It's funny how history is revised. I watched one of the between event segments on the BBC talking about the great rivalry between China & the US showing a comparative graph of how China were so far behind from 1960 to overtaking in Beijing. I'm like hold on, have we just removed all reference to the fact that in the interceding years there was no rivalry because the USSR was USA's main competitor! With one little BBC mini-doc 50 years of History just ignored..... At the end of the day as I said earlier in the thread it's impossible to take a moral stance and still watch and support any sporting events. I mean we just (well most of us lol) celebrated an acquisition of a player paying 15 million pounds for him. That money would literally save the life of thousands of African kids but we just carefully push that kind of fact to the side so we can get on with enjoying our entertainment. Going back to my first point, Russia doesn't get a mention at these Olympics and yet they've sunk back into a nasty dictatorial in all but name state where they don't even have the functionality the soviet system provided. But its no longer important as topics because they didn't win the most medals..... So I'm going to just enjoy it for what it was: a very well organized entertainment event for us pampered westerners
In my opinion premiership footballers should follow the example of the Olympic competitors. They do it for the love of their sport, not a massive wad of cash. The only cringeworthy part of the olympics was the guff coming out of ''patriots'' i.e. David Beckham who has lived in America for the last 6 years.
"At the end of the day as I said earlier in the thread it's impossible to take a moral stance and still watch and support any sporting events. I mean we just (well most of us lol) celebrated an acquisition of a player paying 15 million pounds for him." I agree. When we think what that £15m would do for African children, I think of the following too: http://www.crisiszimbabwe.org/index...enience&catid=80:crisis-comment-on&Itemid=213 The money Mugabe and the Chinese are carving up between them would feed and clothe all Zimbabweans for a generation. Yet the "Breadbasket of Africa" is bare. Funny thing is I sponsor my daughter's penfriend in Zimbabwe to the tune od £15 a month (though I have my doubts it's actually her who writes the standard letters to my daughter). I don't begrudge that, but I doubt that it gives Mugabe or the Chinese the slightest incentive to feed or clothe their own people.
Hey, dont get me wrong, most deserve their place and the whole shibang was great, I got nothing against upper-crust folks competing as long as they stay in sailing and equestrian sports As I said, I feel real emotion when someone who works hard for years achieves their goals regardless of nationality without being paid 200k a week to do so cos in the end the money becomes more important than the sport you are competing in ala footballers and then they get all the cushy tv jobs to boot, F F SAke
Genuine question then...will the Olympics have turned the younger kids away from football and onto other sports or will it just be a Wimbledon-esque flash in the pan (courts booked up for a few weeks of the year etc)??
Some real truth in there Frank but I am the least knowledgeable or interested when it comes to football finance, I amde my stance when I decided to drop sky not buy kit. I enjoy the rivalry and couldnt care who pays what cos it aint my money
Well, for those kids without role models I am not sure, the sons of sailors will probably be sailors, sons of footballers will probably be.. yes you guessed it, footballers if they can cut it. The olympics will entrance a few, the very few and even all of those will not have access to the requirements to make it or at the very least the ability to see if they have it in the first place. Athletics is the easiest for the young, I ran myself but as a pro it must be fookin hard to sustain a life and continue in the sport. Football, kids with fked up parents, fast becoming the norm in this fast food society, don't get oney cant join a club, no boots no kit no chance in many cases and thats here in Ireland and UK never mind the less well off countries
"All kids should be made to play barefoot...on gravel toughen 'em up a bit" Luxury! When I was a kid we used to play on Dovecot Labour Club car park in threadbare pumps and baseball boots on broken bottles and white dog turds, dodging the traffic whizzing down Finch Lane,and climbing on the roof over barbed wire and shards of glass to retrieve the ball when some d!ck kicked it up there; getting an over-inflated Wembley Trophy flush in your face when it rebounded haphazardly off the corrugated iron shutters of the fire escape: and we played through the hunger barrier if your ma called in you in for your tea when you were playing three-and-in and you were goalie and had to stay till the end.... (to be continued) Try telling that to the kids of today...
if they are lucky get spotted. So many are good enough but only when they get the proper training and development. Most dont get that, many are missed because of that, not all very good players have all the marks at a young age. I was a keeper for most of my playing days but in the last 5 6 years I was a very good CAM with sweet little threaded passed and great at sending the keeper the wrong way, why, I watched Barca for a decade and IF i had started out CAM who knows, never mind if I was trained properly Now its back to living out my sporting dreams through my boy
This point may be taken by some (idiots) as racist but it's far from being that. I was really glad to hear the vast majority of our black athletes talking proper English rather than some faux Caribbean 'street-talk'. These athlete's were born and raised here and talk English with truly local accents.
Daily Mail reading Facist Dave! Only joking mate, I get what you are saying. I actually thought the drive to make this Olympics more about the female competitors was the highlight of the games and I'm usually dead set against raising special interests up above the rest. But it was handled well and worked. There was no wishy washy lack of competitive edge but it didn't have that nasty testosterone flavored bitterness to it either. There was a real sense of winning while respecting your competitors. The way sport should be both hard and emotional at the same time. Bit like me while watching the Beach Volleyball!
Full marks to Pendleton hoisting Mears' arm aloft after their track race. The women do seem more sporting than the men, but maybe I'm just being patronising.
It's not patronizing to highlight a a positive attribute and wish it on those that don't have it. Saying they were sporting instead of serious about their sport would be patronizing. Nobody could say Pendleton has not been driven in her field.
