In every nation there is a national sport that captures hearts. Without exhausting examples: rugby in New Zealand, cricket in India, baseball in the United States. In Western countries, football is the king sport and is almost solely competed for by its derivatives. This is the case in Portugal, where there are more foosball players than federated athletes.
Nothing beats a game of matreco. The choice of teams, the incredible feints, the mini, the thunder of the shots, the scream of the goals. A fair of emotions, in an atmosphere of competitive friendship, where all that is needed is a ball forward and faith in the creator. Perhaps it's the cheapest sport to make Portuguese people happy.
There are no major studies on the phenomenon, but if you compare it to a business, there are good lessons to be learnt. The metaphor may even be risky, especially since the game involves dolls who earn their living clinging to a pole, with their hands in their pockets and, if you look closely, looking unfriendly.
Let's take the business angle. In companies there is sometimes a caste system that defines functional roles. Who sells is who scores goals. Whoever is up front shooting at goal. In midfield are the team's maestros who pass them a ball. Further back, the defensive line, more concerned with not conceding goals than with building play. And in the final corner?
On the goal line, he stands with a dummy as a goalkeeper. Even without using his hands, he uses his body to avoid the pain of defeat. If he could talk, he'd say he has a quiet life if the spearheads keep on scoring. And he even sometimes scores commercial goals using the luck of the roulette wheel, which as we well know is a casino technique.
The worst thing is when everyone thinks that the turnover is the sole responsibility of the front three. When everyone at the back and even in the centre of the field doesn't contribute to opening up the path to the goal, that's the same as winning new customers. It's even the reason why we see more people available to play in defence than in the attacking zone across the country.
If there were any statistics on football, they would surely show that the best teams are those that manage to build effective machines with their puppets. As we now say in football parlance: interlocking blocks, with quality of play, mobility between the lines, penetration and definition. In commercial language: teams with cross-selling capacity.
In companies where the tactic of half ball and full force so often prevails, perhaps the installation of a table football table can contribute to more than the happiness of the crew. Maybe it will help them realise the importance of everyone in building positive outcomes. Maybe it will even bring out the offensive potential of our teams when it comes to opening up business opportunities. But at least it might get everyone thinking about this around the same table.
By Rui Fiolhais | Administrator and Board Member at Wellow™ Group
