The world cup
football in Brazil is in flow. The entire world is glued to the tournament with
an estimated 4 billion people watching the games globally. Even in disadvantaged time
zones, like in Asia Pacific, the viewing ratings have been phenomenal. India,
despite matches starting at 21.30, 00.30 and 3.30 hrs. has also joined the wave
with viewing ratings supposedly higher than many cricket matches. Bleary eyed
people, me included, in offices are very common. The world cup hockey, French
Open and Wimbledon tennis hardy gets any visibility in the news channels,
coffee and pub discussions. Hot topics are the elimination of Spain and England,
end of an era in Spanish football, the exciting play of the Dutch and South
Americans, the WAG`s, off field activities of different teams, the revolt
against the FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Qatar`s successful bid for the 2022
world cup.
As a business
manager, I tried to switch my caps as a manager and as a football player and
fan to think as to what we can learn from this wave called football especially
the from huge tsunami wave called “FIFA world cup” which blows away everybody
for almost a month.
I have tried to list some of the lessons below:
1) KISS for global reach
Keep It Simple Stupid! The FIFA
has 209 members and football is the most played and watched game globally. No
sport comes near football in terms of popularity. The main reason is that the
game basically has a very simple process. Get a ball, a few people and start
kicking the ball in a small space to play the game. Compared with other sports
like cricket, basketball, hockey, etc. which needs a lot of equipment and bigger
space to play, football can be played in a small street corner as well. This
explains the emergence of players from poor and downtrodden societies in many
impoverished nations especially Brazil and Argentina. The stories of Pele and
Maradona, who rose from poor families to become legends, is attributable to the
simplicity of the game.
Secondly the game is short and sweet. You just need 90min to finish a
game and hence is a spectator`s delight. Thus the sport has a wide reach to all
strata of the global society.
2) Customer is the king
The main market for football viewing is in Europe and hence the
locations and match timings are adjusted to suit the viewers in Europe. In 1986,
even Diego Maradona`s protest against the noon start of the matches in the
Mexican heat, fell on deaf ears so as to please the European viewers.
3) No strategy is eternally sustainable
The tiki- taka style of the Spanish made them an almost unbeatable team
for the last 6years. They did not bring more innovations to their game and were
probably under the pretence that their style was almost unbeatable. However in
the last one year or so many opposition coaches have been able to find loopholes
in their play. It started with in the Champions league last year and culminated
in the Spaniards being thoroughly thrashed in the present world cup.
An another
interesting aspect is that over the last 30 years, with the exception of
Brazil, the defending champions haven’t performed well in the next edition of
the world cup. 1982 & 1986 winners Italy and Argentina respectively managed
to scrap though to the pre-quarters and finals in the next editions, France
lost in round -1 in 2002, Italy again losing badly in 2010 and of course Spain
being humiliated in 2014 edition. The Brazilians, with their flamboyant and
innovative style have managed to buck the trend on a whole except for their
loss in quarters in 2006.
4) Superstars alone cannot win matches
Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are superstars in the European leagues and
accomplished players in league football. However when it comes to their
performances with their respective countries in the world cup it is way below
their normal levels. Rooney scored his first goal in 3 appearances only in the 2014
world cup. Ronaldo is marked by opposition teams and if his teammates don’t
support him, unlike the Real Madrid team, he is rendered ineffective. Without the
support of the other team members in feeding them the passes and a highly
supportive coach the superstars’ performances are way below the expectations.
Even legends like Pele had supportive teammates like Jairzinho, Garrincha,
Torres, Tostao, etc. while Maradona had players like Burruchaga, Cannigia, etc.,
for support. The classical theory of an organization is that it is a portfolio
of activities and similarly the success of a football team depends upon the
collective effectiveness of various players on the field.
5) Youngsters rule. Persist with non performing old guard
at your own peril.
Football is an high energy game and requires an
extraordinary level of stamina and hence players are their peak in their 20`s.
Only goal keepers can scale the peak capability levels till their 30`s. Teams
need to have a constant pipeline of young players to survive. As Spain
discovered, with their key players over 30, their players were jaded and tired
and exposed. Many teams refuse to accept this reality and persist with their
ageing superstars like Spaniards in the present world cup, Italians in the 2010
world and Brazil in the 2006 world cup. Past performance of these aged
superstars is no guarantee for future performances.
6) Survival of the fittest
In some sports like cricket, teams can give a player
an extended time and hide them in the team which is not possible in football. Given
the high intensity and a focused time limit of 90 minutes all the players on
the football field have to be 100% fit else they and the team will be thoroughly
exposed. Players either shape up or kicked out.
7) Adoption of technology is inevitable
Despite many howlers of decisions on the missed line goals, FIFA was
adamant on not using any technology till the push came to the shove. Many teams
would have felt cheated on un-allowed goals due to the lack of technology in
the previous tournaments. Adoption of technology will reduce the pressure on
the referees and make the game better and fair.
To summarize,
I am sure there are many more lessons to be learnt from football and other
sports. Many organizations encourage team games to judge and build team
building skills in their employees. Probably there might be a correlation that
people involved in team sports from an early age become better team managers!
Meanwhile enjoy the World Cup! Adios!
