https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8263-1476
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ABSTRACT
Alfred Archer recently argued that there is good reason to think that sporting supererogation exists. In the present paper, I take a closer look at Archer’s two key cases from association football and his arguments in favour of positing that there is a sporting supererogation phenomenon or realm that needs to be reckoned with. I argue that his project fails and that the notion of ‘sporting supererogation’ as championed by Archer should be rejected.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. In his earlier autobiography, Fowler does not mention that the referee said something along those lines (Fowler, Robbie with David Maddock Citation2005).
2. Sinclair’s cross is not put in front of Di Canio for him to run onto, but is struck backwards in a looping fashion. It is hard to judge how much power Di Canio would have been able to get on the ball had he attempted to head it, especially because Everton’s Steve Watson was there to challenge for the header. Moreover, had he got the ball on target, there would still have been two Everton defenders between Di Canio and the goal line. Had Di Canio decided to let the ball come down on his feet, he would have had to deal with both Watson and Everton’s Niclas Alexandersson. The latter was on the other side of Di Canio. When Di Canio decided to catch the ball with his hands, there were two Everton players near him and another two between him and the goal line. Whatever else you think about the Di Canio incident, Di Canio did not forfeit an easy chance to give West Ham the lead.
3. Archer presents several other cases, and the running race incident from Simon, Torres and Hager deserves mentioning (Simon, Torres, and Hager Citation2015, 73; Archer Citation2017, 365). The case is underdescribed, but one could make a case for local running race supererogation due to the mechanics of running races and the fact that the alleged sporting supererogation happens after the sport event is over. The possible existence of some local sporting supererogation does not justify the three quite far-reaching lessons for sport in general that Archer draws on the basis of his own discussion of sporting supererogation (Archer Citation2017, 368–369).
4. So-called nature sports would represent a challenge to this demarcation. See Borge (Citation2019) for an argument to the effect that nature sports should not count as sports (Borge Citation2019, 108–110).
5. Contrary to Suits, I do not hold that prohibiting use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means is a necessary condition for something being a sport, instead I argue that this is a rational possibility in sport (Borge Citation2019, 129–133). This difference between Suits and me on this point is of no importance in the present paper.
6. On sport as a transparent social kind, see Borge (Citation2019, 85, 119, 134). The transparency relation for sport is more complex than indicated here (Borge Citation2019, 136–138).
7. For an argument suggesting that the handball rule in football is a constitutive one, see Borge (Citation2019, 183–186).
8. Some might want to add ‘unfair situations’ to this description of the player-cum-sport-suspender case and appeal to arguments similar to that given with regard to player-cum-referee-corrector cases. The conscientious and able player might end up putting the ball out of play more often than other less conscientious and able players. I will leave it to my reader to decide whether such an addition is warranted. Note that I do not use the word ‘unfair’ with regard to the arguments pertaining to the player-cum-referee-corrector cases, Archer does.
9. Mistaken referee decisions are not chancy in that way, but we can talk in a fairly straightforward sense about Økland being lucky in that he benefitted from something that was not based on his sporting abilities or skills or on his opponents’ lack of sporting abilities or skills.
10. One would do well to remember that in football play goes on when a player is receiving treatment outside the pitch. One team playing with one less man on the pitch does not in itself warrant suspension of play.
11. For a more thorough treatment of how one can understand what is going on in voluntary suspension of play cases in football, see Borge (Citation2019, 217–221, 251).