I cannot be entirely impartial about watching football. Being a person, who even when made to watch a football match due to social expectations, rather pretends (out of courtesy but also to be honest, out of social conformism) to be interested than actually experiences emotions known to the true football fans, I certainly take a different point of view than millions of supporters living the UEFA European Championship to the full.
Nevertheless, the time of the games has come and opposing voices should also be heard. Including a voice which is not so much against the games themselves but against the context
and the results. Let me adopt the perspective of public health here .
At first glance, it does not look bad. Theoretically speaking, football does not look so bad. The players enter the pitch, run, kick the ball, true - they occasionally suffer injuries, though incomparably less severe than in the case of boxing or weight lifting. It should be a good example for children, young people and adults. But is it really so?
Let us begin by stating the bare facts. Millions of bottles and cans of beer. Tonnes of chips, snacks, sausages and pizza. Hours spent in front of the television set, though watching the
games at bars and pubs has been becoming a new Polish secular tradition. An additional cigarette smoked because of ‘the anxiety over the football match score’ …
Consumption is driven by a huge marketing machine, which entices millions of football fans into the sphere of its targets. Does it help to increase physical activity in the population? Any evidence? If yes, please share it with me. Will the games bring the result in the form of increased consumption of the mentioned products? Stock market reports directly show that – yes.
Pitifully, I have noticed not a single government communication or, more broadly speaking, a message from the politicians that would at least partially outweigh the negative impact of junk food and alcohol advertising. If any of you find an exception – then it is worth noting and popularising. I will be glad to admit that it escaped my attention…
Perhaps we could find some positive psychological and emotional aspects of the phenomenon?
Shared emotional experiences, endorphins, mobilisation? Health has also psychological-social dimensions. Regardless of the funds spent on promotion, the European Championship would
not be a success if it did not meet human needs. How does it work? Here we enter Terra ignota, though (for those more deeply interested in the topic) some results of psychological studies can be found, for example of studies on the differences between sport fans and the persons emotionally detached when it comes to sporting issues.
These emotions, even though engaging attention (and memory, here the link between emotions and memory has been quite well explored), seem to be risky too. Since the study of 2006 carried
out on a group of German football fans (the study recalled during the Championship by the Polish Health Policy Institute*) shows that the risk of a heart attack is likely to be linked not only to bad diet but the very ‘adrenaline rushes’ while watching the match. Certainly it would be worth comparing the results of this study and the possible positive results of the ‘watching activities’… (perhaps someone will present them, on condition of providing reliable sources )
Regardless of the above: I think that from the point of view of public health the time of the games is actually the time lost. However, if the UEFA European Championship lasts for a few
days longer, perhaps at least the journalists, not necessarily covering sports, will remind us that only watching sport will not make us any healthier…
And to end the post with a constructive proposal: the media covering sporting events (which is not a negligible sources of their income) would be obligated to advertise not only various
products but also healthy lifestyle and to inform of the risks related to ‘emotions in sport’, alcohol, tobacco, and most snacks.
Original post in Polish
