He was playing football. What is the meaning of football. Professional and amateur sports

IN FOOTBALL - WE WORKERS AND PEASANTS. WE NEED TO FUCK AND FUCK

P the successor of the great Yashin at the gates of the national team and Dynamo Moscow came to the Novaya Gazeta press bar two hours after the end of the Russia-Tunisia match, asking us to record this game on a video recorder. Already seated at the table, he confessed his obvious blunder. The former goalkeeper, now a businessman, is still true to his principles: accuracy and reliability. “I scheduled this business meeting ahead of time - and missed. Without looking at the schedule of the World Cup games, as the gatekeepers say, he “blew a butterfly” (note, to the detriment of himself, but not to his current team. - Auth.) Without hiding his joy from the first victory of our team, Vladimir Pilgui immediately uttered the phrase, which we put in the title. How far can the "workers and peasants" of the Russian team go on the football fields of Japan and South Korea? About this conversation over a pint of beer with Pilguy ...

At first, I confess, there were certain doubts about the success of our team. Especially against the background of the performance of the Russian team in the LG Cup. But already somewhere in the middle of the first half it became clear: our team is a class two heads higher.
Valera Karpin looked very good, performing a colossal amount of work. Yura Nikiforov and Viktor Onopko also performed quite well. Romantsev guessed right on time with the replacement - poured in fresh blood. And the team ran. I was pleasantly surprised by the very young Dmitry Sychev, who, in fact, "made" both goals against the Tunisians.
- How would you rate the game of the goalkeeper of our team Ruslan Nigmatullin?
- In that match, Ruslan had quite a bit of work, so it's hard to judge his current capabilities. To be honest, I don't really like Nigmatullin. Yes, he has good jumps, but if you look at the records of his previous matches, he didn’t have to jump at all. It was possible to take the ball from a place, stretching out your arms.
In general, this is my personal opinion, but Sergey Ovchinnikov was supposed to be the first number of the Russian team. He is a very experienced, reliable goalkeeper, and unlike Ruslan, the current goalkeeper of Lokomotiv did not have a long break in playing practice.
The second number should be Stanislav Cherchesov: despite his age, he is a reliable goalkeeper in not the weakest club in Europe. But the invitation to the national team of Alexander Filimonov is still incomprehensible to me, because for a long time even a non-specialist can see that he has broken down. He broke down in that ill-fated match with the Ukrainian national team. And here again he is being taken to the tournament of the highest level. Imagine how he feels mentally...
- In your opinion, why did Romantsev refuse Ovchinnikov's services?
- I think, solely because of personal motives. The same applies to Rolan Gusev, who could look much more convincing than some of the current national team players. But one should not blame Romantsev for bias. He is the head coach of the team. And he forms the team at his own discretion. Still, it is he who is responsible for the defeat and reap the glory for the victory.
- What can you say about current goalkeepers in general?
- In my opinion, the class of goalkeepers has decreased. Previously, if you take the USSR championship, any team had at least two great goalkeepers. Even in Kairat, for example, two wonderful goalkeepers played - Ordybaev and Pshenichnikov. Yes, there were different styles of play. Bannikov, for example, or Kavazashvili played for effect. Yashin, Rudakov, Astapovsky, on the contrary, played discreetly. But they were all reliable. And each had its own characteristics. The same Bannikov, by the way, jumped two meters high.
Once we arrived at a training camp in Sochi. Trained. Meanwhile, the USSR youth national team is training athletics. They jump over a plank installed somewhere at the level of 180-190 centimeters. With difficulty, I must say, they are trying to take this height. And Bannikov, as he walked, tired after training, all covered in mud, easily takes this bar and goes on. When the athletes saw this, they just packed up and left.
Yashin, since he was short-sighted, always shouted to the defenders: “Let the attacker come closer!” He just didn't see the blows from a distance.
- By the way, about the features: all football players are superstitious. Nigmatullin, for example, always prays before matches. Sychov, they say, made a tattoo on his right leg: "Forget it, dear." How do you feel about this?
- Fine. I myself was very superstitious. Worn only on the left foot. If the lace breaks, don't go anywhere at all. Habits, by the way, have remained - I still start to put on shoes from my left foot. But this does not mean that the goalkeeper should engage in eccentricity on the field. The goalkeeper has no right to feints at all, as, for example, Chelovet did. Imagine a defender who has miracles happening behind his back. Because he just won't know what to do. Here Yashin never allowed himself such a thing, and therefore stood securely.
The goalkeeper is a team player, but at the same time a lonely one. Yashin, for example, even played for the attackers: the team was in the opponent's half of the field, and he was already watching who took what position. If the ball is taken away from the attacker, then the midfielder should move towards the opponent, securing. Yashin rebuilt the entire team. They believed him. After all, the players flirted, their eyes sparkle on their foreheads - they go forward with pleasure, but it’s hard to drag back - they need to be forced. But the goalkeeper is responsible for the missed goal. It’s not even my fault a thousand times, but I missed it - that means that’s it!
- But after all and defenders for something exist. Tell me: if you were playing for our national team now, behind whose backs would you feel calmer?
It's hard to say from the outside looking in. There must be some kind of invisible connection between the goalkeeper and the defender. I even knew that a player in a certain element of the game could make a mistake. Our defender was Sergey Nikulin. He had a very “valuable” quality: at least five times a season he scored in his own net. I already knew what to expect from him. One day during the game, the opponent shoots into the penalty area, and Seryoga, with all his swoop, exactly at nine, closes this same backache. I didn't even have time to react. As I stood, so I stand. And Serega indignantly begins to scold me: “Volodya, why don’t you help me out!”
- In the match with Tunisia, didn't it seem to you that Yuri Kovtun looked somehow unconvincing? The flank for which he was responsible was more like a passage yard. Maybe it was worth replacing him with Sennikov?
- I doubt. Still, Sennikov is too young a player. And Kovtun, in spite of everything, has a very solid experience of performing on the international arena.
- We are meeting a few days before the Japan-Russia match. The outcome of the meeting is difficult to predict. After all, the level of Japanese and Korean football has recently grown significantly ...
- Yes, it will be difficult for our players to play against fast and technical Japanese. Especially under the scorching sun and the incredible pressure of local fans. But we have to win. As for the progress of football in Japan and Korea, this is an absolutely natural result of the state approach to a separate sport. After all, they blamed the Soviet system, but then in the sphere of high sports achievements a lot has been done. From backyard football and the competition of rural teams to the national championship. It was a flow, there was a selection. And today, for the fact that a person hits the ball every other time, he is paid incredible money and they make a star out of him.
- Hence the statements from the camp of our team about too high grass and a fast ball?
- The ball is really very fast. Goalkeepers have a hard time with him. I can't say anything about tall grass. I will only note: a high-quality field is always in hand - or rather, on the foot - for technical football players.
- In your opinion, who will become the champion? The previous guest of our pub, Eduard Mudrik, suggested that one of the eight teams could become one.
- Applicants are much less. Personally, I really liked the German team. It gives the impression of the same German machine that crushed opponents with a skating rink in its better times.
- And what about the Russian team?
- Now, if you were told before the World Hockey Championship or even after the qualifying games that Mikhailov's team would win silver, would you believe it? Here's something. So let's see.

Irina Kaliteevskaya: Hello! I'm Irina Kaliteevskaya, editor of Arzamas, and you're listening to the Inferiority Complex podcast, in which we talk to the smartest people to make ourselves feel a little smarter.

Lev Gankin: My name is Lev Gankin, hello. I am a regular contributor to Arzamas, a music journalist by profession, and a host of several programs on the Silver Rain radio, but for our conversation today, the most important thing is that since childhood I have been very, very fond of football and have been a fan of the Liverpool football club.

I.K.: This time we decided to start preparing in advance for the upcoming World Cup The podcast was released on April 10th., and for this we will clarify for ourselves what kind of strange cultural phenomenon it is, why such an incredible number of people are interested in it, and how people who are used to humanitarian, and not sports entertainment, learn to enjoy it. In order to understand all this, we called not a historian, anthropologist or sociologist, but football commentator Sergei Krivokharchenko.

L. G.: However, Sergey worked for a long time as the editor of Esquire Russia magazine, where he regularly had to deal with sociological, anthropological, historical, economic and other humanitarian subjects, and now he is a commentator on the Match-TV channel and, if honestly, in my opinion, one of the most pleasant football commentators not only on this TV channel, but in general in the entire Russian-speaking football commentary industry, and a person who knows how to look at football much wider than it is customary for members of his profession.

Sergey Krivoharchenko: Hello.

Harald Giersing. Footballers. 1917 ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum / Wikimedia Commons

Why is football so popular

I.K.: Serezha, tell me, please, is it true that football is the most popular sport?

