How much do you care about winning if you take part in some sport? Would you dive in the box to win a penalty for your team? Would you pretend to be injured in order to get an opponent sent off? Or do you think such cynical tactics are missing the point of sport: the simple joy of the game, whether you win or lose?
The more professional a sport is, the more likely the athletes are to take the cynical view. Amateurs are more likely to play for the love of the game.
But maybe some amateurs take a relaxed attitude to winning and losing a little bit too far.
Last week in the north of Scotland, there was a football match between two teams in the amateur Scottish Cup. One team beat the other 51 – 0. In a ninety minute match, one team somehow managed to concede 51 goals. That’s more than one goal every two minutes.
Apparently, some players in the team failed to turn up due to work commitments or illness. So only eight players were available to start the match. Instead of abandoning the match, they decided to play with three men fewer than the opposition. Their regular goalkeeper was missing, so an outfield player volunteered to play in goals.
The half-time score was “about 25 – 0.” There had been so many goals scored that nobody was quite sure if they had remembered all of the goals.
What was the losing manager’s half-time team talk? Probably, “It’s not about winning, it’s about taking part.” Maybe he also said, “I’ll be happy if you do just a little better in the second half, and don’t lose as many as 25 gols.”
Never mind.
There’s always the next game.
No comments:
Post a Comment