Category Archives: Sport

Tail Wags Dog?

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Football fever is with us once again and the nation holds its breath as the England team try yet again to recapture the spirit of ’66. For once the expectations are toned down and even the jingoistic tabloids are not holding out that much hope of success. There seems to be a softly softly approach to Euro 2012 by the England team and a feeling that, whilst we may not be in the same league as say Spain or Germany (and about a half a dozen others!), we may just creep up on the outside, get lucky and snaffle the trophy as did the unfancied Danes in 1992 and the Greeks in 2004. Maybe.

There always has to be some controversy over team selection whether it be pinning our hopes on  injured players such as David Beckham a few years back or, as now, leaving out experienced older players who may or may not be up to the rigours of what will undoubtedly be a vigorously contested tournament. The controversy this time is over the exclusion of Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand who the team manager, Roy Hodgson, has overlooked in favour of a young inexperienced defender, Martin Kelly of Liverpool. That is the manager’s prerogative and it is surely his decision who plays in his team.

Not so according to certain tabloids and indeed by people in Ferdinand’s camp. His agent called his omission “disgraceful” and “a lack of respect” and Ferdinand is evidently fuming, but so what, the manager’s decision is final and the dog wags the tail, not the other way round. Better for Ferdinand and all around him to accept the decision with grace and respect, a word you will find that is much used and abused in football circles these days.

Another player, Micah Richards of Manchester City, refused to be placed on the standby list so upset was he by his omission from the original squad. He evidently took offence because he was notified of his non-selection by Hodgson’s assistant, Stuart Pearce, rather than by Hodgson himself. Pearce incidentally has over 70 England caps to his name, is the coach of England Under 21s and the coach of the 2012 Great Britain Olympic Football squad so is hardly a mere skivvy. Who on earth do these players think they are? Why should the manager speak personally to every player who thinks he deserves a chance of selection? It is an honour and not a God-given right to be chosen to play for your country at any sport and thousands would give anything to be selected for an England squad.

Roy Hodgson has a reputation for building teams out of meagre resources (just as well in England’s case!) and it is the team that matters, not individuals. Clearly, it may prove difficult getting that message across to some of the overpaid and overated prima donnas who ply their trade in the English Premier League.

Gutter Press

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In the midst of the usual depressing political and economic bulletins came the news this week that the English FA have appointed a new fall guy, sorry, manager to try to revive the fortunes of the hapless, under achieving national team. The latest holder of the poisoned chalice is Roy Hodgson, a well-respected and successful club manager with widespread experience of European football and a reputation for bringing the best out of average players. Perfect for the England job, you would have thought!

Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the choice of the masses nor their mouthpiece, the tabloid press. The person they wanted for England manager was of course Harry Redknapp, a man who, when not appearing in court defending his reputation, coaches Tottenham Hotspur to play some of the most exciting football in the Premier League. The fact that their hero has won nothing doesn’t appear relevant and the protests at the appointment of Hodgson at the expense of ‘onest ‘arry have been fervent and widespread. Fair enough, you may say, people are entitled to their own opinion and are equally entitled to express disappointment when things don’t go the way that they had hoped.

What we got instead, of course, was something rather different and that guardian of the nation’s morals, the Sun, had a loud brash front page spread slating Hodgson and mocking him for his inability to pronounce the letter r. In big bold letters the headline proclaimed “Bwing on the Ewos!” (the European Championships take place next month). Not only is this sick bullying schoolboy humour of the cruellest kind, it is an insult to anybody with a speech impediment and in particular a gross insult to a man who appears to be a thoroughly decent, gentle and dignified  human being. He is also well educated and evidently speaks five languages which is probably five more than the moronic faceless coward who wrote the Sun’s “article”. As the former England right back and excellent television pundit Gary Neville said, the headlines were “disgusting…..and a certain paper needs putting out of circulation”. He’s not wrong.

The Value of a Horse’s Life?

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I’ve always liked horse racing, the bright colours of the jockeys’ uniforms, the beauty and grace of their mounts, the noise of the crowds, the lines of bookies stood behind their boards tempting you with their odds and then, if you’re lucky, the excitement as your chosen horse gallops towards the winning post in first place. In recent years, however, I’ve started to feel a little uncomfortable about National Hunt racing and the number of deaths occurring, particularly in steeplechases where the fences are so much higher than in the hurdles.

