FOOTBALL AND MORALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 721, 22 July 1929, Page 13

FOOTBALL AND MORALS

CUP TIE ATMOSPHERE NATIONAL SAFETY VALVE A prominent English medical authority writes: Cup Final day has become a national festival in England. With no greater regularity did the chosen people set out for Jerus-

j alem than the enthusiasts of 100 i football fields made their annual pilgrimage to one of the great sporting events of the year. t Industry may be depressed, economic prophets may declare their depressing verdicts, but somehow enough has been saved out of the weekly earnings to make the accustomed trip. Moralists may see in this annual festival one of the significant signs ‘ of the times, and to moralists the significant is nearly always the pessi- ! mistic. Some of them have been 1 j known to criticise this absorption of j great masses of the people in a mere sporting event, and even to compare ! the Stadium with the Roman amphi- i theatre, where the populace spent in i , emotional excitement the energy ! . which, more wisely directed, might ! have helped to save the State from ; ruin. THE OTHER SIDE Others, drawing an idealistic picture of the past, contrast the days of the old village green with the vast crowds j who are drawn together to watch professionals play. Have we become a nation of spectators rather than players, and does the change mark a decline. The critic of modern modes ; and manners suggests a depressing answer to that question, but it is well to hesitate before accepting his con- | elusions, writes an English medical | authority. In the first place, the Saturday after- ! noon football match gives the crowds ‘ open air and healthy interest on the ; week’s half-holiday. The crowded i ground means an empty taproom, and j football has probably done more in the

direction of temperate habits than all the temperance speeches put together. Besides that, it has produced an outlet for healthy rivalries, and if one may use the jargon of the psychologists, one would say that it has helped to “sublimate” the instinct of pugnacity in human nature. William James once declared that the world would never be rid of war until it had discovered a “moral equivalent” for war. Football may not be exactly a moral equivalent for war, but it is certainly a sport which has provided a healthy outlet for pugnacity. Although now and again there may . i be outbreaks of bad temper among , the crowd, it may well be that the ' common respect given to the decision I of the referee is one of the best prej parations for industrial and inter- ! national arbitration. In the social history of the age no one can ignore the value of popular sport as an educative factor. It has drawn the interest of the crowds to a common centre, and the verdict of the historian will probably be that in an age of restlessness and strain it provided an antidote to the propaganda of violence. So there is another side to the I moralist’s strictures. Let him remember that a nation which storms the turnstiles is not likely to storm its Bastilles, and that the hoarsethroated cries which follow* Bolton and Portsmouth might easily have found some more destructive path of discharge. I have nearly committed myself to the thesis that football is one of the steadying and conservative influences in modern society. Perhaps it is.