Americanization of Football?

The World Cup, the quadrennial high mass of the most popular sport on the globe, opens its gates for worship this Saturday in what could be called the world game's Sodom and Gomorrah, where they believe the game should be played by 300 pound men in helmets and tight pants.

Football's high priests at FIFA argued at the time of their controversial awarding of the 1994 installment of the championship to the USA that they would bring the recalcitrant-- and wealthy-- Americans into the game's fold and peacefully conquer the last frontier; as the kickoff approaches, it appears that football's prophets may yet be turned to the side of the heathens.

Then again, they may have been won over before the decision. Behind all the rhetoric of turning the U.S. into a (true) footballing nation, may have been a more primal lust for one of America's grandest inventions; the dollar.

The cup, as almost every other sporting event in the world, has become big business and no one knows the business of selling and promoting like the U.S.

Amidst international media grousing about the lack of support among the domestic fans and the unlikeliness of team USA making much of an impression on the tournament, most figures place this cup as at least twice the size, in world television viewing and in the all-important revenues department, of any previous event.

In the true spirit of the competition, various multinational companies have been at each others throats for marketing rights in a way that would certainly earn them a red card from FIFA's new and improved authoritarian referees were they on the field.

The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) has charged a select group of multinational companies US$20 million each to become the game's official sponsors. Some early projections of the federation's profits run as high as $75 million, a business coup for an event the American marketeers bought for a cool $7 million.

While the squabbling continues over who is to be anointed the official beer, and McDonald's continues to apologize for its lack of sensitivity in printing the Saudi Arabian flag, replete with the Koranic verse "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet," on disposable paper bags, the players will take to the field, mercifully diverting our attention away from the ads and the hype to the real spectacle; 22 men fighting over a ball with the hearts of entire nations at there backs.

Since soccer is the most democratic of sports, not requiring the height of basketball or the bulk of football, perhaps it will find a more permanent home in the nation that calls itself the land of the free.

And perhaps become an inspiration for our national side. Instead of producing the goods our national team has continued to be plagued by a myriad of problems both on and off the field, never winning an Asian tournament let alone qualifying. Since football is called the sport of teamwork, and Indonesian's are well known for this quality, we should be able to join the world stage.

Other developing countries like Algeria and Cameroon, have fully understood the egalitarian nature of the game, and Morocco and Nigeria also follow suit this month. As the fourth most populous nation in the world, with each and every citizen seemingly soccer mad, success-- and a world cup berth -- will surely come if and when the institutional obstacles to our national program are removed.

Given the course of the preparations so far and the media and advertising blitz though, our businessmen should also watch closely and learn. While the game became commercial long before the U.S. got its hands on it, they seem to have perfected this part, and along with the birth of this generation's Maradonas and Peles we bear witness to the ascendance of the worlds greatest financial/football power.