Infinite Football (2018)

1. Infinite Football

2. This is where I played football during the summer holidays.

3. Because my high school closed the football field

4. my classmates and I came here to play football.

5. - What year? - 1986.

6. - 1986... - In July.

7. The pitch and the fences were the same.

8. With handball goals at both ends, except we used to play football.

9. Now, they play tennis here in summer and in winter they have an ice rink.

10. I was on the pitch with colleagues, probably around 12 people,

11. and at a certain point, on this spot, the players crowded together.

12. Both teams surrounded me. I had the ball.

13. Somebody kicked my right leg, trying to take the ball.

14. I felt an intense pain. I had to stop the game.

15. I went home.

16. My leg became bruised and swollen.

17. My parents treated me with medicines for ecchymosis, for bruises.

18. They kept me bandaged for two days. But the pain didn't go away.

19. The bruise did, but the leg remained swollen.

20. Realising it was far more serious than we thought,

21. I was taken to hospital and told I had a fractured right fibula,

22. on the inferior third segment.

23. I was put in a cast and sent home.

24. I had the cast for a month, and when I took it off,

25. I noticed that my leg hurt when I stepped on it.

26. I had an X-ray and they saw the leg hadn't healed properly.

27. Instead of fastening together, the two bone segments,

28. had attached laterally.

29. One segment partially attached to the other.

30. - The blow was very powerful. - Very powerful.

31. - And you had possession of the ball. - Yes, I was protecting it

32. and the others gathered around me, trying to take the ball from me.

33. I didn't realise it then, but this was because...

34. the rules of football are wrong.

35. Wait a minute. How were you keeping the ball?

36. I was holding it here. I was in front of the wall.

37. I was trying to protect it.

38. Around me, where you are standing now, were about 10 other people.

39. They were trying to get possession of the ball.

40. One of those who tried to kick the ball,

41. in order to take it from me, kicked me in the leg.

42. - How come he kicked you so hard? - He just did.

43. The next year I was going to apply to the Forestry University.

44. One of the test was to run 3000 metres.

45. I realised I couldn't do it.

46. Before the accident I could have done it easily.

47. - You really wanted to get in? - Yes, a lot.

48. What did you like about it? You just stood in the forest and...

49. Yes, I found it fascinating!

50. I dreamed of being in the middle of the forest

51. with the animals, the wood, the trees...

52. Back then, at that age, I read adventure books...

53. Robinson Crusoe who survived alone on an island.

54. I really wanted it. I was fascinated by it.

55. All my colleagues knew it.

56. I studied biology, maths, algebra...

57. Everything required for the forestry exam.

58. - And what was here before? - Here there were lathes.

59. Here, in this area, there was a milling machine.

60. Either here or there. I don't know exactly.

61. - There was something big here... - Big, yes.

62. I think the milling machine was there in the back.

63. It had a table where the pieces were assembled.

64. The table was made of thick steel, about this thick,

65. and was more than one meter in diameter.

66. Ropes were attached to the table and two steel bars

67. were attached to the ropes. It took 8 people to lift the table.

68. Two and two, two and two. Four people holding each bar.

69. If the table was here, as I remember, in this area.

70. We had to move it.

71. We opened the door and carried it out for an electric forklift to take it...

72. somewhere.

73. We lifted it up.

74. Four people to lift a bar. Two and two, two and two.

75. But the weight was not distributed...

76. - Evenly. - Evenly.

77. And, at a certain point, when me and my colleagues were lifting it

78. I felt something cutting into my leg,

79. where I had been injured a year before.

80. I struggled, I carried that thing, I did my job.

81. End of story.

82. It was the 31st of December 1987.

83. New Year's Eve, which was a very important holiday during Communism.

84. It was the only winter holiday

85. and we had the 1st and 2nd of January off.

86. After work was over, I went to change my clothes.

87. My colleagues, who could walk normally,

88. and were fast on their feet and got on the buses.

89. By the time I got to the bus station, there were none left.

90. I was the last person to leave the industrial park.

91. There were no busses, no cars on the street,

92. not even a horse and cart. No transport at all.

93. I had to walk home. I didn't know it, but my leg had broken again.

94. - The fibula again? - No, the tibia broke,

95. but back then I didn't know that.

96. The fibula fracture had damaged the tibia

97. and the bone had decalcified.

98. The doctors explained it to me, but I didn't understand much.

99. The fracture of the nearby fibula damaged my tibia, which became weak

100. and broke because of the strain.

101. I closed the door,

102. I was the last one to leave, I turned off the light.

103. And that's how I started to walk.

104. I was dragging my leg, I couldn't step on it anymore.

105. I could hardly move.

106. I walked home at this pace. For six kilometers.

107. When the pain was too great, I'd stop a little. I was shaking.

108. Again. And again.

109. There was nobody around, everybody had gone.

110. Nobody was left at the bus stop. Nobody in the street.

111. It was around this time.

112. Around this time...

113. Around 4 pm.

114. The working day finished earlier on the 31st of December.

115. The hour coincides, too.

116. It was dark when I got home. It took me three hours.

117. I walked at around two kilometers per hour.

118. At a certain point I thought I wouldn't make it

119. because the pain was tremendous and...

