As you read this, the most popular sporting event, the FIFA World Cup will be coming to an end today with the final between France and Croatia. Of all spectator sports, football continues to be at the top of the table and the World Cup that comes around once in four years has always been a huge event that is even considered a great marker of time. Allan Brian Ssenyonga Someone may lie about their age but the moment the topic is football and the World Cup then it is easy for them to give away their age by just describing how Diego Maradona played or if they think Roger Milla had the best goal celebration dance. Since many of us are from countries that are yet to feature in the prestigious tournament, we tend to support fellow Africans and then we lend our allegiance to any other team we fancy as the tournament advances. At the moment, some consider the French team to be the African team in the tournament because most of the players can trace their roots to different African or Caribbean countries. However there is also some love for Croatia for those wishing for a first time winner or the fact that anyone who eliminates the English deserves better. The World Cup is also often a tournament where new rules of the game are put to test at a global stage. Whether it is the way points are calculated or how many substitutes each team is allowed to bring on. We have seen the controversial ones like the Golden Goal rule that led to games ending instantly, once a team scored a goal during the extra time. Goal line technology and Video Assisted Refereeing (VAR) are now part of the game as well. The stakes are so high these days that the margin for error has to keep being reduced. We also never forget those crucial moments when a star whose skill is not in doubt, goes ahead to miss scoring from a clear chance. Still on skill, we are easily captivated by new talents on such a great stage while at the same time feeling disappointed when the stars we know fail to carry their teams to the next level. All said the expectations are high, the emotions are high. Emotions do get so high that we have seen players biting or head butting their opponents on the pitch. We also learn many other lessons about humanity, for example fair play has always been a major theme around the game. That no matter what happens this is a game played by human beings who should be fair to each other at all times. The players are expected to be competitive but not malicious. As far as the 2018 edition of the game is concerned, the images of the Croatian president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, flying in economy class with other Croatian fans, wearing the team jersey and sitting in the stands with other fans and then making her way to the dressing room and not hesitating to hug the sweaty boys after their win against Russia were a sight to behold. I really wish other leaders were this invested in the success of the national sports teams. Another sight that many may have forgotten was the one where Senegalese and Japanese fans made it a habit to always clean up the area where they sat during a game. This culture of cleaning up after ourselves was in my opinion something worth emulating and the best thing to pick from the World Cup. The good fans from Senegal and Japan obviously knew that there are people paid to clean the stadium after every game so that those who come in after can find it clean. However even with that knowledge they still felt a deep responsibility to leave the place as they found it. It is this sense of responsibility that we need to teach young children so that they can know that even if someone else is paid to clean up a mess, you should clean up after yourself since it is you who created the mess. It is simply good manners to always pick up your trash and dispose it off well. In this era of plastic bottles and bags, we all should be more responsible. It is something that we can individually work on and I thank those Senegalese and Japanese fans for reminding us of this basic but crucial attribute. Email: ssenyonga@gmail.com Blog: www.ssenyonga.wordpress.com Twitter: @ssojo81 The views expressed in this article are of the author.
