Life Lessons From Football: A Call For Youths Introspections by Yusuf Nasir Ahmad.

Life Lessons From Football: A Call For Youths Introspections.

By Yusuf Nasir Ahmad.
Naseeryusuf07@gmail.com
+2348145598212, +2349059013894.

Alright, The Long Awaited World Cup is Over. Let's quickly ponder about lessons learnt from football.

Every game has its rules and regulations, football is not an exception, it has its own rules too. In totality, there are 17 rules in football which are:

1: The Field of Play.
2: The Ball.
3: The Players.
4: The Players' Equipment.
5: The Referee.
6: The Other Match Officials.
7: The Duration of the Match.
8: The Start and Restart of Play.
9: The Ball In and Out of Play.
10: Determining the Outcome of a Match.
11: Offside.
12: Fouls and Misconduct.
13: Free Kicks.
14: The Penalty Kick.
15: The Throw-in.
16: The Goal Kick.
17: The Corner Kick.

Of all these rules, which are of course  important, I found few very significant. In other not to keep visitors too long, I will touch on rule 10; Determining The Outcome of The Game. Rule 5; The Referee. And Rule 7; Duration of The Match.

Starting with rule 10: Determining The Outcome of The Game.
This is the fundamental aim of football. It is simply the objective of every football game. The objective is to score a goal across the opponent's goal line. Score as much as you can and shield your own goal post from the opponents. In other words, your twin objectives are also to intercept, obstruct and prevent your opponents from scoring a goal against you.

However, these objectives cannot be achieved without all the 17 rules listed above. Thats what makes them thoughtful.

Suppose you are team leader, and your objectives are to score and prevent your opponents from scoring, how would you do it? Life is just like football. There are these rules and regulations of life that we have to follow whether, in our relation with God Almighty, in businesses, family, or any other constructive institutions.

In order to achieve these objectives, first we must understand the rules. We must understand the field of play. Where are we playing? Understand the environment. Understand our opponents. Who are we playing against? Do we have a ball? Here balls is simply the strategy that will lead us to our goals. We must nit take away our eyes from the ball. It is the most fundamental instrument to the ultimate goals.

If you understand all the rules and the environment, the opponents, their strengths and weakness, we will come with a plan to achieve those goals. In achieving those goals, playing the ball is a necessary strategic component that must be dissolved.

Then the game starts, there is the aggregate time allocated for the game. There is also a refree that punish transgrsors and reward the victims. For you to be ables to achieve these goals, you must stick to the rules. For instance, if you adhere strictly to all the rules and score a goal while you are offside it will not be accorded to you as it is against the rule.

The main pillar of the similitude is to make emphasis on working as a team. This life is just like football, there is competition everywhere. And most are competitions we cannot win alone, just like Argentina couldn't have won the World Cup with Messi alone. Thus, we need to work as a very powerful goal oriented team.

The good thing about football is that it encourages and promotes both cultural and religious diversities. Different people with different cultural backgrounds, skin color, tribes and even religious beliefs come together united as a dynamic team to achieve these goals.

In building your team, there must be a goal keeper. There must be defenders, there must be midfielders  and there must be attackers. All of them interdependent on each others. Working collaboratively to defeat the opponents.

Well, this is already happening. Game theory Theorists and Theoritical Frameworks are deployed in the field of Economics, Politcal Sciences, War, Peace and Conflict Resolution and International Relations to understand players think and what are their objectives. And also how to reach the optimum objectives.

My message here to we the youths is embrace working as a team. Get around a team of highly intellectual people with dreams, objectives and motivations. Don’t forget, even in football, there is the duration of the match. So is life, our match has already started, and we don't not have much time, once the time is up, the whistle will be blown. Therefore, the time is now.

Especially as elecions are fast approaching, let these guide how we think on those we want to vote for. Remember, we will be held accountable and responsible for whosoever we voted in for the next few years to come. And whatever policies they make, whether good or bad, will have a significant impact on us, our families, environments and others phenomena.

Back to the main issue, it is very normal to get tired in life, that is why even in the duration of the match which is usally 90 minutes dived in to two equal halfs as 45 minutes for first half and another 45 minutes for second half, there is 15 minutes break interval for half time. That is where you get to rest and give yourself a self introspections as to how far or close you are to achieving your goals.

After that, you come out from the hole and finish what you have started. It must be finished. Whether you win or lose is another thing, however, it must be concluded.

In the event that you lose, don't get discouraged, as Wiston Churchill said "Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that matters."

Dont give up on your goal if you failed and also don't relax when you succeed. We also learn how to retain success. Its very expensive, difficult to get and yet slips aways so easily, even melts faster than salt melts in water.