Friday 23 August 2013

The fallacies of finger pointing

In my home state of Victoria, Australia, Australian Rules football is a religion. You would be hard pressed to meet a local not passionate about their football club in some way. Pretty much every citizen has an opinion.

Almost all of this season there has been a saga surrounding the Essendon Football Club (not one I support. My wife does!), one of the most famous clubs, about whether or not they have broken the rules regarding the use of supplements.

The Australian Football League (AFL) recently judged that there was insufficient evidence in the drug authority's interim report to sustain an anti-doping offence against any player and subsequently have brought a charge against the club and four key figures of conduct unbecoming or prejudicial to the interests of the AFL

The latest is that one of the key figures charged, the head coach, has now taken legal action against the AFL.

The trouble with all of this, as I see it, is finger pointing without knowledge of the facts which means everyone involved could now easily argue prejudice against them.

Every man and his dog has a view, and the media, in typically poor fashion, has been all over this like a rash. We now have a frenzy of misinformation to the point where there is now a shadow cast over the whole game.

The only good news about this is that the football sideshow is overshadowing the other farce, the national election!

As in all things of this nature, egos are now in the way of real leadership. All will end in tears with some reputations probably unfairly tarnished.

This has all reminded me of something my mother and probably yours taught you - if you point your finger at someone else there are three pointing back at you.

If people break the agreed rules in any aspect of life, sure they should suffer the consequences. Let us never forget that sport is a game though. The trouble often is that at this level of sport big business is running the show.

Before you point your finger at anyone for any reason think about the fallacies of doing so and remember three fingers are pointing back at you.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian


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