S.K.: Yes, and there is a huge amount of different evidence for this. If we just look at TV ratings, if we count how many people watch matches like the World Cup final, we find that there is basically no such thing in the world - not a single spectacle, not a single activity - that people indulge in so much. or massively. For example, one German television and radio company noted the final of the World Cup in 2014 as follows: it made a documentary film by sending a bunch of cameras to different places, and then edited it so that we understand: this is an hour and a half, when the whole planet is some slums in Nairobi, some Brazilian barbershops, American soldiers, Australian surfers, Japanese businessmen - in this hour and a half, he watches one football match. It's very strange, but it's a fact.

L.G.: What do you think, what is the reason for this and what does football offer that, perhaps, other sports cannot offer?

S.K.: There are so many different explanations. For example, the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk argues that football gives us back the opportunity to use the hunting instincts that we abandoned in the process of evolution: when we switched to gathering, to farming, we no longer needed hunting instincts. And these ancient atavisms that we have are resurrected as soon as we see what is happening on the lawn - and this feeling of triumph when you hit the prey with some kind of projectile, writes Sloterdijk, who is trying to defend herself, is unique , in other places it is difficult to experience it. And Sloterdijk writes that it is at this moment, in his opinion, that the game becomes what is called deep play, that is, a complex game.

But after all, in principle, for some reason, since ancient times, people have experienced a strange predilection for spherical objects. Moreover, not only people: if we look at the reaction to the ball of different mammals - cats, dogs, even dolphins - we will see that they are very interested in it, they all play with the ball with great pleasure. Football in this sense, among all other sports and, perhaps, many other human activities, is unique and, from some point of view, absurd, because in football the ability to use hands was initially abolished. But the hands for us are the main limbs, and the person progressed, learned to do more and more complex things, working with his hands. In football, only goalkeepers can play with their hands. And it suddenly turns out that modern football players have some amazingly diverse leg functionality: if ordinary people only walk, jump or run with their legs, then as soon as you start playing football, you will find out that you can hit the ball with the outside of the foot , or you can use the inside of the foot, spinning the ball, you can hit with a lift, you can hit from the toe, you can stop the ball, you can juggle the ball. In all other sports games - both in hockey, and in handball, and in volleyball, and in bass-ketball - hands are involved. And, perhaps, it was this fundamental prohibition that led to the fact that football became an ideal game in terms of the ratio of regularity and chance. Although here, of course, the size of the field and the number of players also affected.

In addition, according to Johan Cruyff, a former head coach and a great football thinker (no other name should be called him), and not only in his opinion, football is extremely accessible. It is available to everyone. There are people who run 100 meters in 10 seconds, but we understand that neither you, nor me, nor most other people will ever achieve this. To play basketball, it is desirable to be two meters tall - there are exceptions, but they are categorically rare. Football can be played by being of any height, any weight, any size and, of course, any gender - women's football is now very rapidly developing. And Johan Cruyff talked about how, if you watch Barcelona play, it's an amazing, beautiful and very difficult game. But even small children can try to repeat it: play the same pass, just combine with each other. And this accessibility of football, probably, also led to the fact that he became so popular.

Well, the last point of view to begin with is the point of view of the historian Christiane Eisenberg, who studied football a lot from a sociological point of view, I will refer to it later. She gave such versions of why football has become so popular. When it arose and was already institutionalized, that is, when the rules appeared, football could not be played with hands, rough, tough contacts were prohibited in it. It has proven to be a safer sport than, say, rugby, and therefore more accessible to working people. In addition, in football, different people have different roles: there are central defenders - and there are full-backs, there are defensive midfielders - and attacking plan, there are attackers, there are goalkeepers - and, according to Eisenberg, it is precisely because of this that football has place and artistry, and calculation, and spontaneity. And so athletes have certain roles, that is, like in a drama, at some point individuality appears here, at some point - the spirit of solidarity, at some point - self-centeredness, self-sacrifice, movie star manners, heroism ... All this in football there is.

LG: There is one point in your speech that I did not fully understand. If possible, I would like to ask you to explain: about the causal relationship between the ban on playing with hands and the presence of patterns and accidents in football.

S.K.: Roughly speaking, since initially a person is better at using his hands ... Now, if the acquired traits were inherited, now we would have an interesting subspecies of Homo sapiens - the descendants of football players who can act better with their feet than with their hands. But in reality, our hands are better developed, and, say, in basketball a huge number of points are scored precisely because a good professional basketball player will score 99 out of a hundred shots without interference. A good professional football player out of 10 shots from outside the penalty area, if with interference, he will score two or three times. That is, moments are created in football that may not be realized for various reasons. And there are still goalkeepers, there is interference from the opponent ...

LG: Arbiters, probably.

S.K.: Yes, there are also arbitrators who interfere in what is happening. That is why the level of randomness in football is higher than in many other competitive sports. And not only gaming. For example, if you are good at table tennis, then you know for sure that if you go out to play with a tennis player who is stronger than you - well, just from a different league - you have no chance of winning. You'll never beat him in your life unless he accidentally breaks his leg. In football, a team that plays three divisions lower always has a chance of winning - even if it plays with a professional, stellar team. This chance may be small, but it is always there. And what's more, this happens regularly, when an obviously weaker team, due to a variety of factors - including an element of chance - defeats a much stronger team.

When did football appear and how did football rules form?

I.K .: You said that football is a very developed game in which players have different roles, and this makes the ratio of randomness and regularity very specific. Has there always been such a distribution of roles in football? And when did he even appear? Is football an ancient or modern game?

A young man with a ball. Ancient Greece, 400-375 BC e. National Archaeological Museum, Athens / Wikimedia Commons

S.K.: Initially, football was a rather wild sport, if you can even call it that. It is interesting here that for some reason ball games appeared independently of each other in any highly developed civilization. It is known that the Maya played the ball; It is known that approximately in the II-III centuries BC. e. an exercise for soldiers appeared in China - and there, by the way, it was no longer possible to play with your hands; somewhere 500-600 years later, the kemari game appeared in Japan, which still exists and is also a distant relative of football; in Rome there was a game of harpastum; in Ancient Greece- episkiros. In general, for some reason, the ball game appears wherever there is a developed civilization and some kind of leisure. Naturally, the rules can be very different, but all these games are the ancestors of football, because the ball appears everywhere, everywhere there is a task to send it somewhere, and everywhere there is opposition from the opponent.

During the Middle Ages in Europe (and especially in England, about which there are many historical sources), football was often banned because it was a very wild activity. It was banned both because it can cause havoc in the city, because it distracts people from more practical disciplines like archery, and because players break too many windows; Puritans were forbidden to play football on Sundays because it was an aggressive activity.

If someone wants to see what football was like in the Middle Ages, it is possible to do so now. There is such a town Ashbourne, it is located 20 kilometers from the city of Derby, and there is still a Shrovetide match every year, which lasts two days, from morning to evening. The gates are located five kilometers apart. The object of the game is to kick the ball into the opponent's goal; the only rule is that murder is forbidden.

I.K.: Do they play with their feet or whatever they want?

S.K.: What they want. Moreover, the number of participants is unlimited.

I.K.: Yes, it becomes clear where the chaos comes from.

S.K.: Yes. Moreover, people start playing, then go to the pub, then come back, continue the game. This game is very boring - imagine: several hundred people on one side, several hundred on the other are fighting for one ball; there is a heap that does not resolve for a very long time.

LG: Two days, actually.

S.K.: Yes. That is, the final whistle at the end of the first half sounds in the evening, when the sun is already setting, and the match resumes the next day. In fact, the southern part of the city competes with the northern. It is believed that initially, instead of a ball, the severed heads of enemies were used in such games.

This is what football looked like in the Middle Ages. And, by the way, he was not only in England. In particular, in Italy there was such a kind of game as calcio; it was a little better organized - in particular, there was a uniform.

In general, everything went to the point that at some point society would try to institutionalize this activity, because no matter how much it was banned, people still continued to play with round objects, and, probably, it was better at some point replace the severed heads of enemies with leather or rubber-new balls.

Trailer for the documentary "Wild in the Streets" about Shrove Tuesday football in Ashbourne. year 2012

I.K.: When did this happen and how, in fact, were football rules formed?

S.K.: Football received a set of rules and the first football association in England. It is known when this happened: it was October 26, 1863, when 11 London clubs and schools gathered in a tavern, which is located next to the Masonic lodge - this, by the way, for fans of conspiracy theories - and there they compiled a list of football rules. This pub still exists, you can get into it, and the corresponding artifacts hang there, which prove that it’s really in this very Freemasons tavern "- that's what it's called - football rules were drawn up and a football association was organized. Christina Eisenberg , which I have already mentioned, confirms that this was a very important move.Firstly, because the football association immediately not only published the rules, but also began to monitor their observance, began to license referees, it stimulated the development of football ties , a league system appeared, prizes gradually appeared, the FA Cup appeared, the possibility of indirect comparison of teams with each other appeared.In addition, speaking from a scientific - sociological, probably - point of view, all these games, which individually were discrete events , acquired a history: after that, expressions such as “a legendary match”, “the era of such and such a club” or “the era of such and such a player” appeared, and football became an element culture of the New Age, which differs in that it combines the transient, the accidental with the eternal.

