Soccer nor snooker
We are soccer nor snooker
by Bert van Manen, April 2013
A corner kick is about to be taken. Defenders and strikers jostle for position, and for ten seconds the penalty area is a war zone. Elbows jam into ribs, shirts get tugged, feet get stepped on and there is more male/male intimacy then is allowed in Putin's Russia.
The ball goes over the sideline, two duelling players instantly gesture to the referee that they have the throw. One of them is obviously lying. And why? Do they think the ref will base his decision not on his eyes, not on his linesman, but on an overpaid adolescent's raised finger?
I truly love soccer, but I am not too happy about its present-day morals. Players lie through their teeth, act out entire Hamlets to get an opponent yellow-carded or sent off, and worst of all, get appreciation from their coaches for making so-called "useful fouls". They will take a dishonest win over an honorable draw without thinking twice. Need I remind anyone of Maradona's "hand of God"? What a disgusting genius that man was. What is he now, I wonder? His career is over and he is no longer a genius.
Three cushion players are as flawed as any mere mortal, but compared to soccer players, they are saints. The vast majority of them, that is. If a referee "gives" them a two-cushion shot, they will go to their chair. If a ref misjudges a ticky by their opponent, they will make a gesture: point was good, play on. These little acts of sportsmanship don't make newspaper headlines; they are expected of you in 3-cushion. You don't stand out if you behave like a gentleman. You stand out if you don't. Stealing a point or taking advantage of a ref's mistake is frowned upon, to put it mildly. It's pretty easy to get a reputation. Good luck getting rid of it.
Could soccer and billiards be any further apart? We are so used to these different perceptions of cheating in the two sports, we are in danger of not even noticing it anymore.
You could argue that the difference is MONEY: 3-cushion is an amateur sport at its core, and soccer players can generate or lose millions for their clubs and for themselves with a single winning goal. True, but you would still lose that argument. Snooker players have earned millions as well in the past three decades, and their code of conduct has nothing whatsoever in common with soccer. It's the same as ours, 3-cushionists. Snooker players call a foul on themselves, if they feel a shot was a "push", or if their vest rests on a ball they were leaning over. I distinctly remember John Higgins walking to his chair, when he still had a chance at a 147 (he was on 80-something), even though the ref had approved the shot. As most of you know: a 147 at the WC in Sheffield is worth 147.000 pounds, roughly $ 225.000. Higgins likes a good paycheck as much as anybody. But he did not even weigh his options to come to a decision: it was instant, instinctive. I made a foul, to the chair I go.
And may I add that snooker professionals consider it the ultimate sin to try and disturb their opponent's concentration? All that "working on your tip", discussing your last shot with the scorekeeper, all the rattling of the icecubes in your glass, and especially the moving in your seat when you are in the line of sight? It is my impression that 3-cushion has a bit to learn from snooker, in that respect. But then, the standard of behaviour is pretty high amongst the world's best 3C- players as well. You'll find the jerks who can't sit still a bit lower down the food-chain.
Picking up a cue instead of putting on soccer boots does not prevent you from becoming a scoundrel, it does not make you into a saint. But week after week of continuous peer pressure can and will, over the years, shape your behaviour. It took van Bommel and De Jong more than a decade to develop personalities that would eventually - in 2012 - destroy Holland's long-lived reputation of a skilled and talented soccer nation (that ends 2nd), and change it into that of a thug-squad (that ends 2nd). I don't want to demonize them, though. Much of the inflated ego and the despicable behaviour - and a total misunderstanding of what SPORT is - was brought on by coaches, agents, the press, and the bloodthirsty crowd. All four, how lucky are we, have little or no impact on the life of a 3-cushion player.
Billiards is a gentleman's game, never to be played in a stadium. Small crowds, small paychecks. Huge rewards in character though. Billiardville is like a lush green suburb of a grey and cruel city. I for one am grateful to live in a place like that, because most of my neighbours are pretty classy people.