MALAWI 8 DGIBOUTI 1

January 28th, 2009 | By: sscouser | 4 Comments »

In the Group 12 (of the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers) on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 Malawi thrashed visiting Djibouti 8-1. This post is not about that game. It is about whether or not it is fair to beat your opponents by a wider margin.

The FIFA Fair Play Code for football encapsulates all of the sporting, moral and ethical principles for which FIFA has always stood and for which it will continue to fight in the future, regardless of the influences and pressures that may be brought to bear.

There are ten golden rules that not only serve as a credo for FIFA as world football’s governing body, but also reinforce the sense of fraternity and cooperation among the members of the worldwide football family. Let’s look at the ones that relate to this post:

1. Play fair
Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly or dishonestly. Cheating is easy, but brings no pleasure. Playing fair requires courage and character. It is also more satisfying. Fair play always has its reward, even when the game is lost. Playing fair earns respect, while cheating only brings shame. Remember: it is only a game. And games are pointless unless played fairly.

2. Play to win but accept defeat with dignity
Winning is the object of playing any game. Never set out to lose. If you do not play to win, you are cheating your opponents, deceiving those who are watching, and also fooling yourself. Never give up against stronger opponents but never relent against weaker ones. It is an insult to any opponent to play at less than full strength. Play to win, until the final whistle. But remember nobody wins all the time. You win some, you lose some. Learn to lose graciously. Do not seek excuses for defeat. Genuine reasons will always be self-evident. Congratulate the winners with good grace. Do not blame the referee or anyone else. Be determined to do better next time. Good losers earn more respect than bad winners.

Let’s review the most debated sports story in the US the past 7 days. A Texas girls Christian Private High School (The Covenant School) beat another girls high school team (Dallas Academy) 100-0. Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime. Now officials from The Covenant School say they are trying to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory. In a statement Thursday, Jan 22, on The Covenant School’s website, the head of school said, “It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened.” He went on to say that Covenant has made “a formal request to forfeit the game recognizing that a victory without honor is a great loss. He also stated that the game “does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition. We humbly apologize for our actions and seek the forgiveness of Dallas Academy, TAPPS and our community.” Click here for full story.

In my opinion, they really need to apologize considering that “the academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with “learning differences,” such as short attention spans or dyslexia.” Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly. The coach of the Texas high school basketball was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper in which he stated: “We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”

This brings us to the game between Man U and West Brom yesterday. Man U 5 West Brom 0 . Five minutes before half time, a West Brom player was sent off. Half Time: Man U 2 West Brom 0. West Brom were handicapped (played with 10 men) the rest of the second half. If we take into account Golden Rules 1 and 2 stated above, what’s your take on the margin of victory? Fair Play? Oh! I forgot about “sportsmanship”. Sportsmanship is conformance to the rules, spirit, and etiquette of sport. More grandly, it may be considered the ethos of sport. Examples of poor sportsmanship are winners “rubbing salt in the wounds” of the losers.

You may also take into account Golden Rule # 4:
Respect opponents, team-mates, referees, officials and spectators
Fair Play means respect. Respect is part of our game. Without opponents there can be no game. Everyone has the same rights, including the right to be respected….

Remember: It is only a game. And games are pointless unless played fairly

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Comments

By Jose | January 28th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

It’s really very simple. You give your best against opponents and let the score lie where it may. No apology should be issued to he losing school because it would have been more insulting had the winning basketball team started playing worse just to placate them.

I’m not usually one that takes hard stances on issues like this, but there is something to be said for treating the other teams as equals. If that means running up the score, so be it. I personally do hope there is some tempering by the winning team, though. It’s alright to stick to solid play and execute your plan, but it is wholly unsportsmanlike to be pulling off unnecessarily fancy moves or over-celebrating a goal (or homerun) when you’re winning by a huge margin.

Posted from United States

By Jamie | January 28th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

Out of their respect for their opponents, Man U should have rested Ronaldo at the start of second half. West Brom cannot beat Man U even if West Brom feature 15 men at once.

By Steve | January 29th, 2009 at 11:03 am

“does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition”

Ferguson said: “The scoreline was important. We showed a ruthless streak about us, possibly for the first time this season”

You be the judge.

Posted from United States

By Kayce | January 29th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

The other day, Dallas Academy took on The Covenant School in a high school basketball game. The outcome? Well, that depends on what outcome you are asking for. The outcome of the game itself? 100-0 in favor of The Covenant School. The outcome of the situation surrounding the game? Much anger, resentment, and frustration on the part of Dallas Academy. The outcome of the Covenant coach standing behind the girls on his team? Well, he has been fired.

Call me crazy, but when have we ever taught our kids to strive for anything less than their best? Now, I know that I am arguing against national sentiment here but, for goodness sake, the girls were just playing some basketball. Now, I wasn’t sitting in the stands, so I certainly cannot speak to how the parents, coaches, and players were behaving in terms of their demeanor. Maybe they were gloating more than a younger sibling who beats his brother at Mario Kart. In that case, I certainly understand calling for them to turn tone it down a little bit. But, to ask them to avoid the proverbial mushroom or drive Mario straight into a banana peel is what is unsportsmanlike, in my opinion. Why shouldn’t the girls have continued to play at their best? What kind of an outrage would there be if we found out that coaches and managers of professional teams were working to keep scores of a game closer than they might otherwise be? Once you start getting into that kind of manipulation of a sport, you might as well strip the players down to their underwear and send them out into the ring to fight for the title in Wrestlemania.

The Covenant School commented, after public outcry, of course, that the way their team behaved was not, “Christ-like.” Really? Maybe I’m remembering my Bible incorrectly here but, Christ was pretty blatant about what he did, wasn’t he? De he really try to die quietly, without much more fanfare than this year’s Miss America pageant? What The Covenant School did was not about trying to embarrass the girls of Dallas Academy. They simply tried to play basketball. And they did so… very well. There is no doubt that the girls of Dallas Academy showed great poise in their defeat. They are obviously quite resilient teens that are learning how to be extremely gracious and resilient losers. But, in this whole mess, are they really learning the right lesson about sports themselves. The last time that I checked, sporting events were competitions. One team pitted against another, fighting it out for the best record, the trophy, bragging rights… yes, bragging rights. While participating in sports as a youth is certainly about character building as well, what kind of character does it build when you tell a bunch of kids, “Don’t worry. Playing basketball isn’t about scoring points. It’s about how you feel when the game is over.” Well, I guess that it’s Dallas Academy who are the winners in the end. Because, I’m sure that they are feeling much better than The Covenant School girls who, at the moment, are just waiting for their own crucifixes to be finished so that they can climb on up (though we would all like to see them do that in a public and showy way, I’m sure).

But then, isn’t there the off chance that the Dallas Academy girls don’t want to be coddled? Isn’t there the chance that, maybe, they just want to play without the opposing team pitying them? Maybe not. I suppose that, the next game they play, they should start off with an extra 40 points, just to be fair.

Maybe it’s just me…

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