They say that love is a disease. If so, then so is sports fandom. The latter is perhaps best expressed through a Russian idiom. When you cheer for a certain team, you say, “ia boleiu za tu komandu” -- “I am sick for that team.”  This phrase is exclusive to competitive scenarios rather than fandom per se. It certainly describes the temporary state you enter when witnessing a competition: your abnormal heart rhythm and your hopeful anticipation.

I only bother with sports at the national level. I feel emotional about Russia’s performance in many athletic fields, because I see it as a small-scale expression of national triumph or failure.  I am just a spectator, so why does that matter? Minor national triumphs motivate me to contribute to my culture in my own way. Back when people were inspired by winners rather than victims, this used to be called “nationalism.” When it comes to sports, futbol, err, soccer is the magnificent exception in my life.  It is the only sport to which I pay attention (sort of) at the club level, because it is a beautiful game of endurance and strategy.

To me, soccer is Family: I fondly recall watching matches as a child with my father and grandfather. My father, tired from working all day, dressed in striped Adidas track pants, energetically reacted to toy soldier-sized men in funny shorts perpetually running back and forth on a small black-and-white television screen. Spartak! CSKA! Team USSR!

Soccer -- fútbol, Fußball, futebol, football -- is the world’s most popular sport, and literally hundreds of millions of people are now watching the 2010 World Cup. The championship has also attracted the interest of many non-sports fans since it’s being held in South Africa and marks the first ever World Cup held on the African continent.

The media coverage of the event -- at least the American coverage on ABC and ESPN --monotonously details the alleged evils of apartheid and the glories of the Soweto riots.  Various segments between matches portray Nelson Mandela as little short of a god and faithfully follow Hollywood’s White Devils/Black Angels script. Needless to say, there is no discussion of ANC terrorism or the murders of over 4,000 white farmers since the end of apartheid.

Race is also on display on the pitch and for all the talk of diversity, multiculturalism, and a global community, most of the 32 teams in the field feature racially exclusive teams.

I must note that whiteness is relative.  Many “whites” in Italy or Spain would get classified as “ambiguous” in Sweden or Poland.

What must the Russian team think playing France?  They have the dubious distinction of having the first white minority soccer team in Europe.  The website Le Projet Juif chronicles the decline