I like it when the best team wins. I don't like human error, injustices or when cheats prosper. When a team spends a whole week (or more) working hard in training and on tactics there must be nothing worse when all that hard work goes down the toilet due to one instance of foul play from the opposition or incompetent officiating. Having the likes of VAR and TMO in professional sports like football and rugby is a no-brainer for me.
I understand and respect that. Let me put some context. I dont want VAR in footie but i do want TMOs in rugby. This apparent contradiction comes from how i was taught to play both sports as a kid. I see both games, very passionately but very differently.
In one i was told that rules are to be followed and that respect for authorities was paramount. I as told i could make mistakes but that i should never, for instance go purposedly to tacke someone in a high/unlawful way.
In the other i was taught something completely different. I was told that the rules are guidelines and that they are only applied if you get caught. I was also taught that, in footie, there are WAY more instances than in rugby where paying the price for committing an infraction is worth it the cost. This gives a lot of room to make calculated risks.
My job, in football, was to win and breaking the rules was an option as long as i was aware of the risk and cost of getting caught and made the appropriate cost/benefit analysis.
Last guys (generally #2) have to make a lot of this split-second decisions. A LOT.
Decades ago I thought i was kinda weird because i was sometimes thought a bit of a naive purist with my footie friends (who didnt play rugby) and a bit of a cinic with my rugby friends (most of who didnt care about footie). But i realized that among those who followed both sports my view was quite normal. We just "switched hats" depending on the sport and judge the players' behaviour very differently.
I still do.
It's not just sport, there is a cultural thing here. I am going to use two examples. Footie 1986, Argentina faces England. Maradona illegally uses his hand to score a goal.
Ask any english who was alive at the time who Ben Nassir is. 99% of them wouldn't have a clue (ref of that game).
Footie again, 1990, Argentina faces Germany. Rudy Voller dives and the refs call a penalty. Ask any argentine alive at the time and they will tell you the name of the ref was mexican edgardo codesal.
My point is that, within "footie culture"we live and we die by the same sword. We dont blame Voller for diving. We expected him to do so. We do blame the ref for falling for it.
Again, Voller's job was to win.
I dont want to get too technical, but it also has to do with the fact that lying in football has a relatively low punishment when compared to the potential reward.
One of the things i like rugby is that the best team wins the overwhelming majority of times.
One of the thing i love about footie is that the best teams lose a disproportionally amount of times. That's why cinderally stories are 10 times more common in football than in any other sport. Before you second guess this, think about it this way: In how many sports can the number 15-20 athlete/team in the world have a decent shot of beating #1? Not in rugby. Not in tennis. Not in basket. Not in Hockey. Not in ice-hockey. Not in baseball. Not in cricket. Not in F1. Not in 100mts. Not in high jump, long jump nor paul vault.
But it does happen in football. A lot. Part of the reason is football's unfair nature. There is quite a bit of it's defensive nature (low scoring sport, etc) too.
I guess i look for different things in each sport.
But i digress.
