Every Sunday
afternoon, this city of millions stands still. The area around the stadium is
practically closed down, with people queuing to enter the weekly soccer match.
Who is playing? Maybe one of the local teams, the celebrated Aurora, or
Wilstermann who just ascended from the second league, against a visiting team
from the highlands or the tropics, or the Tigre from La Paz...it really doesn’t
matter. Soccer is soccer!
So sometimes I sneek
in, take a seat somewhere, and watch the preparations for the game: policemen
with dogs, checking the soccer ground, the teams, posing for photos,
innumerable amounts of vendors selling 2l bottles of soft drinks, empanadas,
and ice cream. A kid offers me a seat with a piece of rubber foam over the
concrete, for 10 cents.
Then, I don’t really
understand a lot of what is going on during the soccer game. But the end, that
is the best part. The audience gets so emotional that the losing team has to leave
through an inflatable tunnel. Shame on them! And in any case, whoever wins or
loses, there is one culprit: The referee and his assistants. He is always
biased and bribed! So people throw whatever serves at him – bottles, food,
verbal insults. And the police, as usual, escorts the referee out, covering him
with their plastic shields. This is the ritual I am here for: Whatever you suffered during the week – you can
always blow off steam on Sundays, insulting the referee as much as you can!
And the president loves soccer as well. In 2007, he led the complaint against FIFA, who had decided to ban international soccer games at altitudes above 2,500m. A pity for Bolivia, a high altitude country. The stadium in its de facto capital La Paz is situated at about 3,800 m above sea level! So something had to be done, and Evo won (CBC news, June 2007). Hurray!
Soccer plays an
important role in the current president’s political strategy. At high-level
international meetings, such as the Ibero-American meeting of Spanish-speaking
nations last November, Evo never forgets to participate in a soccer game (El
Deber, Nov 2012). He is also currently organising a historic friendship game
between famous Bolivian and Argentinean soccer players (Terra, Dec. 2012).
But also in domestic
politics, the president has discovered the significance of soccer. The
programme “Bolivia cambia – Evo cumple” (Bolivia changes – Evo keeps his word)
is destined towards projects of public infrastructure all over the country that
are constructed under supervision of the presidential office. In 2012, 178
projects were funded through this programme, and 179,580,000 Bolivianos spent
(Radio Fides, January 2013). In Euros: 19,500,000. And what was the money spent
on?
21,000,000 Bolivianos,
about 12 %, went into the construction of sports grounds, three times more than
what was spent on health infrastructure (ibid.).
The communities might
be happy with this visible present from their president. Driving through the
Bolivian countryside, you might find villages without schools, but never
without a soccer ground. So the kids are all going to become professional
soccer players? Hardly. A project manager at a Bolivian NGO posed a central
question: What is the use of soccer grounds if our kids do not have access to
an adequate nutrition and health services?
And indeed, it can be
observed that many soccer grounds are empty. People in the communities have
found another use for them. They use its concrete floor to dry their harvest. A
productive side effect of Evo’s soccer politics!
And what is Evo up to
while the people struggle for their survival? Correct – he plays soccer! State
television on channel 7 is transmitting his third game today.
REFERENCES
CBC
News (June 2007). FIFA raises altitude limit.
El
Deber (November 2012). Evo hace calentamiento para la cumbre jugando futbol. http://www.eldeber.com.bo/evo-hace-el-calentamiento-para-la-cumbre-jugando-al-futbol/121116100635
Terra
(December 2012). Evo Morales anuncia que jugará futbol en la “Bombonera”.
Radio
Fides (January 2013). Programa Evo Cumple gasta tres veces mas en canchas
deportivas que en postas de salud.
