Conflict - Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

Last Friday, sparks of controversy and conflict within my hometown football club, Birmingham City. In a press conference, club manager Lee Clark publicly criticised and dropped striker Nikola Zigic from the 16-man squad for the weekends fixture with Watford, following what Clark described as "the worst training session in terms of a professional footballer I have ever come across". As anticipated, opinions were very much split on the matter afterwards, with some supporters empathising with Zigic, and others backing the firm stance made by Clark.

Personally, knowing that Zigic is on  roughly £50,000 a week (whilst the club continue to struggle financially) and not training to the highest possible standard infuriated me, especially as the majority of supporters would be overjoyed to playing football for a living, regardless of wage.

Within the 4 frames of conflict (Fox, A – 1966), the Unitarist frame that promotes harmony and togetherness within an organisation is something that has come to be expected within sports teams - more so in the case of high profile clubs and teams who have a burden of expectancy to top leagues and win trophies. Why? Well what hope is there for a team to perform at full capacity if its levels of coherence aren't at a peak? Should this harmonious screen become cracked, quick restoration must be made to cover any presence of conflict. 

Cole was fined £90,000 fine following his tweet about the Football Association - he later deleted the tweet and apologised.

Countless examples of such quick-fire cover-ups have been seen previously, prime examples of which involving big name footballers acting irrationally on Twitter (such as Ashley Cole's outburst), in turn tarnishing their personal reputation, as well as their clubs. 

It was somewhat of a push against the grain to see a manager openly criticise a player - whether he was right to do so is a matter for supporters to debate amongst themselves. Arguments have been made that starting Zigic would have set a bad example to younger players in regards to the required work ethic (which I agree with), whereas other supporters have focused more on the needs of the team, within which Zigic has played a key role at stages over the past 2 seasons. Inevitably, criticism of the situation will be dragged out by the press in an attempt to stir up tension.

Where conflict is concerned - a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't if ever there was one?

Was the right decision made?

Is it better to openly engage with conflict rather than ignore it?

Have you found yourself in similar positions of difficulty?