LG: Now we usually divide football into club football and national team football, football of national teams. I understand that in England in 1863 this league consisted of clubs, right? And when did the football of national teams appear - the European and World Championships? When and why did this happen?

S.K.: Almost immediately. The first football match between England and Scotland was played in 1872 - even before the English Championship was born. The fact is that football very quickly began to spread around the world. In England, it began to gain popularity due to industrialization, due to the fact that this originally bourgeois occupation quickly became popular with the working class. The fact is that just during this period, the wages of workers grew quite strongly and trade unions, in particular, won the right to a free second half of Saturday in England.

Ticket for the first match between England and Scotland. 1872 Scottish Football Museum

I.K.: That is, the only thing that was needed for football was free time?

S.K.: Free time and some money. The industrialization that took place in England helped football to spread within the country, even within the UK. And the second important invention of this time - the steamboat - allowed football to spread very quickly around the world. Firstly, English holidaymakers who traveled to Nice, Cannes, San Remo, Baden-Baden (not only by boat) began to carry balls with them. British sailors who sailed to different countries, to different continents (and then the British Empire still existed), also carried balls with them and persuaded the locals to play with them, because sometimes there were simply not enough people, not enough rivals. Since 1889, football associations have appeared in Holland and Denmark, then New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, Belgium, and so on. By the way, it happened that football clubs in South America and in other countries were founded by the British. The first non-UK football match took place in 1901 between Uruguay and Argentina.

Christina Eisenberg argues that football became popular only in those countries where it was possible to fill this abstract form of the game with specific content that would correspond to the specifics of this society - that is, ethnic subcultures played a very important role. For example, in Austria or across the ocean, some kind of confrontation naturally formed - for example, the Bohemians against the Croats, the Italians against the Greeks. And in the US, this effect also arose, but quickly evaporated, because there was a very successful assimilation. That is, football initially developed very actively and became popular thanks to hypertrophied nationalism and great-power fantasies, which were very numerous before the First World War.

Yaroslav Hasek has a story called "Football Match". He is very funny, although actually sad. It begins with the phrase "A sharp enmity reigns between the Bavarian cities of Tillingen and Gochstadt on the Danube." Hasek writes that in the Middle Ages they chased each other, burned one city, then another, and then this enmity was transferred to a football confrontation. And in the end, the teams of the cities of Tillingen and Gochstadt (fictional, of course) play with each other. If possible, I will quote a couple of phrases here: “The Gochstadt forwards aroused general surprise; they were chasing the ball as fast as their ancestors were chasing the fleeing Tillingens.” And the story ends with the match turning into a massacre, and the next day the German newspapers publish this information: “The interesting match “Tillingen” - “Hochstadt” is not over. 1200 guests and 850 local fans remained on the field. Both clubs have been liquidated. The city is on fire."

I.K.: That is, in football, not only an atavistic desire to hunt is manifested, but also an atavistic intertribal war, which in the football of national teams canalizes into a civilized channel, turns into a game by the rules? Still, usually football matches do not end with everyone lying dead on the battlefield, and the city on fire.

S.K.: I met the point of view of one sociologist that the fans who watch a football match of their own and others in the stands are like residents of a besieged city: they hope that the football players on the field will protect them from the invading enemy. Well, there is some stretch here, modern football is no longer like that, but nevertheless, before the First World War (and after, probably), football became popular where there were some confrontations. These confrontations might not even be very obvious or very important, but football was filled with this content. If there were no such confrontations, say, in Japan, then in Japan they continued to look at football as something strange.

For example, in Russia, one of the first football matches took place on September 12, 1893, not far from the Tsarskoye Selo railway station in St. Petersburg - during a break between cyclist competitions, which is interesting. And Petersburg Leaf wrote about it as follows:

“An intermission has been announced. At this time, the gentlemen of the sports shift entertained the audience with a game of football (Football). About 20 people signed up, the essence of the game is that one party of players is trying to drive the ball - throwing it with their feet, their heads, with anything but their hands - into the gates of the opposing party.<…>Gentlemen athletes in white suits ran through the mud, now and then flopping from full swing into the mud, and soon turned into chimney sweeps. All the time there was incessant laughter in the audience.

That is, initially football, which the British brought to different countries, was a wild, strange and, probably, even a comic spectacle. But in Russia, football very quickly gained popularity, because in Russia, too, there were meanings that somehow additionally filled it.

Football and history of the 20th century

L.G.: It turns out that the 20th century with all its ups and downs passed with football, and although I don’t know anything specific about this, I would venture to suggest that football, one way or another, also participated in them - it did not remain indifferent least.

S.K.: If we talk about the First World War, then along with industrialization, it played a fundamentally important role in the development and even popularization of sports; some scholars even use the phrase "sport promotion". The fact is that huge armies participated in the First World War in terms of the number of people. And in the troops of different countries participating in the First World War, a system of training and various competitions very quickly arose - sports games were actively introduced in order to maintain morale, in order to maintain discipline, so that the soldiers simply had something to do . And they were very active. One Prussian general wrote that football had more influence on the military life of individual units than reasonable service with weapons. That is, during the First World War, so to speak, there was a sports socialization of soldiers. And already in peacetime, when they returned after the First World War, many of them went to sports clubs, went to play football. They took off their uniforms, but they continued to play sports and went to the stands. And right at this moment sport competitions finally lost their elitist character.

Officers and soldiers of the British army are playing football. Thessaloniki, Christmas 1916 Imperial War Museum (Q 31574)

In European cities, many clubs were initially identified with certain ethnic, confessional or social cultures. The simplest example is the two oldest clubs in Glasgow, Glasgow Rangers and Celtic. One of these clubs is Protestant, the other is Catholic; here, please, is the essence that fills the matches between these teams with additional conflict. Or, for example, the Schalke club, which originally arose as a miners' club, because coal was actively mined in the Ruhr at that time: in general, symbolic conflicts arose between it and other clubs, which, with the help of football, sometimes swelled up .

And then the clubs began to receive income from ticket sales, then large stadiums began to appear. Foreign teams began to be invited on tour to lure viewers - or, on the contrary, go on tour to earn money. For example, in 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Country team traveled all over Europe on a tour, collecting money for the children of fallen soldiers. This was the main task, but, in addition, they, of course, faced the task of propaganda in nature - they tried to attract interest in the war in Spain in a variety of ways. This team also visited the Soviet Union and played several friendly matches with different teams. One of these matches, however, almost ended in a scandal, because the guests, dissatisfied with the decision of the referee, left the field in the middle of the second half and returned only after the personal intervention of Comrade Molotov.

At the same time, international tournaments began to appear. The World Cup, first held in 1930, became an additional incentive for the manifestations of sports nationalism. Sloterdijk, the philosopher we have already talked about, believes that modern nations, as it were, delegate their essence to the national team. It turns out that matches of national teams are such national simulations that remind a certain population of people that it can continue to identify itself as a real nation. There is an opinion that now people no longer need it, but the same Harari, for example, in the book "Sapiens" Yuval Noah Harari. Sapiens. A Brief History of Mankind. M., 2016. claims the opposite.

I.K.: Did totalitarian states use football in any way?

S.K.: Yes, very active. First, it's beautiful. Secondly, we know that Germany before the Second World War was simply obsessed with physical education and sports. In the USSR, in Germany, in fascist Italy, dictators built stadiums, provided clubs with state funds for training, and mobilized large numbers of spectators. It is very interesting that after the Anschluss, the Austrian Rapid team from Vienna began to participate in the German championship - and, imagine, on June 22, 1941, when the war with the USSR had already begun, in Berlin at the stadium, which was attended by one hundred thousands of fans, Rapid won the final of the German championship and became the champion of Germany. This is a rather unique achievement.

Final of the German football championship, June 22, 1941 ullstein bild / Getty Images

The Soviet Union had a very active development of departmental clubs, such as the current CSKA, which has always been an army club - and this, in part, meant that it could try to take the best players by simply drafting them into the army.

LG: The best players of other clubs, you mean?

S.K.: Yes Yes. Or, for example, numerous Dynamo societies that were in the Soviet Union - in Kyiv, Minsk, Tbilisi, Moscow - and there was also the Berlin Dynamo. These were teams, one way or another related to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and, say, the Berlin "Dynamo" - it was the Stasi team Stasi- the abbreviated name of the Ministry of Internal Security of the GDR., and now she certainly gathered the best players throughout the GDR and, thanks to this, became the champion of the GDR ten times in a row.

Naturally, there was a reaction. In particular, the current popularity of Spartak, in my opinion, is largely due to the fact that in Soviet times it was more of a protest club: it did not belong either to the army, like CSKA, or to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, like Dynamo. It was a club that was against it, and, accordingly, that part of the society that didn’t really like what was happening around, rooted for Spartak. There is also such a club in Berlin, it is called "Union". He is very small, now he plays in the second Bundesliga Second Bundesliga- German professional league for football clubs, the second highest level in the German football league system., and everyone who didn't like the regime, everyone who didn't like the Stasi supported this club. Therefore, he has a very diverse army of fans: from simple hard workers to university professors, who still go to the matches of this protest club.

