There was once a time when a football World Cup was a celebration. Families gathered around the television, neighbors celebrated together in public squares, children wore the jerseys of their idols and dreamed of someday standing on the big stage themselves. For a few weeks, political differences, social tensions, and everyday problems seemed to fade into the background. Football created community.
Today, it seems people prepare for major events as if a natural disaster is approaching.
When a city imposes a curfew for young people, restricts public gatherings, bans fan zones, regulates alcohol, prohibits barbecues, and deploys additional security forces a few days before a World Cup, that is not the program for a folk festival. It is the blueprint for a state of emergency.
How far have we actually come?
The irony could hardly be greater. A tournament that should captivate billions forces authorities to take protective measures as if an enemy army is at the city limits. Instead of joy, security concepts dominate. Instead of flags, barricades are put up. Instead of shared euphoria, there is debate over curfews for children.
Of course, we are told that the vast majority are peaceful. That is probably true. However, this observation is of little help when a shrinking minority is enough to paralyze entire downtown areas, vandalize shops, set cars on fire, and attack officers. In the end, everyone else pays the price.
It is especially bitter that the young people are the ones paying the price. Thousands of decent young people are lumped together with a generalized mistrust because a few hundred rioters escalate on every occasion. Those who want to peacefully watch a match with friends at night are treated as potential troublemakers. A society that locks up its youth to protect its youth from its own youth provides a remarkable indication of its condition.
And yet, it is difficult to blame the responsible parties. What are mayors supposed to do when every big celebration carries the risk of riots? Look away? Hope? Wait and see? Political decision-makers no longer respond to the sport itself but to the violence that accompanies it.
Perhaps this is exactly the real tragedy. The curfews are not the problem. They are merely the symptom.
The problem is a society that has succeeded in turning even a football match into a security issue.
In the past, for a world championship, the question was: “How far will our team get?” Nowadays, the question is: “How many emergency services will be needed?”
That says more about the state of our times than any police statistic ever could.