“I am a billiard player, I want to win”.
Javier Milei
“Football made the sad journey from pleasure to duty”.
Edward Galeano
From now on we are talking on the ideological plane. There are no dribbles from the right or goals from the left, of course. It is about the interpretation that we have of this game, closely related to what we think of society by the way.
The political and economic right is only interested in the benefit of what is useful. Anything to earn money is good. Everything that does not serve to earn money does not matter. For the right, as Discépolo complained in the 1930s, “the belly is queen and money is God”.
The right is capitalist and therefore does not notice the collateral damage of the accumulation of money and property. It is an absurd and suicidal race towards the destruction of the planet as a result of the delusional ways of producing and consuming.
Respect for human beings is not taken into account in any of the social relations. The exploitation of the weakest is the essence of its operation.
The left pretends and tries to overcome this essentially unjust society for another that has the human being as its center. Where men and women are the protagonists of their own lives. Where solidarity replaces selfishness in social relations. Where there is “neither fortune teller nor king” who can mark the path to follow, as a song by Zitarrosa says. Where there are no dominant elites or dominated majorities.
Soccer as a game vs soccer as a business
Soccer was born commoner and orphan. He has no father or mother. Nobody invented it. It was a collective creation, imprecise in time and place.
Three British kings from 1314 to 1447 banned it as rebellious, violent and disturbing. They also agreed to consider it a stupid game and without any use.
To summarize, let’s say that it evolved until the English ordered it, regulated it and spread it throughout the world. At first he was welcomed in the most elite schools in England, but was immediately adopted by the popular classes. It was cheap fun: it is played in any space and with a ball that can even be made of cloth, and little by little it became a way of expression and communication.
Through the game, the working class achieves respect for itself and others, an identity and a sense of belonging that transcends the result. Winning is the most important thing because it is a competition, but it is not the only thing. I would say that the result is finally a formidable excuse to play.
Until the business understood that it had an incomparable source of income, international and unlimited in time, and took over the game, transmitting its business values.
In other words, it changed its meaning and turned it into another consumer object. As for capitalism the end justifies the means in every activity in which it intervenes, it did the same with football. The game stopped having the importance it had. It only pays to win. The how is a concern of losers. In a culture where everything is bought and sold, the one who wins sells and the one who doesn’t win is useless. Capitalist society only respects success, it in no way considers merit.
The logical billardism of Milei
In the same tangled and confused way of her wig, Milei carries her political and economic “ideas”. In the same way that she appears to be an anti-system rebellion, when in fact she is the system itself, although expressed theatrically and incoherently, simulating silly rage, she does not lose – demagogically – an opportunity to relate to soccer.
And finally he said something logical and coherent: I am a bilardista, I want to win, he affirms and as always, he lies. He says that Bilardo is a winner and Menotti a versero. They are the ones who make this type of qualifications, but they do not take into account, as they do, reality. Bilardo won 2 titles throughout his career. Menotti 6. For us it is not the most important thing, it is for them.
Menotism and Bilardism
Milei personalizes the controversy and in addition to lying and talking about what she does not know (as always), reduces the debate to the vulgar, to the insult to the disqualifications.
It is not important to discuss Menotti or Bilardo, the important thing is to discuss the ideas that one and the other defend. I am not anti-capitalist because Trump or Bolsonaro are fascists, I am because I do not share the way of life that arises from capitalism.
Menotism defends the game and its meaning and gives it as much or more importance than the result. Billardism defends the result as the only thing that matters. The menottismo says that football that does not go through the emotion of a good game, is useless. Billardism considers that the only valid emotion is to win.
In short: menottismo is a football of the left and bilardismo of the right, if we understand it from the ideology.
A detail: none has the recipe to win. Neither do they who call themselves winners.