LG: Do I understand correctly that in the middle of the 20th century, not only Spartak, but football in general, or at least the image of football, was somewhat more intelligent than today? I just remember, for example, my own grandmother, for whom going to the stadium and going to the theater were phenomena of absolutely the same order, these were cultural entertainments.

S.K.: In different countries, the culture of football support has developed very differently. In the Soviet Union, indeed, firstly, a huge number of people went to football and the stadiums were full. Even Andrey Sinyavsky - more precisely, Abram Terts - in the text "The trial is coming" described his feelings from football, which, probably, somehow explain the attractiveness of football for a very wide range of spectators with completely different education and intellectual level. He wrote that "a football match - in the sharpest seconds of the game - is like possessing a woman. You don't see anything around. Only one goal, violently attracting: there! At any price. Let death, let anything. Just to break through, to reach. If only to send a goal destined by fate itself into the gate.

When the Soviet Union collapsed and the championship of the already independent Russia and the championships of other countries arose, attendance suddenly fell, and everyone wondered - why? One of the answers to this question was given by Sergei Gandlevsky, who said that in Soviet times stadiums came to see poets. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became clear that there was a limited amount of entertainment in the Soviet Union. And when it turned out that there are many other interesting things, there were not so many real lovers of literature as it seemed if you came to Luzhniki on Yevtushenko. The same thing happened in the Soviet Union with football. But still, the Soviet Union developed somewhat in its own way, and in terms of football as well.

And in England, for example, football became a problem for the state and society when it was chosen by real football fans - people for whom the main goal of going to a football match was not only to support their team and see goals scored, but also to prove their physical superiority over rival fans. In Italy, absolutely nightmarish events took place in the 1980s and 90s: people were killed, there were cases of the use of edged weapons. Not so long ago, there was even a story when fans of one team brought a motorcycle to the stadium and threw it from the upper tier to the lower one. It must have come to their mind!

Riots after the Birmingham City v Leeds United match at St Andrews Stadium. Birmingham, 1985 Mirrorpix/Getty Images

But in general, now football is returning to a much more civilized state and, perhaps, even becoming more civilized than before. This is due to globalization and the fact that the owners of football clubs have realized that they need to bet on a slightly different audience. And now, in principle, the circle of football fans is already very different from those who went to football in Germany and England, say, in the 1980s.

I.K.: Are there any examples of when football has become an important active player for big politics and big history?

S.K.: There are some very clear examples. Probably the first of these is the famous story about the Christmas Truce during the First World War, in 1914, when the soldiers of the two opposing armies just took and played football in fact on the front line - although not all historians are sure that this is it really happened: someone says that there is enough evidence, someone says that there is not enough evidence. There is some documentary evidence of this - letters, postcards - but we cannot be one hundred percent sure that this happened.

There was also a war that probably started not only because of football alone, but football became the catalyst and the last straw. In the late 1960s, the two countries, El Salvador and Honduras, had an uneasy relationship, because a large number of Salvadorans lived and worked in Honduras, and because of this, tension arose. In the qualifiers for the 1970 World Cup, these teams unfortunately ran into each other. Honduras won the first match 1-0. One Salvadoran cheerleader committed suicide. Naturally, the Salvadorans took this as an occasion for even more tension. The second leg was won by El Salvador against Honduras 3-0, and Honduras was returning to the airport in armored vehicles. After the decisive match, Honduras simply broke off diplomatic relations, and a full-scale war began between the countries: Salvadoran aircraft bombed an oil depot, a base, then there was an armed clash of ground forces. This war is still called "football", or "hundred hour". It is interesting that El Salvador, which entered the World Cup in this way (and because of which, in general, the war began), lost to everyone at the World Cup, including the USSR national team with a score of 0:2. These countries signed a peace treaty only in 1980. According to various estimates, from two to six thousand people died in this war.

Separatist sentiment in Yugoslavia was also closely linked to football, because the Serbian clubs Crvena Zvezda and Partizan actively opposed the Croatian Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split. At the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb, a memorial plaque was installed with the inscription that “our heroes went to the front from here” - because so many ardent football fans really went to fight during the civil war. In general, there were many contacts between football and big history.

How to love football

I.K.: I don’t know anything about football. I don't feel any serious hunting instincts, no need to channel somewhere I also do not see my aggression and especially nationalistic feelings in myself. And I would like to understand: why should I watch football? How can I love him? For example, a comparison of football with the theater has already appeared today. I would like to understand: how can I look at the very development of the football action as something interesting?

S.K.: In my opinion, football is not even so much like a theater - and the same Sloterdijk, apparently critical of modern theater, writes that in modern theater the stage is filled with only losers who talk about their problems, but in modern arenas, as before, with delight you live through the primordial fateful choice that is about to come true, and you wait for victory or defeat. We have already said that football is, probably, the ideal ratio of regular and random. Football in this sense is a model of life, where within the framework of a match, within the framework of a season, within the framework of a career, for example, one bump can cross out a year's work or, on the contrary, someone can achieve an undeserved victory. Therefore, from my point of view, football is most similar to modern TV shows. For example, in the TV series "Doctor House" - and very many series are arranged in this way - there is one storyline that develops throughout the season, from the first episode to the last, and, in addition, each episode has its own storyline, where Dr. tries to find lupus, gets an MRI, and in the end triumphantly wins or loses. This is exactly what happens in modern football. As soon as you become a spectator, a fan of one of the teams, you begin not only to watch the series - you begin to live in it a little. Therefore, football is very easy to compare with TV shows, and once I did a material where I anticipated the championships that were supposed to start, comparing them with different TV shows. For example, now everything is very easy to compare with the "Game of Thrones": the King of the Night (that is, "Paris Saint-Germain", this is a club with a lot of money) threatens all of modern football. There were three dragons in Barcelona, ​​one of them - Neymar - was mortally wounded by a spear poisoned with huge money, and ended up on the side of PSG. And now this Army of the Night is coming to the whole of European football. Right now, PSG, fortunately - from my point of view, is still losing to Real Madrid.

I.K.: Wait a second. Could you tell people who don't know anything about it – what really happened in football?

S.K.: There is such a Paris Saint-Germain football club, which at some point received huge investments from new owners from the Middle East and began to buy players for incredible money, poach players like Neymar, thereby destroying the existing system. Therefore, this club is very disliked by many, believing that it can break the modern football system in general. And so the defeat of Paris Saint-Germain causes a feeling of joy among many neutral fans.

Moreover, in football there are such stories about which, if we watched them in the movies, we would say: “Fu, Hollywood!”; cinema can no longer afford this. For example, a few years ago, an unremarkable Leicester team, in which only losers were gathered, former alcoholics and whose coach had already, in general, waved his hand at everything, suddenly starts to win in the richest championship in England - and becomes champion. If we saw such a film, we would say that it is as primitive and flat as possible, because the team of losers wins everyone in the end - well, how can this be filmed in 2018? But in football, we can't complain about the artificiality or unnaturalness of the situation: it's a reality.

Leicester City players celebrate their victory in the English Premier League. 2016 Michael Regan/Getty Images

In fact, what a commentator is needed now for, in my opinion, is to create this context and help the viewer follow the story, tell what happened in previous episodes, what can happen in this episode, comment on what is happening, introduce the characters .

We talked about how football is similar to theater, how it is similar to serials and, one might say, to literature, because there is a plot both there and there. But at the same time, unlike the viewers of the series, the fan who is at the stadium feels like a full participant in the events. Fans sincerely believe - and this belief is periodically confirmed - that it also depends on them how the football match will end. And there really were such stories when the fans managed to get their team in such a way that it pulled out a completely hopeless game.

There's a truism that the losers in life like to identify with the teams that win, and that way they feel like they're the winners too, for at least 90 minutes. But this truism is very easily broken by pointing to teams—there are a lot of them—for which the fans cheer much more sincerely and become much more devoted when their team does not win championships. When a team loses, they are relegated from the top division - and the whole stadium stands behind their own. This, apparently, is precisely the ability to empathize with something, to sympathize. Sloterdijk writes that the obsession with feeling that you belong to some community of people is a thing of the past, that we no longer want to belong to any community - but apparently we do; apparently, this need for group behavior or group experience has remained with modern man.

Gerhard Schulze is a German sociologist who coined the term "impression society" or "experience society" - writes that the consumer society is becoming a thing of the past: there are already too many objects, and the current generation is not so interested in consumption and is ready to invest money in some bright experiences: travel, go to concerts and spend money on it. Schulze writes about why they became so popular public events. It would seem, why should I go somewhere if I can watch a concert, a football match, and anything else from the comfort of my home on a big TV? But Schulze shows that this jointness intensifies the experience, intensifies emotions. Apparently, empathy somehow affects here: it is it that enhances the experiences that we get in the stadium, and not at the TV. People are looking for this direct contact instead of the Internet and television. In addition, Schulze writes that people come together to experience events that will allow them to tell stories later - and a person loves to tell stories. And, accordingly, football, like some other phenomena, creates space for the joint experience of very vivid emotions.

