"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
Arshavin
When Arsenal's Andrei Arshavin went to ground under a Portsmouth tackle in a Premier League game last month, the referee gave a penalty. Arshavin immediately shook his finger at the referee and pointed to the corner flag. It was a rare show of sportsmanship. Robbie Fowler of Liverpool had made a similar gesture when awarded a penalty against Arsenal some years ago.However neither Arsenal nor Liverpool showed the full Corinthian spirit. The Corinthians football club, founded in 1882 in England, had a principle not to compete for any cup or for prizes of any description. They felt that the competitive pressure would destroy sportsmanship.
When the Corinthians football team was awarded a penalty, which, they felt, was not justified, they would deliberately shoot wide. When the opposition were awarded a justified penalty, the Corinthians goalkeeper would stand outside the goal, making no attempt to save it!
I have never met Arshavin and therefore do not know what his motivation was. Whatever it was, his behaviour was in stark contrast to what we saw in the Chelsea Barcelona Champions League semi-final.
The more interesting question is should we all follow his example as we compete? Does our Christian integrity require us not to accept a penalty which we know to be unjust? Or does it require us not to profit from the penalty? On the other hand, it is just part of the game that we accept the officials' decision when we agree with it andwhen we don’t, when it is to our advantage and when it is not.
How do love our neighbour in the cauldron of professional sport? How do we balance our responsibility to team, opposition, the officials and Christ?
There are more questions than answers this week but I would love to know what you think.