I'm a fan of lots of sports football, cricket and F1 being my favourites but I also really enjoy rugby, tennis, ice hockey and snooker. The stuff that has come out of the Terry case has me thinking, after hearing the ways players swear and insult each other on the pitch. In rugby you hear players told off by the ref for using bad language. Cricket has sledging with some great and intelligent put downs such as "how's your wife and my kids" or "Hey Tuffets, can I borrow your brain? I'm building an idiot" but it turns out footballers are runnning around calling eachother "knobheads" or "****ing ****s". When you combine this with the element of racism and homophobia (wicketkeeper Steve Davis is the only openly gay sportsman in the country), the disrespect to the referee, without whom the game couldn't happen, and you really don't get this as much in any other sport, it really is sad. The point I'm getting at is whilst I love football I'm not proud of it as a sport. I don't think footballers should be role-models and every other sport shows its possible to be equally as competative, entertaining and wealthy (golfers, F1 drivers and top tennis players all earn more) without these negative aspect which plague football. At the moment does anyone think football players ate actually good role models and people in society we should be proud of?
If the refs had a bit more backbone and were backed up by the system they could stamp out the swearing and serious insults. For the most part [standby for generalisation] most footballers are terrible role models. Beyond the refs knocking it out of them of course... education, team culture etc all play a part in preventing the sort of embarrassing behaviour that we sometimes see.
It would, and I've said before that only the captain should be allowed to speak to the ref with out being asked a direct question and anyone else is given a yellow card.
I thought the FA said that referees were going to card players who crowd around the ref at every little conflict, but as yet I've witnessed no evidence of this!
A lot of footballers are terrible role models, but we've got to remember there are some good ones in there too. There's no doubt though, that on pitch behaviour needs to be improved. We're not talking about making the game 'soft', and there'll always be a bit of 'industrial' language, but some of what goes on is pretty dreadful. The sad thing is the authorities have it in their power to do something about it. In the end, it's the same situation as with diving, stamp on it hard and within a month it'll be almost gone. Would also say though, with betting scandles in cricket, and the notorious 'blood gate' not so long ago in Rugby (as well as eye gouging etc), other sports are far from providing an untarnished image.
It's almost the unspoken truth isn't it - football and (almost) all connected with it are greedy, selfish, arrogant, ignorant and we only put up with it because we love the game itself and our club.
I'm a huge fan of cycling, and especially 'Le Tour'. Hardly a good record there, is there? Indeed, David Millar, the British winner of today's stage, started his interview with 'As an ex-doper'. Every sports has it's villains. Few could be classified as good role models.
Far too many crap refs at grassroots, bad attitudes, complete arrogance, lack of respect and I can only assume were either bullied at school or didn't make it into the police force. The old generation refs are the best, find them to actually be s bit more respectful. Football, as a whole, needs some rejuvenation from grassroots up. Let's see what comes out of the overhaul of coaching, a solid first step.
It's not just football or sport in general that has a problem, it's the whole of society. The lack of respect stems from an early age where many youngsters just aren't taught what's right from wrong. Notwithstanding the fact of the break up of the traditional family unit where many young men have no father figure in tow to keep them in check, there are so many little things which, when added together, culminate to destroy many of the old values. For instance, when I was growing up you never refered to a friend's mother or father by their first names, you would quake in your shoes if confronted by a Policeman, you never 'answered back' to your parents, you basically always respected authority and your elders. Then in turn after becoming an adult you respected other people and their property, at least I did anyway. There is no shame in a girl getting pregnant at an early age anymore, indeed many do so just to get a place to live and handouts from the state ! My God, years ago it was frowned upon if a women had a child out of wedlock. Now I'm not for one minute saying that we should return to those days, what I am saying is that although far from perfect, the order in society helped to make people respect each other a lot more than they do now in every walk of life.
Is it a hard thing to say that "football is just that way"? With football you just get bad language and gamesmanship, I wouldn't want it to be removed. Obviously theres a line, and racism/homophobia/family stuff doesn't impress me at all, but theres nothing like watching a bit of passion on the pitch.
While I sympathise with the general tenor of your post Bath, do you really think that "How's your wife and my kids?" is a "great and intelligent putdown"? It embodies exactly the same distasteful offensiveness as what Anton Ferdinand is reported to have said to John Terry, macho male sexism in a nasty form. As others have pointed out, no sport is whiter than white. The real difference is in the degree to which the governing bodies tolerate it and the action they are prepared to take to stamp it out. The football authorities are pathetic in this respect. I also think a lot more could be done at club level; too many managers and coaches condone cheating and general bad behaviour -- until it impacts on their own team. And don't get me started on the media .......
No passion on a rugby pitch then beefy? Or rugby league pitch? "Passion" is a euphemism under which deplorable behaviour masquerades as the acceptable face of sporting commitment and professionalism.
I've dabbled in plenty of sports over the years. Nothing compares to the passion in Football. Football is almost a loophole in human psychology, people care about it. Often far too much. Football was started in sheffield 150 odd years ago and it's managed to weave it's way into almost every culture and country on earth. thats a power that Rugby or any other sport will never have and it's that passion, the fact that you care but your not entirely sure why, that causes the way players speak to eachother on the pitch/over zealous tackles etc. And it does go on in rugby as well, those guys are no angels, despite being constantly help up as "perfect" examples.
The difference as I see it in cricket is that sledging what ever the words bein used is normally the wicket keeper playing a phycological game with the batsman. Theres a story that wicket keepers would ask the batsman if they break in or out when they bat, it's said to try and throw people off not as an outlet of aggression, or at least not as much.
I think there are a number of footballers we can be proud of/ are role models. 1. Fabrice Muamba: Came to England speaking no English aged 11 after escaping from a tyrannical regime in DR Congo. Got 10 GCSEs and 3 A levels, went on to build a football career. Having to rebuild his life after being to all intents and purposes dead on the football pitch just a few months ago. 2. Bryan Gunn: Lost his own daughetr to Leukemia, shaved his hair to make her feel normal, played just days after her death and raised thousands for cancer reserach. 3. Craig Bellamy: Created the Craig Bellamy foundation in Sierra Leone, giving opportunities for sport and education with his own money in one of the poorest African nations. 4. Garrincha: Won 2 world cups with Brazil despite being born with a defomed spine and one leg six inches shorter than the other. 5. Grant Holt: Almost drifted out of football to be a tire fitter, given up on many times before scoring against Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal. To name but a few.
Whilst being far from perfect, Golf is probably as ethical as you get where players will give themselves penalty strokes where nobody else would hav ebeen aware. Woods has rather pissed on the game but him apart, it is about as good as we have.
I would add Drogba to that list. The work he does in the ivory coast is incredible. And players like Darren Fletcher or Russ who play with chronic conditions. I will agree there are individuals in football who should be role models.
Now you're talking! But I suspect that a serious socio-psychological-economic study of the football phenomenon would show it to be rather boringly predictable, as opposed to a kind of aberration in human psychology. There must be many a Ph.D thesis and book written on this by now.
