OpinionF1, La Liga and Leyton Orient take e-sports mainstream amid coronavirus lockdown
- Real Madrid’s Marcos Asensio wins La Liga’s Fifa 20 tournament, which raises US$149,000 to fight Covid-19
- Bookmakers take bets on Leyton Orient’s global ‘Fifa Ultimate Quaran-team’, while virtual F1 race is on Sky Sports
Football is, according to Arrigo Sacchi, “the most important of the unimportant things in life”.
The former shoe salesman brought a great amount of joy to people in his second walk of life as a football manager, winning back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and 1990 with AC Milan before taking Italy to a penalty shoot-out against Brazil in the 1994 Fifa World Cup final.
Sacchi, now 73 and occasionally still called upon by the Italian media for his punditry, would likely admit his quote means more than ever with his country battling “one of the most dangerous opponents we have ever come across”, as his former player, Demetrio Albertini, put it. Milan’s technical director, Paolo Maldini, another player Sacchi gave his debut to, and his son have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The situation also reminds us why we all love football – and indeed all sport – in terms of his quote. As Albertini told his former club Barcelona’s website: “Arrigo Sacchi did not just want to win, he also wanted to be remembered for the style of his teams, and he did it.”
Sport is entertainment and it does it in a way that other forms cannot match. There is no script. It was fitting that it was Sacchi who was in charge at that 1994 World Cup – the one where football made a global breakthrough by being held in the United States, where Roberto Baggio inspired his team to the final and then missed the crucial spot kick.