The France–Paraguay match as a metaphor: a Khaldounian reading

The France–Paraguay match sparked a reading that goes well beyond football. When watching it, many had the feeling of witnessing a singular event: a level of anti-play and mistakes on the part of Paraguay rarely observed, giving the meeting an almost unreal dimension.

The two teams then appear as the representation of the atavistic conflict between two archetypes: that of barbarism and that of civilization.

Civilization versus barbarism?

In this reading, France would embody a civilized Europe: refined, humanist, attached to law, nuance and rules.

Paraguay, conversely, would be associated with a tough game, based on permanent contact, the refusal of the framework and the primacy given to the balance of power and efficiency, even if it means bending the rules.

From there arises a metaphorical temptation: that of a simple opposition between civilization and barbarism, echoing the rantings of Donald Trump, certain methods of Vladimir Putin, the power logic of China or even the controversial positioning of Israel on the international scene. But above all, this reading reveals an old European reflex: that of confusing civilization and delicacy.

Right without force

The law is established as a supreme, normative and binding power. But it often remains in a state of posture, detached from real power relations.

However, these power relations are not abstract. They are practiced in the concrete and, sometimes, in the most naked brutality. In such a context, a civilization without strength is no longer a civilization: it becomes a reverie.

This is where the metaphor turns on itself.

In this French team supposed to embody Europe, the strength, the impact, the ability to win duels and to “get your hands in shit”, according to Kylian Mbappé’s phrase, are assumed by players largely from African immigration, the very ones that public debate often tends to stigmatize under the label of “barbarians”.

Europe and its margins

The paradox is not new. For centuries, Europe has presented itself as a civilization that is being built against its margins. But it has never stopped being built with them, and often thanks to them.

Barbarians are not outside European history: they constitute a recurring condition. This is precisely what Ibn Khaldoun formulated well before modernity: civilizations are maintained thanks to the contribution of external energy, harsher, more combative, coming from the margins. An energy that they end up integrating and which regenerates them.

The mechanism is always the same: civilization is refined, force moves, and this movement transforms it as much as it saves it.

The “barbarians”, guarantors of civilization

In a world sinking into barbarism, a Europe rich in its humanism, but humanly impoverished, can no longer count on the superiority of its principles alone.

She can only get by with her own “barbarians”. The irony of this metaphor is perhaps there: in Europe, the barbarians of yesterday have become the guarantors of civilization.