Following
on from this summer’s London Olympics 2012 the organisers of the games hope
that the heroics displayed by the Team GB athletes will inspire a generation.
It’s hard to believe that not twelve months before the capital had seen riots
on its streets that had brought the worlds media attention upon the city at a
time that it was least needed. This summer’s Olympics and what promises to be
the biggest and most supported Paralympics in history has seen a country unite
around sport and athletic achievements. Much more than that the country has
fallen in love with athletes that certain fractions of society would have us
believe are the root of this country’s problems like immigrants for example.
Watching the highlights of the football league yesterday it was wonderful to
see players celebrating using what has been coined the ‘Mo-Bot,’ the
celebration used by the new two time Olympic Champion Mo Farah after his memorable
wins for Team GB. Farah who was born in Somalia moved to England at the age of
8. One journalist for whatever reason took it upon himself to ask Farah if he’d
have preferred to have raced for Somalia rather than Team GB. Farah’s very curt
reply was simple;
“Look
mate this is my country. This is where I grew up, this is where I started life.
This is my country and when I put on my Great Britain vest I'm proud. I'm very
proud.”
I’m sure his remarks
has several Daily Mail readers choking on their cornflakes the next morning. Yes
these were the words of a Somalian born refugee who now treats England as his
home. His love for his country was laid bare for all to see. Mo Farah had won
gold medals in the Olympics twice not only for himself, not only for his
family, not only for Team GB but for his country. What better message to spread
to future generations, to inspire future generations, to want them to take
pride in their country and to accept others into their hearts and to treat
everyone as equals. What better time to grasp and hold onto to these things
dearly and not let them go. Except there's one slight problem with that fact;
people have very short memories and whilst the Olympics may have captivated the
heart of a nation for a fortnight as I’m sure the Paralympics is about to do in
exactly the same way, this weekend saw the start of the football season again.
As a betting man I’m sure that all the good that has resulted from
the Games will once again come undone very quickly as the nation turns back to
watching 22 grown men kicking a ball around a football field for 90 minutes.
After the success of
Team GB it’s perhaps been forgotten that just a short time before the English
football team was knocked out of the European Championships, a tournament that
had been superseded by the ongoing court case between Chelsea Captain John
Terry and Anton Ferdinand over alleged racist remarks made in which Terry was
cleared in a court of law. But that wasn’t the end of the matter as the
Football Association have placed a disciplinary charge against Terry for the
exact same incident. Terry who maintains his innocence having being cleared by
a court of law has requested a personal hearing with the FA. Whilst the story
isn’t dominating the front and back pages of the press just yet it will, I’m
sure only be a matter of time before they do. This is John Terry after all a
player who for whatever reason finds it hard to keep out of the headlines for
the wrong reason for more than a couple of months at a time.
You would have
thought that given the fact the aforementioned case involved his brother that
Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand would have made sure that he stayed clear of
any controversy when it comes to the subject of race. Wayne Rooney once
famously paid £200 for one packet of cigarettes. Rio Ferdinand showed as always
footballers have to do each other paying £45,000 for a Choc Ice which sadly he
never even got to eat. OK so he didn’t actually ask someone to get a choc ice,
he was fined the amount by the Football Association when he was seen to endorse
a tweet by someone suggesting that Chelsea defender Ashley Cole (who gave
evidence on behalf of John Terry during the trial) was a choc ice; a term
meaning black on the outside and white on the inside. The Independent
Regulatory Commission had this to say about the fine;
"The commission
decided that the comment was improper and brought the game into disrepute. In
addition, the commission found that the breach included a reference to ethnic
origin, colour or race."
So before the season
had even begun the game of football has already begun to run riot over the
legacy that the Olympics had hoped to achieve. The so called ‘beautiful game’
is once more beginning to rear its ugly head and remind everyone that it’s not
gone away, it’s just had a break and recharged it’s batteries and will no doubt
come back with bigger headlines this forthcoming season as it manages to do
every season. Would anyone like to start the ball rolling for this season’s
roll call of improprieties and misdemeanours?
If John Terry and Rio
Ferdinand’s cases were an overspill to last season then the alleged affair of
Ex-England manager with Saima
Ansari (who also had an affair with Ex-England manager Sven Goran Ericcson) as
reported in some of today’s red tops will start the new season’s ball rolling
quite nicely.
Can anyone remember every incident that took place last season involving
footballers? I’d like to say that our own club Portsmouth had been exempt
during this time but I’d be lying. Here are some of the incidents off the top
of my head that I can remember that have tarnished the image of the so called ‘Beautiful
Game,’
In December 2011 the then Portsmouth club captain Liam Lawrence was
given a police caution after head butting a man in a nightclub which left him
with a suspected broken nose, two black eyes and a cut lip.
Ryan Giggs was caught out having an affair with Welsh model Imogen
Thomas and took out a court injunction banning the press from reporting on the
subject. This marital indiscretion didn’t stop him being named captain of Team
GB at this summer’s Olympics by Stuart Pearce however.
Liverpool’s Luis Suarez was fined £40,000 and banned for eight matches for
being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.
