The saying goes that an ethical man knows it is wrong to cheat on his wife, but the moral man won't. When Luis Suarez decided to play volleyball towards the end of the quarterfinal match between Uruguay and Ghana, he simultaneously shot himself to hero status and dropped himself down to hated villain.
It seemed a bit premature. Afterall, the handball earned him a red card removing him from the pitch. It gave Ghana an opportunity to convert a penalty kick for a 2-1 lead with time expiring. And at best for Suarez, left Uruguay down a man should extra time be necessary. Hard to call the man either a hero or a villain as his single act, though a crime, was not the be all, end all of the match.
As is well known by now, Asamoah Gyan missed that penalty kick which resulted in the Quarterfinal ending a 1-1 draw after regulation. What followed was a miserable extra time period that saw no goals. Afterwards, the penalty kick shootout, which is one of the most exciting things in all of sports, but also one of the worst ways to decide a match. American football doesn't break down into a field goal contest, basketball isn't settled with a free throw shooting contest, and baseball doesn't resolve ties with a home run derby.
Therein lies the problem. Homerun derbies are uncontested batting showcases. And free throws are just that, free. In both examples you are up against only yourself and failing to make a free throw or hitting homeruns has more to do with you beating yourself than succombing to an opponent. Yet, penalty kicks are a combat between a striker trying to score, and a keeper guarding his line. Though, the better team doesn't neccessarily win a shootout, isn't that what a tournament is meant to determine? The better team.
Going back to young Luis Suarez, I recall the many people who took to the internet claiming that he had done the right thing. To say that is stupid, because if he had done the right thing he wouldn't have been removed from the game. He did the most acceptable wrong thing, if you're rooting for his side. Though Suarez did cheat to save the goal from being scored, it's hard to say he did the worst thing possible. He didn't score a goal using his hand that led to a win (looking at you Diego Maradona). He didn't take someone's legs out thus removing them from competing. He wasn't caught using steroids, or paying off players, or officials. He simply stuck his hands up and gave away a penalty kick.
What troubles me about the whole fiasco was that FIFA fails to realize they have the wrong punishment for the crime. The red card given to Suarez was completely appropriate, but removing one player from the pitch doesn't equate a goal or a win. Neither does a penalty kick. In that quarterfinal alone, counting Gyan's pk in the match, there were 10 penalty shots attempted. Only 6 found the back of the net. One game, and the statistics say you have a 60% chance of scoring a penalty shot.
The ball Luis Suarez swatted away was 100% a goal had he kept his hands down. The punishment for the crime? Suarez is ejected, and Gyan is given a 60% chance to win the game when the go ahead goal was 100% in.
The rule should be changed so that Suarez would still be removed from the game, but on top of that basketball's "goal tending" rule should adapted. That is, in basketball if a shot hits the backboard, or is on the downward path of its arc, and a player touches it, the basket automatically counts. It doesn't matter how ugly the shot is, or the likelihood of it scoring. The points are awarded. Under my suggestion, Uruguay would be down to ten men and trail Ghana 1-2. Luis Suarez would be less likely to stick his hands up. The game would not have been robbed from Ghana. The real villains here are the members of FIFA who won't make the punishment fit the crime. Moral players need no incentive not to cheat. Ethical ones, however, need to be shown that there is no reward for their behavior.