I didn’t have a bet in Saturday’s Grand National, largely because the race is something of a lottery and it’s often difficult to make a meaningful selection based on form and class. I watched the race though and was saddened to see that yet again, it was marred by two fatalities, one of whom, Synchronised, had to be destroyed one month after winning the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, one of the most prestigious trophies in horse racing.
Of course the deaths have sparked off the usual calls for the race to be banned and even for the whole sport to be outlawed. You may think that that is a bit extreme but the voices are getting louder and as the death toll mounts you have to admit that it’s hardly surprising. I read that approximately forty horses per year die at UK race courses and there were certainly five fatalities alone at the Cheltenham Festival held over a four day period last month. That is terrible and clearly something has to be done about it. The question though is what? It seems to me that we should approach the issue as coolly and unemotionally as possible and employ the best possible experts from horse racing and animal welfare to examine every facet of the sport starting with the premise that safety (both human and equine) has to be paramount.
Questions need to be asked and discussed fully such as, are the fences too high? Are the races too long? Are there too many competitors? These seem to be particularly pertinent to the Grand National, one of the, if not the, longest races in the racing calendar and a race where a multitude of participants funnel tightly together as they jump the early fences. The investigation should be initiated by the racing authorities themselves otherwise the voices of protesters will become louder, the Government may intervene (remember fox-hunting?) and the sport could be banned completely.
However, all is not doom and gloom, there is a precedent here and all the horse racing authorities need to do is look at motor racing. Up until the 1980s Formula 1 was carnage with drivers being killed on a regular basis. Eventually, the sport cleaned up its act and introduced stringent safety measures which have been so successful that there has been just one fatality, I think, in the last twenty years. So, it can be done, all that is required is will and determination. Oh, and a belief perhaps that the life of a horse is not worth that much less than the life of a human.

Sport in Perspective

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Monday morning, it’s the start of the week and you’ve got a nice warm glow following the weekend’s sporting success. 


It’s strange that something over which we have no control can influence our mood and general demeanour and to somebody with no interest in sport it all must appear quite baffling. Sports fans and journalists alike often use warlike terms like battle and struggle to describe what they have witnessed on the playing field and  somebody once described sport as war without the fatalities; an interesting analogy. I recently visited the second world war cemetery at Kanchanaburi, Thailand close to the famous bridge over the River Kwai where nearly 7,000 allied soldiers are buried. Such visits are both moving and humbling and the visitor cannot fail to be left with a true sense of perspective of the realities of his or her own life.

Sport, on the other hand, for all its aggression and occasional violence is nothing more than a recreational activity providing us with an escape from the reality of our often humdrum lives. Although  it has the ability to move both participant and spectator alike, portraying as it does the exuberance of life and competition, it is not war. At times it can appear to be the most important thing in life and even a matter of life and death, as Bill Shankly once said, but when all is said and done it is only a game.

Still, having said all that the sweet taste of victory lingers long in the mouth particularly when, against all the odds, your national team has emerged triumphant over its bitter rivals!

Arrogant English?

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The oldest, and many would say still the best, tournament in world rugby union begins tomorrow. Yes, the Six Nations Championships are with us once more, with France seeming to be most people’s favourites to take the title. Wales, after an excellent world cup, should surely run them close and Ireland can never be written off. Poor England, following their disastrous world cup, the loss of their manager and the retirement of several experienced players, are fancied by few.
With a young and relatively inexperienced side England travel to Edinburgh to meet the eager Scots who need no encouragement in  trying to put one over their “auld enemy”. So confident are they that T shirts celebrating a Scottish victory are already on the streets of Edinburgh. Now that really is confidence isn’t it?
Can you imagine the howls of righteous indignation that would emanate from north of the border if it had been the other way round?  Imagine if T shirts had been printed celebrating an anticipated England victory? The accusations of English arrogance would fill the air for weeks, maybe months but when our neighbours behave this way  it’s all a marvellous example of their passion and patriotism! Funny that.
Memo to England – read the papers before the game, see how everybody has written you off, see how your opponents are already gloating and use it to your advantage. What greater inducement do you need to win the game?

The Crazy World of the RFU

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As we all know, the RFU, the ruling body of English rugby union, are searching for a new manager following the resignation of Martin Johnson last autumn. The interim appointment of Stuart Lancaster as caretaker manager for the Six Nations Championship does, however, appear to be a good one.

Although it is two weeks before the tournament begins Lancaster, the former manager of England’s reserves (the England Saxons) has made an encouraging start. He has said all the right things, cleared the decks, selected boldly, and seems to be doing everything he can to restore a proper sense of value and some humility to the side following the debacle of the 2011 World Cup. It has now been revealed, however, that the RFU wish to appoint a full time manager before the tournament is over, so no pressure on Lancaster there then. If the RFU were confident enough to make him caretaker manager why are they not confident enough and sensible enough to wait until the tournament’s conclusion  before passing judgement on him?

If that in itself wasn’t crazy enough they have, instead of drawing up a list of possible candidates, appointed a firm of City headhunters to do it for them. What, how many could there realistically be? Ask anybody with even a basic knowledge of rugby union and they will probably be able to name at least four contenders. From the English ranks the aforementioned Stuart Lancaster along with the popular Jim Mallinder of Northampton and from the ranks of foreigners Nick Mallet of South Africa and Eddie Jones of Australia all appear realistic choices. Most rugby aficianados could probably double that number so why pay a slick firm of headhunters no doubt huge sums of money to do the job?

That money could be better spent on the grassroots of the game, kit and equipment for schools, improved facilities for junior clubs, coaching for inner city kids etc. It really does fill you with a sense of exasperation. In the 1990s Will Carling, the former England captain, described rugby union’s ruling body as “old farts”. Not a lot has changed has it?

