Much of my professional career was focused on researching and working for the promotion of values in sport. I learned it at school thanks to a coach who has strong convictions and a deep firmness between what needs to be done and what is done, without schizophrenia, without duality, and to whom many of us are so grateful that I even paid double tribute at my university. It would be very easy to write these lines about how much we did not like about this World Cup, the lack of fair play and respect for the rules, the injustices of some refereeing, interference in the results, discrimination based on race or origin, inequality in opportunities, political and commercial management, economic interests, absolute contempt for sustainability and that have distorted what we like most about sport: the game itself.
But, on the other hand, this World Cup has brought something that seemed unattainable to me while I was researching and I dreamed that one day I would see him; It has caused rejection, I would say almost universal, precisely to what we do not like to see in sport. Unanimous protest against lack of justicea shout out to abusive prices with the capacity to turn a simple football match into the greatest economic discrimination ever seen, a world cup for the wealthy that calls into question spectacle sport.
It has brought us to Spain an unquestionable truthin a country historically eaten away by envy, by a confrontation that goes beyond everyday life, and that divides us by the color of our skin, our flags, our languages, our origin, our way of getting there, and has taught us, I insist, that we are a country of diversity in color, in beliefs, and that accepting it is to value it and make us stronger. He has made clear the idea of teamwork with the same destiny; that believing is the way to work with intensity; that the commitment exists; the control of emotions to continue fighting despite attacks and disrespect; that challenge is the best attitude to face difficulties… Because the impossible gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our strengths and leaves out those who are not in this belief and who, without realizing it, have become what they say they historically hate, but have not respected the other, who is nothing more than the next-door neighbor, the one born in the same land.
A great lesson from Social Psychology, leadership is trust, it does not mean imposing, but convincing. It is giving opportunities to work together for the same destiny. In the face of political tension, the lack of leadership, survival in deception… fair play, always head-on, working honestly until the final whistle.
Drinking from the source of values, without fear of talking about them, without living hidden, without trying to be an example, but being one, is how I learned at my school to believe in the good things that sport teaches us.. The girls and boys of this country, if the mothers and fathers, if the school has understood the message, have the opportunity to learn what is right and what is not, what is good and what is bad, that not everything is valid to achieve an end, and if the world protests from Egypt to Cape Verde, from Iran to Austria, there are reasons for this, and we must fight to change it.
There is no more blind than he who does not want to see, and thanks to this World Cup that has brought us a great lesson, I hope the majority understands what this chapter in the history of football has taught us, which is passion, love and disappointments like life itself. At the end of the day, it’s nothing more than football.
José Carlos Jaenes Sánchez is Sports Psychologist. Accredited Professor. Pablo de Olavide University
