The Essence of Football: A Perspective on the Beautiful Game

How will the champions be decided?

A few of options immediately come to mind:

1. Joint Winners
2. Playoff
3. Head-to-head record
4. Goal difference

The first option doesn’t quite make sense. It takes away the whole charm of winning the championship. This isn’t the lottery, which you win because of luck.

The trophy is the end result of an entire season’s worth of belief and courage and dreams. It would be too great an injustice to have two winners.

You try to make everyone happy, but end up pleasing none. It is too precious to share.

So, should the ultimate champions be decided by a grand finale? That will settle it once and for all. It seems like a logical alternative.

The teams have both secured the same amount of points, and there is no doubt that they are both equally deserving of the trophy. With an extra game, the stakeholders could also be looking at a huge cash cow.

Ticket prices will be through the roof, sponsors will go crazy, and so will the fans. And both teams will get one last chance to prove that they are the better team.

Or was that already proven during the course of the season when they played each other? They don’t need to prove themselves again and again—they are first amongst equals.

Goal difference is a popular choice, and it has been the favored method even while deciding double-legged knockout matches in competitions such as the Carling Cup.

The idea is to look at it as a 120 minute match with four intervals. The concept of goal difference has more to it than meets the eye.

It is much more than a number in the table. To have a large positive goal difference, which is what everyone wants, the team has to score a lot of goals and save as much.

It prevents teams from being one-dimensional, encourages solid, all-round excellence, and rewards accordingly.

While we talk about goals, let us not forget what led to the goals being scored in the first place.

Is it always moments of sheer brilliance, or could some of it be credited to factors such as exploiting the opponent’s weaknesses, playing to one’s strengths, and adapting to different styles of play?

Here is a hypothetical scenario involving Arsenal and Manchester United:

At the end of first half, the score was tied. At the break, Wenger analyzes the first half in which Arsenal was not performing up to its level, and decides to change his formation from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3.

He sacrifices Rosicky for Walcott, who uses his pace and fresh legs to score an amazing goal in a moment of brilliance.

And this hypothetical scenario could very well have been not so hypothetical.

So what matters more? I dare you to ask yourself this—what is football all about, what does football mean to you, and what is the essence of the game?

It could be all about the goals, or it could be about all that happens behind the scenes— tactics, formations, and strategies.

It could also be about the sheer magnitude of the World Cup and the Final match—the grand finale—that culmination of everything that football is all about, that you live for.

Or it could be all of the above.

Is the end more important than the means to the end?

I believe not. If you believe in the grandeur of the Final, and its representation of the season in its entirety, then a playoff would be in order.

But I believe that such a matchup would only prove one thing—that the winning side was better during that day and that day only, and not during the entire course of the season.

A head to head record also does not provide enough evidence to support its case for the same reasons. Plus, it would go against the very essence and structure of the league.

Some would argue that those points effectively sum up an entire season's worth of hard work, and to think that a team can do everything right and still not lift the trophy is quite deflating.

But that would again be failing to acknowledge the truly best team in the league.

Everybody loves goals; ask the passionate Spanish commentators at La Liga.

But if goals were the be all and end all, then goals scored should take precedence over goal difference.

I believe that the simple concept of goal difference subtly recognizes and credits those aspects of the beautiful game that seldom catch the limelight.

So what should happen?

It should never come down to this. Unless someone suggests something absolutely brilliant, the options at our disposal are not enough to claim a clean winner.