Keep it Real

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In the midst of the escalating European crisis the English tabloids still found time today to trumpet the glorious news that Wayne Rooney’s three match ban at the start of the Euro Nations football tournament in June next year has been reduced, on appeal, to two matches enabling the nation to breathe a collective sigh of relief. I’m sure that we can all now sleep more easily at night knowing that the world is not such a bad place after all!


Personally, I don’t know what all the fuss is about since on the rare occasions that we actually qualify for these tournaments (you will no doubt recall our failure to qualify for the last tournament in 2008) we hardly cover ourselves in glory and often fail to get past the group stages. Still, I’m sure that the irrepressible Wayne will enjoy our final match against the co-hosts, Ukraine before the team returns home to a period of national mourning.

Perhaps I’m being unduly pessimistic since, if the tabloids are to be believed, England is still a major force in world football and the Sky (sorry Premier) League is “the best in the world”. Really, when was the last time an English club won the European Cup or Champions League as it is called these days? A brief inspection of the records reveals that England fall well behind Italy and Spain to name but two other national leagues in the pantheon of European winners. We hardly covered ourselves in glory this week either with both Manchester clubs (currently leading the” best league in the world”) being unceremoniously dumped out of the competition in the preliminary group stage.

So, putting aside all this English bluster, arrogance and the one-eyed bleatings of the tabloids do England actually have a chance? Well, clearly, our players are not on a par with those of the big European powerhouses – can anybody name any English players equal to, say, Silva (Manchester City and Spain) or Van Persie (Arsenal and Holland). No, not really.

The best service that we and our press can offer our national football team is to remove completely the weight of expectation and just tell them to give it their best shot in the hope that maybe with a bit of organisation, a lot of hard work and a large slice of luck they can prove us all wrong – just like those world-beaters Greece did in 2004! There’s always hope.

English Rugby Union Crisis

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The fallout from England’s disastrous world cup campaign last month and the farcical power struggle in the national governing body, the RFU, continue to feature prominently on the sports pages of our national press.
Many respected gentlemen inside and outside the sport have offered their views on how to create a fully functional and effective governing body and how to create a functional, effective and, most importantly of all, a winning national side.

As a layman I can’t improve  upon what these worthies have put forward but it occurs to me that if all or at least some of the following words and phrases can become imprinted in the collective mindset then we could begin to make progress.

Words like (and in no particular order) – honesty, humility, dignity, honour, decency, trust, loyalty, respect, integrity, grace, belief, responsibility, duty, maturity, enthusiasm, leadership, strength, strength of character, passion, self-control, tolerance, flexibility, organisation, commitment, hard work, professionalism and of course, at least as far as the players are concerned talent, flair, wit, intelligence, creativity, vision and imagination.

In summary, a bit of class, both on and off the pitch, would not go amiss.

Sporting Glory

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As an Englishman I was very disappointed along with millions of others at how dismally our rugby union team performed at the World Cup in New Zealand. It was typical of many England performances over the last few years, boring, predictable and unimaginative.

A team without leaders, playing with fear and showing an appalling lack of discipline – both on and off the field, unfortunately. Play hard boys by all  means, but after you’ve won the trophy, not before. Common sense really.

The British Isles’ sole survivors in the competition,Wales, have shown themselves to be everything that England are not, skilfull, fearless, imaginative, intelligent and not afraid to give youth its head and with spectacular results. I truly hope that they can go all the way and bring the trophy back home with them.

I’m sure the whole of England wishes them well just as Wales and their cousins north of the border have always done whenever England have reached the last stages of the competition. Crikey, was that a winged porcine creature that I just saw shooting past my window?!

School Sports Day

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It’s that time of year again, school’s almost out, the kids are breaking up for the summer holidays and parents are taking time off work to attend the annual sports day. School sports day, a chance for children to demonstrate their prowess at running, the long and high jumps and throwing the cricket ball. The problem is that  these days many schools deem it inappropriate for children to compete with one another, it’s not fair that little Peter should endure the humiliation of coming last in the 100 metres or that little Jane should suffer as her best friend Mary overtakes her in the sack race. Instead, it’s either arranged that everybody crosses the line at the same time and/or whatever the result everybody receives a prize.
The question is, if schools are there to provide our children with a good grounding for life and to prepare them for the outside world what is this actually going to teach them? That in the real world there is no competition and everybody rubs along nicely receiving equal treatment? That the rewards are always shared equally?
Of course, it is all complete nonsense and is a perfect example of political correctness at it’s worst. We all know (or at least those of us in the private sector know) that life in the real world is dirty, cut-throat and highly competitive. If you are not good enough you don’t get on, if your product is inferior to your competitor’s you don’t sell it and you don’t earn any money. Nobody is going to buy your inferior goods because they like you or because you are a good person.

These schools are failing our children who should be taught to be competitive and to be hungry for success. All children should receive equal encouragement at school and should be urged to do their best at all times. If they do their best and don’t win the race then they should be encouraged to keep at it and try again. If they still can’t make any progress then they should be encouraged to try something else. There is never any disgrace in failure provided you’ve given it your best shot. To reward failure is a travesty and I ask again what kind of message does it give to children!

If everybody receives a prize then the prize is worthless. The prize should be the sole reward of the winner because in the real world that’s the way it is; that’s how it goes whether we like it not.