Cesar Torres, the current president of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, has this piece for the NY Times on the integrity of soccer.
The article irritated me. It’s not that what Torres says is wrong – it isn’t – but rather that the article does not ask why players dive, and therefore misses a lot. At base, players dive because they want to win penalties or free kicks, but also because, quite simply, they can. We have not only accepted a “win at all costs” attitude, but we have also legitimized blantantly outrageous behaviour (and does anyone else get pissed off when players fake serious injury before getting up and playing on like nothing happened?) by our blind acceptance of that attitude. The two are inexorably linked. To sacrifice the dignity and integrity of a sport becomes less of a problem the more one craves the blessing of the God of Winning. What is more shameful than the actual diving is the fact that we don’t care enough to get rid of it by any means necessary. Just how powerful is FIFA? Consistency problems aside, banning Eduardo was a laughable response. The terrors of power are the rage of the impotent.
1 comment:
The article irritated me. It’s not that what Torres says is wrong – it isn’t – but rather that the article does not ask why players dive, and therefore misses a lot. At base, players dive because they want to win penalties or free kicks, but also because, quite simply, they can. We have not only accepted a “win at all costs” attitude, but we have also legitimized blantantly outrageous behaviour (and does anyone else get pissed off when players fake serious injury before getting up and playing on like nothing happened?) by our blind acceptance of that attitude. The two are inexorably linked. To sacrifice the dignity and integrity of a sport becomes less of a problem the more one craves the blessing of the God of Winning. What is more shameful than the actual diving is the fact that we don’t care enough to get rid of it by any means necessary. Just how powerful is FIFA? Consistency problems aside, banning Eduardo was a laughable response. The terrors of power are the rage of the impotent.
Post a Comment