Why the Whole World Watches One Match

There are evenings when the planet seems to freeze in front of its screens. The final of a great football tournament is one of the few occasions when billions of people who do not know one another hold their breath at the same moment over a ball and a green field.

Fair rules for ninety minutes

Sport attracts us not only by its beauty. It attracts us by a fairness so lacking elsewhere. Here the rules are the same for everyone, the score cannot be “rewritten” by decree, and the result is visible at once. The weak sometimes beat the strong — and that is not a scandal but the very essence of the game.

We do not only cheer for a team. We cheer for the idea that effort and rules decide the outcome honestly.

Unity without coercion

The stadium shows what life rarely manages: people of different languages and views rejoicing together, of their own free will. No one handed this unity down from above — it arose on its own. And maybe that is exactly why it is real.

The game will end, and life will return its difficulties. But a short reminder that fair rules and shared joy are possible is worth a great deal. This is my opinion — and, perhaps, a reason to smile.