120. I kept thinking that the accident hadn't been

121. the fault of those around me, nor was it my fault.

122. It was the fault of imposed rules, norms, which weren't the best.

123. I had the idea to keep searching for something better.

124. The football field has a rectangular shape

125. and these right angles

126. have a negative impact on the speed of the game.

127. A vacuum has the tendency to be filled up with something.

128. Once we include this corner of the field in the game,

129. it has the tendency to be filled up with something.

130. And, in football, that something can only be the players, the ball,

131. or the ball and the players.

132. In college I studied Oriental philosophies,

133. Chinese and Japanese culture,

134. and I saw the octagonal shape as a very advantageous compromise

135. between something round, oval, spherical

136. and something square, rectangular, cubical,

137. to give you a three-dimensional example.

138. I realised that a football field

139. with cut-off corners would be much more advantageous.

140. Moreover, if you look from inside,

141. it offers a greater degree of fluidity to the players.

142. An octagonal football field gives the players greater mobility. Why?

143. Because the players instinctively tend to follow the edges of the field

144. and when they get to a right angle, their movement is blocked.

145. My first thought was...

146. to divide the two teams of players in two subteams,

147. each one being assigned to one half of the field.

148. Five in one half of the field

149. and five in the other one.

150. Of course, in order to keep this division,

151. on the midfield line a border should be set up,

152. which the players of the same team can no longer cross.

153. There are 6 people in the defence subteam, including goalkeeper.

154. A goalkeeper plus 5 players stay on the left hand side of this line.

155. The attack subteam stay on the right hand side.

156. Under no circumstance can they cross the midfield line.

157. Then, I divided the other team the same way.

158. I brought in the referee too, the ball as well,

159. the two linesmen and the goalkeeper of the red team.

160. In the worst case scenario,

161. the biggest possible crowd of players is this one,

162. only 10 players, plus the goalkeeper: 11.

163. This means I've halved the biggest possible crowd.

164. But that wasn't enough.

165. I realised that I was still blocked by the offside rule,

166. because the offside rule in football applies from the midfield line

167. up to the goal line.

168. Practically,

169. let's apply this rule.

170. The players are no longer allowed to cross the midfield line,

171. which means that if the players of the defence subteam,

172. in this case the yellow team, with the goalkeeper here,

173. place themselves all near the midfield line,

174. all the red subteam players are offside

175. when the ball is passed to them by their own teammates.

176. Which would be inconceivable.

177. So I had to think of another place to introduce the offside line.

178. So I drew these extra lines

179. starting from which the offside rule applies towards the nearest goalpost.

180. At that moment I thought what I'd done,

181. what I'd visualised, imagined, was something exceptional.

182. So I started contacting different entities, commercial companies,

183. sports clubs, sports lawyers, federations...

184. At one point, I was in contact with a couple of British sports lawyers.

185. They invited me to London and I went.

186. And in September-October 2010, I went to London

187. and talked to them about the possibility of them finding

188. people or institutions eager and capable of investing in promoting

189. these rules I had discovered, either under the form of

190. a change to football or of developing a parallel or rival sport.

191. There were no eager, serious clients

192. and so I dropped the project for a while.

193. For some time, I was not longer involved in it.

194. This strategy is as old as the world.

195. It's well known to all inventors.

196. When something doesn't turn out as planned,

197. take up something else and give your unconscious mind the chance

198. to relax and come back later with fresh energy.

199. That's exactly what happened later on.

200. And, eventually, I thought that an even better idea would be

201. to completely give up the offside rule.

202. I was following a clear philosophy of play,

203. that of leaving the ball as free as possible.

204. For the ball to be as free as possible,

205. the players have to be more static.

206. In order to increase the speed of the game, its spectacularity,

207. I divided the two subteams of each team

208. in two other sub-subteams.

209. I took advantage of these offside lines

210. and I allotted: for the defence, 3 players plus the goalkeeper,

211. 3 forwards in the attack without the goalkeeper,

212. 2 midfield players... and the same here.

213. So, they only play here, and these ones here?

214. Exactly. Nobody is allowed to cross the 3 lines marking the field.

215. I was very pleased with it. At first, it seemed an extraordinary idea,

216. after which, while analysing it, I saw its flaws. The biggest was

217. that I couldn't find a practical solution to move the ball.

218. I only found two alternatives for the ball:

219. either it could go from one section to the next,

220. which would have slowed it down and restricted its freedom,

221. or it could be kicked from one penalty area to the other

222. in which case, all the midfield players become useless.

