Just Sport

Football’s Challenges

I find football gives so many opportunities to show the Christian ethos, sadly these are often very hard to take and are often not black and white circumstances.

Recently we had just 5 minutes to go and were 1-2 down in a Southern Area Christian Football League Div 3 bottom of the table clash, it doesn’t get any lower in our area!

A defender on the line smacks a clearance at me a few yards out and the ball hits my hand and goes in, the Ref was close and saw it clearly strike my hand. He knew there’s no way I could react that fast and awarded the goal, it was ball to hand and in the Refs view not intentional! The oppo go ballistic……….

Laws of the game, a goal, the handball definitely wasn’t intentional.

Dilemma, What Would Jesus Do? What do my team want? What should I do? We are losing? Should the score at the time make any difference? It would be easier if we were 2-1 up not 2-1 down! What is the positive Christian witness?

Think I got it right, this time, asked the Ref to give a free kick. Situation defused, the oppo all thanked me, my guys stayed quiet! A positive Christian witness this time……… even though it should have been a goal. Received good feedback about discussions amongst the opposition after the game about the way we want to play and eventually my guys agreed.

PS I thought God would bless us with a late equaliser for doing this, but sadly he didn’t!?

What would you do? How would you feel if you were on the losing and then the winning teams and also if the goal had been allowed to stand then how? Football gives us some great discussion points and challenges!

By Mark Blythe, mark@mccfc.org.uk

Posted in Just Sport, Testimonies

Sport for thought!

Sport for the day – Great quotes!

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”

– Alexander Pope

“Every man dies. Not every man lives.” – Braveheart

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan

I disagree with Mr Pope! I prefer to expect the best, live my life striving for the best, (you don’t score if you don’t shoot!) and try my hardest at everything I do. We make decisions every day and in every game, the decisions we make show what type of person we are. However, someone said “Your past is not your future”, history rarely repeats itself. So let’s from now on live life to the full, use all the skills we have been given, give max effort and see how we will be blessed beyond what we dream for!

Posted in Just Sport

To play or not to play – Tevez

Champions League September 2011 – Uproar and the Sports pages are filled with one incident.

Allegedly Tevez of Man City refused to go on as a sub with 20 miutes to go in a Champions League away tie. His Manager, Mancini, says he will never play for the club again!

The next day Tevez issues a statement saying there was a “misunderstanding”!

So what do you think? Should he be turfed out of the Country like some say and banned from playing anywhere?

Is that behaviour worse than some footballers who have been charged with GBH, been in jail and then welcomed back to football?

If you were his Manager how would you feel now? Would you try to understand the player’s reasons for his actions and consider forgiveness? Or would you stick firm and insist he leaves or rots in the reserves?

If you were Tevez how would you feel – that you had been wronged? What if you had been misunderstood, how would you want to act now? Would it be possible for you (Tevez) to play at City again? Discuss…

Posted in Just Sport