Who is a genius coach

I.K.: About the emotional part is understandable. It is also often said that football is a very intellectual sport. What is the calculation and, in general, the intellectual power of the players or other participants in this game?

S.K.: Probably, many football players cannot be called intellectuals in the usual sense for Arzamas listeners. But modern football has turned into a very difficult task, where an athlete must not only be very well prepared physically, very hardy, he must not only be very good at technique, that is, stop the ball, shoot at goal, give passes. Modern football has become very fast. A modern footballer must interpret space very well, this is a large football field - playing on a large football field is much more difficult than on a small one, you need to make decisions very quickly, while remembering and fulfilling the tactical tasks that the coach has set for you. No wonder some people call it, say, chess. At the same time, you need to improvise, because in football it is impossible, like in the theater or like in music, to work out difficult places a million times. In football, you can only create episodes in training that may be similar to those that will be encountered in the game, but they will not be one hundred percent consistent with them. Therefore, for a player, football is a combination of both tactical training and the ability to quickly analyze and interpret the situation.

But football, of course, becomes even more difficult for coaches. Because a modern football coach is a person who, on the one hand, must know how to physically prepare the team so that it is able to run the whole match and follow his instructions. On the other hand, a modern football coach is dealing with twenty-five grown men, each of whom considers himself the best ...

I.K.: Or aunts.

S.K.: Yes of course. Just with women in this regard, maybe easier. I have never coached women, so I don't know and I'm talking about men's football. Men's football is a very strange team: in the locker room everyone considers themselves the best, everyone wants to play. This is a contest of some incredible egos. And the head coach must be a great psychologist, because all the time the tasks and needs of the team - and the individual - meet. On the third hand, the head coach must know how to prepare his own game - and the game, based on who you will play against. Modern coaches necessarily analyze the opponent, look for weaknesses, try to figure out how to beat this particular team. But at the same time, of course, we must not forget about our own game. Main coach must come up with - well, or choose from the available options - how the team should act collectively: who, where and why runs after losing the ball; how everyone acts after the selection of the ball; how to open the opponent's defense; how to act on corners and free kicks; how to deal with outs. And the coach must get his players to transfer everything that they played in training to the football field as accurately as possible. This is a huge, complex and, in my opinion, very difficult job, where you have to be a manager, and a psychologist, and a tactician, and a teacher, and sometimes even a primary school teacher, because not all football players are, as we have already said, intellectuals .

LG: Of course, I'm wondering if it's possible to tell the history of football as the story of the main revolutionary coaching ideas that changed our understanding of the game and, in fact, the game itself?

S.K.: Yes. Initially, football must have been a rather chaotic form of entertainment, and, apparently, at first, the teams played the way small children play in the yard: if you throw a ball at them, we will see that they will run after the ball in a crowd and try to score it at the gate. It is interesting that now, after about a hundred years of modern football history, some coaches believe that children should be trained in this way - but this is not important for our conversation.

The first major question that football coaches, football thinkers, faced from the very beginning was what formation the team should play. You have 11 people. Unlike chess, they can be placed in any order - or not placed; you can ask them to stand in one place - or run around the field. And initially, apparently, the teams played something like this: one goalkeeper, one defender, somewhere two people closer to someone else's penalty area and seven attackers; and everyone was trying to score each other a goal in this way. It quickly became clear that this was not effective method playing the game, in particular because you also need to be able to defend yourself. And, to simplify, for some time football developed towards, firstly, an increase in the number of defensive players and, secondly, the emergence of clear and rigid roles for the players. If children run in a crowd one after another, not knowing which of them is a defender, which is a midfielder, then in football at first (and for quite a long time) they tried to make masters of a certain profession out of football players. A 2-3-5 tactic appeared - these are two defenders, three midfielders, five attackers.

I.K .: Forgive me, please, but is the midfielder who does what?

S.K.: The one between attack and defense.

I.K.: I see.

S.K.: To simplify, he is in the center of the field, connects defense and attack, and can be both at strangers and at his own goal.

Then such coach Herbert Chapman at Arsenal came up with a tactic called “W”, that is, three defenders, two people in front of them, two more in front of them and three attackers. Then the famous Brazilian national team appeared, which played according to the 4-2-4 scheme - as Vysotsky sang:

They play, bastards, according to the double-ve system,
And we don't care - we have four-two-four.

This tactic was later adopted by some Soviet teams from the Brazilian national team, but Brazil conquered the world with this tactic in 1958 and won the championship. They, the Brazilians, in 1962 showed everyone the tactics of four defenders, three midfielders and three attackers.

In general, at first the development was rather schematic: the coaches fought with each other, trying to outplay another with the help of one arrangement.

But then such visionaries began to appear in football, who began to think not only about the arrangement and the scheme, but also about the style of their actions. It was pretty easy at first - or rather, it seems to be easy now. In Italy, Elenio Herrera, the coach of Inter, came up with a style that they called "catenaccio", which means "the door that cannot be passed." The Italians began to play in a dead-end defense, defending themselves with almost the whole team and thinking that, having run away to the other half of the field two or three times, they would score one goal, not concede a single one, and thus win. Then it became clear that this tactic could also be fought, and let's say the very attacking Scots were beating the Italians despite this catenaccio tactic.

Then coaches such as the Dutch Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff and our Valery Lobanovsky began to think that the roles of football players on the field could be interpreted a little more complicated. And the concept of "total football" appeared. Michels themselves, Cruyff and Lobanovsky implemented this in different ways, but the general idea was that the rigid binding of players to certain positions is not very good. For example, if in a certain area of ​​the field your players will be one more than the opponent's players, you will have a much higher chance of taking the ball away and outplaying your opponents. Coaches began to prepare their teams so that both the defender could play on offense and the attacker on defense, and the teams began to use pressure, that is, to take the ball away from someone else's half of the field.

Dynamo Kyiv players and their coach Valeriy Lobanovsky celebrate victory in the USSR Cup. 1987 TASS

With Lobanovsky, the story developed very interestingly. He really thought a lot about football and began to attract assistants from science, because the football, which he tried to organize in Dynamo Kiev, was possible only with the enchantingly good physical condition of the players. Lobanovsky said that the individual skill of one player is, of course, important, but it is not the most important. Any great football player can be outplayed with the help of team actions. Relatively speaking, Maradona will beat two, but he will not beat three or four. But you have to make sure that you have four people to attack Maradona. Accordingly, the players of Dynamo Kyiv and the USSR national team had to run much more than their rivals. Therefore, Lobanovsky, with the help of physiologists and biologists, came up with new training regimens that would make football players more resilient. This allowed Dynamo Kyiv and the USSR national team to make a number of really impressive victories. There was also a legendary game in 1988, when the USSR national team beat the Italian national team, pressing throughout the match in all areas of the field - the Italians simply could not raise their heads, because, only after receiving the ball, the Italian realized that there were two or three rivals. Ralph Rangnick, who has now also become a famous football visionary, watched Lobanovsky's training and even played in a friendly match against his team, and he admitted that when the ball first flew out of the field in the eighth minute, he stopped and counted the players of the opposing team, because he was convinced that there were at least 14-15 people there. However, over time, it turned out that these new training loads have their own problems, and they lead to rather bad, complex consequences.

Modern football coaches understand that from a tactical point of view it is already difficult to come up with something completely new, and they begin to resort to the help of modern technologies: in the training process, some fantastic futuristic simulators appear that allow football players to work on the speed of reaction to the ball and on an opponent, over the field of view, and so on. At the same time, coaches understand that now everyone knows how to train and prepare, so you need to pay more attention to psychology - although this is not mathematics, and various difficulties already arise here. Some coaches pay increased attention to nutrition. And as a result, football, developing from simple schemes through the complication of the roles of football players in the team, thanks to those coaches who thought a lot about it and tried to find some new unexpected moves, has now turned, firstly, into a very expensive one, and secondly , into a very diverse industry that includes absolutely everything you can imagine.

I.K .: Before the interview, you told me about the games of coaches with the peak form of football players. Can you explain again what it is?

S.K.: Many modern football coaches say that the peak of form is not only an illusory concept, but it is superfluous for a team that plays a long season from September to May. For such a long time, you can keep a football player at a fairly good level of physical fitness, but trying to bring him to the peak of his form in this case is completely unnecessary and even harmful - simply because after that there will inevitably be a failure.

I.K .: That is, the peak of the form is a kind of ideal state to which a person can be trained, but on some limited amount of time?

