The hand of god, revisited.

Originally published in the Daily Maverick.

Uruguay’s Luis Suarez cheated in order for his team to beat Ghana in the Wold Cup quarter final. Of this there can be no doubt, for Suarez admitted as much in boasting that his was the new “hand of God”. There can also be no doubt that the referee did the right thing, according to the rules of the game. We can however doubt the rules themselves.

But there are some red herrings in the responses I’ve encountered to Suarez’s actions. First, it’s not obvious that he should be cast as a villain in this case. If we were being honest, many of us might admit that we would prefer that members of our own team sacrificed themselves in this way in similar situations. The rules of the game, as they currently stand, reward such sacrifices. If Siphiwe Tshabalala could have won South Africa the game against Uruguay by doing a Suarez, we might admire his honesty, yet perhaps regret it in equal measure.