Losing sight of fairplay: Mantra of sportsmen today

Losing sight of fairplay: Mantra of sportsmen today

Although a Spanish colony, the Argentines learned their football from the British; they prioritised skill and cunning over the physical game played by the English.

Mario RodriguesUpdated: Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 08:09 AM IST
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Mumbai: Gambeta may not be a well-known word in the lexicon of international football, say, vis-à-vis nutmeg or panenka. But in Argentina it is almost a way of life, the term denoting a move which involves the use of skill or deceit to hoodwink the opposition, the latter eliciting more applause.

Although a Spanish colony, the Argentines learned their football from the British; they prioritised skill and cunning over the physical game played by the English. Argentina sides, over the decades, have displayed both elements of Gambeta: a high degree of skill as well as cynicism. But are more importantly remembered for their skills.

In the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England, Diego Maradona is said to have exhibited both of them; first, when he scored that infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal, and later, when he slalomed through the entire England defence to notch the "goal of the century".

Maradona has been rightly pilloried by the English and other advocates of ‘fair play’ and ‘sportsmanship’ for his blatant piece of chicanery. But the same act has been celebrated by all those who harbour adverse sentiments against their old imperial overlords, the Scots included.

Maradona himself confessed that he enjoyed the first goal more because it felt a bit like he was pick-pocketing the English (for historical reasons)!

The two goals are featured in the riveting documentary by Asif Kapadia on the football legend; it was recently screened in numerous multiplexes across India.

That the first still rankles the English is not surprising. Maradona will forever have to live with the tag of ‘cheat’ attached to the label of ‘genius’.

As former England defensive midfielder Peter Reid, who was in action on that fateful day, recalled in his autobiography published two years ago:

"He deliberately used foul means to deceive the referee and to damage England unfairly, so how could I see him as anything else? "We all cut corners and take advantage of situations, but there are boundaries to what is acceptable as a competitor and he crossed them."

Perhaps, the former Mumbai City FC manager would have approved the crunching foul on Maradona that was penalised and an off-the-ball smack on the face that wasn’t, as ‘acceptable’ behaviour!

All through his career Maradona has been upended by ruthless opponents whose sole aim was to stop him by fair means or foul! So, should a spontaneous act of deceit be more acceptable than a premeditated one?

The English, of course, don’t talk much about their sordid history, including the alleged ‘fixing’ of the 1966 World Cup matches by English and German referees that left the Latin American teams utterly devastated, and the controversial Geoff Hurst third goal (or non-goal) which helped England beat West Germany 4-2 in the Wembley final.

It was left to the Argentina journalist Ezequiel Fernández Moores to rip off the mask of English hypocrisy during a presentation at the 2009 Play the Game conference in Coventry, when he highlighted several instances of English malfeasance on the pitch!

These include handball goals by Gary Linekar against Holland in the 1990 World Cup that was disallowed, hat-trick man Paul Scholes versus Poland in the 2000 Euro qualifiers (Scholes was involved in another handball goal against Zenit St. Petersburg for which he was expelled) and Denis Wise versus Turkey on his debut in 1991.

There were also possible dives by Linekar and Michael Owen to secure penalties, one against Argentina in 2002, which prompted an English scribe to remark, "What I liked most was the fact that at last, we beat the Argentines with their own medicine!" (England won 1-0 courtesy a Beckham penalty).

In an earlier instance, captain Martin Peters admitted that he dived to secure a penalty that Allan Clarke converted against Poland (1-1) in a 1993 World Cup qualifier.

"He (Jerzy Gorgon) barely touched me but I went flying. I dived. It wasn’t a penalty, but the referee didn’t see it that way," Peters later admitted.

Surely, Linekar, Owens or Peters are not continually referred to as divers and cheats and vilified in the same way as Maradona.

No nation can assume the moral high ground in sports. However, some nations have copped perennial abuse as cheats, such as the ‘Argies’ (football) and the ‘Pakis’ (cricket), whose fast bowlers were long accused of ball-tampering until the rest of the world learned the ‘dark art’ of reverse swing.

We too as a nation have a litany of dope cheats, match-fixers and ball tamperers (including a couple of Indian cricket icons).

For all his faults, El Pibe de Oro (The Golden Boy) never forgot his working-class origins and wore his affiliations on his sleeve by sporting a tattoo of Che Guevara on his arm or by his unabashed association with the late Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez in defiance of powerful Western interests.

This is unlike an equally famous football icon who is more establishment oriented. For this alone, Maradona should command our grudging respect.

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