S.K.: Yes. National teams hold short-term tournaments - they last four weeks, and in such a short period of time, coaches quite easily figure out how to give the team such loads so that by a certain date it will be in perfect condition. But at the same time, you understand that then there may be a failure. And, in fact, Valery Lobanovsky, who coached not only Dynamo Kiev, but also the USSR national team, had a very unpleasant story in 1990. Preparing for the World Cup, he, following the example of the 1988 European Championship and the 1986 World Cup, distributed the load in such a way that the players started the championship, being not in the best condition. Doing this is really quite simple now, and any fitness coach knows how to do it. For example, you put a lot of pressure on the players before the first matches. Under these loads, they are, as they say, on heavy legs: they are not able to play as fast and are not as hardy as they will be later. And then you gradually reduce the load - and the form begins to grow. And in 1990, Valery Lobanovsky put on the fact that the team, having not had a very good first three matches, would still leave the group, and then, when the playoffs, that is, the knockout game, would begin to gain, gain, gain form - and will be able to reach the semi-finals or even the final. But, unlike in 1988, when the team thus reached the final, this time it did not work and the team did not leave the group.

What are the national football schools

L.G.: Can we say that in different territories - in Russia, in England, in Italy, in South America - specific national schools football and the game itself is not similar in different parts of the world? Or is it just a stereotype? And if so, are there such schools everywhere? And in 2018, when everyone freely moves to clubs from one country to another, is it still legal to talk about national schools?

S.K.: Probably, now it exists to a lesser extent, although at first, of course, football was played very differently in different countries. Once upon a time, it was quite possible to say, for example, that English football is about long passes, clearances, fighting for the ball with the head at the top, serves from the flanks into the penalty area ... English football was known to be so stupid, but very combative. Attempts have often been made to draw parallels between the national character and football style. And in the case of, for example, the German national team, these parallels worked, because the German national team and German football in general have long been such a working football. The German national team was called a machine and even compared to a tank, because, playing not very beautifully, playing not brightly, not spectacularly, it again and again achieved resounding victories. Probably, the way we imagine Brazil is quite consistent with how football was played in Brazil for a long time (and now, in general, they often play it): this is a lot of artistry, this is a technique that is practiced on the beaches of Copacabana, it is love to juggle the ball, beat several opponents. True, if you watch the Brazilian championship, you will see that Brazilian football is quite dirty: for some reason there are a lot of violations of the rules. And the Italian team has become known as a team that does not correspond to the stereotypes about the national character of the Italians. The Italians are cheerful, gesticulating, loud-speaking people, and the Italian national team has been a very reserved, dry, defensive team for many years. But this just happened because in Italy at some point there was a tactical revolution: there was one person who came up with a slightly different approach to football, and this approach began to give results.

In 2018, given globalization and all the processes that are taking place in the world, you can only catch certain elements, say, in Brazilian football: there are many technical footballers left, more technical than many European players. The same is with the Spanish football sheets: it is also warm there, the climate is good. And, for example, the German national team was completely reborn and turned into one of the most beautiful and playing teams in the world. Well, it happened for objective reasons.

In England, there was a real cultural revolution. Economists Simon Cooper and Stefan Szymanski, who wrote the book "Soccernomics" (they consider various problems there from an economic and mathematical point of view - not in the sense of who spends and earns how much and how), are trying to answer the global football question, why England, the father of football, the country with the longest football history, constantly loses at the world and European championships, although everyone thinks that she should win. So, armed with economic tools, they say that in fact England should not win. England has long been a rather closed country in terms of football. And with the help of a variety of statistics, they show that as a result of many years of shutting down English football from innovation, England are performing as they should be performing: they should be eliminated around the quarter-finals. And this is backed up by some evidence.

I.K .: In the sense that traditionalism hinders her most of all?

S.K.: Rather, the legacy of former traditionalism. That is, the closeness to innovation had a very negative impact on the development of English football, while Italy, France, Spain and Germany, which are nearby and where there was a real network, where football ideas were exchanged very quickly, on the contrary, won much more often. .

They also write, for example, about why big football cannot be a business, but should be something like museums, and they also back this up with facts: profitable football clubs, such as German clubs or Lyon, are now unsuccessfully performing in European competition. In order to perform successfully in European competitions, you have to spend almost everything you earn on new players - now such an economic reality.

Football and Philosophers

L.G.: Given the variety of contexts in which football is relevant and in demand - and we have already mentioned literature, theater, sociology, economics, and anything else - it is hard to imagine that the science of philosophy does not deal with it in any way. Tell me, if possible, a little about it.

S.K.: Philosophy, perhaps, did not pay as much attention to football as it could, but it certainly did. And it’s not for nothing that Monty Python has a wonderful sketch called “Philosophers’ Football”, where the German national team (consisting of Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, captain Schopenhauer, etc.) plays with the national team Greece (consisting of Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, Aristotle, etc.). There, at first, Nietzsche gets a yellow card because he tells Judge Confucius that he has no free will. For 89 minutes, the players just walk around the field and think - they don't know what to do. At the 89th minute, Archimedes shouts: "Eureka!" - passes to Socrates, and Greece scores the winning goal, after which, naturally, disputes arise: Kant says that the whole match exists only in the imagination, Marx, with his inherent materialism, says that he was offside (which is true). But in the end the match ends with the score 1:0.

Philosophical Football from Monty Python's Flying Circus. 1972

The same Heidegger, who mentioned football in his works, played football in his youth, and there are wonderful stories about how he, already an elderly man, went to his neighbors to watch football matches of the European Championship: he did not have his own TV. Or how he was met on the train by the quartermaster of the Freiburg theater and tried to draw him into a conversation about literature, and Heidegger went off to talk about Franz Beckenbauer, the player of the German national team, whom he then admired.

The modern philosopher Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, starting, among other things, from some things described by Heidegger, tried to formulate an answer to the question that we have been trying to answer all the time: why is football so attractive to a very large number of people? Gumbrecht creates such a thing as a "phenomenon", that is, the appearance of something as an event - for example, a very successful goalkeeper maneuver, which you have never seen in your entire life. The spectators and athletes are in the highest tension throughout the match, because they are waiting for this phenomenon out of nothing. A football match, on the one hand, has a very specific form, and on the other hand, it is completely ephemeral, because there will never be an absolutely identical episode: it will happen now - and it will never happen again in life. And the phenomenon, Gumbrecht writes, is the emergence of this previously unknown form, which brings football fans the highest degree of pleasure. With Gumbrecht, this comes close to what Heidegger described as art: for Heidegger, art is “becoming and accomplishing the truth,” while for Gumbrecht, football appears and manifests itself in exactly the same way.

***

L. G.: On this philosophical note, we end the Inferiority Complex podcast, thanks to which we were able to make sure that football is not just 22 people who senselessly kick the ball on a large green lawn, but an important part of world culture. Lev Gankin and Irina Kaliteevskaya struggled with an inferiority complex.

I.K.: We thank Sergey Krivoharchenko, as well as sound engineer Nikolai Antonov and the Chemodanov Production studio. The podcast featured – and continues to play – the anthem of Georg Friedrich Handel, “The Garden Priest”, which formed the basis of the UEFA Champions League anthem. Here you hear another version of it - this is an arrangement by Julian Galan, Jeff Meegan, David Tobin and Rob Kelly. Goodbye!

Other episodes of the podcast« Inferiority complex» , as well as our other podcasts, courses and audio versions of materials, listen to the application "".

Today we can safely answer the question: “What is football?” is No other game can gather so many people in the stadiums. In addition, everyone at least once, but played this game, perhaps even in their deep youth.

History of appearance

The earliest references to kicking a ball were found in China. They were created about three thousand years ago. This game was called Tsu Chu. It was used to prepare soldiers for military operations. The Greeks also played a similar game. They called it then "the battle for the ball." How exactly they played it is not clear. Just like in China, the game was part of the military training of soldiers.

The Romans also had a similar game. It was similar to Greek and was called "harpast". The ancients were more like rugby or American football, but certainly not the modern prototype.

In England, schoolchildren came up with a game that is very similar to football in 1840. The very first appeared in 1863. The rules, of course, are already different: you can’t grab an opponent, only the goalkeeper can take the ball in his hands, that rudeness with which you could play in those distant years is prohibited.

In addition to these versions, there are many other references to a similar game in the past. Perhaps the most popular have been selected.

The first game

The first competitions in this game were held in 1871 on English soil. It was held by the Football Association in England. "Challenge Cup" was the main award of the event. The match between the national teams of England and Scotland was held in 1872. It was played in a draw, the teams parted in the world with a score of 0:0. It was then that a large number of people learned about

The appearance of the game in Russia

There is no consensus on this issue. But, we can say that football in Russia appeared at the end of the nineteenth century. The very first match was played back on September 13, 1893 in the cultural capital of Russia, St. Petersburg.

What is football, the Russian audience learned then. That match was more entertainment and clowning for the audience than an action-packed rivalry: the athletes ran in white suits, while the entire field was covered with mud. Because of the slippery surface of the field, they constantly fell and got dirty. All this looked funny and amused the audience.

At the same time, there is evidence that a similar game was played in Russia back in the time of Archpriest Avvakum in the 16-17 centuries. There was even a decree of the king, who in 1648 forbade playing the ball game.

