Why football matters (...can't call it soccer) to me

I like being French for a multitude of reasons. Football is not one of them.

So why is the premature end of the French team's adventures in South Africa bumming me so much?

Let me preface this by saying: I love watching sport. I watch tennis, rugby, basket-ball, volley-ball, skiing, curling, (CURLING), track and field, swimming, you name it.

I don't enjoy football that much. And I hate, hate, hate the French obsession with the sport. All the sport newspapers talk about is football. Who is winning the national cup, who is winning the Euroligue, who is winning the European Championship, who is winning the World Cup.

Boredom.

I was 12 when France became CHAMPIONS DU MONDE, world champions, in 1998. It was an amazing day: the whole of France went down in the streets, dancing, singing, hugging. Racism, faced with the amazing achievement of a team composed of white, black and Arabic players (or in French black blanc beur), appeared to be obsolete. Newspaper editorial after newspaper editorial celebrated the success of New France, which integrated its minorities and became leaders.

Fast forward to today. THe French football team has been utterly disgraced. I won't bore those who don't care about the game, but suffice to say we were bad, lazy and atrociously boring on the field.

Why do I care? I care because people are talking back home. People are saying that the team players who come from other countries are lazy because they can't be patriotic. And by people, I don't just mean people on the street, which is bad enough. I mean our elected representatives.

Can you imagine Senators of America commenting on the failure of the...I don't know, golf team for the Ryder cup and attributing it to the fact that some of the players have foreign origins???

So football matters to me at the moment. As a symbol. Racism never disappears in France. It just hides while we're winning.

PS: I'm in Berlin. Adventures to follow!