A documentary about the commercialism of soccer
The team plays the ball, the club provides it in the first place and the fans add a purpose to the whole thing. These are competing interests: the employee’s credit, the enterpreneur’s profit, the consumer’s payment. What it all comes down to is money. And the passion, where does it remain?
A gradual capitalisation can be seen in many areas of life. Football is a particularly good example because it is a mass phenomenon. Economic systems shape sports, that is no news, but who knows exactly what lies behind these words? How can it be that a law in concordance with employment rights allows for horrendous transfer fees? And how is it possible that a sports tournament puts human lives at risk?
Two football fans from Wiener Sportklub and SK Rapid Wien reveal their history from childish enthusiasm as trainees on world’s most wonderful minor matter on to their passionate fan lifes. In doing so, they depict footballs’s fast paced commercialisation during the past decades.
Because on their way they soon have to face the fact that monetary interests and commercialism assert more and more impact even on the social realm of ’free space stadium’ and that this development has accelerated enormously in the past years. Outsourcing of professional sports to corporations, continuously rising fees in stadiums to meet demands of turnover increase, speculative investments with floating capital instead of setting up new football legends, international consumers instead of local fans. That is modern football’s new reality. Those who want to succeed within the system have to comply with the rules of capitalism.
’Football - who owns the game’ makes the complexity of capitalisation easily understandable. To make everybody understand who wants to do so!
By interviewing players, club officials and fans, with aid of Amnesty International and soccer journalists, as well as by initiating a German fan initiative, the protagonists follow the trace of out-of-hand commercialisation. Because one thing is clear to them: they will not tolerate this development, football is part of passion, of the fans’ spontanious emotions, and not of commercial calculation and investors interests.
The Game of Games: FC Consumption vs. SV Passion
’Pass to fellow player, forward shoots – goal!’ The player runs towards the fans together with his fellow team mates, together they forget all about the world for one short moment. People lie in each other’s arms and cheer, men and women, old and young. In the background a commentary tries to financially exploit the fans’ extacy, he screams: ’This goal was presented by sponsor XYZ!’
A documentary isn’t necessarily a dull listing of facts. The dramaturgical storyline of the film is the Game of Games: FC Consumption vs. SV Passion. Thus working as a theatrical element, it playfully puts the information of the documentary into context directly on the sod. Until the very end the suspense remains, who will win this game: the corporations of FC consumption or the football enthusiasts of SV Passion.
We need your help for postproduction!
The city of Vienna already made a small financial contribution for the production of the film. We have been researching and filming for several months and do not want to produce just any kind of film, we make an exciting and thrilling kind of film that shines a light on the dark realms of our favourite sport’s commercialisation.
We need your support to tackle postproduction of our film. The material is going to be reviewed, cut, color corrected, put into a dramaturgical storyline. Music is going to be composed, the soundscape designed. Subtitles are going to be created and translated.
So there is a lot of work ahead, lots of material and manpower needed. To accomplish all of this we need one thing most of all: YOUR HELP! Support our project and get one of our great goodies (or even several ones)!
