Gamesmanship or being a scumbag?

[trueblue84]

Extreme example, but...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-40283286

Argentine football player gives opponent the needle

• 15 June 2017

An Argentine football player has caused outrage after admitting that he used a needle to hurt his rivals during a cup match on Sunday.

Federico Allende, a defender for lower-division club Sport Pacifico, bragged in a radio interview about using the needle several times against strikers from top-division club Estudiantes.

Mr Allende said that players had to be clever in order to win.

Pacifico's president Hector Moncada vowed to expel the player.

"We are devastated. This incident has tarnished the team's good work. I will expel him from the club," Mr Moncada told Clarín newspaper.

Pacifico won the match 3-2 and knocked out Estudiantes from the cup competition in a major upset.

The players were received like heroes in the small western town of General Alvear when they returned from Buenos Aires, where the match was played.

'He must hate me'
But the good atmosphere soon turned into bad news.

Allende gave Cordoba's Vorterix Radio an interview on Tuesday in which he said "you need to play dirty" to beat big clubs like Estudiantes de La Plata.

"We knew that we had to play dirty against them and I kept piercing the Estudiantes strikers with a needle," added the Pacifico defender.

"We know that top division players don't like contact, they don't like if we waste time or if we play dirty. So that was the way to do. Football is like that. Football is for the clever," Allende told Vorterix Radio.

Colombian striker Juan Otero said Allende jabbed him many times with a needle and that he complained to the referee during the match.

"I completely nullified Otero. He must hate me," Allende said on the radio.

After hearing the interview, Otero described Allende as "a nasty man".

 

[TGW89]

When you use a needle on different people it will not Allende well.....

 

[chrismpw]

Hate it. Would rather lose sportingly than have a victory I know I've cheated my way to. Ban him for life the utter slug.

 

[degsy]

kopite behaviour.

 

[trueblue84]

I like good gamesmanship. I see it as a skill or ability, like control or finishing. This fella is obviously not that good as resorting to something as obvious as stabbing someone (and then telling everyone about it) lacks subtlety. Same goes for Suarez. When people say he was smart and a 'winner', he wasn't. Everything he did was blatant and ended up hurting his teams more in the long run.

The best ones are the players you hear about 25 years later in someone's autobiography.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

I think that if the governing bodies were stricter on it, you'd eventually see it die out and football would be better for it

The problem is that it's so successful that people understandably don't want to give it up. You see one team winning stuff thanks to a massive snide like Ramos, so Barca then go out and get a kopite bulb like Masherano so they aren't left behind

You see it on here all the time, people demanding we sign more snides. And why wouldn't they? How else are you ever going to win anything?

 

[streeky]

I think that if the governing bodies were stricter on it, you'd eventually see it die out and football would be better for it

The problem is that it's so successful that people understandably don't want to give it up. You see one team winning stuff thanks to a massive snide like Ramos, so Barca then go out and get a kopite bulb like Masherano so they aren't left behind

You see it on here all the time, people demanding we sign more snides. And why wouldn't they? How else are you ever going to win anything?

Bang on there Mikey, this bunch of choirboys will win us nothing with their attitude. kev has the most snide in our side but it's not enough. We need players that wan't to win using every legal means, which include working the ref, breaking up play, stopping the game when teams get up a head of steam etc. It is no suprise that sides that win constantly in amateur football through to international football all use the dark arts and we need to buy winners.

 

[The binman chronicles]

I want to know where was this lowlife holding the needle. Did he put it in his pocket inbetween proding the opposition or was he holding it in his hands throughout the game?

Surely it is a risk to accidentally poke someone in the eye as you can't always control where your arms are going, especially in a crowded penalty box or on landing trying to save himself from a fall. Ban him from ever stepping foot on a football pitch again and hopefully that will act as a deterrent to anyone else that stupid.

 

[COYBL25]

I want to know where was this lowlife holding the needle. Did he put it in his pocket inbetween proding the opposition or was he holding it in his hands throughout the game?

Surely it is a risk to accidentally poke someone in the eye as you can't always control where your arms are going, especially in a crowded penalty box or on landing trying to save himself from a fall. Ban him from ever stepping foot on a football pitch again and hopefully that will act as a deterrent to anyone else that stupid.

It's also actually an assault too, which is a criminal offence !

 

[SerenityNigh]

Proper gamesmanship always walks a fine line between being clever and being a creep. I like gamesmanship in a player, but despise those who cross that line. It's probably a bit of a double standard, but that's how it is.

 

[Azzurri]

Bleedin hell hahaha.

There's winding people up, standing on toes and a bit of shoving off the ball, which I do, and then there's jabbing opposition players with a needle.

Gamesmanship I'm fine with as long as it's done in good enough spirits and not blatant cheating. This particular case is a bit different, obviously.

 

[Azzurri]

Hate it. Would rather lose sportingly than have a victory I know I've cheated my way to. Ban him for life the utter slug.

Sergio Ramos with his 9 billion medals might feel differently.

 

[COYBL25]

Gamesmanship doesn't involve stabbing someone with a needle lol

 

[ilikecheese]

Gamesmanship is part of the game. A good snide you love on your team and love to hate on anyone else's team.

That story is not gamesmanship.

 

[Tubey]

The example there is assault ffs, it has nothing to do with 'gamesmanship'.

Gamesmanship is diving for penalties, wasting time, trying to get people sent off - all of which I am totally fine with and wish Everton did more, as they are the characteristics of winners.

If you can get away with it, do it.