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Is Football Boring?

No! This is the obvious answer for me and presumably for the majority of the readers of this blog. But what is football then? A game played in dim light at speeds almost impossible for the human eye to see? A game with plenty of goals? No, again.

I’m bringing up this subject because as a football lover and eager follower of just about every league, I find myself constantly reminded by adverts and TV trailers how the PR machinery behind the sport wants me perceive the players and the sport. And to put it mildly the two perspectives fits together like Mourinho and a pink tracksuit.

Lord of the Football

A very illustrative example can be seen here in the Adidas commercial for the 2010 World Cup.

If you don’t bother to see the clip here is the basic plot line: Something about heroes and men becoming legends. And a lot of lightning and urban action. Seeing the clip makes me think long and hard about two things:

The somewhat anachronistic inspiration from hit movies like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Apparently the last successful movies the Adidas PR staff could think of. Am I totally missing the point or does small harry Hobbits and Jedi masters have very little to do with Brazil vs. North Korea and other similar matches with little or no enchantment? Let's be honest here. Sometimes football can be 90 minutes where nothing happens. And that's part of Football - it makes us enjoy the great matches even more.
How did Adidas know that legends would be created during the recent World Cup? It is kind of a self fulfilling prophecy to suggest that a World Cup automatically will foster new superstars and at the next World Cup promote them as such. Ironically, some of the living legends were anything but legends. Yes, I am thinking about you, Messi, Ronaldo, Torres and Rooney. I’m not suggesting that Zidane is anything less than a superstar but who should take his place in the commercial next time? No one and everyone comes to mind - but an Adidas endorsement does not qualify you for anything else than a fat pay check - certainly not a title as a hero.

Heroes or Football Players?

Oh - and a third thing: The very liberal use of the terms legend and hero. In my eyes heroes save people from drowning or from burning buildings. Legends are people who has done that sort of thing more than once. Legends, on the other hand, don’t go El toro on an opponent during a World Cup final. Regular people do that. And football players are nothing but people with somewhat more talent for running and kicking than you and me.

So why are sports brands and TV stations determined to portray the game as clichés piled upon clichés of a futuristic form of war between good and evil? Maybe the sports brands actually think football is as boring as The Simpsons would like it to portray it.

But there is no reason to pump up the volume like Nike and Adidas do each time a new Cup is approaching. Let the game promote it self and leave the special effects to Peter Jackson and George Lucas.

I Still Love Football

To sum it up: Football is exciting - football commercials are the opposite. If fact for my next post I’ll exemplify just how great the game is by making a list of the greatest matches played in my lifetime. Until then feel free to consider if you think football commercials have reached the limit for exaggeration.