"All I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football." - Albert Camus

November 2001 - Social scientists claim that one can infer nuances about a people by the games they play and, conversely, by the games they do not play. Given this statement, what can be deduced from America's relative neglect of soccer, the world's most popular sport? Further, how does America's embrace of football reflect its cultural values and priorities? Lastly, why are the answers to such questions important?

In the last decade, America has prevailed as the world's only superpower. As a result, American's position on global politics is pivotal to ameliorating or exacerbating existing world divisions between civilizations. As the explosive situation in the wider Middle East demonstrates, however, America is a superpower that is not understood, trusted or respected.

Aside from questioning the fairness of US policy decisions over the last fifty years, America has not done a good job of presenting its intentions or its essence to the world with a familiar face. Uncle Sam, multicolored top hat and all, unfortunately, doesn't say much about America. As a result, America suffers from what Edward Said would term a reverse Orientalism or Occidentalism.

In turn, a surprising majority of Americans are unaware, misrepresent or do not care about the world which exists outside of its insulated borders.

Both these conditions threaten the well-being of an emerging transnationalist and globalized world.

These misconceptions are further confounded by the convenient maintenance of America's ignorance by a powerful capitalistic system (of which the media is the driving wedge) biased towards American and Western interests and values. Since supporting American capitalism or as Dick Cheney said "the American way of life," is the backbone of American governmental policy, the media's portrayal of the world is a reflection of American foreign policy.

The main point of the argument presented here is that 1) America ignores the world outside its borders, as it ignores soccer, for its own protectionist and exploitative intentions, and 2) America embraces football as a reflection of both its insularism and excessive consumerism (Americans are now the most overweight people on the planet).

As an alternative to current American insularism and self-serving interventions, "soccer diplomacy" is argued to facilitate the bridging of differences between civilizations, allowing for geopolitical stabilization.

First, a mutual appreciation of soccer may reconcile Third World misinterpretation of American actions and attitudes, by allowing for a shared common playing field.

Second, an opening of American "eyes" could be brought about through the playing of a sport that crosses economic and national borders. This enlightenment would conceivably facilitate further insight into a vast pluri-cultural world united by a shared desire for dignity and a shared habitat -- Mother Earth -- with finite resources.

American deliberate insistence on ignoring soccer and its world importance translates into a dismissal and deligitimization of the aspirations of what Frantz Fanon terms "the wretched of the earth." A continued status quo will result in a global society characterized by people who are paranoid, frustrated and living out painful inequalities (the perils of this are now obvious).

America's Attitude to Soccer: A Case Study

America considers soccer to be an alien sport, un-American and, by default, a trivial sport. This attitude is perpetuated by a sport's media, which is tainted by economic biases toward American sports, such as football and baseball. The following description of an actual occurrence presents a simple example of how the American public, its voice shaped and vocalized through the media, does not prioritize or acknowledge the possibilities of soccer as a legitimate and meritable sport.

The day was October 7th, and the USA was scheduled to play Jamaica in its first World Cup qualifying game after the tragic September 11th terrorists attacks. At home, as well as abroad, this game was much anticipated. The Yanks needed to win in order to keep their qualifying hopes alive. This premise alone rendered the game a vitally important one for Americans and their loyal supporters.

Further, the world was curious to see how this US team, considerably young and inexperienced relative to their international competitors, would be influenced by the devastating attack on their homeland. In addition, regarding the American fans, would that nationalistic fervor, already inherent in the essence of an international soccer match, made more so by the events of 911, turn Foxboro stadium into a site blanketed by a sea of waving red, white and blue flags? OR, were the Yanks to act in a demoralized and beaten manner? Soccer, and more than soccer, was at stake in the eyes of the world.

ABC, a major American network, was in charge of televising, nationwide, this game. Soccer fans, a marked minority in America, gathered together at friends' houses and at local bars to watch the game.

Unfortunately, other world events were taking place. October 7th was also the day that the Pentagon chose to start the retaliatory bombings of Afghanistan's Taliban regime. The broadcast of the game was preempted by ABC executives, in order that Peter Jennings and assorted pundits could talk, for hours, about the attacks.

The soccer game was replaced by a screen of green, fuzzy, night-vision images of what was explained to be explosions lighting up the night sky in Kabul. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, other networks such as FOX and CBS, did not interrupt the regularly scheduled National Football League games for the monumental and breaking news.

As it turned out, the American soccer team qualified for the World Cup on that day. An emotional scene erupted as players draped in American flags danced and sang on the field while the chants of "USA, USA" thundered from the stands. This memorable expression of benign nationalism, unfortunately, was unseen by viewers outside of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Contrast the above indifference of the general American public to the feelings of other countries around the world when their soccer team qualify -- or faily to qualify -- for the World Cup. For example, in Ecuador, after a 1-1 tie with Uruguay clinched qualification, the country convulsed in nationalistic joy, buoyed by a new sense of confidence -- si se puede (Yes, we can!). China, a rival military superpower to the USA, celebrated for a full week their first ever qualification to a World Cup. In Iran, the young, Western-leaning masses were ready to revolt against the conservative Ayatollahs because they suspected the clergy's involvement in sabotaging the national team's qualification. After all, previous Iranian soccer victories had resulted in mass outbursts of joy, which included women without their head-covers celebrating in the streets, all of which the clerics found threatening to the status quo.