223. I quickly realised that this was leading nowhere.

224. I was very upset, very intrigued.

225. I couldn't see another solution, I thought it was all over.

226. During these moments, I remembered my journey

227. when I had the second accident

228. and I thought I'd never make it home,

229. on the evening of the 31st of December 1987.

230. Nobody helped me, nobody picked me up in his car,

231. nobody was by my side.

232. I didn't have a mobile phone to call anyone.

233. I thought I wouldn't make it home, but I did.

234. It motivated me to find another solution.

235. What did I do?

236. I moved the 2 players from the advanced defence to the defence

237. and gave all 5 defenders from each team the ability

238. to cross this line, if they wanted.

239. However, the 2 players I called the "supporting forwards",

240. who were on this side of the blue line, were not allowed to cross it.

241. - 18, 166. - Yes.

242. - 18, 164. - Yes.

243. 42, 87.

244. - Yeah. - 60. This is upside down...

245. - 49, 809. Right? - Yes.

246. - There are 3 left. - Yes. 19...

247. - No, I see 15. From Tatarani? - Yes, 15. 15.

248. - So... - 34.

249. - Yes. - And 35.

250. Yes.

251. One for me, one for you.

252. - That one's for my colleague. - For Mr Torini?

253. - Yes. - I'll take it upstairs.

254. - For the Official Gazette. - Right.

255. - Let's check... - The certificate for Mr Ciristi.

256. Yes. I'll take it.

257. One moment.

258. - Everything's OK. - It's OK, right?

259. - All the best. - All the best.

260. - What is this, the mail? - The mail.

261. The postman comes every day to bring mail for our institution.

262. And what's in it? I mean, is the mail from...?

263. Citizens, the City Hall, other institutions.

264. The Official Gazette, for the legal department and...

265. And you distribute them?

266. I have to open all the envelopes

267. and check what they contain.

268. If there's something urgent, I have to deliver it quickly.

269. If not, I will file it and deliver it a bit later.

270. To different departments of the Prefecture?

271. Yes, we have a mail circuit that we follow.

272. It's a work norm, a procedure.

273. - And I also write the mail that... - The replies.

274. that we send to the citizens. Yes. It's here inside a drawer.

275. Later on, I fill the envelopes. It's a fairly boring job.

276. How long have you been working here?

277. I've been working here since I graduated

278. from the Sociology University, in August 1996.

279. During these 20 years, did you ever think of leaving?

280. Yes, I made several attempts.

281. First, I tried my luck at that farm in Reno, Nevada,

282. where I'd have taken care of the irrigation system.

283. It didn't work out.

284. It's a dry area and they collect the water

285. from the melting snows of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

286. And that water had to be managed and I'd also have taken care of

287. the electric fences which separate the plots of land,

288. in order to keep the cattle in certain areas.

289. That's where I got the idea

290. of dividing the football players into two subteams.

291. I thought that...

292. this would make the game much more efficient.

293. - This was a job offer... - Yes I contacted...

294. the lady who owned the farm and wanted to hire me.

295. She was supposed to take care of all the formalities,

296. but at the last minute, she told me that her father,

297. who gave her moral guidance, and might have been the co-owner,

298. was against it.

299. He expressed his disapproval about me coming and they gave up the idea.

300. - Then... - I'm listening.

301. Then I tried again and even reached an agreement

302. with an orange farm in Florida to work there,

303. but just when the work visa process was about the start

304. the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers happened,

305. on the 9th of September 2001.

306. First of all, the farm reviewed its employment policy,

307. because a period of great uncertainty was coming.

308. Nobody knew what would come next. Then, obviously, they introduced

309. greater restrictions on entering America.

310. Yes!

311. Please!

312. - Do come in, Madam! - Good morning. Please, excuse us.

313. Hello! I'm the person who came before the elections.

314. You told me to come back on the 19th. The lady is Mrs Donose...

315. You asked me to bring her along today, if you remember.

316. - And here we are. - What do you have there? A petition?

317. No, no petition. For now, we brought the papers of her status.

318. Her file is open at City Hall.

319. We went to City Hall and they said they sent the file here.

320. Under the name of Mrs Munteanu who...

321. - Passed away. - Yes, she passed away.

322. As her sister, I'm left in charge.

323. I see. Can't you go to the Land Registry?

324. Shall I call my colleagues to take over and help?

325. Last time you didn't give me any advice, any suggestions.

326. We're starting from here...

327. - We'll do what you tell us. - Wait a second.

328. You said: "Come after the elections."

329. And I said: Very well then.

330. Nobody's answering.

331. Take a seat.

332. At my age, to be out so much...

333. What can we do? They won't give the documents based on...

334. Is there anyone at the Land Registry? Are they in a meeting?

335. How old are you?

336. How old are you?

337. He's asking you to tell him, if you want, how old you are.

338. - 92. - To your good health!

