Winning by Transgressing

The Beijing Olympic Games have come to an end, and the fair play ideal was present there in spite of certain transgressions; some were penalized, others remained unpunished and allowed to win by transgressing. It is worth wondering without any naiveté, what is it that leads someone to win at any cost, breaking rules, cheating?The Beijing Olympic Games have come to an end, and the fair play ideal was present there in spite of certain transgressions; some were penalized, others remained unpunished and allowed to win by transgressing. It is worth wondering without any naiveté, what is it that leads someone to win at any cost, breaking rules, cheating?

Transgression in sport

A rule is broken when a soccer player pretends to have been fouled in order to get a penalty sanctioned, when an athlete uses banned drugs to boost his performance, when someone intentionally injures his rival. Those transgressors are driven by the zeal to “win” by fair means or foul; they are not concerned about falseness or the hypocrisy of getting deceitful results: money, frustrations, fame, recognition are at stake.

Some spectators confuse transgression with ability, cunningness to cheat and get off the hook; they do not discredit the transgressor or do not mind if the effort and right of others is affected. Validating a deception with applause or admiration is as destructive as the very act of cheating, it encourages transgression, rewards the transgressor. To tackle transgression it is necessary to deprive the deceitful result of its aura; hence we should turn the focus on ourselves, and on our share of co-responsibility.

We are fans of our national teams, our beloved club and our favourite athlete. We want them to win, and many times we want that passionately. We are aware that we project in the sport contest many personal issues, and even group or national feelings; and yet, when the competition begins, we come apart at the seams, and find ourselves screaming our lungs out to express our preference. The author of this piece is one of those fans who also slips into that passion, that near-madness, either adult or childhood ludic vestige.

Even though I admire competition and celebrate the joy of playing, I cannot completely comprehend why we feel that permanent need to “win”, when the logical, natural, most frequent thing is alternating between wining and losing. We have not learnt how to lose and oftentimes also how to win. Probably, it would be helpful to move away from that win-lose dichotomy.

Interests, desires, transgressions, are projected onto sports. Sport, as a business, as a distraction from other more serious worries, as popular alienation, as a way of sharing some power and fame, is held in such high value that sportsmen and sport managers feel driven to resort to stratagems, wrongdoing, cheating, hoping they are not caught red-handed or that the eventual penalty will not be significant or will remain unpunished.

Transgressions in sport are penalized, in soccer, with a warning, a yellow or a red card. There are also referees or supervisors who watch over that rules are duly enforced, although there are cases of corruption among referees and sport regulators themselves. This does not disqualify the value of rules but forces us to be on the alert so that they do not end up being applied to the detriment of those who abide by them.

Transgression beyond sports

Indeed, lying and cheating exist beyond sports. Rulers, law enforcement agents, tax revenue officers, merchants, lawyers, inspectors, bankruptcy receivers, among others, may not carry out their duty. In these cases, they resort to lies, deception, bribes, influence, threats, violence. They are delinquents who seek to “win” power, money, fame, honours they would not be able to obtain by other means. Confronting them is part of the endless struggle for justice, equity and fair play. Rule-breaking has a cost: it disrupts social cohesion and affects other people’s rights. By rewarding deception and transgression with impunity, the very foundation of social coexistence is undermined.

What complicates things is that there are situations where the rules are grossly unfair, and one is almost compelled to infringe them. In fact, any rule, any regulation is imperfect and, hence, could be improved. The point is that if we infringe the rules to avoid the effects of their imperfections, we will be doing justice by our own hand, and we may fall into worse situations. Coexistence requires accepting rules regarding social exchanges, sports, politics, economy, the military, religion, the neighbourhood, family or partners matters, while we strive to improve or eliminate them using all existing legal or social mechanisms and procedures. We should fight for fairer, more equitable rules, though not through an individualistic “every man for himself” attitude, where each one fights on his own and for his own good, but through the establishment of rules that may ensure that interests are reconciled, and peaceful coexistence and realization spaces are created for all.

The fact of the matter is that no one can claim to hold the absolute truth and honesty because, in one way or another, we are all transgressors; yet there are different degrees of transgression and different levels of accountability. History shows us the paradox that, even from our imperfection, we have been capable of creating organized societies, grounded on values and regulations. Imperfect individuals, imperfect societies, imperfect rules, have not stopped us from searching for better modalities for living together, although immersed in contradictions and tensions, with multiple and diverse interests and needs. In that process, circumstances change, thinking evolves; on occasions we may have even been able to transfer to the sport arena what could only be solved in the battlefield.

Another look at the “hand of God”

I now look at my soccer passion with a different eye. On the one hand, I see that it is a good way to channel the aggressiveness–of genetic or cultural nature– that was before expressed outside the sphere of sport. On the other hand, sport passion gives us the opportunity to develop ourselves as individuals who bear at the same time values and feelings. It is there, at the height of this lack of control -where the herd roars and heartbeats resound heavily– when we have to put to the test, to temper our own maturity, equanimity, sense of justice, understanding of situations. Amid the frenzy of the stadium, it is not easy to respect the opponent, to learn to win and lose with the same dignity and nobility.

Realizing the value of this reflection, I wonder whether in the next soccer challenge I will have the strength of character to celebrate the effort and reject the tricky behaviour. With an apology to readers not familiar with soccer jargon, I wrap up these lines on Maradona’s notorious “hand of God” wondering if it was with God or the Devil that we signed that pact.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *