Putoia – here soccer is played
That’s what it says on the sign at the entrance to the village, or actually on the … but you have to listen to the story to understand where it is written. This is already so curious that one must simply tell it. What had happened, how did it come to this?
First of all, it was obvious what it was going to be. But on the way the letters got totally mixed up. The construction workers began to assemble them from memory. But when the foreman saw what they had done, he said: “What have you done? That’s not what it’s called. There’s no such thing!” “How, watt, jibt et nich? Can’t you see that it does exist? We here, there the letters, done!” Somehow that sounded convincing.
But that was only the beginning. Because: when the foreman now said: “But underneath it now comes in smaller letters, what it’s all about here. It must say ‘Fair soccer is played here’. Exactly like that. Got it?” But now it was up to the workers to shake their heads, “Nah, there’s really no such thing.” And what did they do in infinite audacity and excess of competence? They simply left out the word “fairer.”
We are still at the very beginning of our little story. Although the foreman was horrified and on the verge of giving individual lectures or salary cuts, including warnings, he paused: firstly, we were in a place that didn’t exist, secondly, people here treat each other fairly not only on the soccer field but also in other ways, and thirdly, he had a golden idea.
The finished sign looked like this :
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Putoia
Soccer is played here
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Everything was still quite small and clear in the place, which would not have existed recently, only thanks to the slightly confused assemblers then nevertheless, and one had not so many hurdles to overcome. The foreman went to the mayor — and this only the earthly word to make it understandable — and presented his idea. “Isn’t it nice to come here and know that soccer is played here? A kind of soccer town?” Although the mayor didn’t quite understand — isn’t soccer played everywhere, isn’t it the number one sport anyway, why especially here? –, he had no objection to the proposal, which went a little further, however, because the sign idea was born.
So the foreman set out with his people to implement the idea. In fact, more signs were erected. These signs were found as posters, on littfass columns, on bus stops, on bridges, on houses, on video walls, everywhere these messages were found and soon everyone and everything was infected by them, at first only because they caught the eye everywhere, but little by little because the messages penetrated and because each one was so simple and yet so convincing.
“Here we play fair”. There didn’t need to be anything in front of it or above it. Because you already knew that you were in the soccer city. “Here the spectator is asked what he likes”. These were only two of them. One could not escape these messages. “Here is played according to the rules”, “no fan riots”, “here there are goals to see”, “here is in doubt … the whistle is blown for soccer”.
There are many more and the ideas just bubbled up. Nevertheless, the story must first be told further. The bacillus was on its way and everyone was infected. Those who strayed here – and there weren’t many at all in the beginning, and they were smiled at besides – didn’t believe a word, but after the first visit to the stadium they were just as infected and moved here. The tickets were extremely difficult to get, but there was always the contingent, at every game, that had been written on the flags (yes, there were flags too!), for these skeptics, because the concept seemed to work completely.
One text still read “There is only one winner sought in every game: the soccer”. Now the village grew from village to small town to city to big city and from country to continent, and the continent became a whole planet, because there was enough space. So in the meantime you could find on the planet entrance sign “Here soccer is played”. The name of the planet did not play a role any more…
Now one asked oneself nevertheless, how it could come to it. It should become nevertheless only a small, contemplative small town, which did not exist even up to then basically at all.
Surveys had been started. There was, of course, no obligation to participate, but more and more were found who were willing and gradually delivered representative results. The first question astonished everyone. It was, in fact, “What do you wish for when you watch a game?” There was only one answer to this question, and it wasn’t even given by multiple choice, there was a free choice of words, a free line of text, which everyone nevertheless filled in like this: “I wish that my team wins.” So you could have saved yourself the trouble? Why a questionnaire? You could have asked yourself and realized: that’s all there is to it, isn’t it? I go to the stadium, I turn on Sky – and I want my team to win. What else is there?
But now the following questions became a little more differentiated. “Do you wish that your team wins no matter how?” At this point, there was a limited selection of answers, divided into “yes,” “no,” and “it depends.” The opinion was not entirely clear, but “yes” was still in the lead. The next question wanted to get a feel for this, but only for those who had ticked “yes” and “depends”.
If “yes” was ticked, one had to briefly think about why one didn’t care. Here it seemed quite clear that the people in question didn’t care because the others didn’t do it any differently and their own team had already lost often enough unhappily or unfairly. Must balance itself out somewhere? That made sense.
Whoever said “it depends” naturally had to make do with the follow-up question “on what? If the opponent was clearly better and played fair and demonstrated his superiority by purely playful means, then one could also cope with a defeat. Also to be read out was that a dirty 1:0, with which one would have had hardly chances however the one gate would have created somehow, afterwards with teeth and claws over the time brought would be by no means preferable to a good, exciting 3:3. Tenor thus: then rather a few goals and a good game than such a dirty victory, even if only a point.
Of course, the “no” tickers still had the chance to comment and they didn’t sound much different.
This part already quite revealing, but it continued abruptly. There were still a lot of questions open. For example: “Do you also occasionally watch a soccer game, really, with sympathy, sound, with fun and excitement, over 90 minutes, in which your team is not involved?”
Here it came out quite clearly that one would do it only with large tournaments, so approximately starting from semifinals – European Championship, World Cup, Champions League, DFB cup included. Whereby the restriction was clear: if a German team is there – even one, for which one normally would not be –, then it can happen in Europe also otherwise already times. But then you keep your fingers crossed for the Germans, as you should. In this respect, one would not be a truly neutral spectator.
Since the answers here were rather hesitant and the following complexes were all aimed at the same thing, i.e. “why you don’t watch” or “when you do watch”, the results–choosing the positive form of expression here–can be summarized as follows: if it was fair, if it was exciting, if there were a few goals, if there were a few nice actions to see, a few tricks and magic tricks, a few great saves and a lot of spectacle in general. Surely this part wasn’t that difficult?