339. Thank you.

340. My sister died at an old age, too, at 103, a few months ago.

341. God rest her soul.

342. I wouldn't have come, but my children should inherit it.

343. If that's possible. I can't walk around anymore.

344. My colleagues from the Land Registry don't answer.

345. I don't know where they could be.

346. I'm bragging now, but I'm a chess coach, a chess teacher.

347. I'm very analytical and very correct.

348. - Do you teach here? - Yes, yes.

349. I teach chess at the special school.

350. Optionally, voluntarily and for free.

351. For the last nine, ten years. Voluntarily and for free.

352. These are two different things.

353. Volunteering is one thing and doing it for free is something else.

354. Do you have good pupils? Do they play well?

355. Well, the children have reached the stage...

356. We changed the name of the school. It's not called "Aurora" anymore.

357. The special school is the one behind the hospital.

358. Don't mistake it for the deaf-mute school. We had this problem too.

359. So, it used to be called the Special School. Now it's called...

360. "Elisabeta Polihroniade."

361. Right! It changed its name after our grand master, a great chess champion.

362. I'm bragging, but she came to Vaslui thanks to me.

363. We also did good things for the chess camp here.

364. I did "Lobby".

365. That's the Western word. For us it's "influence peddling".

366. I should have been charged with influence peddling

367. for inviting her here, going to meetings...

368. My colleagues are in a meeting. They don't answer their phones.

369. Could you go and check? Because the lady...

370. Yes. I want to help them solve their problem.

371. I know he want to help us...

372. Because I can read body language without someone actually speaking.

373. If he didn't want to, he wouldn't have let us in,

374. he wouldn't have made the calls.

375. He'd have thrown us out immediately. End of story.

376. I had to bring the lady here again. The holidays are coming...

377. Afterwards, well, you know...

378. - But what is this about? - You haven't read it?

379. If you'd looked over it... It's about a plot of land which...

380. - Is it a house or a plot of land? - No. It's the clinic,

381. which is on the lady's land. And I can't tell you the things they did.

382. It's been years, decades, since the clinic,

383. a part of it, has been on the lady's land.

384. They found different reasons

385. and legally dubious tricks to keep delaying.

386. We past the City Hall stage. We came to the Prefecture now,

387. afterwards we will go to Bucharest, where it will continue for years.

388. That's how things are here in Romania.

389. So, the lady's family owned land...

390. - Yes, that entire area was... - He doesn't pick up either.

391. - Hello... - She's the only person who hasn't...

392. Do you know that hole...?

393. It was given back...

394. Donose Virginia from Vaslui.

395. Does a file under this name ring a bell?

396. What shall we do, the lady is here. She's very old.

397. I see.

398. Disposition no. 509 of Vaslui City Hall, 10/03/2016.

399. I see. OK, thank you.

400. My colleague is out on the field,

401. he says your file was sent to Bucharest for approval,

402. - At the agency... - Do we skip the Prefecture stage?

403. - We can't solve it for you... - The City Hall told us you can.

404. The files are collected at the Prefecture and sent to Bucharest,

405. at the National Authority for the Restitution of Properties.

406. - ANRP. The file is there, now. - We thank you very much.

407. Madam, the papers about this land were sent to Bucharest.

408. - Good. - OK.

409. So, there's no need for us to come back here...

410. - No. - We're not coming back?

411. No. The people from Bucharest will let you know.

412. - Leaving the house is hard for me. - I can imagine.

413. - Very difficult. - Shall we help you?

414. - Thank you. Happy Holidays! - Happy Holidays!

415. Thank you very much. It really was kind of you.

416. You had good reason to refuse us...

417. - That's how it usually goes. - A working day?

418. Yes, we have to help people solve their problems.

419. But still, 27 years after the Revolution,

420. and to still not have her land back...

421. - It's an aberration. - Probably.

422. 27 years after, and at such an old age..

423. OK. So, we were speaking about...

424. - about America. - Yes.

425. - You were saying... - That I almost got hired

426. at that organic orange farm in Florida

427. when disaster hit the World Trade Centre.

428. The first effect was that I couldn't go there

429. as I wanted to, during the winter of that year.

430. Citrus fruit ripens over winter. Work with citrus fruit

431. mostly takes place in autumn, winter and spring.

432. You were a seasonal worker?

433. - Yes, that's what I wanted. - Did you want to stay?

434. I just wanted to try it. My dream had been to see America.

435. Why? What attracted you?

436. It looked like the Land of Opportunity.

437. A country of freedom.

438. But after the tragedy of the World Trade Centre in September 2001,

439. I realised that I no longer had the chance to go to America

440. and opportunities appeared within the European Union.

441. So, after 1999 when,

442. in December 1999, at the European Council in Helsinki,

443. Romania was accepted to become a member of the EU,

444. it was obvious that soon we'd get in. And it really happened.

445. I got job assignments in the field of European integration.

446. I was very enthusiastic.

447. I waited impatiently for 2007 to come. We entered the EU

448. and this reinforced my conviction

449. that life here would change for the better and...

450. - And very quickly. - Yes, in a very short period.

