Winning in Sport today s everything.
Almost any sports fan or past player will have heard the famous line by the American sportswriter Grantland Rice, who famously wrote that “it matters not who won or lost, but how you played the game.”
The sentiment behind his words were that the focus is not on winning as the final outcome, but what is more important and what should be focussed upon is your integrity and effort. Sadly, in the current era of sport it would appear that this is rarely the case, and Rice’s words are outdated.
However, his words may still apply to individual sports, where although you are competing against others there is also the inner battle where you are competing against yourself, striving to improve on previous performances and having the self belief and work ethic to do so.
While many football fans have shaken their heads in the past week as to how the referee in the crucial game between Motherwell and Celtic in the Scottish Premier League so rapidly changed his original decision when contacted by VAR, and awarded Celtic a penalty in the seventh minute of time added on, when in the eyes of nearly every fan the ball was clearly headed clear and not punched clear. To many the reputation of Scottish football has been tarnished by this decision, as VAR is there to get decisions right. Although many cynics believe now that it is there to alter decisions and influence outcomes.
Of course at the end of the day Celtic fans could not care less. That draw enabled them to claim another Scottish Premier League title on the last day of the season. Had that penalty not been given it would have been a much tougher game against Heart of Midlothian in which to claim the title, and in the eyes of many Hearts may well have been worthy Champions.
To the club and its fans a win is a win. In years to come the records will show Celtic as Champions. That is all the fans care about. It may also be all that the sponsors and others attached to the club care about.
Does integrity still exist in sport? One wonders what the Corinthians would have made of all this?
The Corinthians club was famed for its ethos of “sportsmanship, fair play, [and] playing for the love of the game.” Their attitude towards penalties was unique in their day, let alone today. Their view was a gentleman would never commit a deliberate foul on an opponent. Therefore, if a penalty was awarded against the Corinthians, their goalkeeper would remove himself from the goal and lean against the goalpost and watch the ball being passed into his goal. If at the other end of the field the Corinthians themselves won a penalty, their captain took the responsibility of missing the goal, either by firing over the crossbar or shooting wide. Imagine if Celtic had done that after Sam Nicholson’s alleged handball. Watching the footage it is interesting that no Celtic players appeared to call for a penalty. So imagine if they had deliberately missed the penalty how there would be a different view of Celtic at this time.
That aside people will tell you fans don’t care how they win as long as they do win. Fans don’t care how their team plays as long as they win.
Certainly this writer will admit that when the team they support plays in a local derby with the team down the A420, he really doesn’t care how we win as long as we do.
Yet many are saying that fans today do actually care how their teams play. That one of the reasons for dwindling viewing figures in the EPL is a result of many teams playing the same style of football. A style built on possession and defence rather than attacking. This comment is so true of so many team sports today. Play has become homogenised.
How many teams today are instantly recognisable by the style they play?
There is so much money involved today that very few coaches back their players to make the right decisions to win them the game. They are scared to lose, so the key becomes to keep possession of the ball, starve the opposition of the ball and wait until an opening comes. A weekend ago this was evident in a game where from a corner the attacking team played the ball all the way back to their goalkeeper through their midfield from an attacking corner!
That is not entertainment. That is not what people who pay a subscription to watch sport want to see. Neither is it what fans who have paid to come through the turnstiles want to see, they want to be entertained.
Sadly, in so many sports away from football the funding model is broken. This too is based on results and winning. Teams are expected to medal at the Olympic Games or they will lose funding. They must finish in the top four at a World Cup. Their World ranking must be in the top ten and the higher it is the more money they may receive. Is this really the best way of deciding funding support? The emphasis appears wrong and the model simplistic and lazy.
This is an area that administrators at the highest levels of sport fail to appreciate. How can every game played at international level warrant world ranking points? Yes, FIFA has a weighting system for those games outside of FIFA windows classed as “Friendlies,” but do some of these games warrant World ranking points?
With funding often riding on these games in sports that blindly follow “the FIFA model” when can a coach afford to lose a game? Leading into the World Cup teams will play “warm-up” games against each other. The coaches will be cagey as to the line-ups they use and the tactics that they engage. Of course they will want to win these games to “carry momentum” into the tournament itself, but should there be world ranking points for these games? When can a coach blood new players knowing that if they lose it will not affect their standing? Coaches need to be given the chance to try different tactics, formations, and players. Most fans understand that and accept that there may be the odd loss when this happens. Many other fans do not understand, and expect a win in every game, and they also have a reasonable expectation depending on how much they have had to pay to watch the game live or on a pay-per-view platform.
So winning does matter to them.
What winning at all costs has done is actually damage sport. Or rather the money linked to winning has damaged sport.
In the past month this writer has spoken to a number of sports people from several sports who were at one time all part of elite programs. Sports people who have walked away from those programs but are still playing the sport. All had no interest of being a part of that side of the game again. All stated that being a part of that system had killed their passion for the game that they loved. All said that at the current time they had not enjoyed playing so much since they were children. Why?
Again, in conversation it became clear that all of these players had innate abilities. Abilities that had brought them to the attention of those making selection choices, and their abilities had elevated them to that elite level in their chosen sports.
Yet once they reached this level all were told to stop doing what had led to them reaching this level. As one Super Rugby player revealed on Not The Footy Show, they were told that they could not back themselves in a game. They were not to take on their opposite man if there was a risk that they could lose possession. Keeping the ball was non-negotiable.
What was equally interesting was that all of these individuals said that they believed ‘the system’ no longer wanted talent. ‘The system’ according to them wanted athletes that they could turn into players. As all pointed out without fail – and maybe you would expect this – this will never work, as the athlete will never learn the subtleties of a game, the moments when they know they can change a game. In fact all made it very clear that many of these athletes lack that natural awareness to be able to play a pass when it is needed. Which is an interesting observation, that would again explain why some have publicly come out and said that the quality of the passing in leagues such as the EPL has declined in the past ten years. These same pundits have called out the lack of skill that is in the game today, and the lack of individual brilliance.
Ex England and Liverpool striker Michael Owen is one of those to speak out reportedly saying “There was more pure footballers back in the day. Now you have to be an athlete..” “You just have to be able to run, you have to be big, you have to be fast… you have to be covering X amount of kilometres now.” Along with “You don’t even have to be that good anymore. Back in the day you had to have real skill and attributes to be a top footballer.” Is he wrong? How many sports do his comments apply to?
Is this why fans are becoming frustrated. They are being asked to pay more for a lesser product irrespective of the results? Can winning really cover up a lack of quality?
Yes, fans want their team to win but it appears that many now want to see them win with a little bit of style. Saying that Arsenal fans will be happy just to have won the league this year irrespective of how their team has played in recent weeks.They just wanted to win something again.
So does how you win really matter? Or does how you play only matter when you are losing, and not when you are winning?
Someone once said “True achievement is measured not by applause, but by the impact left long after the stage is silent.” Winners will receive the applause, but how great an impact will their victory have? Today that is measured in dollars and cents, when one feels it should be measured in terms of those it inspires. That is why how you play the game is important, that you do not follow the masses, you plough your own furrow, that you are able to stand apart from the rest because of how you played, and the way you played will be remembered. This is why the greats in each sport are remembered for the way they played. It is why great teams are still talked about. Is that not the definition of true greatness?
Surely that is what it means to win? How many of today’s teams and players will be talked about in 10 let alone 20 years time, and will they have inspired the next generation?
