Social Justice in Sports, Bread and Circuses

On any Sunday, the government-owned stadiums across the socialist country I knew, ruled by the Communist Party, were filled with men cheering their favorite soccer teams, throwing empty beer bottles at other spectators, letting out temporary steam from their miserable lives during the week, a sort of Roman “Pane et circenses,” bread and circuses, for the oppressed proletariat. There were no concession stands, no food sold, just beer brought from the outside. The fans often injured other fans and fights broke out that the police were not eager to disperse. They were told to leave them alone. The soccer players and coaches were not immune from injury either. Sports, but especially soccer could exist in the former Soviet satellite countries to pacify the proletariat. Other sports were used to glorify, in competitions with other countries, the existence of the socialist state which controlled everything including athletic training, domestic competition venues, medals, and small earnings to athletes and their families – gold dust in the eyes of the beholder.