451. And?

452. Yes, there was a good start,

453. then things carried on

454. - but at a slower pace. - Slower...

455. Meanwhile, I traveled too, several times.

456. Within the EU and Switzerland.

457. I even lived in people's homes there and understood their lives.

458. I realised that...

459. in the very long run, the European project will face great difficulties.

460. Especially because of the lack of identity.

461. - They didn't promote it very much. - The European identity?

462. Exactly. I'll give you a very simple example:

463. Europe Day, the 9th of May, is not a holiday in EU countries.

464. And it's not celebrated in any special way. By the people, I mean.

465. While the national days of the member states are celebrated with pomp.

466. After I realised things about the EU,

467. I decided that it was better for me to stay here.

468. And I decided it would be good for me to continue

469. with the sport I wanted to improve, especially the offside rule.

470. So you came back to the sport after you failed to get to the US?

471. Yes, in a way.

472. Coming back to the form of the sport I'm now presenting,

473. I think that limiting the players' movement increases the ball's speed.

474. The fact that I was restricted and couldn't go to the US

475. made me accelerate the process of developing the sport.

476. Sometimes, when people are limited by something in their life,

477. they find the energy to do something else.

478. - You know those cases when... - But what is it for you? I mean...

479. You obsessively repeat this thing about "the ball being free".

480. - The ball is just an object. - But it's the star of any sport.

481. - No. The players are the stars. - But the camera follows the ball.

482. You can be the biggest star, but if you don't have the ball,

483. you'll just be the star of shampoo commercials.

484. No. The star is the one with the skills, the one

485. - a person identifies with. - Yes, but the star status...

486. But star status is gained when you prove it by playing the ball.

487. Yes. But it seems that your entire obsession is with the ball:

488. "the ball has to be free..."

489. Are you more interested in the way this game is watched?

490. I mean, do you think of the way it will be filmed?

491. Do you think of how it will look from the outside?

492. - Do you think of it as a spectator? - Yes, as a spectator, firstly.

493. And secondly, I think of it as a player, as a possible player.

494. Practically, the arrangement that I suggested for players on the field

495. - reduces their physical effort. - As a sport for...

496. - ... a version of football for you? - Not necessarily.

497. This sport could be played by older people.

498. Footballers retire at relatively young ages.

499. If they played this sport,

500. they could probably prolong their career by a few years,

501. because this sport is no longer so demanding physically.

502. - But... Good afternoon! - Good afternoon!

503. It's OK, we'll talk later.

504. - How much longer will it take? - Not much.

505. Don't forget we have to take the ballots. Someone should stay there...

506. - OK? - When?

507. - At one o'clock... - Five minutes.

508. - No problem. - Thanks.

509. - Only five minutes? - Because you have to go.

510. - At one o'clock. It's 11:55. - You want us to stay longer?

511. Yes. We stay until the very last moment.

512. - What do you have to do? - I have to be somewhere.

513. How do you see yourself in ten years' time?

514. That's a job interview question, right?

515. You'll get hired after they see the film!

516. Sometimes I have a strange feeling. Look, now that you came to my office

517. and...

518. I was thinking that somehow this setup looks like

519. what happens in those superhero movies.

520. Many of these superheroes, Superman, Spider-Man,

521. lead double lives.

522. They are the heroes saving humanity, saving the city, the people,

523. but in real life they have insignificant jobs.

524. Clark Kent, for instance: a mediocre journalist,

525. not to say a loser, working for the "Daily Planet".

526. He was in love with Lois Lane, the colleague he couldn't seduce.

527. And since he was Superman, he never took a photo of Superman

528. and he was criticised by his bosses.

529. Spider-Man's situation was even more difficult:

530. his name was Peter Parker and he delivered pizza.

531. He would crash into cars on his bike. He was a total catastrophe.

532. Their extremely boring lives, professionally speaking,

533. strongly contrasted with their superhero activities.

534. The harder it was for you to imagine that

535. the boy delivering pizza was Spider-Man,

536. the more powerful the effect when you saw what he was doing.

537. Moreover, I noticed this one thing, that both Superman and Spider-Man

538. had first and last names starting with the same letter,

539. to sound even more mundane: Peter Parker,

540. - Clark Kent. - But they were undercover.

541. Exactly. I feel a bit like those heroes. I'm here, filing documents,

542. but in my double life, I revolutionise sport.

543. Where you born on Krypton and we don't know it?

544. Even I don't know that, but I probably was.

545. - Tell us... - I can fly.

546. We'll have a match with the rules slightly changed.

547. You can all hear me?

548. It's played exactly like indoor football.

549. The players will be divided: each team into two subteams.

550. A defensive one, with 4 players: a goalkeeper and 3 outfield players.

551. You choose 3 defenders and the goalkeeper.

552. And there will be 3 forwards too.

553. So, in each half of the field there will be 7 players,

554. 3 from the attacking team and 4 from the defensive one, right?

555. Each team should choose its subteams, and decide

556. who will stay in defence and who will attack.

