Zidane's Red Card and a Higher Level of Leadership

Zidane's red card and the whole action to reaction dynamic offers a chance for FIFA to ensure that those who provoke using insults on the playing field are called to account for their action. Otherwise what makes fair play 'fair'?

You have to wonder what Materazzi was thinking when he thought it was legitimate tactics to insult Zidane's family and yet admit sensitivity to his own mother. What ever you do to others you do to yourself. For years World Cup soccer has seen the red carded player be vilified for their reaction while the perpetrator, who often openly admitted their intention, would get reported in the press. No repercussions for their action. True, there is always a healthy dose of self-discipline required in any leadership role, on the field or off. When did it become acceptable to insult someone's family in order to gain competitive advantage.

Viewing the commentary the comparison is often made, in Canada at least, with hockey. The notion is that injury is worse and worse things are said so it is better to receive insults than injuries of the type that Steve Moore and others have received. The idea apparently is that trading injury for insult should make it all better. It doesn't.

Soccer or football, is a vehicle for social change. Go to www.streetsoccer.org and you can see the social impact on homeless people as they take the skills associated with playing the game and transfer them into their lives. For football (soccer) to achieve that, FIFA needs to ensure that fair play becomes fair; that the provoker's actions become transparent and that street fighting tactics that result in hurling insults on the field are not an acceptable part of the game. That way players can rely on talent, skills and vision to win rather than using base insults to uncenter and destabilize players. That way there is a real chance that the game can model how to have differences, be competitive and yet remain respectful, retaining dignity even in the heat of the moment. It is there that football can inspire a bringing together of people from all over the world as many intend it to do.

Talk of stripping Zidane of his award reflects, as one person put it, a sorry logic which only looks at a limited portion of the picture. To raise the level of leadership the lens will have to widen, and lessons from Ghandi employed: "The challenge for leaders is to live up to their fundamental responsibility as human beings: to treat others as themselves." (A Higher Standard of Leadership - Lessons from the Life of Ghandi by Keshavan Nair.)