I’ve already ‘confessed’ that I’m a regular EPL follower. Yes, I’ve a favorite team and watching it play week in week out is an experience where your numbed nerves spring to life. At least they are there! If hard to find anything that makes you feel emptier than virtual lockdown of your nerves. But then your team is playing and…no! No! The rivals have scored! What was the center back doing when the striker of the rival team practically walks past him! And the goalie! “We have spent millions and millions on him and that is the best he can do! Yes believe me you think like, “We have bought him…” and even of you think about money. Look while we are at it MUN fans are yet to be impressed by the performance of their goalie who conceded a couple of really stupid goals. One fan wrote in the Social media “Manchester United released a goalie who didn’t have legs and signed one who doesn’t have hands!” It’s all about competition.
Have you seen how childish could the adult coaches acts. It always makes me wonder that they never accept any decision against them even when everything is clear. I mean do their contracts include lines such as, ”The coach should always protest any and all decisions given against our team!” or else how can they behave miles below the bar of acceptable behavior! Even decisions which come after being checked by the VAR they still act as if they aren’t’ treated as fairly. Yes, it’s all about competition and they have to act for the cameras.
You see some defender practically mowing down the legs of rival striker and you gasp, “What! He deliberately tried to hurt the poor fellow! They should send this guy to prison and not the dressing room!” And what happens is that the referee gives him the straight red which is as ‘nice’ as he could be. And the coach his immediate staff and the substitutes on the benches go into some war footing. It was like theirs was beyond riots and it would be war! Disgusting! Even when the fouled player is taken out on a stretcher many of them show no sign of regretting or even genuinely feeling sorry!
It’s all about competition, and it seems in competitions there is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’
Take the playacting of players on who fouls however insignificant has been committed. A little touch and the guy is on ground roiling like they have been hit by an ICBM.
Don’t ask me why you feel the ants all over you sensing your team was to lose and lose heavy. Why do we take it that personally? I mean why should I care so and so team profits plunged into the red because they couldn’t win any major trophies! Let the shareholders do the worrying about the money. We are concerned with their on-field performances, we want them to win. Well, that’s where things get a little difficult. Difficult in the sense that good officiating, fair play, morale and the like as long as they don’t work against us. Truly speaking most of us want ‘our team’ to win whatever way they can and that is all that matters. It is all about the points climbing up the table and not about the right and wrong the referees or the linesmen or even the VAR guys make. The issue is, “What’s in it for us!”
It’s all about competition. And sadly in this age competition doesn’t rhyme with fair play, neutrality and the strict respect of the laws and rules government the particular game or what appears like game.
These days there are completions all over the place, boutiques, restaurants, hotels, banks, brewers etc. seem to be tied neck and neck trying to outplay every other competitor. And how they do it is mostly rather secretive, isn’t it? They don’t want to give away their game plans written and legal or unwritten and illusive. What I and you the customers and clients know is what we see. Our knowhow about most things falls within those bounds. It’s hard, very hard these days to claim, “What you see is what you get.” Well, it would have been more appropriate to say, “What you see isn’t always what you get.” Especially when you go into the most traditional business areas like restaurants, drinking halls and other recreational places the behind-the-curtain stories you hear aren’t nice at all. Many times you can’t help wondering “Do people really go this far to outsmart their competitors!”
Here is a nice story about the wonderful spirit of fair competition according to an online article; “The 1992 Barcelona Olympics witnessed an unforgettable moment that captured the essence of sportsmanship. Derek Redmond, a British sprinter, tore his hamstring halfway through the 400-meter semifinal race. Despite immense pain, he refused to give up. As Redmond hobbled towards the finish line, his father emerged from the stands, fighting through security to join his son. Together, they completed the race, inspiring a global audience. This heartfelt act of support demonstrated that sportsmanship extends not only to one’s opponents but also to those who stand by our side during challenging times.”
There is much talk about negative competition which sometimes tilts close to criminal behavior. From all fable-like talks of the occult methods to simple worldly immoral intentions you hear all kinds of stories. A piece in another online article goes on, “Negative competition occurs when we compete with others so that we want to win at the expense of the other person or people involved. In other words, our success is predicated on their failure. Negative competition is a zero-sum game and is based on the adolescent notion that if we win, we’re ‘good,’ and if we lose, we’re ‘bad.’” Now despite the absence of credible fact based information with all the data making certain claims might make one sound some kind of ‘the last pessimist standing.’ But from our daily interactions there certain things we hear about and actually witness. And the verdict?
Well, the verdict is, “Negative Competition is Rampant.” Case closed.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 1 OCTOBER 2023