Since then, football in Russia has changed a lot and has also gained a lot of popularity. This is the game that millions of children and adults play in every yard.

Modernity

Today football has become a mass phenomenon. None of the invented games in the world can boast that it is as popular. Perhaps all people in the world know what football is.

Fans create fan clubs, distribute merchandise of their favorite teams, go to the matches of their favorites.

There are organizations at the city, regional, national and international levels that hold championships and also popularize this game.

It should also be taken into account that the cost of selling and buying modern footballers can exceed the budgets of some small countries. This is not a typo, today's outstanding players are estimated at tens, and some hundreds of millions of dollars.

How is football played?

There are not so many rules to follow. Broadly speaking, field players cannot play with their hands, must play within the field, and also not show aggression towards other players. The athlete who stands at the gate is called the goalkeeper. He can take the ball in his hands, but only in the area assigned to him for this. There are also several referees, one chief referee, who is located inside the playing space. There are also others who are on the boundary of the field and help referee the match.

If we consider the principle by which the teams are brought together, then first a draw is held. By random selection, a football tournament table is formed. It lists commands by group.

After all the teams have played each other within the group, the next stage is played. It is the most spectacular, as there is only one chance to win, and the teams play football to the last. The table at this stage differs from the first option, since the game is played right through. This stage of football tournaments is called the playoffs. The losing participant is immediately eliminated from the tournament, and only the winners play. This happens until there are two teams left that compete for the championship cup.

You can still endlessly describe this game, remember the great achievements and victories of the teams that cause pride and symbolize success. One is a great game whose popularity knows no bounds.

Football(from English. foot- sole, ball- ball) - the most popular team sport in the world, in which the goal is to score the ball into the opponent's goal more times than the opposing team does in a set time. The ball into the goal can be scored with the feet or any other parts of the body (except the hands).

The history of the emergence and development of football (briefly)

The exact date of the emergence of football is not known, but it is safe to say that the history of football has more than one century and has affected many countries. Ball games were popular on all continents, as evidenced by the ubiquitous finds of archaeologists.

In ancient China, there was a game known as "Cuju", the mention of which was dated back to the second century BC. According to FIFA in 2004, it is considered to be the most ancient of the predecessors of modern football.

In Japan, such a game was called "Kemari" (in some sources, "Kenatt"). The first mention of Kemari occurs in 644 AD. Kemari is still played today at Shinto shrines during festivals.

In Australia, balls were made from the skins of rats, the bladders of large animals, and twisted hair. Unfortunately, the rules of the game have not been preserved.

In North America, too, there was an ancestor of football, the game was called "pasuckuakohowog", which means "they gathered to play the ball with their feet." Usually the games were played on the beaches, they tried to score the ball into a goal about half a mile wide, while the field itself was twice as long. The number of participants in the game reached 1000 people.

Who Invented Football?

Modern football was invented in England in the 1860s.

Basic rules of football (briefly)

The first rules of football were introduced on December 7, 1863 by the Football Association of England. Today, the rules of football are established by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which includes FIFA (4 votes), as well as representatives of the English, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh football associations. The latest edition of the official football rules is dated June 1, 2013 and consists of 17 rules, here is a summary:

• Rule 1: Referee
• Rule 2: Assistant referees
• Rule 3: Duration of the game
• Rule 4: Start and Resumption of Play
• Law 5: Ball in play and out of play
• Law 6: Definition of a Goal
• Law 11: Offside
• Law 12: Fouls and misconduct by players
• Law 13: Free Kick and Free Kick
• Rule 14: penalty kick
• Rule 15: Throwing the Ball
• Law 16: Goal kick
• Law 17: Corner kick

Each football team must consist of a maximum of eleven players (this is how many can be on the field at the same time), one of which is the goalkeeper and he is the only player who is allowed to play with his hands within the penalty area at his goal.

How many players are on the team?

The team consists of 11 players: ten field players and one goalkeeper.

A football match consists of two halves of 45 minutes each. Between halves there is a 15-minute rest break, after which the teams change gates. This is done to ensure that the teams were on an equal footing.

The football game is won by the team that scores more goals against the opponent.

If the teams finished the match with the same score of goals, then a draw is fixed, or two extra halves of 15 minutes are assigned. If extra time ends in a draw, then a penalty shoot-out is awarded.

Football penalty rules

A penalty kick or penalty kick is the most serious penalty in football and is taken from the corresponding mark. When performing a 11-meter kick, the goalkeeper must be in the goal.

Punishment of post-match penalties in football is carried out according to the following rules: teams take 5 shots at the opponent's goal from a distance of 11 meters, all shots must be taken by different players. If after 5 kicks the score is tied on penalties, then the teams continue to take one pair of penalties until a winner is determined.

Offside in football

A player is considered offside or offside if he is closer to the opponent's goal line than the ball and the opponent's penultimate player, including the goalkeeper.

In order not to be offside, players must adhere to the following rules:

• it is forbidden to interfere with the game (touching the ball that was passed to him or that touched a teammate);
• it is forbidden to interfere with the opponent;
• it is forbidden to take advantage of one's position (touching the ball that bounces off the goal post or crossbar or on an opponent).

handball in football

Football rules allow field players to touch the ball with any part of the body other than the hands. For handballing, a team is awarded a free kick or penalty kick, which is taken by a player from the opposing team.

Two more very important points belong to the rules of handball in football:

• accidentally hitting the ball in the hand is not a violation of the rules;
• rebounding from the ball is not a foul.

Yellow and red cards

Yellow and red cards are signs that the referee shows the players for breaking the rules and unsportsmanlike behavior.

A yellow card is a warning and is given to a player in the following cases:

• for intentional handplay;
• for delaying time;
• for disrupting an attack;
• for hitting before the whistle / going out of the wall (free kick);
• for blow after whistle;
• for rough play;
• for unsportsmanlike conduct;
• for disputes with an arbitrator;
• for simulation;
• for leaving or entering the game without the permission of the arbiter.

A red card in football is shown by a referee for particularly gross violations or unsportsmanlike conduct. The player who receives a red card must leave the field before the end of the match.

Football field size and marking lines

The standard field for big football is a rectangular area in which the goal lines (front lines) are necessarily shorter than the side lines. Next, we will look at the parameters football field.

The size of a football field in meters is not clearly regulated, but there are certain boundary indicators. For national level matches, the standard length of a football field from gate to gate must be between 90-120 meters, and a width of 45-90 meters. The football field area ranges from 4050 m2 to 10800 m2. For comparison, 1 hectare \u003d 10,000 m 2. For international matches, the length of the touchlines must not exceed the interval of 100-110 meters, and the length of the goal lines beyond the limits of 64-75 meters. There are FIFA-recommended football field dimensions of 105 by 68 meters (area of ​​7140 square meters).

How long is a football field?

The length of the football field from goal to goal must be between 90-120 meters.

The marking of the field is carried out with the same lines, the width of the marking should not exceed 12 centimeters (the lines are included in the areas they limit). The sideline or edge of the football field is commonly referred to as the "edge".

Football field markings

• Middle line - a line that divides the field into two equal halves. In the middle of the center line is the center of the field with a diameter of 0.3 meters. The circumference around the center of the field is 9.15 meters. A kick or a pass from the center of the field starts both halves of the match, as well as extra time. After each goal scored, the ball is also placed in the center of the field.
• The goal line in football is held on the lawn parallel to the crossbar.
• Football goal area - a line that is drawn at a distance of 5.5 meters from the outside of the goalpost. Two lanes 5.5 meters long are drawn perpendicular to the goal line, directed deep into the field. Their end points are connected by a line parallel to the goal line.
• Penalty area - from points at a distance of 16.5 m from the inside of each goal post, at right angles to the goal line, two lines are drawn deep into the field. At a distance of 16.5 m, these lines are connected by another line parallel to the goal line. In the center of the goal line and at a distance of 11 meters from it, a penalty mark is applied, it is marked with a solid circle with a diameter of 0.3 meters. The goalkeeper may play with his hands within the penalty area.
• Corner sectors - arcs with a radius of 1 meter centered on the corners of the football field. This line forms a limited area for corner kicks. In the corners of the field, flags are set at least 1.5 meters high and 35x45 centimeters in size.

The marking of the field is carried out using lines, the width of which must be the same and not exceed 12 centimeters. The image below shows the layout of the football field.

Football goal

The goal is placed exactly in the middle of the goal line. The standard soccer goal size is as follows:

• the length or width of the goal in big football - the distance between the vertical posts (bars) - 7.73 meters;
• goal height - the distance from the lawn to the crossbar - 2.44 meters.

The diameter of the racks and the crossbar should not exceed 12 centimeters. The gates are made of wood or metal and are painted white, and also have a rectangular, elliptical, square or circle shape in cross section.

A soccer goal net must fit the size of the goal and must be strong. It is customary to use football nets of the following size 2.50 x 7.50 x 1.00 x 2.00 m.

