Feelings about the lawn

Column Thanks to clever media staging, football has firmly established itself as a product and far overshadows other sports.
even people like me, for whom it is not the great love of sport.
means. The 90 minutes can drag on indefinitely, the
Scoring chances are not always very exciting, it is usually more exciting to see the
audience to watch. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile for us to watch the World Cup.
follow. Rarely does an event offer such a broad and intensive
Spectrum of stories and feelings. When can men be so
to cry, celebrate and mourn uninhibitedly. The whole mix makes the
The allure of the spectacle, in which athletes, officials, marketers, media
and the audience form the cast of a big reality show.interesting
for the media are not just the few shots on goal. So that
could not fill endless broadcasting hours and newspaper pages.
Fortunately, the actors deliver the wildest stories. In comparison
the plots of the usual soap operas and Big Brother programs.
a bland copy. The lengthy sequences between the goals
are ideally suited for analyses of all kinds: from the pecking order in the
pack to the leadership qualities of the bosses, from the fabulous
the shameful relegations, from the huge profits and the
unscrupulous rip-offs, of the wild passions and the
peaceful families, of dirty tricks and the noble gestures -
Nothing human, nothing all-too-human remains a topic of conversation
omitted.
As with every reality show, the production
and thus fully exploit the value chain. The Panini pictures
are a prime example of this: young and old fans alike can enjoy the
Collecting the player portraits costs a lot. You will learn all
countries and kickers and form a close-knit community that
succumbed to the passion for collecting. Long before that, the
sponsors the best place for the presence of their logos and, if necessary
also secured their products. The organizers made money with the
sale of the media rights, even if their original intentions
had to revise something.

The disputes between newspaper publishers and FIFA over the
The publication of the pictures has shown that even in football
everything can be controlled and commercialized by the marketers
- but almost everything. Entire districts and regions have to fight for it,
not just serve as a stage for the sponsors. Linguistic
Finishing touches complete the perfect marketing packaging. From the
Thanks to resourceful communication acrobats, the soccer game becomes a
Football festival. The official ball is called Team Spirit, even if the spirit
of Mammon is present everywhere.
The world champion of the media
It is therefore already clear that when it comes to ratings, to
Sponsorship budgets to cover marketing measures, special expenses of
print products, merchandising, hardly any other major event can match it.
the same sums of money. Football has established itself as a product
and puts other sports in the shade. The respect for
the performances of the kickers in honor. The reason for the omnipresence of the
football does not - die-hard fans may forgive me - lie in
its outstanding sporting appeal. The football product
was carefully orchestrated as a media event, the dissemination and
marketing is comprehensively controlled. Ultimately, as in
a reality show about the big feelings that determine success or failure.
Failure, love, money and power.
Josefa Haas
is head of the Media Institute.