Scorecard

POLITICAL FOOTBALL

Whatever the feelings in Washington about football, a leftist Argentine writer, Juan Jos� Sebreli, has declared that he believes "it educates the masses for passivity, for nonaction and for non-participation in public life." Sebreli says—and he is talking principally of soccer—that such games are used as imperialist tools "to keep the people submerged in the primitive and elemental emotionalism which characterizes humanity's infantile stage." He points to the killing of Argentine-born Che Guevara in neighboring Bolivia a few days before a Buenos Aires soccer team won the world club title in Montevideo. Sebreli says, "When the news broke that Guevara had been shot no one here in his fatherland took to the streets or indeed lifted a finger. After the soccer victory in Montevideo thousands of fans appeared in the streets here to celebrate." And when the victorious soccer players arrived home the police, who were at the airport to impose some kind of control over the crowds, were roundly applauded by the fans. "It is incredible," Sebreli declares, "that a crowd made up mostly of workers, who must have been cudgeled by the cops at one time or other, will applaud them when they appear on the scene as fans. A mass culture has been molded by soccer and radio, and because of this I believe workers' uprisings no longer are possible.

" Mussolini, Hitler and even the senile P�tain were promoters of sports, and their example has been followed by most of today's world leaders. Monopolistic, capitalistic and fascist regimes use it as a means of psychological control of the masses by means of conditioned reflexes."

SORE

Dr. Barbara Moore, the 63-year-old British fitness fanatic who walked across the U.S. a few years ago, attempted to break the world's non-stop walking record of 155 miles a fortnight ago on a specially laid-out course in Colchester. She challenged four British army parachutists to match strides with her. Three of the men soon dropped out, but when Dr. Moore quit after 80 miles (she said a drink given her by a "well-wisher" was poisoned), the fourth man, Staff Sgt. Louis Gibson, marched on.

Dr. Moore appealed to the army to stop him. "Staff Sgt. Gibson is a very brave man, but it is cruel to let him continue," she told Gibson's superiors. "He must be in torture. The soldiers set too fast a pace at the beginning, and they were not conditioned for it. Staff Sgt. Gibson's feet are crippling him."

By this time Gibson had covered 125 miles. Interviewed in stride, he told reporters, "Nothing would induce me to give up at this stage. Dr. Moore is the worst sportswoman I have ever met. I would never walk with her again. She said I couldn't have endured the pain unless I was taking drugs. That's utter rot. My feet are killing me, but I'll keep going."

And he did, for 160.9 miles. The next day Gibson, hobbling on a stick, was given an award by the army. "You're in a bad way," the general making the presentation commented, "but it was a magnificent effort."

Said Dr. Moore: "I have protested to the army high command and asked for another walk to take place. I was given no medical treatment although I asked for it. All the army was concerned with was getting me out of the race. It was all very un-British."

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