Bernardo Barranco V.
L
to the tragedy of the stadium Corregidora, on March 5, during the soccer match between Querétaro and Atlas, reveals the implosion of a wild Mexico. After the pandemic and months of confinement, violence is brutally present in the stands with impunity due to the vacuum of authority. The phenomenon is neither new nor exclusive to this country. But the grotesque images of groups of men hitting, kicking, whipping, dragging opponents are striking. Bodies of fans bathed in blood, some of them inert on the floor. The videos spread on social networks show dramatic scenes of families with young children fleeing the brutal pitched battle.
The violence that occurred in Corregidora has shocked Mexico and the world. It is inadmissible. It deserves not only condemnation, but explanation. Why do we get to this wild behavior? There are many reasons. Soccer as a mirror that reflects the prevailing violence in the country, as a phenomenon that has been going on for years. We discern a little addressed factor: fanaticism.
Whoever thinks that fanaticism is only generated in the religious sphere is mistaken. It also operates in the secular sphere of culture where political, ideological and sports fanaticism is generated.
Fanatic is a gallicism: fanatic, which in the French language means someone who is carried away by excessive ardor, an excessive passion for a religion, an ideology, a cause, a party. Fanatic is not necessarily a pejorative expression; can be fanatic
someone who has an enthusiastic admiration for something: a fan of the painting or a fan of such an artist or team. On the other hand, fanaticism refers us to systems of hatred: to excessive infatuation of groups, collectives or societies. Overwhelmed unions that want to impose their identity on others, through intolerance and violence. That is the fanaticism that leads a group of people to uncritically lean towards a religious, political or sports cause or doctrine under an absolute and irrational conviction; under a totalizing adhesion of an identity whose zeal leads to intransigence and that can lead to the excesses of the submission of the other with the use of violence. This fanaticism takes us to Querétaro.
Soccer fans have created rules or laid the foundations that lead to fanaticism. This has led to a high level of loyalty to a club that cannot be found anywhere else. Khaled Montaser, an Egyptian journalist and researcher, asks: What is the common factor between football fanaticism and religious fanaticism? What makes the football fan a candidate for extremist religious political recruitment?
Indeed, many members of the football fanaticism are suitable candidates for the Muslim Brotherhood.
In Germany a strict study was made on young football fans. PSS Sleman fans are youngsters whose fanatical behaviors came as a result of their behavioral interaction to gain recognition, reputation and dominance. To show off their masculinity as the reward and satisfaction they get from defending their soccer jersey, they engage in violence and anarchy. The behavioral factors of fanaticism is to maintain conflicts to raise self-esteem. There is indoctrination and provocative symbolic attributes with conflict techniques resulting in attack from supporters of other clubs. The conclusion of this research was that fanaticism is a manifestation of the totality of an individual’s attachment to the club. This hobby manifests a break with the rules of social and moral behavior. Using violence can be the result of many factors, such as history, regional rivalry, sports revenge, disagreement with referee decisions and the type of facilities or stadiums that are not suitable.
Soccer is more than a sport, a show or a millionaire business, it is a mass social phenomenon on a planetary scale. Faced with the tedium of the pandemic and the lack of significance in societies, soccer has become a playful response of the masses and of momentary reenchantment in the face of an uncertain and opaque world. Faced with a world in which there is no future, many young people find in soccer their space that gives meaning. A play area that excites the life of boredom, a place of drunkenness. It even replaces many religions because it unites meanings and yearnings for life.
While there is so much talk about religious fanaticism that sows death and terror, few look at soccer fanaticism. In the face of the tragedy in Querétaro, we are all responsible. The sports programs tore their clothes in the face of the violence in Corregidora. But they are not very critical of the fact that many of them encourage violence. Drivers attacking each other, provoking each other. A sharp José Ramón Fernández; David Faitelson, Hugo Sánchez, Álvaro Morales, André Marín and many, in addition to knowing football, are quarrelsome and bully among themselves. Where does the violence start?
Being a football fan is not negative. But fanaticism leads us to hatred, intolerance and violence. The act in the Corregidora is a wake-up call. Be careful and let’s wake up the bronco Mexico. It’s everyone’s responsibility. Especially from the political class, businessmen, opinion leaders, youtubers and the media. Fanaticism, be it religious, political or sporting, leads to darkness and chaos.
