Squabble over a Soccer Souvenir

A court dispute over a used sweaty soccer shirt sounds ridiculous and so inconsequential. But not so if it came from David Beckham. The initial squabble over the after game souvenir that was intended by Beckham as a promotional effort, is turning into a potential legal battle following a tug-of-war between two contesting parties. The Los Angeles Galaxy Soccer Team may witness the effort turning into a surrealist nightmare.

Galaxy had just lost the game to Japan's Gamba Osaka in the Pan Pacific Championship. David Beckham took off his shirt, approached the stands and reached on top of a sign to hand over his game used jersey to two boys; who, it turns out, are close friends and teammates on a soccer team. The boys started grabbing at the shirt when their parents joined in the fray. At this point, the situation became spiteful with both sets of parents screaming, clawing, and hurling threats of legal action against one another. This may end the friendship of two young boys who might start kicking each other during practice.

According to Wilfred and Yoshica Ho, their 9 year old son had first possession, such that a policeman approached to settle the scuffle, take the shirt and hand it over to their son. Mr. and Mrs. Eric Kerr, on the other hand said that their 10 year old son held a sign throughout the game that eventually lured Beckham over. They said Beckham even pointed to their son as the intended recipient. Lawyers of both families have exchanged legal letters and the jersey will be on its way to court - still unwashed.

Beckham wanted the fans to get a kick out of the gesture, now the entire team could get a figurative kick in the face because of it. Soccer is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports in the world, and David Beckham is its current undisputed superstar. A hair from his leg, or from some other part of his body could probably fetch a fortune; even more so with a jersey used in a game - despite failing to win. Sports inspire a competitive spirit under rules of fair competition. It bonds a team with discipline, honor, and commitment. It does not dissolve these virtues because of a souvenir. This is dragging the value of sports into its basest material level, a level young kids must not imbibe if the virtues of sportsmanship, not materialism, is to take root.

It is the adults, the parents, who consciously or unconsciously inject this materialism in their own kids and who would later wonder why their children are without the values and virtues of their culture. But they do. The child's keen sense of perception can spot the hypocrisy between the words and subtle communication that their parents express. The jersey itself has no value. It can be reproduced by the thousands in Asia's counterfeit factories with Beckham's still blotting signature on it. It is the symbol of being used by a superstar and the potential value that adults have attached to such material items, that elevates its importance as a potential fortune. This is what confuses the kids in the choice between idealism and materialism.

A Solomonic decision has been suggested by the Los Angeles Galaxy team to cut the jersey in half, but it will most likely fall on deaf ears. The court case will definitely sever all ties between the families, and the young boys' soccer team may never be the same after this sordid affair. Thanks to the adults and the bright legal minds that interfere in the affairs of children and impose their own distorted sense of values on the dispute. The breaking up of relationships and the trigger that caused it will return to haunt them at some point, it always does. All these for a used jersey that probably reeks of body odor, the judge would want it burned and done away with.

Haaaarrrrwwwwk...Twooooooph...Ting!