Football field construction

The standard design of a football field is as follows:

• Grass lawn.
• Substrate of sand and gravel.
• Heating pipes.
• Drainage pipes.
• Aeration pipes.

Football field surfaces can be natural or artificial. Grass requires additional care, namely watering and fertilizing. Grass does not allow for more than two games per week. Grass is brought to the field in special turf rolls. Very often on the football field you can see the grass of two colors (striped field), so it turns out, because of the peculiarities of lawn care. When mowing the lawn, the machine first moves in one direction, and then in the other, and the grass falls in different directions (multidirectional lawn mowing). This is done for the convenience of determining distances and offsides, as well as for beauty. The height of the grass on the football field is usually 2.5 - 3.5 cm. The maximum speed of the ball in football at the moment is 214 km / h.

Artificial turf for a football field is a carpet made of synthetic material. Each blade of grass is not just a strip of plastic, but a product of complex shape. In order for the artificial turf to be suitable for playing, it is covered with a filler of sand and crumb rubber.

soccer ball

What kind of ball is played in football? A professional soccer ball consists of three main components: the inner tube, the lining, and the tire. The bladder is usually made from synthetic butyl or natural latex. The lining is the inner layer between the tire and the chamber. The lining directly affects the quality of the ball. The thicker it is, the better the ball is. Usually the lining is made of polyester or compressed cotton. The tire consists of 32 synthetic waterproof pieces, 12 of which are pentagonal, 20 are hexagonal.

Football ball size:

• circumference - 68-70 cm;
• weight - no more than 450 gr.

The speed of the ball in football reaches 200 km / h.

football kit

Mandatory elements of a player's football kit are:

• Shirt or T-shirt with sleeves.
• Underpants. If underpants are used, they must be of the same color.
• Gaiters.
• Shields. Must be fully covered by gaiters and provide adequate protection.
• Boots.

Why do football players need socks?

Gaiters perform a protective function, supporting the leg and protecting against minor injuries. Thanks to them, shields are held.

The goalkeeper's football uniform must differ in color from the uniforms of other players and referees.

Players may not wear any equipment that could be dangerous to them or other players, such as jewelry and watches.

What do footballers wear under their shorts?

Underpants are tight-fitting compression shorts. The color and length of the underpants must not differ from the color and length of the shorts.

Set pieces in football

• Initial hit. In football, the ball is played in three cases: at the beginning of the match, at the beginning of the second half, and after a goal is scored. All players of the kick-off team must be in their own half of the field, with their opponents at least nine meters away from the ball. The player taking the kickoff may not touch the ball again before the other players have done so.
• Goal kick and throw-in by the goalkeeper. Putting the ball into play after it went over the goal line (to the side of the post or over the crossbar), due to the fault of the player of the attacking team.
• Throwing in the ball from behind the sideline. It is made by a field player after the ball has crossed the touchline and left the field. It is necessary to throw in the ball from the place where it was in the “out”. The receiving player must be facing the field of play on or behind the sideline. At the time of the throw, both feet of the player must be in contact with the ground. The ball is put into play without the referee's signal.
• Corner kick. Putting the ball into play from the corner sector. It is a punishment for the players of the defending team who kicked the ball over the goal line.
• Free kick and free kick. Penalty for deliberately touching the ball with the hand or using foul techniques against players of the opposing team.
• Penalty kick (penalty).
• Offside position.

Refereeing in football

Referees monitor compliance with the established rules on the football field. For each match, a main referee and two assistants are appointed.

The duties of a judge include:

• Match timing.
• Recording match events.
• Ensuring that the ball meets requirements.
• Ensuring the equipment of the players requirements.
• Ensuring the absence of unauthorized persons on the field.
• Ensuring the care / removal of injured players off the field.
• Submission of a match report to the relevant authorities, including information on any disciplinary action taken against players and/or team officials, as well as on all other incidents that occurred before, during or after the match.

Judge's rights:

• Stop, temporarily interrupt or stop the match in case of any violation of the rules, outside interference, injury to players;
• Take action against team officials behaving incorrectly;
• Continue play until the ball is out of play if the player, in his opinion, has received only a minor injury;
• Continue play when the offending team benefits from such an advantage (remaining with the ball) and penalize the original offense if the team did not take advantage of the intended advantage;
• Punish a player for a more serious violation of the Rules in the event that he simultaneously commits more than one violation;
• Act on the advice of his assistants and fourth referee.

Competition

Competitions are organized by the federation, each tournament has its own regulations, which usually prescribe the composition of the participants, the tournament scheme, and the rules for determining the winners.

FIFA

National teams

• The World Cup is the main international football competition. The championship is held once every four years, the men's national teams of FIFA member countries from all continents can take part in the tournament.
• The Confederations Cup is a football competition among national teams that is held a year before the World Cup. Held in the host country of the World Cup. 8 teams take part in the championship: the winners of the continental championships, the winner of the world championship and the team of the host country.
• Olympic Games

• The FIFA Club World Cup is an annual competition between the strongest representatives of the six continental confederations.

UEFA

National teams

• The European Championship is the main competition for national teams under the leadership of UEFA. The championship is held every four years.

• The UEFA Champions League is the most prestigious annual European club football tournament.
• The UEFA Europa League is the second most important competition for European football clubs belonging to UEFA.
• The UEFA Super Cup is a one-leg championship between the winners of the previous season's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

CONMEBOL

National teams

• The America's Cup is a championship held under the auspices of CONMEBOL among the national teams of the countries of the region.

• The Libertadores Cup is named after the historical leaders of the Spanish colonial wars of independence in the Americas. Held among the best clubs in the countries of the region.
• The Copa Sudamericana is the second most important club tournament in South America after the Copa Libertadores.
• The South American Recopa is an analogue of the continental Super Bowl. The tournament is attended by the winners of the two most important club competitions - the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana of the previous season.

CONCACAF

National teams

• The CONCACAF Gold Cup is a football tournament for the countries of North, Central America and the Caribbean.

• The CONCACAF Champions League is an annual football championship among the best clubs in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Football structures

The main football structure is FIFA (Fédération internationale de football association), located in Zurich, Switzerland. She organizes international tournaments on a global scale.

Continental Organizations:

• CONCACAF (СConfederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) is the football confederation of North and Central America and the Caribbean,
• CONMEFBOL (CONfederacion sudaMERicana de FutBOL) - South American Football Confederation,
• UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) is a union of European football associations,

• 14:10 Yura: Tytus, this is the level
  I read it like I was watching the game again.
  You have a talent
• 14:01 Yura: Well, welcome to Minamino.
  I hope you bring a lot of value to this club.
  Blitz-BVB ″...Quickly they processed it, well done!...″
  Mark, it's just that his agent is not Raiola. How he drives Holland back and forth
• 13:53 AXERON: It is necessary, of course, not to spare money and so on saved over the summer, to spend part of the money on a very good central lock, for example, as a variant of Koulibaly. Buying a good striker to compete with Abraham, and he is young, is hard to play alone all season. To buy a good cornerback, there are Emerson and Reece James, but both get injured and do not play consistently. There is Alonso but he does not fit and will leave in the winter with a 95% probability. You also need to part with such players as Giroud, Batshuii, Alonso. Some will say Pedro, but I would leave him until the summer, he is useful on the field and sometimes plays good games. And Giroud's time has passed, Batshuii mediocrity, even with 3 coaches he can't show the game, so it's not about the coaches, but he just doesn't pull.
• 13:46 AXERON: So what am I talking about, now there are more opportunities in the market in the January window than before and you can try to sign top players in January and they will not be afraid that they will no longer be able to continue in the Champions League this season.
• 13:44 AXERON: From this season, UEFA allow players who have played for a club in the Champions League and if they transfer to another club in the winter, they can now play in the Champions League playoffs for another club. And it will have a very good effect on the transfer market. Now the player will be sure that by moving to another club, he will be able to continue playing in this tournament))).
• 13:34 Bogdan Dukhevych: How Arsenal miss him now.. eh
• 13:09 Amadeo: Good [mate]! Only none is worth destroying a family! If there are children, they are most sorry.
• 13:08 Tytus: Haven't watched la Liga for a long time. Real without Krish has become much prettier. Barcelona with Valverde is slowly ceasing to be the team that the Dutch created, and Pep continued. In some parts of the game, Barca reminded me of Arsenal yesterday - the difference was only in the class of players. Team game Against the backdrop of an organized, tactically coached, knowing what he plays Real Madrid looked, to put it mildly, pale. And only when Leo turned on did she remind herself of her former self. But how much can Messi be a goalscorer and a playmaker at the same time? Suarez????? My God, that was the shadow of Suarez, and if someone needs Mbape, then Barcelona, ​​not Real Madrid. And so that Barca could not get out of the pressure? I didn't believe my eyes. At Real Madrid, Benzema and Valverde were incomparable, Casemiro burned out the center, Bale butted the Barça defense like a rhinoceros on an old lioness. And yet to write that Barca rebounded, the hand does not rise. And it should.