Sports, as we know it, can be a form
of beauty, competition, healthy lifestyle, hobby and etc. However in recent
weeks, sports had also shown its ugly side to the world, internationally and
locally. How the beauty of the sport can actually transcend into such an ugly
side? It will usually boils down to greed and glory. But where could the glory
be where money is involved.
Let’s start with the last F1 race in
Sepang, Malaysia. As most people who followed the sport who have known that
Sebastien Vettel ignored his team’s orders and actually raced his team mate,
Mark Webber, for the race win. F1 is actually a complex sport where 2 titles
will be at stake, the Drivers Championship and Constructors Championship. With Webber
in the lead and Vettel trailing second in the race, Red Bull made the decision
to secure the race win with Webber finishing first and Vettel second. The instructions
were clear to bring both cars home as they would not know how the tyres would
finish. They will also be able to bring back maximum points in the race to
ensure they are the favourites for the Constructors Championship. However
Vettel, being the youngest triple world champion, had other ideas. His ego got
the better of him, since he is still young, he challenge Webber for the win
when Webber actually tune down his car to conserve his tyres and fuel. Vettel
won in the end, but what did he gain?
He admitted his mistakes and apologized
to the team and Webber, but the damage has already been done. His willingness
to win may make him a legend in the future, but ignoring team orders basically
gave the world the perception that he thinks that he is bigger than the team.
Let’s just see how Red Bull will manage the 2 drivers in the later part of the
season, which will be highly critical of their future successes. Just thought
of point in NBA a few years back, where LA Lakers had to make a decision
between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Both can work together in a game, but
their ego can’t. Lakers ultimately chose the young upstart in Kobe and gave up
Shaq. Kobe thought he was bigger than the team and tried to lead like a Michael
Jordan, and they ended up struggling, while Shaq would go on to play a few more
seasons with other teams in retirement mood.
Then there is the ongoing problem of
match-fixing in football where Singapore had become the centre of attraction. In
fact, just recently 3 match officials who were supposed to officiate in an AFC
Cup competition between Tampines Rovers and an Indian Team, were being detained
due to suspicion of match fixing. While competitors’ greed is to win as much
glory as possible, like Vettel, a normal layman like us would like to earn as
much money as possible. Singapore is not known for producing world class athletes,
but the ability to fixing matches globally made us well known in the sporting
world. We are able to see top class players earning outrageous wages just by
training and playing games week in week out, those top class players would only
represent a small fraction of the players worldwide who had made it. Just compare
them with our own S League players. The designated marquee players don’t even
earn in a moth what these top players earn in a week. So in come the match
fixers to offer the lesser players and officials incentives to throw matches,
which you can perceive as a form of supplementing their income. Where do these
match fixers get their money? Simple, just promise the players or officials the
right amount, bet heavily on the fixed games and voila! Everybody goes home
happy!
Players turned professional because
they loved their sport, but to lower down their integrity to produce adverse
results in exchange for money, they are killing their own sports. Not only from
them, even top players who keep negotiating new deals with clubs to increase their
wages is also killing it. If they really loved their sport, will money matters
much? I mean professionals in Barclays Premier League would be able to retire
peacefully from the amount they earned from 10 years ago. More than 10 years
ago, a forty thousand pound per week cap would be the norm for top class teams
like Manchester United and Liverpool then. But it has escalated to that amount
being used to keep a young promising talent at a club. Now the players play the
game like doing business and likewise, the clubs developing and managing
players like a business. Who will be at the losing end? It will always be the
consumers!
Come back to local front where I’ve
said earlier Singapore don’t seemed to produce enough world class athletes, it
just puzzle me. Looking at different sports at the youth level, we had actually
achieved quite good results, but progressing on to the senior stage, they seemed
to have stagnated or disappear totally. The well-known fact for the boys would
they have to serve 2 years in the National Service, which will also coincide
with their critical development stages for their sports. Some will struggle to
juggle, which may not may not succeed, most usually give up altogether. What about
the girls?
While girls do not need to serve National
Service, during the same time frame, they will be considering for their future.
What would the sports bring them? Most of them are usually student athletes and
once they complete their academic education and start their working life, it
would also spell the end of their sporting careers.
If we look even more closely into
the problem, most student athletes are actually quite good students, or just
studying in a top school because of their sporting achievements. Bringing it a
level down, schools not only focus on academic achievements as their KPIs now,
they also identified sports as a factor to bring up the image of their school. As
such, you can see most top schools offering sports programs and scholarships to
interest top athletes in joining them. Especially for O Levels students, if you
do well in your sports, you may be wooed to some top Junior Colleges via direct
entry. In fact, this had also put a strain on the athletes’ parents. If sports
can be a factor to achieve academic success, why not!
During a recent schools’ competition
at the primary school level, I’ve actually seen parents getting into the act in
complaining about unfair judging and biasness. Being parents, I can understand
them always wanting the best for their kids, but a competition is still a
competition, where there will always be winners and losers. They have to
understand that the world does not revolve around them. But if they got their
way, their children would be crowned champions, but does it matter at a primary
school level where development and enjoyment should be emphasized more? Well,
if their kids won, they could bring more recognition and glory to the school,
and when they reached graduating years, they can be offered places at top
schools too. So, basically instead of focusing on the actual development in
skills and attitude, the parents will try ways and means to win, using sports
as a tool to gain a foothold in their academic paths!
Will we reach a day where sports is
merely used as a tool for other gains? It might happen in the future, and will
we still embrace the sports we once loved as it is?
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