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Comment by jVinc | Hacker News Reader

Prosecute all the criminals. Whataboutery is not a legal defense.

That's the only absolute thing that makes perfect sense. Soccer is like religion in many countries. Religion is the opium of the people. Soccer is too. It's better to make people argue over who's the best team in kicking a ball than having them keeping the governments accountable of all the crap they do.

Divide, confuse and conquer!!

"Divide, confuse and conquer!!"

Also through bread and circus, where trash TV, social media, sports etc. make the circus.

It's the ancient old [1] way of controlling the enemy land (and today the masses) by keeping people fed, distracted then fueling fights among small groups so that they wouldn't feel the need to unite against the oppressor.

[1] Divide et impera (divide and conquer) and panem et circenses (bread and circus) phrases were coined thousands of years ago.

The darkest years in political scene of Latin America, football fanatisism was thriving. People would be starving, but they would rebel only when their favourite team would lose a game. Not when they were starving. A similar decadance was taking place in Europe in the 70s and 80s. It so happens that soccer fanaticism grew wherever there was incometent to solve problems and heavily corrupted government(s).

Yes football is still being used as tool, even in Europe to distract people that should know better. Combine that with crappy education et voila!

I kindly remind how one of the filthiest and most violent (UK) football scene was cleaned up when true political will was present. And you can see some other European countries (Portugal, Greece) where there only 1-2 teams good enough to be champions, who happen to have massive following, and said following is usually lower class.

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