World Soccer Authority Bans Religion

For an athlete, celebrating a victory is the best part of the game. But FIFA recently told its players to keep religion out of it.

The president of the John Paul II Foundation for Sports in Rome quickly responded when FIFA reprimanded Brazils national soccer team for celebrating with religious displays after a victory.

Edio Costantini, the President of the John Paul II Foundation for Sports (Roma):

Sports should be an expression of man. Soccer should be the expression of man and of a team. It cant be deprived of this strength, of this fire, and the capacity it has inside.

He says FIFAs move in reprimanding players for celebrating with religion is wrong. Because, as he sees it, religion is part and parcel of the world of sports.

FIFA cant stop a team from celebrating because it would deprive soccer from its strength and energy. This energy comes from the people, and the fans.

Costantini believes that the world of sports is plagued with many other problems, and that reprimanding players for displays of religion should be the last on the list.

If FIFA continues doing so, he says, the meaning of the sport can be lost.

If we reduce soccer to just a technical expression for the sake of the result, we render it neutral. We deprive it of that energy and the passion of man, the passion of the athlete, the passion of a city, a team and a country.

The only way for sports to undergo an anthropological revolution, as Costantini calls it, is to start by putting man at the center of sports, an idea shared by John Paul II.

Hat tip to Let's Get It Right on this one!