Football is definitely a demanding sport, but when you compare it to marathon running, boxing or triathlon, you realise that the sporting world holds many more gruelling challenges. I wish Fabrice a speedy recovery - this is in no way an attack against him (he is in fact an acquaintance of a friend) - but as I was at my in-laws and watched Liverpool vs Stoke City in an FA Cup clash I couldn't help but notice something disturbing.
Football, the most popular game in the world, has become a false religion. On Saturdays and sometimes Sundays, millions around the world gather in their 'churches' and sing praise and worship songs to the god of football. Yesterday, as I had come from church service, I saw that the Liverpool and Stoke fans were having theirs. They started to sing Oh When the Saints Go Marching In - an old hymn. They also sing 'Glory Glory Man United' - another modified hymn. Men around the world have given their money, emotions, and time up to the god of football. Lifting their hands in worship they pledge their lives to something that matters little in the light of this life, let alone eternity.
I cannot see this as any less than a strategy of hell. The Kingdom of God needs men to see it continue to advance, but as the men of this world have given themselves to football worship churches remain filled with women. Though it may be ostensibly secular, football worship has all the marks of a religion - sectarianism, tribalism, a place of gathering, liturgical practices such as singing national anthems and modified hymns and most of all, having control over someone's emotions to the point of encouraging into violence and driving to despair. Football fans have killed each other and themselves over their 'support' of teams.
All this acts to dull their ears to truth, and if you wanted any more proof for a demonic strategy its right there. Church folks are not immune to this either - I have sat at a table where we were about to study the Word of God, only to have two bible study leaders obsessing over the 'results'. The Word was on my mind, and all the more considering the setting we were in, but there's was on football. There are levels, and following sport is not sin, but it can prove to be a real distraction as the spirit of false religion takes a hold.
In conclusion, I think there is a curse on fanatical support of football, both to those who support and those who play. Not a curse on sport or that sport in particular, but a curse and judgement against the spirit of idolatry. Wikipedia has a list of 84 players that have died on the pitch, or soon after leaving it, while playing league football since the end of the 19th century. That averages as one player dying while playing league football every 1.45 years. On this calculation, playing football should be categorised as a potentially lethal pursuit akin to BASE-jumping.
I will leave the judgement to the reader, but I think that idolatry in all forms is cursed. Whether it is ostensibly religious or secular, replacing God with anything else on the throne of your heart is tantamount to dancing around a totem pole babbling. Doing it in such an outrageous way as paying men thousands of pounds a week to kick a leather ball through a metal frame while two thirds of the world is in poverty and as many are going to hell without Christ is certainly skating on thin ice. Man was made to worship, and for the secularisation of this nation and the love of sin, football stadiums have become the new age church. Just look at the picture above! It looks like a Billy Graham crusade! Christians guard your hearts...
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