By Sri A.K.

Rasa | Rasa Writes Mon, J ul 14, 2014

What a show the Fifa World Cup 2014 was: It had plenty of sweat and tears; plenty of drama; plenty of joy; plenty of
surprises; and some shocks.
The biggest shock must surely be the 7-1 thrashing that football giant Brazil received at the hands of Germany.
As I write this, I can see, on my TV screen, the German team holding up the trophy in euphoria. Germans everywhere must
be celebrating, for Germany is the Fifa World Cup 2014 champion. But the win did not come easy as Germany had to stave
off a very spirited Argentinian team in todays final. Surely it must rank as one of the best matches of this tournament.
I will leave comments about the game to others. I want to write about the lessons that the Fifa World Cup 2014 has for not
just the football teams and organisers but for you and me, too.
Here are seven lessons:
Results matter: At the end of the day, it is about which team is the champion. The winner gets its name etched in
football history. Costa Rica played very well. So did Colombia. So did Belgium. Four years from now, only football
historians and enthusiasts will remember that.
In life, too, results matter, especially at work and in business. We place on the front page of magazines the face of the chief
executive of the firm that makes huge profits for shareholders; we praise the leader of a nation who can stop civil strife; we
reward the student who gets top grades.
We know that in some circumstances it should not be about results, it should be about the effort or experience. But in a
world where evaluation, comparison and measurement hold sway, how do we judge something subjective?
Costa Rica did not win the World Cup, yet we know the team played well and we are thankful for the experience of having
watched the players take on the giants. How many of us relish watching the Brazilians, when they are in form, play? They
turn football into an enchanting art and we are all the richer for it.
Its all about goals: We will remember players such as Neymar of Brazil, James Rodriguez of Colombia, Lionel Messi
of Argentina, Arjen Robben and Robin Van Persie of The Netherlands, and Thomas Mueller and Miroslav Klose of
Germany.
Why? Because they scored goals. Again, it is sad, but true that we look for heroes, for examples and often fail to consider
that if the rest of the team did not play as well, these players could not have scored. Look no further than Christiano
Ronaldo of Portugal, one of footballs greats. He was good but the rest of the team was not good enough.
People look for scapegoats: When something goes wrong, we look for someone to blame it on. In the case of Brazil,
Luiz Filipe Scolari is it. Some are also blaming forward Fred for the disaster.
Again it is sad that we look for scapegoats when something goes wrong or not as we had expected. Certainly we have to get
to the source of the problem to set it right, but we should not look for a scapegoat simply to wash our hands of the problem
or incident.
People have short memories: Scolari is being reviled for the disastrous showing of the Brazilian team. But it is this
same man who, in 2002, coached the team that won the World Cup. Then, of course, he was celebrated. Now, it looks like
he will resign, or be kicked out.
This phenomenon can be seen in Malaysia too, especially when the general election comes. The public has a short memory
and that is one reason why some not-so-bright, or sycophantic, politicians get re-elected.
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Something else comes to mind, too. Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was celebrated after he led the Barisan Nasional to its
biggest ever victory in 2004. However, when the BN did very badly in 2008, he was blamed and shunted out.
Life is full of uncertainties: Many people expected Brazil to win the cup. It not only did not win, it was humiliated by
the German team in the semi-finals. Who would have expected the Germans to score 5 goals in the space of 29 minutes,
and that too against Brazil?
It shows that anything can happen even to the best of us. Since life is full of uncertainties, what we can do is to try to
prepare ourselves as best we can and live life as best as we can, while contributing our little bit to make the world a better
place.
Keep emotions in control: This lesson comes courtesy of Luis Suarez of Uruguay. Fifa banned Suarez from all football
activities for four months and from playing in Uruguays next nine matches for biting Italian player Giorgio Chiellini.
Malaysians can profit from this lesson, especially the hotheads who are make statements or incite actions that could lead to
inter-racial or inter-religious conflict.
Just as in football, society has its rules. Recently, we have been seeing an increase in the number of Suarez-like biters on
the prowl and that is not good for the nation. If everyone were to follow the rules established by society and address
issues in a civil manner, with an open mind and with justice as the goal there will be fewer problems in the country.
Be careful what you say: The seventh lesson is that we should be careful what we say, or tweet. This is one lesson that
most politicians should take to heart. The colourful Member of Parliament for Kinabatangan, Datuk Bung Mokhtar,
received an earful for tweeting, after Germany humiliated Brazil: Well Done..BravoLong Live Hitler.
Many Malaysians slammed him. Germanys Ambassador to Malaysia Holger Michael said: While we appreciate the
admiration for the German football team, we strongly reject the unacceptable allusion to the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had to wade in to rescue the situation when Bungs comments became international
news. Najib said Bung does not speak for Malaysia, or for the ordinary Malaysians who understand Europes tragic past,
and respect its modern unity.
But Najib himself got into a sticky situation for saying, after attributing Brazils defeat to a lack of leadership, that, If that
could happen to a football team, imagine what would happen to a country that does not have effective leadershipthe
answer is we will end up like Brazil.
That unleashed a flood of comments in the social and online media, with many questioning his leadership qualities and
some even saying that he was not an effective leader.
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