Between "morality and conspiracies".. Sarhan explores the hidden face of the football doctor.
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Sport
Between "morality and conspiracies".. Sarhan explores the hidden face of the football doctor.
Hesspress Sports·
If it weren't for the dirty ethics that some players exhibit during matches, the discussion about fair play would not even arise. Deceit, cunning, malice, violence, meanness, pretense, and other whims of the playful soul have become phenomena that are so familiar they are to be expected; it suffices to mention one of them for countless examples and incidents to come to mind.
There are players who embody, both on and off the field, the ethics of seriousness, and their names are only mentioned alongside the fruits of their noble souls that hang from the branches of the tree of honor.
Take, for instance, Frederic Omar Kanouté, the exceptional Malian striker, known for his support of Palestine. He stepped in to save a mosque from demolition in Seville after purchasing the land on which it stands from the owning company with his own money, in a notable incident that turned that mosque into another minaret, a minaret of noble flesh and blood.
And there is another African, Sadio Mané, who is committed to supporting his village of Bambali in Senegal, having built a school and a hospital there, and provided its residents with financial aid and scholarships, in an effort to improve their living conditions... In this, I swear, he is honoring his mother village more than any other good deed.
As for Dr. Rashford, the famous English player, he led a campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic to raise funds to provide free school meals, which resulted in feeding over a million children, and he was honored by the University of Manchester with an honorary doctorate.
Another doctor, from another time and another continent, deserves mention here. He is the Brazilian player Tostão, who underwent more than one eye surgery to be able to participate in the 1970 World Cup. When Brazil won the World Cup, the young man gifted his medal to his treating doctor before he himself enrolled in medical school and graduated as an ophthalmologist.
These are just a few examples of the fruits of generosity, solidarity, and gratitude, perhaps reminding the reader of others.
And because the fruits of loyalty are sweeter to me than others, I must point out some of its symbols who dedicated their sweat and breath to one team over another, such as Baresi, Maldini, Puyol, Giggs, Xavi, Scholes, and Totti...
The most famous incident is when Juventus was relegated to the second division as a punitive measure, finding itself in a real predicament as most of its players left. At that moment, the eternal captain and his noble crew manifested, refusing to leave the ship before it sank, instead pushing its sail with their breaths until it reached safety, and their names became immortalized in one name: the five loyal ones, namely Del Piero, Buffon, Nedved, Trezeguet, and Camoranesi.
And because Del Piero holds a special place in my heart, I will not leave the ship without a salute of appreciation to the captain. For me, even though he did not win the Ballon d'Or, he is akin to the great writers who did not receive the Nobel Prize. However, it suffices for him that the Italians immortalized him with a phrase that outshines all treasures: "No matter how much the beds shake at night, Italy will not give birth to another like Del Piero."
In football, it is difficult to enumerate the types of conspiracies, let alone determine their number, as in its weddings there are discs for more than one of its factions, including players, sponsors, agents, gamblers, managers, politicians, and others who care less about the success of the event than about their share of the cake. Thus, they are woven in dressing rooms as well as in cafes, phones, parties, and grand offices.
As if the field were a green Troy.
As if the ball were made of the skin of that horse.
And perhaps illustrating one of them, one of the conspiracies, may remind us of its kind.
Let’s start with the most bitter, that which is plotted by a group of players against one of their teammates, so they do not pass to him no matter how open he is, lest his position on the field be solidified, and if they do, it is when he is between defenders, hoping he might suffer an injury or be sidelined for the benefit of a closer ally. The most recent and prominent example is what Achraf Hakimi faced at Paris Saint-Germain from the greats of Argentina and Brazil, through the trio of Messi, Di Maria, and Neymar, until they left the team, and their former victim became one of its brightest stars, and one of its most decisive in winning titles, as in their absence he won the Champions League with the team twice so far. By a wonderful coincidence, his coach Enrique described him, for his extraordinary efforts on the field, as being worth three players.
And no less bitter than this is that which is plotted by this player against his own team, or that one with betting offices, until when it is uncovered, which it often is, it becomes a topic of gossip.
There are conspiracies plotted by two teams in a pre-agreed manner on a result that knocks a third team out of the competition. Perhaps the most famous of these is what has come to be known as the "Heijón Scandal," named after the city where it took place. In the 1982 World Cup, the Algerian team, in its best version to date, was set to face West Germany, which displayed some of its players' disgusting arrogance. Some threatened, before the match, to play in their official kit, while others had cigars in their mouths, and some were so arrogant that they dedicated the seventh goal to their wives and the eighth to their dogs... They were thus like someone selling the bear's skin before skinning the desert fox, as on the day of the test, the Algerians triumphed and the Germans were defeated.
Belloumi and his teammates, after losing their second match against Austria, returned to victory over Chile and topped the group, so Germany and Austria agreed on a result that would allow them to share the lead with Algeria and surpass it together in the overall ratio. Thus, they denied Algeria the chance to be the first Arab and African country to advance to the second round of the World Cup, which had been, with those two attributes, the first country to defeat a European and a Latin American team in the same tournament, leaving the competition with its head held high.
The same scenario, with slight differences in execution, was repeated with Brazil and Norway against Morocco in the 1998 World Cup.
And because every North has its own North, Italy, as a great football power, was subjected in Euro 2004 to what is known as the "Biscotto Conspiracy," plotted against it by both Sweden and Denmark to eliminate it from the competition. Perhaps the banner that appeared in the stands bearing the phrase "Victory of the Northern Countries" serves to remind that Italy is just a bit of North for us Africans, while Sweden and Denmark are very much North.
And because football now is only second to the globe itself, conspiracies are no longer limited to players, clubs, and national teams, but have also extended to involve maps, as some may use their money and resources to spoil the celebration in another map. If an example can be given in this regard, it is what happened to Morocco in the 2025 AFCON from some friendly countries, in relation to the adversaries, and what was revealed about the role of the football planet in its radiance.
Conspiracies driven by money are just part of a general sports corruption that includes referees, managers, agents, betting offices, club presidents, federations, sponsors, and broadcasting rights... It combines money laundering with inflating invoices, paying bribes, buying referees, manipulating draws, smuggling capital, and other filth. Perhaps the names associated with it will expose how widespread it is, as it suffices to mention, for the sake of enumeration and regret together, Platini, Juventus, Milan, Blatter, Marseille, Sandro Rosell, Benfica, Bernard Tapie, and João Havelange.
Finally, if the spirit of sportsmanship is extinguished, which often happens due to a moral stroke, then the game naturally suffers. Therefore, many matches, despite their corrupt beauty while alive, are now merely carcasses in the landfill of history.
