Sometimes, the solutions to the ills so manifest and so obvious in the global game lie completely within the players, big and small.

The World Cup draw in Cape Town on Friday was stigmatized by the shrug of indifference by which the sport’s overlords have implied that if a player gets away with cheating on the pitch, there is nothing officialdom can do about it. Adding irony to insult, FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, pronounced that Ireland might be afforded “moral compensation” for losing out in World Cup qualification to the blatant handball from Thierry Henry to set up the winning goal for France.

But on Saturday, the players of Ascoli, a team struggling at the foot of the Italian second division, demonstrated fair play to a man. It led at 14 minutes, after a controversial goal that came directly from an injured opponent, Carlos Valdez of Reggina, trying to boot the ball out of play to receive treatment.

Ascoli intercepted his clearance and scored its goal. In the heat of Reggina’s protests, its defender Andrea Costa was red-carded by the referee. But when calm was restored, Ascoli’s players did the right and proper thing. They stood aside and allowed Reggina to equalize, unopposed.

That act, alone, is worth the FIFA so-called Fair Play Trophy at the end of this season. It may not get it because Ascoli Piceno is a mere Serie B club, off the radar of the headliners like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and, well, Thierry Henry.

For what it’s worth, this column salutes the team. Fair Play in soccer, however, might yet have repercussions for Ascoli. The equalizer led to a 3-1 home defeat, and the points lost Saturday could be critical when the relegation places are settled at the end.