A Dilemma for Many

As Germany prepare for their opening game against Australia in less than 13 hours, I'm faced with a dilemma. The country of my birth faces my adopted and much beloved home. It is anything but a unique dilemma, and is in fact one of the conflicts that, in a globalised world, adds such colour to the world cup.

Over the next month first, second and even third generation immigrants around the world will face up to the inner conflict of watching their homeland play against the land of their forefathers. Serbian communities in both Australia and Germany will face a similar conflict to the many Algerians living in London. Italians in New Zealand will agonize over their support for the All Whites, while the confusion of Portuguese Brazilians will be shared by Portugal's own Brazilian trio of Deco, Pepe and Liedson.

Interestingly, it seems that (players aside) more often than not it is the fans' ancestral home that wins out in the battle for their affections. When Australia was eliminated from the last World Cup by Italy, Sydney's Norton Street (home of the Italian community) celebrated long and hard, while Germany's Turkish community mourned rather than celebrated when a late winner against Turkey sent Germany into the European Championship finals in 2008. This phenomenon is not restricted to soccer. Half of New Zealand may live in Australia, but you'll hardly find them cheering against the All Blacks, and every summer Australia's immigrant communities proudly support Australia's cricketing opponents, be they Indian, South African or Pakistani.

The question this raises for me, is why? After all, most of these people have come to their new country by choice, by birth, or as children, and are otherwise proud citizens of their new country, including supporting them against any other country. To borrow from the purely personal experience, I have both a Germany and an Australia jersey in my luggage. I will certainly be wearing my Socceroos jersey when Australia face Ghana and Serbia, and will be passionately hoping they win.

My theory is that there are two reasons. The first has to do with the simple joy of being part of an exclusive group. Sport, is after all, a mere game, and belonging to the small group that gets one up on the majority is something people simply enjoy. And, no matter how integrated people may be in their new homes, they will always be known to their friends (in friendly and inclusive ways, I hasten to add) as the German / Serbian / Indian etc. If you have to put up with they stereotypes and jokes the rest of the time, its fun to get one up on the locals when the chance arrives.

The second reason might be more complex, and apply particularly for those who subscribe to the theory that football is much more important than a matter of life and death. It goes to the reason people care at all about a tournament like the World Cup, or any other sporting event. People who do not enjoy sport will often ask a simple question - why do you care whether eleven people that you've never met, born in one country are better at kicking a ball around than eleven people you've never met from another country? Tempting as it is to dismiss these people as boring, stupid or both, the fact is they are expressing an indisputable fact - that our fascination with sporting contest is entirely irrational. The national pride that follows a team's World Cup success rests on the very dubious conclusion that their success says something about each person in that country. Dubious and irrational though it may be, it is a conclusion that millions of people around the world will happily draw.

Why does this make people more likely to support their land of origin than their new home? It rests on a very primordial, arguably primitive, way of thinking. For, while the above mentioned conclusion may be irrational, people will forever try to rationalise it. And the easiest way to come to the conclusion that your football teams success reflects on you is to believe that the teams success rests on the one thing you do have in common with those players - ethnicity. At its most simple, Brazilian fans like to believe that playing beautiful football is in their blood, German fans like to believe that the team's famed success under pressure is a Germanic trait.

The conclusion is reinforced by the fact that, particularly in Europe, stereo-types of the football teams so often closely reflect Europeans' stereo-types of each other. The Spanish are full of passion and flair, though rarely successful, the Germans are dull, efficient and effective, the Italians, like their Government, don't feel overly constrained by the laws of the game. The allegedly poor quality of English cooking is difficult to reflect in a football team, but their fans are often enough left calling on the famed stiff upper lip.

Of course, it is an absurd way of thinking. Firstly, national teams reflect the countries they represent, and so field great mix of ethnicities within their ranks. It may be easy for a German fan to tell himself that he shares certain traits with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Holger Badstuber, but the connection to Ghana born Jerome Boateng is less clear. Similarly, it is a long bow to draw for a Parisian to feel that her personal qualities are reflected in a French team that would more accurately be called "The Team of the Former French Empire". Secondly, each team picks its 23 most talented players - hardly a statistically relevant sample of the country.

It may be an absurd conclusion to draw, but it is one that remains irresistible to many football fans around the world, and seems to draw so many of the world's immigrants back to supporting nations that they do not live in any more. It is also one of the key ingredient that goes into creating the magic of a World Cup.

Through all that I've tried to avoid too clearly nailing my own colours to the mast for tomorrow's game - I've simply put forward a theory as to why most fans seem to choose their ancestral home, and pointed out that those reasons are not based in any sound process of reasoning. I will be wearing both my jerseys (its cold enough here to require that anyway). The inner layer may be the one closest to my heart, or the outer layer may be the one that is ultimately dominant - you decide. I will simply say that, regardless of the result tomorrow, I will celebrate for the winner and be sad for the side that loses, and I'll be supporting both teams for the rest of the tournament. If they meet again, both will have done well enough to be more than satisfied.

Germany have looked good in their warm up matches, Australia have looked poor in a laboured win over NZ and a loss to the USA. If Australia can sneak a point, it will be an upset, while a win for the 'roos would be the result of the Cup so far. But the Germans don't look likely to let the Australians in.

In other news, the first games of the World Cup have been played, with few surprises so far. The most interesting result by far, for fans of both Germany and Australia, was the draw between the USA and England. Group C is a weak group, and both England and the USA should still qualify comfortably. The important thing about the draw (or tie, as they insist on calling it here) between the two is that, with both sides quite likely to finish with seven points, the differentiating factor in determining first and second position will probably be goal difference. With England hardly looking like tearing through an opponent, and the USA having the much stronger goalkeeper, the chances of the USA topping the group now sit at at least 50/50. The winner of England's group will face the second place getter in Germany's group, and vice-versa. That makes topping group D slightly less urgent for Germany, who would probably prefer to avoid an early encounter with England. Australia on the other hand, have already lost a warm up game against the USA, and might fancy a match against England, which would easily rank as the biggest game the Socceroos have ever played.