557. And this is the midfield line that you won't cross.

558. You'll play by the same rules but you won't cross this yellow line.

559. The purpose is the following:

560. we increase the ball's speed by decreasing the players' speed.

561. In normal football, the players follow the ball

562. from one half of the field to the other. Look at my hands.

563. While in this version, the players are in separate halves of the field,

564. and the ball goes easily from one half to the other.

565. To counter-attack, you have to pass the ball to your forwards

566. who are already in front of the goal.

567. Any questions? Everything all right?

568. Everyone into formation, let's go.

569. Here we go! The referee! Do we have a referee?

570. Coach, I officially designate you to arbitrate this match.

571. Any questions? So, you from the white team decide

572. who attacks in the enemy half of the field. You 3? Cross the line.

573. Cross the river. OK.

574. And the ball will start from a goal.

575. - From our goal - Right.

576. These are training exercises and they are used by the big teams.

577. It doesn't surprise me, as a player, or as a coach.

578. I was assistant coach in the first division.

579. Mulescu, for example, used this method.

580. The player has to respect his area. This is how it's done...

581. - Through such exercises. - Through such exercises, of course.

582. This is a training exercise.

583. You think we could apply it to bigger pitches?

584. In my opinion, on a big pitch it wouldn't...

585. - Why? - FIFA wouldn't agree.

586. Not even our Romanian Football Federation...

587. - That's certain. - That's my opinion.

588. But a parallel sport could be developed.

589. Yes, that's correct!

590. What's certain is that players on these small pitches,

591. arranged as they are now, meaning 3 and 3,

592. always engage in one-to-one play.

593. You see they're marked. Each one of them is being marked.

594. The fact that these guys attack while the others rest

595. gives the players time to think.

596. I can see they're not suited to this style of play.

597. For instance, a goal was just scored.

598. Because the players in white,

599. when they had the ball in their half of the field, defending it,

600. instead of sending it to the opposing half,

601. to their forwards, they preferred to

602. weave a series of passes which quickly vanished.

603. - Yes... - They made an obvious mistake

604. and now they are going to cede another goal. 2-0.

605. They're also exhausted. Exactly like I said:

606. they need to mark well.

607. Everyone has to mark his man,

608. to see to his responsibility.

609. You see they're not marking anyone?

610. They're also very tired.

611. Of course they are. They had other matches earlier.

612. Yes...

613. But you know, if they were professional players,

614. you wouldn't see any passes.

615. The other half hasn't seen play for 20 minutes.

616. Maybe we could also have a passing rule. Have a timer...

617. No, I can't see it. You can't have a passing rule.

618. What is the beauty of football? As I see it...

619. It's about beautiful dribbling, beautiful passes...

620. So what? There's only a few players. If it were 11 vs 11...

621. The hardest game is a simple game.

622. We can't set up a net between two teams. Clearly.

623. But other sports use a net.

624. - Then it isn't football anymore. - The speed of the ball is very high.

625. - I see. - Very high. Tennis...

626. Table tennis, lawn tennis. Volleyball.

627. - Find another name for it. - That's the idea.

628. - Our aim is to create a new sport. - A new sport, yes.

629. It's clear FIFA won't accept anything like this.

630. Absolutely not.

631. - So this is half of the field. - We've got 5 players here.

632. There are 5: 1,2,3,4,5.

633. They can move freely.

634. As long as they are not blocked.

635. It's their choice. They could also remain in defence.

636. For instance, when the goalkeeper has the ball, he has two choices.

637. Either he will kick it to these players, who are freer.

638. They'll play here, midfield. Eventually, these will also come.

639. But they'll never stay free because this one will advance...

640. But he'll leave these 3 against other 3.

641. He'll never be allowed to get the ball. You can bet on it.

642. These 2 from here will never be able to cross this line.

643. - These 2. - So you're left with 3 forwards.

644. To give the defence a chance. Otherwise, if they could cross I,

645. the goalkeeper would send the ball to the opposite goal,

646. and it'd be 5 against 5, plus the goalkeeper.

647. Who tries to score and who centres the ball? They are 3 against 5?

648. From those 5, 2 will remain sweepers and double the...

649. If not, the only chance is to bring them all here and

650. set up an offside line, like they used in the US from '72 to '84.

651. He wants to get rid of the offside.

652. I think you're confusing things.

653. - Wasn't the bookcase bigger? - There's one in the living room too.

654. - Wasn't there a bigger one here? - No, we never had a bigger bookcase.

655. But there were books up there, too. We gave some away,

656. some disappeared...

657. Some become out of date.

658. I have a ruler, but I will draw it by hand

659. in order to work faster.

660. Here, let me show you. This is the field.

661. I placed this circle here, a bit further away.

662. It'll look different on camera.

663. This is the field...

664. from the previous version of the game.

665. This is about 32 metres away

666. from the goal line.

