Football Vignettes

Belatedly, but two stories warmed the heart during the Russia football world cup in 2018. These stories are not about sporting genius, or sporting glory but about increasingly rare qualities like basic human goodness, morality, grace, and respect for others - not just in triumph but more importantly in defeat.

1.

In 2003, in a game between Denmark and Iran being played in Hong Kong, an Iranian player mistook a whistle from the crowd as the referee’s half-time signal, and picked the ball up with his hands in the penalty area.

The referee gave Denmark a penalty kick, but following a consultation with national team coach Morten Olsen, Danish captain Morten Wieghorst missed the penalty on purpose as a token of fair play. Denmark lost the game 1–0, with Iran scoring a goal after this incident.  

Wieghorst received an Olympic Committee fair play award.   

2.

In the quarter finals of the 2018 world cup, Japan suffered a bitter loss to Belgium. Belgium was the clear favourite but it was Japan which led 2-0 well into the second half, on their way to a major upset. Only to lose 3-2 with Belgium scoring three goals in 69th, 74th and the 94th minute! But such a shock defeat did not deter the grace of the Japanese players as well as the fans.

Post the defeat, the Japanese team cleaned their dressing room spotless and left a handwritten Thank You note in Russian for the hosts. The tearful fans too cleaned the stands before leaving. In fact, this had been a routine practice by the fans in all the matches. As per one news article, this is not an unusual behaviour for the Japanese people as leaving public spaces clean is a usual, bred-from-childhood habit for them.  

There are teams and fans which have caused huge ruckus, even stampede and violence after such heartbreaking losses. Such behaviour may even be reluctantly justified. But Japanese have shown rare, heart-warming poise and character   

Plenty of goodness still out there. Keep looking!