Ethics in sport is all about building character through trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship, friendship, positive rivalry, being moderate in victory and honourable in defeat. It also means bringing cultures together. Competitive sport has a great impact on society.
International sport tournaments like the Euro 2012 and London Olympics, which will have us glued to the small screen for hours on end during the months of June and July, are glorified occasions to focus on human limits of performances at times marred with illegal substances or illegal betting which are the main threats to sport in this day and age.
One wonders whether the current world economic crunch presents the ideal settings for staging such sport extravaganzas, though the organisers seem assured of fantastic profits at the end of the event while bragging about the improvement in infrastructure and the creation of thousands of jobs during the preparatory programme, plus the direct involvement and the six-figure contribution from the private sector. Incidentally, Italy’s Premier Mario Monti, who is also responsible for all financial matters in the nearby peninsula, ignored all this when he was dealing with the specific request of staging the 2020 Olympic Games in Rome.
Euro 2012 has long been making headlines in Poland and Ukraine for the wrong reasons. Volumes have been written about the slow completion of the stadia and other buildings, especially in Ukraine where more attention seems to have been given to the control of prostitution and the barbaric slaughter of thousands of stray dogs and cats despite the fact that UEFA made a financial contribution to sterilize these animals. Apparently no one knows what happened to the financial grant. Last November, the Polish Minister of Sport accused PZPN chief Grzegor Lato of a number of illegalities. Is the game still reeking of corruption? However, President Victor Yanukovych keeps repeating that $9 billion dollars have been spent on airport terminals and fast trains so that the 200,000 visitors will have an excellent image of his country. Even Jose Barroso and Angela Merkel have made it known that they will attend certain fixtures in June, though Yevhenia Tymoshenko, 31, is appealing to football associations to boycott Euro 2012 in sympathy with the horrific treatment that is being meted to her mother Julia, 51, the former Premier who has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for abuse of power.
Racism
Then we have the story of former England captain John Terry who has been charged with racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of QPR at Loftus Road last October, which he denies. It’s black not coloured. The days when fans threw bananas on the field have long gone. In the sixties Enoch Powell had his own opinion of the immigrants from the West Indies.
In the John Terry case, District Judge Howard Riddle decided that it would be heard nine days after the final of Euro 2012 when he learnt that the defence would be bringing up a number of Chelsea players as witnesses but would not be able to appear until the end of the football season!! Someone said that it is the latest example of players’ power! Others claim that it is a show of national pride by the judiciary. In between his non-appearance at Westminster Court earlier this month, we had the FA ruling stripping him of the captain’s armband (which earns £10 million in different slots) and the resignation of Fabio Capello as England’s team manager (on six million a year!). Maybe the lolly that Suleman Kerimov has reportedly been offering to engage the Italian to Anzhi Makhachkala was mistakenly understood as ‘dressing-room interference!’
This column will be incomplete if it does not give a metaphorical pat on the back to the Zambia contingent for its success in the Africa Nations Cup. A great satisfaction for the 13 million poor people, apart from the fact that the players dedicated their first success to the 18 victims of the national side who lost their lives in an air crash in 1993. Strong condemnation is expressed after watching the brutal violence in Port Said at the end of the rivals’ clash between Al Masry and Al Ahli at Port Said Stadium, which the home team won 3-1 and which caused more than 85 deaths, hundreds injured and an unidentified number of arrests as the Masry fans went mad and attacked their opponents and their followers. Shame! Egypt is at war and not only on the streets of Cairo.
Good news
The good news is that International Board meeting in Surrey in the first week of March will be revising the Triple Punishment Rule when an opponent is fouled inside the penalty area, which currently means a penalty, expulsion and suspension. It is simply illogical and needs to be changed. Another rule on the agenda is the introduction of the fourth substitute when a match goes into extra time. With the game’s current speed and additional minutes another substitute makes a lot of sense.
Mr Formosa is a former
national football coach