667. After I gave up the version with two subteams,

668. I told myself that the best option would be

669. to keep these two lines,

670. and the forwards should not be able to cross this 32m line,

671. unless they take the ball over the line

672. or remain exactly on the line, above it.

673. Thinking about this, I realised it would be better

674. to introduce one more line. And then I considered extending

675. the penalty area line right to the end.

676. Now the entire football field has been divided

677. into six halves. Not halves, parts. 1,2,3,4,5,6.

678. These two could be considered a unitary whole.

679. Let's say there would be five parts of the field.

680. The game becomes very horizontal,

681. because if you have a single player on a line like this one,

682. he will be very well marked.

683. There are 4 more players in this situation.

684. Maybe not all the lines are like this and there are more men.

685. If you have one player on a line, at least 2 opponents will mark him.

686. It will be hard for him to play.

687. You'll be forced to bring another player to that line,

688. who will also be marked.

689. In order to reach the opposite goal,

690. you have to cross these two lines.

691. It's a rule from rugby.

692. You're only allowed to pass the ball backwards.

693. And when you cross...

694. - Football was like that too. - But it didn't work.

695. It became what it is today.

696. You're returning to rules which didn't work properly.

697. They weren't like this...

698. No, they were introduced separately, the 32m line and the 16m line.

699. And the back pass dates from the beginnings of football.

700. But it didn't work.

701. - This isn't about the back pass. - No, but you force them.

702. On the rest of the field, the players can play.

703. You're forcing them.

704. Of course you force them, any rule forces you to do something.

705. You're forcing them to pass the ball backwards.

706. It's not backwards.

707. It could be a lateral pass.

708. A lateral pass to a player, making the game more horizontal.

709. But it doesn't bring anything new.

710. It doesn't bring something real to the sport

711. and it doesn't make it a different sport.

712. It is a different sport. With different rules.

713. Honestly, I don't...

714. I can't see it. But I might be wrong.

715. Maybe look at it like this, you'll see it better.

716. I could have imagined your previous version. Not this.

717. Why can't you imagine it?

718. Because I don't see its...

719. - What don't you see? - I don't see its utility.

720. Its utility is very simple.

721. I don't see such a big difference with classical football either.

722. I mean, there are some imposed rules and barriers...

723. In football there's an imposed barrier as well. The offside line.

724. But that one is mobile.

725. Yes, but being mobile brings many disadvantages.

726. The offside trap is gone now.

727. It's too much for me.

728. So you don't want to come to my house

729. to let me convince you by showing you the flipchart?

730. - Regarding this sport? - Yes.

731. You're expressing a point of view

732. about what you believe can be done at the current time

733. with this new type of football.

734. Maybe tomorrow you'll change your opinion?

735. Maybe. I don't know.

736. It's also possible that you'll change your sport again tomorrow.

737. That's possible, too.

738. As I said, this is football version 2.0.

739. Let's leave room for football 2.1 or even 2.9...

740. Infinite football.

741. Or even further, the football 3.0, 4.0 and so on.

742. Why not?

743. I have an obsession, too: which book was I looking for?

744. It disappeared, right?

745. Some books have disappeared others have been moved.

746. I'd come to visit your brother, I was looking for something...

747. - "Gulliver's Travels." - No.

748. I was in high school. I wasn't looking for that.

749. Of course you weren't looking for that. It's newer.

750. You've moved some to the bookcase in the hallway.

751. And there's one in your father's room.

752. We lacked many things, but we never lacked books.

753. - When you were a child? - Yes.

754. We never lacked books.

755. Sometimes there was no food, there was little heat,

756. but we had plenty of books.

757. I know I came here once to...

758. - What is this? - "Ethics and Psychoanalysis".

759. One of my father's.

760. - This is your father's? - Yes, and this one, too.

761. "Pathmarks", Martin Heidegger.

762. I don't know if you can recognize my wife in this picture.

763. - The one in the white wedding gown. - I was wondering!

764. Yes.

765. My mother is on the far left.

766. My father is behind the camera.

767. Behind Nicoleta, my wife, there's Florin, my brother,

768. Corneliu's friend.

769. To his left, his wife.

770. To her left is Lenua, my cousin from Galai.

771. Her husband is behind.

772. In the left hand corner, there's a friend of mine,

773. a college roommate.

774. On the top row, the fourth person on the left is my wife's sister.

775. She's in Belgium now.

776. And the person in red, on the right hand side?

777. That's the official wedding photographer.

778. We were actually posing for him

779. and my father, who was standing in front of my mother,

780. on the steps of the City Hall,

781. came out and decided to take his own picture of us.

782. There's something interesting about this picture.

783. The people weren't posing. They were getting ready for the picture.

784. The wedding was in 2008.

785. The City Hall's new location had just been inaugurated.

786. Just a month before.

787. If you notice, I've got the marriage certificate in my hand.

788. It's inside the family record book.

789. It's glued to the...

790. But the photo was initially taken by Florin.

791. - This one. - This isn't a photo taken by me.

