Is Bullfighting A Sport?
Over the last few months bullfighting has come under pressure from, its homeland, Spain. Such would have been unthinkable even twenty years before. Hemingway would turn in his grave and rise up again today (if he knew). But Hemingway is dead and he does not know. His last wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway, was not over impressed with the bullfighting. She saw most of it as a male-centred carnival of booze and brutality.
Women are also dead to bullfighting in the sense that women do not do it very much in public arenas. Women fight their bulls in other ways. More ruthless ways sometimes. But there have been many women in the protest groups in Spain. Enough to enforce a government vote on this sport.
Pamela Anderson came out in protest against this bullfighting and it seems that her powers of persuasion made an impact on the public imagination. Maybe you cannot quite see what the connection is between a busty model and bullfighting. I must say neither can I but there it is.
So Spain is undergoing a fairly revolutionary change. Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting.
Anyway to answer the main question: Is bullfighting a sport? According to Catalonian traditions the answer is no. Bullfighting is traditional culture and the newspapers there never write it under the sports pages. It is always under the culture pages. So now you know.
You are right to question this. What is this culture? Is it not more of a business venture. Is it not true that bullfighting has started to become less profitable and less popular? The mind boggles. If you are one of those aficionados of bullfighting and dream at night of the ”corridas” then relax. Your artistic cruelty remains in places like Madrid and Andalusia.
Again in Catalonia there is a different kind of bullfight going on. This time it is Barcelona football that fights with London where all the rules of the game are being broken. Barcelona keep holding a red cape in front of the Arsenal football club and especially the player Cesc Fabregas. Even after this kind of upsetting tactic was agreed to be nasty and wrong the Catalonian bullfighting spirit continues. Needless to say the Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger is not amused. As yet Wenger has not yet been speared in the back and no blood is visible. But the bullfight continues this week and next so anything can happen.
Barcelona are experts in upsetting people through their tactics of using the mass media to make stories about new players that want to join them in Spain. What has the truth got to do with it? Nothing much but it does unsettle other teams. But they are experts in winding up the media wars between Spain and the UK. Poor Fabregas?
Is this sport? Is this culture?
This is big business. The transfer fee alone for a Fabregas is somewhere around 30–40 million. But Barcelona do seem to be running around, making grunting noises, like a bull in a china shop here. They are in desperate need of finance. In fact they have just been forced to take out a bank loan (a bank loan in Spain?) for 100 million big ones to pay the wages of their football players. Perhaps Fabregas will stay with Arsenal as they can pay his wages on time.
For a more human and humane story we find that Spurs boss. ”Arry” Redknapp is not just football crazy. He also hates cruelty to animals. The donkey that was parachuted down onto a beach, just for the fun of it (and the photo shots to sell to the media), will find a safe place to like with our ”Arry”. Redknapp will not play his donkey at Tottenham FC because he already has enough of those there already. However he will make a special animal sanctuary. We can think of a few beastly footballers that might benefit from just such a place.
This now reminds me to keep you all informed about a real football club. Norwich City. As I told you last year, and before the season began, Norwich would get promotion. That they did. Last week they also beat Newcastle United and managed to keep all their players out of hospital. They kept well out of the way from the likes of Mr Barton the resident Newcastle thug. Come on ”Arry” find a safe place for this man Barton.
But now there is the cultural tradition of the dog fight. Norwich and Ipswich are at it again this year. The supporters have already started to bite each other on the various internet sites. Blood sport? Sometimes, almost. Ipswich Town supporters have been attacking Norwich fans with typical Ipswich beastliness. The problem here is simple. Norwich City play in yellow and green colours. Those colours attract nasty bugs in the summer time. We are working hard to find a decent pesticide that will keep these nasty bugs away. Those bugs are born and bred in Ipswich.
Also justice has been done. Diego Maradona says that he feels betrayed and cheated by Argentina football. The hand of God has been cheated. What goes around comes around Diego.
It's too early for me to begin any round up or predictions for the football. Far too many big questions yet. But a few quick thoughts might suffice.
As Finland gears up for the latest European football battles Finns do not smile too much. Unless Stewart Baxter can actually have one firm and detailed decision on a few matters then we are going nowhere. Baxter simply talks and talks and talks as the words go around in circles. Will somebody please tell this man that a football manager cannot always be sitting on the fence.
Steve Bowles
