwise find expression in violent conflict, or some such. I don't get it either.
- pennaMan 5y ago
  Tribalism is a huge factor in the popularity of course. It's interesting, growing up, I had friends with a hobby for supporting particular footbal teams in my city. And of course rival team supporters couldn't really be friends, to the point of full out violence between rivals being an every day thing. I always asked them why is that, because except for the color of their scarf they fit the exact same personality pattern - they all would explain it from a mythological history of tribalism point of view that did not make much sense to me at the time.
hereforphone 5y ago
And it's not even their own ball kickers anymore. How can you get pride out of it when you're just paying to import folks from other nations?
- mtmail 5y ago
  While a Bayern München can have players of all nationalities the German national team consists of players with a German citizenship. At least that's my understanding.
  - hereforphone 5y ago
    Do they give out German citizenship for the purpose?
    - allendoerfer 5y ago
      To get a German citizenship, you either have to have lived there legally for 7 years and fulfill some criteria (language, no crime, job etc.) or have German ancestors. Unless you are European, you also have to prove, that you gave up your old citizenship. Fifa also has rules preventing this. You cannot switch national teams, once you played for one. It is actually the other way round: After the poor performances in the early 2000s, German clubs have agreed on a few rules regarding how many foreign players are allowed to play on each team and what each club has to do to train new young players. The richer clubs basically restricted what their own money could buy. These regulations are widely regarded as the reason for the dominant years during the 2010s.
      - hereforphone 5y ago
        Noted and upvoted thanks

hiddencost 5y ago

It's been used as an indicator species: can your society support the infrastructure necessary to gather, train, and support a team; it's read as a marker of the health of the rest of the system.

blocked_again 5y ago
Brazil and Argentina is more successful than Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Norway, USA, Japan, Korea and Englad combined. What exactly is the takeaway here?
- botverse 5y ago
  They perform better under heat?
- mthoms 5y ago
  The parent said it was one marker for the health of the system. Not the sole marker. But I think you know that.
pennaMan 5y ago
When FIFA permits cybernetic implants for players I'll be interested in the marker the competition will yeild.

allendoerfer 5y ago

It is the most watched event of humankind. If you want to call the winner the world champion, it would really help, if there weren't some alternative tournament, which champion is better than yours. The simple fact, that Qatar bothered to buy the whole thing shows, that it is important.

pennaMan 5y ago
Organizing an event of such scale leads to corrupt goverments having a lot of spending to embezzle funds out of. Yes, it is important for some goverments. But not for the reasons you aspire it to be.

CamperBob2 5y ago

Apparently it has something to do with sublimating the base human territorial-identity drive that would otherwise find expression in violent conflict, or some such. I don't get it either.

pennaMan 5y ago
Tribalism is a huge factor in the popularity of course. It's interesting, growing up, I had friends with a hobby for supporting particular footbal teams in my city. And of course rival team supporters couldn't really be friends, to the point of full out violence between rivals being an every day thing. I always asked them why is that, because except for the color of their scarf they fit the exact same personality pattern - they all would explain it from a mythological history of tribalism point of view that did not make much sense to me at the time.

hereforphone 5y ago

And it's not even their own ball kickers anymore. How can you get pride out of it when you're just paying to import folks from other nations?

mtmail 5y ago
While a Bayern München can have players of all nationalities the German national team consists of players with a German citizenship. At least that's my understanding.
- hereforphone 5y ago
  Do they give out German citizenship for the purpose?
  - allendoerfer 5y ago
    To get a German citizenship, you either have to have lived there legally for 7 years and fulfill some criteria (language, no crime, job etc.) or have German ancestors. Unless you are European, you also have to prove, that you gave up your old citizenship. Fifa also has rules preventing this. You cannot switch national teams, once you played for one. It is actually the other way round: After the poor performances in the early 2000s, German clubs have agreed on a few rules regarding how many foreign players are allowed to play on each team and what each club has to do to train new young players. The richer clubs basically restricted what their own money could buy. These regulations are widely regarded as the reason for the dominant years during the 2010s.
    - hereforphone 5y ago
      Noted and upvoted thanks