Newcastle United’s Nile Ranger seems on a one man mission to tarnish the
game of football all by himself. In August of last year he was arrested on
suspicion of assaulting a man in the city centre of Newcastle leaving the
victim unconscious. Two months later he was charged with being drunk and
disorderly in Newcastle. In March 2012 he was convicted of being drunk and
disorderly and was ordered to pay £135 costs and given a six month conditional
discharge. In March 2012 he was fined for making homophobic comments on Twitter
and to round the month off nicely he was arrested for breaching the terms of
his bail whilst awaiting trial on not one but four assault charges. Let’s not
forget this is the same player who was questioned by Newcastle after posing
with a replica gun in a photograph back in May 2011.
Joey Barton’s was banned for 12 matches having been found guilty on two
counts of violent conduct after clashing with Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany
and Carlos Tevez for which he was also fined £75,000 by the FA. Let’s be honest
Barton’s overall history in comparison makes Newcastle’s Nile Ranger look like
a relative saint.
Carlos Tevez went AWOL from Manchester City for three months in his
native homeland of Argentina after reportedly refusing to play in a Champions
League game against Bayern Munich.
In May 2012 Sunderland defender Titus Bramble was cleared of charges
that he sexually assaulted two women however back in August 2011 his brother
and fellow professional Tesfaye was jailed for rape.
A month earlier Sheffield United’s Ched Evans was jailed for a term of
five years for rape in a court case that saw Port Vale Clayton McDonald cleared
of the same charges.
Stoke City academy
played Andrew Hall just 18 was charged with the murder of his 15 year old girl
friend Megan-Leigh Peat in June 2012.
Four players from Brighton and Hove Albion and one
from AFC Bournemouth were arrested in March 2012 over an alleged sexual
assault.
El Hadji Diouf was
arrested in April 2012 on suspicion of violent disorder following a fight in
the Circle Club in Manchester.
These are just some
of the incidents I can think of from the English game. I won’t even start on those
from north of the border or the allegations facing Italian football and their match
fixing scandal currently under investigation. If the game’s off field antics
follow suit from the previous season how many people will be still focused on
the unity that the performance that Team GB helped create across the country
for two brief weeks at least.
Many moons ago before
money overran the game of football, players were afforded nicknames that
reflected their footballing talent and the status by which fans held them
within the game. At Portsmouth the legend that is Jimmy Dickinson; who made a
club record 845 appearances for Pompey and was capped 48 times for England
earned the nickname Gentleman Jim on account of the fact that throughout his
entire career he wasn’t booked or sent off a single time. Just re-read those
number of appearances when considering how great a statistic and achievement
that really is and a testimony to just how far the game has changed now in the
modern era. But back then the Post-War heroes were often given nicknames;
Alfredo di Stefano was known as ‘The Master’, John Charles the ‘Gentle Giant’,
Danny Blanchflower the ‘Thinking man’s footballer’, Sir Stanley Matthews ‘The
Wizard.’
There were the unsung
heroes of the game who back then failed to get their share of the limelight yet
were idolised by their club fans; Joe Mercer of Arsenal and Billy Wright of
Wolverhampton Wanderers who broke all records as Captain of England. Alongside
the Gentle Giant John Charles all three were renowned for their sportsmanship
and fair play. I’m finding it hard to think of any modern day players with such
fine reputations or who’ve been awarded similar nicknames in the current
climate.
The atmosphere between
the sets of fans since the 1970s onwards has become positively tribal against
one another not just in England but worldwide. The vile hate aimed towards
rival fans be them before, during and after derby games such as Portsmouth Vs Southampton,
Glasgow Rangers Vs Glasgow Celtic, Manchester United Vs Liverpool is well
documented and has often spilled into violent scenes.
One of the very valid
points raised during the Olympics in regards to the football matches played was
how they had been played in such a family friendly atmosphere, something we are
unlikely to see anytime soon during the next few months as the season gets
underway. Even when a club’s rival team isn’t even playing fans will sing
anti-rival songs on a regular basis throughout the game as a demonstration of
loyalty to their club and show an utter distain against their perceived
enemies.
Yet in the Olympic
stadiums show casing so many different sports, events and disciplines the
crowds were getting behind everyone that was taking part. Just look at the
reaction the Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt received in the Olympic Stadium when he
took Gold for Jamaica in both the 100 metre and 200 metre events. The cheers
were just as loud as for any Team GB athlete that had secured a Gold medal or
any colour medal for that matter. Even those athletes who finished way off the
pace were supported over the finishing line to great applause no matter what country they were representing.
The most obvious
conclusion for the reaction of the fans at the London Olympics was the fact
they were witnessing the culmination of four years of hard training for which
the majority of those competing had to be funded for from places such as the
National Lottery for example. More impressive were the individual teams who’d
received no so such funding at all and had to raise their own money just to be
able to compete in the Olympic games; a chance to say even if they didn’t take
home a medal – “I was there and I represented my country in an Olympic games!”
Hold on to those
Olympic memories for as long as you can. Sadly I suspect they will soon be long
gone as no doubt over paid players with little between their brains start to
once more begin to dominate the front pages of newspapers for all the wrong
reasons again. If some of last season’s stories are anything to go buy we’re in
for some more shocking headlines from todays so called role models in the ‘Beautiful
Game!’
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