ABSTRACT
Sports, in general, and football, in particular, are extra-ordinary, unnecessary, rule-based, competitive, skill-based physical activities, in which players cooperate to have a competition they aim at winning – or minimally at not losing. Furthermore, football qua sport is fictional in character. The social historical kind of sport and football is based on direct collective intentionality that allows for stage type exceptions with regard to collective intentionality. The game creates a dense drama, in which during a single match, a couple of minutes of stoppage time can completely change the dramatic structure of a game, turning would-be victors into losers, or transforming the mediocre into the status of champions. The constructive-destructive sport of football is more unpredictable than other sports, because it is lower scoring and more affected by chance. The internal aim of sport is to win, minimally not to lose the game, whereas the external or primary purposes of football are competition, domination, and identity making. These features are reflected or mirrored in the sport of football, which together with the game’s dramatic possibilities – and the fact that it is cheap and simple to play – explain its worldwide appeal.
