Jon Stenger

Globalization and Soccer

            In the second chapter of How Soccer Explains the World, Franklin Foer discusses the intense soccer rivalry between the Irish Celtic team and the Scottish Rangers team. The intensity of this rivalry originates from the religious backgrounds of the Catholic Celtic team and the Protestant Rangers team. Both fan bases are incredibly hostile towards each other, and their interactions sometimes lead to serious injuries and even deaths. However, even though there is violence between these two groups, it is nowhere near as bad as it would be if this religious conflict were fought on a battlefield compared to a soccer field. Therefore, the globalization that has come from this soccer rivalry, allows for a metaphorical war between these two groups, without an actual serious conflict like some of the religious wars happening in the Middle East.

            With religious extremists like ISIS and Al-Qaeda before them, it is clear that religious conflicts can be extremely violent and deadly. The groups that are “fighting” in Ireland and Scotland, the Catholics and Protestants, have a fairly violent history themselves. But, unlike some of the extreme groups in the Middle East, the religious groups who support these two soccer teams have found an outlet; soccer. They metaphorically battle as they watch their respected teams go at it on the field. They sing chants of violence and death, but in support of their teams and not as they march to battle against the other. Although globalization has brought together two groups that do not agree with each other, it has also provided them with an outlet to channel this aggression. The positive of giving these opposing groups an outlet to channel the violence between them, out ways the negative of bringing these groups together in potential conflict.

            The game of soccer, which is recognized worldwide, unites fans from around the globe to support their teams. Also, lately, both the Celtic team and Rangers have begun signing players without any sort of religious affiliation. Although the fan bases remain mainly Catholic and Protestant, the change from purely religiously biased team building has lessened some of the violence as emphasis on religion has dropped off a bit. This is largely due to globalization. As teams want to compete and win games, they must reach out to other areas; South America, Central America, Africa, where some of the religious ideas are much different than that of the traditional Celtic and Rangers teams. With this change, it forces the focus on the differences in religion to be lessened, as many fans just want to see the teams win games, regardless of what religion is on the field.

            Through globalization and soccer, the violent religious conflict between the Celtic and Rangers soccer teams has been given a metaphorical battlefield for these respected groups to settle their issues on. These people can unleash some of their anger and frustration towards the opposing group through a soccer match, instead of in a full-blown conflict. This would not be possible without globalization, which is why I believe globalization can be a huge factor in helping to solve some crisis around the world.