”Let’s go and watch the soccer,” says Han, a Korean trainee Buddhist priest as he jumps down the steps of the temple and makes towards the dormitory block. The hour-long prayers session of chanting and songs has cut into the start of England’s game against South Korea, but what is half an hour of a friendly international compared with the possibility of enlightenment?
We make an unusual foursome seated on the floor around the old television — myself; Han, the Korean; Nabin, a Buddhist preacher from Katmandu; and Seelaratana, a Buddhist monk from Colombo, Sri Lanka. The comments from my Buddhist companions are unlike those you would usually associate with an international football match — even if it is a friendly.
A rash challenge is greeted with ”this is a bad thing” by Seelaratana. Nabin offers perhaps the most profound comment of the evening: ”The ball is like the world. People kick it.”
The opportunity to stay in a Buddhist temple was provided by ”Temple Stay Korea”, a programme that is running throughout the World Cup — Buddhist temples are opening their doors to anyone who wants to experience temple life. Apart from the meditation and prayers, activities such as Lotus lantern making, traditional Korean music and calligraphy can be experienced.
Support for the World Cup from Buddhist orders is plain to see. The grounds of many temples are strewn with lanterns in the shape of footballs. This year also saw Buddha’s birthday celebrated with a parade of these lanterns through the streets of Seoul.
One Buddhist temple, Yakcheonsa on Jeju, the island where England played its friendly against South Korea, even has its own football team, Sampo. It is said that the team, led by the chief monk, Seong Gong, play whenever and wherever they can. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Seong Gong’s favourite player is Roberto Baggio, also a Buddhist. Seong Gong was also reported to note the similarities between religion and football. ”A Buddhist wages an endless battle against self. A soccer player does the same thing. And you know something? Neither of us likes to lose.”
It is not just the Buddhist orders who take football seriously. Another religious group, the Unification Church (better known as the Moonies), under the leadership of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his wife, have an interest in a professional football team. Under ”Projects initiated by the Rev Moon”, the church’s official website lists Ilhwa Chunma soccer team, champions of Korea’s K League.
The church’s involvement in football has not been without controversy. The decision to move the franchise to the city of Songnam, just south of Seoul, was greeted by protests from some of the other local religious groups in the city and at the beginning of the 2001 season the mayor of the city, up for re-election, told the team they were not welcome to play in the city’s stadium.
After Chunma won the Korean championship last year, Eoghan Sweeney, chief football writer for the Korean Times wrote, ”religious bigotry and political opportunism were given the perfect answer as the Chunma were presented with the K League trophy”.
The controversy over the team’s home stadium has continued into the 2002 season and is expected to be addressed again after the completion of the World Cup. The League has announced that it will seek arbitration from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism if the situation between the club and the city government is not resolved.
The Unification Church’s interest in football is not just restricted to South Korea. It has also set up a professional football club in Brazil. The club, named New Hope, shares its name with the closed religious order that the church has set up on two million acres near the Brazil-Paraguay border.
Attempts were also made to break into English football. Queens Park Rangers announced last year that inquiries from a Unification Church organisation were made about the possibility of buying out the club.
But despite the Rev Moon’s interest in football, little mention has been made of him in regard to football’s showcase event in his homeland. But you can be sure he has been keeping a close eye on the 10 newly-constructed stadiums. Who now would want to marry 30 000 couples in an old Olympic stadium when there is such an abundance of new venues to choose from?