I had landed in Saudi Arabia only a few weeks earlier than issues heated up. It was early February, and whereas the spectre of battle was on the horizon, the skies have been blue, the air was crisp and the Red Sea held out all the promise of a resort break. But my enduring reminiscence from the journey was not that of the reefs from our seaplane, nor the Desert Rock Resort, which is spectacularly Martian in look. It got here from a late-night bout of channel browsing. Playing on the display was a soccer sport, which actually might have been another football sport wherever. Except that it was Palestine vs Lebanon, being performed at a stadium in the kingdom by girls in shorts, some with hair open, arms displaying, legs naked and kicking the ball about in addition to anyone. The sight challenged a number of assumptions I by no means knew I held.
George Orwell held a dim view of sport. He appeared to imagine that “international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred”. “If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the world at this moment, you could hardly do it better than by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and Czechs, Indians and British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and Jugoslavs, each match to be watched by a mixed audience of 100,000 spectators.”
“Food and sports can be polarising. But both have the power to bring us together in ways few things can,” he wrote again in 1945. Serious sport, Orwell argued, is… “war minus the shooting”. For his personal sake, I’m glad Orwell will not be round to witness what is probably going to be a mad summer season of sport. Thousands will spend irrational quantities of time, cash and emotion at Roland Garros, Silverstone, Estadio Azteca and wherever else in the world, bleeding blue, inexperienced, yellow or no matter it’s their groups are carrying. Passions might run excessive, sure, and some will spar—inevitable—however most will come again with tales of a brand new beer, an awesome bar and a promise to return when the airfare will not be as loopy.
As a tribute to this very particular summer, our situation brings collectively my two favorite themes: meals and sports activities. Both could be deeply political and polarising. But channelled proper, each have the power to challenge how we feel about individuals and locations, and convey us collectively in methods few issues can. Breaking bread collectively will hopefully give us a bit extra urge for food for sport and completely none for battle.