Grave Error

My former Strategy professor and co-worker, David Allen, has a very insightful post on his blog entitled “Frank Rijkaard, ‘Self-management’, organizational ecology“. Professor Allen’s post is not only interesting because it discusses the present state of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, Frank Rijkaard, and Ronaldinho, but also because I think it is a nice catalyst for reflecting on the management environments in which we all work or interact. (more…)

Just found this Zidane highlight video and thought I would revisit Zizou. The image quality isn’t great here, but you get to see some of the reasons why Zidane was such a pleasure to watch. As a matter of fact, I saw some of this footage live at the Bernabéu.

Almost every Friday at FON, we have Jornadas de Fútbol; in other words, we play a nice soccer match between the techies on the ground floor and the finance, legal, and marketing guys on the third floor. Can you say, “East Side” ? Because I had been traveling almost every weekend for the past month or so, this is the first time that I have played in quite a while.

We always play fubito, meaning 6 against 6 on an indoor court about the size of a basketball court with a smaller and heavier than usual ball. Unlike Indoor Soccer in the States where you can use the walls, in fubito you play with the same outdoor soccer rules, and you have throw-ins, corner kicks, etc. when the ball goes out of bounds. Recently, we have been playing outdoors on a really cool fubito court with artificial grass. The problem today was that it was 32 degrees Celsius (or 90 degrees Fahrenheit), and we were slow, pathetically slow. For the first time since the Jornadas began, we on the third floor got our asses kicked (Dorothy from the ground floor scored two amazing golazos).

Now, I am not the kind of guy to be upset about losing or to sulk. I simply like to enjoy the game win or lose, but today I (as well as our regular superstar Berga) played pretty horrendously. No big deal right? Well, there is kind of a small problem, a minor fiasco. (more…)

One thing that has always impressed me about World Football is how professional teams’ locker rooms are so multicultural and the players work together in apparent harmony. Take Real Madrid, for example, where you have players from Spain, England, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and Mali. Of course, the players compete with each other for a starting position, but still they appear to “get along”. The same could be said of US professional sports such as baseball, American football and basketball. Over time, fans stop identifying players as being of a certain race or ethnicity and see them only as there heroes.

Thus, when something happens like on Wednesday night when English and Italian fans attacked each other, I am always shocked at how provincial people can be. (more…)

Here is the trailer to Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle, filmed entirely during a Real Madrid v. Villareal game in 2005.

Siento aburrir de nuevo a mis lectores con otro video más de Zidane. Pero hoy después de trabajar (a pesar de ser festivo) vine a casa con Berga y vimos parte del DVD “Como un sueño“. Luego al escuchar el partido de Champions por la radio entre Real Madrid y Steaua Bucarest, me di cuenta que el fútbol aburre sin Zizou. Así me puse a rebuscar videos suyos en Youtube y ahí encontré éste sobre su despedida del Bernabeau que incluye algunas de sus mejores actuaciones vestido de blanco.

It seems no one is talking about the polemics that centered around Zizou in this summer’s World Cup Final any more. Nevertheless, his absence is definitely noticed in the Bernabeu. Let’s remember Zizou with these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Saf_1xOr12o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCl3U1baqxU&mode=related&search=

Read this excellent op-ed piece, En honor de Zinédine Zidane, by Darío Valcarcel from the Spanish daily ABC (ironically from one of Spain’s most conservative newpapers). I guess I think it is excellent because it follows much of my line of thinking on this issue. In any event, it is nice to see someone offended by (i) intolerance and (ii) winning at any cost. Don’t worry, I have come to terms with the whole thing. Soon we’ll be back to jamón conspiracy theories and other digressions. Take a deep breath, we’re almost there . . .

I have decided to end my political activism and radicalism with regards to Zizou’s famous cry of ”basta ya“. It has been loads of fun. I encounted my alter ego as a soap box orator. Yet, now my past three sleepless nights of indignation have concluded. But before retiring completely, I would like to thank the Men in Black for their support in their recent post, William for his disucssions on this matter, Waya for her empathy, Berga for running the political campaign, and my brother for his “Rage Against the Machine” inspiration. Finally I would like to conclude with the following thoughts:

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When I was a kid we had this saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” But, that is an easy lesson for those who grow up as the majority class, who are not immigrants, or who have never been discriminated against. We may never know exactly what Materazzi said to Zidane, but my guess is that is was something racist or xenophobic. So, what lesson do we have to learn from this? In my mind, there is a very clear lesson. It doesn’t matter how great you are, insults still hurt. The World Cup which celebrates tolerance, multi-culturalism, and internationalism should not dethrown Zizou, but understand that even the greatest of the world’s stars is still subject to cheap, insenstive insults. The world is converging (just look at the make up of the French team), but there is still a long way to go. What is a horrible shame is that today the news media have depicted Zidane as someone who lost his cool under pressure, and yet Materazzi is a national hero. What are we valuing in society? How would you have reacted? Which side of the fence do you want to stand on? This is the sad reality of a politically incorrect Europe that permits racist remarks because it is always the offended that bears the responsibility for not being offended and the offender? Is clever? . . .

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