The FIFA World Cup in South Africa has just ended. Over 700 million people are reported to have watched the finals on July 11. In spite of many limitations—geographical boundaries, political divisions, economic struggle and social concerns—nothing it seems could daunt people’s enthusiasm for the FIFA World Cup. The keen interest that was generated by this mega event would have been hopefully tapped into something positive, drawing from the goodwill that sports can create. It was however very unfortunate that terrorist had to resort to killing innocent people on the night of the finals in Uganda when the Spain-Netherlands game was being watched live on TV. This is the ugly side of the world we live in where killing and bloodshed continue to influence the thinking of those who want to destroy peace and understanding. Hopefully, our children will be able to celebrate the joys of life—peace, happiness and prosperity. For this we must encourage games and sports as vehicles of goodwill and diplomacy—to make the world a better place to live in.
Coming back to soccer, since this is the most popular sports among the Nagas, it is hoped that the FIFA World Cup event would have been able to provide a new positive outlook to problems at hand. Since Nagas are a sports loving community and because soccer is something that unifies the people, let us hope that the FIFA games over the last one month would have inculcated a spirit of sportsmanship, honesty, punctuality, team spirit, leadership and obedience. Sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup is a time for both entertainment and educating on the morals of life. The game should also make us disciplined citizens and provide us a good training for playing the game of life with ‘sportsmanship’. While winning is important, at the end however it is how one has played the game. This raises the question of fairness, honesty in everyday life. This is also a time to educate ourselves about respecting authority of our responsibilities and duties, whether as a student, administrator, teacher or a political leader.
And just as a sportsman who is expected to be always level headed, cool, tolerant and courteous, we need good citizens. When indiscipline is on the rise in our Naga society, much inspiration has to be drawn from such qualities expected of a sportsperson. Likewise soccer is as much a team game as it is made up of individual skills and talent. As there is no substitute for hard work, similarly a game can hardly be won by depending only on individual brilliance. It is the spirit of the team and the cooperation that goes with it, which becomes the recipe for victory. A nation and its people who cannot learn to work together can likewise be denied of victory. At the end, as the FIFA slogan: it has to be “For the good of the game”. This is as much applicable in life as it is in a game of sports.
