Completing the final touches of this book coincided with the final of the FIFA 2006 World
Cup, the second biggest event in the world. According to most commentators the event was
organised wonderfully well with the whole of Germany and its’ host cities joining the celebration
and providing not only a football tournament but also a cultural festival par excellence.
Cities that hosted matches played their part with free festivals and exhibitions and the
whole event was, to coin a phrase, a true celebration of global football’s finest. The World
Cup also saw the real breakthrough of ‘vicarious events’ or ‘vicarious spectating’ with most
of the major cities showing the games live on large screens located in or around the main
city centres. In some places numbers watching these live transmissions were estimated at
over 50,000. Although not the first time this had happened the 2006 World Cup was the first
time it had been an integral part of the design of such an event. But then in the final
moments of the tournament itself a strange thing happened. With the World Cup Final
match between France and Italy concluded, the officials prepared the podium in the centre
of the stadium for the presentation of the winners and losers medals. France collected theirs
and Italy theirs and then, inexplicably, the proceedings stuttered. Fabio Canavarro, the Italian
captain, was left waiting almost in state of suspended animation as he prepared to act out
the final and pinnacle moment of the event, the lifting of the World Cup itself. The players
readied themselves for that moment of optimal pleasure, when as winners, they alongside
fellow countryman in the stadium and around the world watching on TV, would cheer in
exalted delight as the captain hoisted the trophy aloft. And they waited. And they waited a
bit more. Finally, in one of the most bizarre conclusions to a major sporting presentation,
an Italian squad member (believed to be the reserve goal keeper) sidled up to the trophy,
grabbed it and thrust it into Canavarro’s arms. He duly did the rest. After some 5 years of
planning and organising was this final act deliberately designed to unfold in this way? The
question we have to ask is: Was it really in the organisers’ mind to have this, the optimal
experiential moment of the World Cup for players and spectators alike, to be carried off in
such unbecoming circumstances? The hoisting of a trophy is the symbolic finale of many
such sports events and provides the conclusion to what has often been a long and arduous
endeavour by the players to reach this pinnacle of success. As such it should be seen as a key
experiential moment in the unfolding of the whole event, much like the ‘kiss’ after wedding
vows, and is therefore an occasion that should be carefully and deliberately designed since
it is providing the culminating and defining moment for the winners.