792. - No? - I didn't take this picture.

793. Florin or...?

794. I didn't take this one. I just received the photo.

795. I wasn't here when it was taken, I got it from Florin, I think.

796. And I liked the image, with the flowers, very informal.

797. It was a beautiful celebration and... how can I put it?

798. An intimate moment, but a universal one.

799. If a stranger looks at the picture, what does he see? A wedding.

800. Listen, this picture tells him: "It's a wedding."

801. Well, that's what I'm interested in, to capture the phenomenon,

802. not the person.

803. There's a difference. For instance, I have a friend,

804. a textile worker, who's never done a thing in his life,

805. He never got married, never did a thing,

806. and when he celebrated his 60th birthday, we went to Chioc,

807. and we celebrated his 60th birthday.

808. Another friend of mine who died, loan Mititelu,

809. wrote an epigram for him. But trust me, it's an awful one!

810. "Those who truly value life, reap houses, cars, perhaps a wife,"

811. "But he, who worked among his peers reaped nothing more than 60 years."

812. This is not acceptable! Meaning he was a good for nothing.

813. He had only gathered years.

814. If you haven't accomplished anything, if you don't have any benchmarks

815. to guide you, which can guide others too,

816. that is not a life.

817. Coming back to this photo,

818. was it because you knew I was coming? Or you had it already?

819. It was given to me.

820. No, but when you enlarged it on this canvas,

821. was it because I was coming, or did you have it already?

822. - No, I made it. - A long time ago.

823. - It was made long ago? - Yes.

824. I printed it on canvas because I like it.

825. I mean, I didn't make it for...

826. Thanks a lot.

827. My wife will like it, too.

828. It's beautiful because it conveys something.

829. My photos always convey something.

830. Look, the best way of conveying a message is this, not my photos.

831. This is a fantastic way of communicating.

832. Look, this young woman, she's on the seashore.

833. - Right? - Yes.

834. She leaves some traces behind.

835. But in front of her, nature is in a total mess.

836. She wants to put nature in order with her weapon,

837. her song, Mr Porumboiu.

838. The most beautiful weapon of all.

839. Look what's left behind her. Everything is left in order.

840. Her traces will be swept away by the waves.

841. But do you know where these traces will remain?

842. Inside of me, the one who looked at them. And I wonder:

843. What traces will I leave in life?

844. I was 19, in my prime,

845. and I'd suffered a number of accidents,

846. which affected me.

847. I started to ask myself why these things happened.

848. I'd been given divine punishment for mistakes in the past?

849. I started to scrutinise my past, wondering what mistake

850. could have deserved this kind of punishment.

851. There's a section of the Bible, Revelations 3.19, where God says:

852. Those whom I love, I rebuke and punish.

853. It seems a total contradiction.

854. So the people God loves, he rebukes, and punishes.

855. Where's the sense in it?

856. When I was a student, I found an original Greek version of the Bible,

857. and for the word "punishment”, they used a term connected to "paideia”.

858. In philosophy, studying the Plato's Cave Allegory,

859. I'd learned that the word "paideia” was used to mean "knowledge".

860. Under the influence of knowledge, man should be enlightened,

861. and Plato's book "Republic" depicts man as living inside a dark cave,

862. and he must be brought to the light by "paideia", but gradually.

863. If you leave the cave and go straight into the light, you'll go blind.

864. But here I'd found the word "paideia” used to mean simply "punishment".

865. Then I discovered the same thing regarding the word "metanoia”.

866. "Metanoia", "metanoeo” and other related words

867. are now translated in the New Testament as "repentance”.

868. The present-day Bible translates Jesus as saying: Repent!

869. But considering the original sense of the word "metanoia”, which was used,

870. this should be translated as: Change!

871. I had a kind of revelation, and I went to

872. my former Ancient Greek professor, Mihaela Paraschiv,

873. who explained that these words first had non-violent connotations:

874. "paideia" meant "non-violent education”,

875. "metanoia" meant "transformation".

876. But because of the feudalization of the Christian church,

877. they gave these words violent connotations,

878. which were useful to give a spiritual justification

879. for all kinds of abuses, and to answer peoples questions.

880. It was easier to say that if you're sick,

881. it's a sign of divine punishment for something you or your ancestors did.

882. I started to realise that from a moral and spiritual perspective,

883. violence isn't good.

884. That attempting to justify violence using certain words from the Bible

885. isn't coherent.

886. If you're looking for support for these aspects of violence,

887. you'll find out that there's no justification for them.

888. Then I realised that if you start from the idea

889. that you can always find rules, norms

890. and a general framework in which people can be less violent,

891. it's possible for people to live in greater harmony.

892. And this also applies to sport.

893. Your sport is a kind of political utopia.

894. - No. - It's a utopia.

895. No. It's an authentic solution. That's what I want to say.

896. It only seems a utopia to those who refuse to give themselves

897. a certain freedom.