Some choose history and the rest, histrionics : A Barcelona fan defends his team's theatrics

Lights, Camera, Action!!!!!

No sir we are not discussing the elective options available for a graduate student in a school of arts. These are the two paths that present themselves in front of every man who wants to walk ahead and not be left behind in a nebulous haze of oblivion. This world is not perfect my friends and you definitely do not need me to enlighten you on that, but I am here to tell that there are certainly a few shining needles strewn amongst an entire stack of rotten hay, if only one had the prudence to spot them and perseverance to emulate them.

The last week was witness to an encounter in the game of football which everybody likens to a real battle with arms and ammunition. The ‘El Classico’ was played between two top sides in world football that fight with similar hearts but very different tools. The match was ultimately won by a better side that has proudly cultivated the best player in the world. I watched the game in its entirety and being a supporter of FC Barcelona, there were times when my hands were covering my face and there were few more when my fists were punching the air. The media has covered every moment of this match and whether it is Messi’s great goals or Barcelona’s moral holes, they have all been commented and lamented upon. I wanted to bring something new onto the table because it was about time we stopped following the herd and made a point worthy of being heard.

Why is the media all of a sudden focused on the feigning tactics of Busquets and Alves when these two players have been always theatrical from the time we have all been watching the La Liga. Even otherwise simulation is an age-old technique followed by footballers the world over and it certainly was not invented by the Blaugrana.

Has the ref given the card yet?

Let us not be naive and start calling Barcelona ‘cheats’ after the game on Wednesday, because this is how the game is played today with players trying to influence the referee every second of the game.

Okay let me enlist a few incidents and you decide for yourself whether they are a part of this game or not. A player holding his lower part of the body and crying in pain after a tackle and then gets up within a minute and is all charged up for a sprint once the referee penalizes the opponent, a defender signaling to the referee that he went for the ball and not the opponent’s feet after a free kick was awarded, a defender straight away lifting up his hands after bringing

And the Oscar goes to…….

down a striker as if to say that the former did not even touch the latter, a goal keeper wasting precious time towards the end of the game before going in to kick the ball, a player purposefully placing the ball much closer towards the goal than it should be before taking the free kick, both the players claiming for a throw-in when both know who touched the ball out of bounds and so on and forth. Have we not seen all this week in and week out?

In this day and age of cut-throat competition it would be preposterous to traverse along the path of total righteousness, when another path of least

Leap of fake – I believe I can fly!!!!

resistance is proffered to you. I have been an individual who equates FC Barcelona to an institution like Harvard, but what they teach you at Harvard is what produces the best hedge fund managers in the world today, but would it be right to blame the institution if one of their products ended up getting entangled in fraud or swindling of investors’ wealth? This is the reason we have regulators in the field of finance and referees on the football pitch because the human nature lies in cheating and deceiving to obtain a desirable result. Yellow cards are being offered for simulation or diving in the penalty box these days and such measures have to be introduced for all kinds of Busquets-like acts. However I believe we are wasting our valuable sense of reason if we try to argue and try to cajole teams like Barcelona to play fair. I am sure we all are aware of the way the Australian cricket team used to play. Save a few greats like Adam Gilchrist, they all adopted negative and deceptive tactics and many a times their umpires have always been favorable to Australians (Remember the way Sachin Tendulkar in Australia was given out LBW, sorry Shoulder Before Wicket?). None of this matters though, because Australia won the world cup three consecutive times and was the best Test playing nation for more than a decade.

A Messi can rise above challenges and manufacture a stunning goal out of thin air like the other night because he does not have to resort to other

Is that the way to the Hall of Greatness?

methods like falling and diving. He chooses to become a part of history every time he sets foot on the pitch. Now as regards to all the other commoners or mere mortals a little deception is what gets them ahead and hence they choose histrionics. Let us glorify and cherish the former and bring in more disincentives for the latter and only then can we protect what is left of the beauty of this game.