The BBC’s QI program raised a quite interesting example of a straw man argument.

We tend to associate voodoo dolls with sticking pins into effigies of people in order to cause them pain. This is a mistake. Voodoo dolls, far from being used to torture people at a distance, are used to channel healing energy to them.

Apparently it’s meant to be a good thing to make a model of someone and insert pins into it at strategic points.

The malicious version of the practice comes not from Voodoo but from European Witchcraft. Witches would use poppets, dolls made to represent a person, in the way now associated with Voodoo.

According to QI, the misunderstanding of Voodoo dates back to Christians misrepresenting the religion in order to discredit it. With some of the less savoury elements of European witchcraft grafted on to Voodoo, it was easy to criticise this distortion of it.

However, the criticisms would have had little relevance to the real Voodoo, making this attack an example of the straw man fallacy.

In an attempt to improve the quality of coaching in professional football, restrictions have been brought in on who can manage Premiership football clubs. Now, only those who have completed certain coaching courses can take up these posts.

This policy was tested when Middlesbrough appointed Gareth Southgate, an experienced player but not fully qualified as a coach. Controversy raged. Would the Premier League bend the rules to make an exception for Southgate? Or would Southgate be forced out?

The League Managers’ Association wanted the Premier League to do things by the book. Having properly trained managers is necessary to take the English game on to the next level, they argued; Southgate should not yet be allowed to manage.

Southgate had his own defence: There are only so many opportunities for would-be managers to get their coaching badges. The courses are run in the summer, the closed-season for most footballers, when they don’t have league matches to play. As an England international, however, Southgate was busy with the national side at these times, so didn’t have the opportunity to take the courses. Every opportunity he has had, he has taken, but this has left him a year away from being fully qualified.

The Premier League accepted Southgate’s defence, allowing him to continue as Middlesbrough manager while he completes the coaching courses. Were they right to do so?

Southgate’s argument certainly seems to show that it isn’t his fault that he isn’t yet qualified to manage. If he wasn’t given the opportunity to take the coaching courses, then he can’t be blamed for failing to do so. What Southgate’s argument doesn’t show, however, is that he is fit to coach.

If the Premier League were committed to raising standards of coaching, and to the idea that the way to do this is to require that all coaches be properly qualified, then Southgate’s defence would be seen as irrelevant. They might decide on other grounds, such as his experience and his progress towards getting qualified, that he can be trusted with the job, but the reasons why he isn’t yet qualified would not make a difference.