I couldn't decide what to write about today. It was going to be about co-dependency, but don't worry boys, instead I thought I would be topical after the usual heroic English defeat on Saturday and write about.....
The World Cup and how the country's quad debates about English football is like being stuck in Groundhog day.
The World Cup and how it's pretty depressing how Brazil can spend £13 billion on the tournament yet have a divided country with poverty and people starving
The World Cup and the seemingly endless bribery and corporate greed that feeds this global corrupt fest
The World Cup and how the TV coverage is so utterly banal, stuffed full of middle aged footballers in badly fitted shirts, sitting in a studio with a background of people rioting about them being there speaking blandly about another game they've just 'analysed'.
The World Cup and how in this world we live in 500 people were seemingly executed in Iraq and The Sun chose to go with the headline, "Rooney finally scores" bedding his missus in a marathon sex session. Insane.
The world is genuinely insane and The World Cup is a celebration of everything that's wrong with what it's turned into. A global sport that's become a commercial product prostituted to the highest bidder with global corporate brands spending millions to own it in half empty stadiums without any relation to the country or communities it is held in. Fuck the people lets sell more rights.
And yet more people will watch it than ever before, more people will tweet about it and more people will be employed to write or talk bollocks about it. I know I'm locked in!
Football is now a commodity. No different from sugar, steel, or natural gas. It is a licence to print money except it is dressed up as 'The global game'.
I hate the way football has gone. Most of it bores me these days but it is the number 1 sport in the world and it is the World Cup and man do I love it!!
I remember rushing home from school in 1982 to see Bryan Robson scoring the classic goal v France. I remember the sweatbands, the short shorts, the Panini football albums, the Brazilian team who were from a different planet. Football was rarely on TV back then, players from 'abroad' played 'abroad'. it was all mystical and exciting (or maybe that because I was 10)
Back then of course I was young but there was more romance and glamour about the game. The relentless and remorseless grind if capitalistic revenue generation had still to take hold. My world weary cynism had yet to engulf me.
Italia 90 was the last great tournament. The Tears of Gazza and the sounds of Pavaroti made for a classic tournament for England. They actually had players who could think, control a football, pass and move too. Plus of course I was 17 and getting lashed in the pub with my mates. The whole world in front of me. A golden summer. These days I get more excited by a golden shower but that's another story (just joking Mum, I know you read this)
It created a huge boom in this country that helped feed the creation of the Premier League. It started in 1992 and year on year it has built itself into this commercial beast. Now TV companies pay £1.1 billion to screen the games. The league is seen as a great English export. The interest has created whole industries dedicated to it.
Rent a gob Radio presenters, writers, presenters, merchandise, licensing, agents, players on £300,000 a week. It's insane!
But the greatest scam of all in this game we all love called football is that the quality is mostly shit. Certainly in this country anyway. The top European leagues have embraced the idea of coaching at youth level, getting into kids early and creating a way of playing that is about skill not strength.
Instead in this country the psyche has always seemed to be on endeavour than skill and unfortunately most people that coach it are total morons.
I watched an under 8's game in my local park last week as I was doing circuits (don't worry I was actually exercising, you couldn't get away being a single bloke watching a kids football game these days - funny how times change)
On the touchline were the coaches and parents. All of them decked out like a non league football managers in their t-shirts, socks rolled down and football boots. They had their initials on their T-shirts and clearly loved the whole football look.
They took it all really seriously and spent the entire time shouting total bollocks at these tiny little kids with kits too big for them that made them look about 3 years old. It was sweet, funny and horrifying at the same time.
Un skilled, non qualified fathers thinking they knew what they were talking about living out their football fantasies in these 8 year old boys (again that sounds wrong). The trouble with this country is that most blokes or girls who are football fans honestly haven't got a clue what they're talking about. Add them having a kid into the mix and you are left with whole generations of badly taught, badly trained players who grow up to do exactly the same as their parents.
Now we have phone ins and Twitter for these morons to give their opinions. It's a joke and these are the ones who feed the game by paying £60 a month for Sky Sports.
God knows where it will end up. The worse the game gets, the more corruption at the top (and not just Fifa) the more we watch it and the more phone-ins are created. It's like a weird circle of shit. Morons create it, corrupt demons feed it and the morons buy it. Like a circle of stupidity if you ask me.
I appreciate that I would have lost most girls on paragraph 2. So if you're still reading girls I truly believe that at the heart of most relationships that go wrong lies chronic co-dependency. I am certainly guilty of it over the years which has dogged most if not all of mine. Here's what it means;
Codependency is defined as a psychological condition or a relationship in which a person is controlled or manipulated by another who is affected with a pathological condition, it refers to the dependence on the needs of, or control of, another.[1] It also often involves placing a lower priority on one's own needs, while being excessively preoccupied with the needs of others.
Codependency can occur in any type of relationship, including family, work, friendship, and also romantic, peer or community relationships.[2] Codependency may also be characterized by denial, low self-esteem, excessive compliance, or control patterns.
Pretty strong stuff hey. Who really wants to admit to all that let alone do something about it? For a man it's embarrassing. For a girl too painful. So what do most of us do who have it? Leave it alone and hope the next relationship fixes you. Result? Another dysfunctional one.
I have no answers. It takes time to accept, realise and then try to find ways to deal with it. It takes time. So in the meantime the only solution I have is to watch USA v Ghana at 11pm. I appear to have grown chronically co-dependant on the World Cup.
It was the same with The Olympics in 2012. The games, the players, the TV presenters, the morons become your family for a month. Games and sport comes thick and fast. There is always something to watch and take your mind of the fact you need something in your life to make you feel OK. When it was over I felt bereft, lost and in grief. Luckily there is still 3 weeks to go.
Yes I know it is a greedy corrupt capitalistic tournament that sits uneasily with my social equality and conscience but it's the World Cup isn't it? I'm essentially a hypocrite at heart so I'm going to feed my chronic codependency for 90 minutes and watch it. The only problem is that its on ITV. Id rather watch a Brazilian transsexual giving Sep Blatter a true Brazilian for $10million than Adrian Chiles droning on about nonsense. How can 500 Iraqis get shot in one day and Adrian Chiles is still breathing? We live in an unjust world my friends. Really unjust.
Together We Are Stronger
Nicholas E Evans
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