It's More Important Than That

One of my favourite sporting quotations is one attributed to the famous old manager of Liverpool, Bill Shankly. He said, or is alleged to have said that "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Bill Shankly

It is a great line and succinctly sums up the feeling that a lot of sports fans have for their chosen game. But then, sometimes, real matters of life and death impinge on sport and you realize all over again that at the end of the day, sport is a leisure activity, a piece of entertainment, a release from the daily grind but that is all. Two events over the last week have reminded me of that very fact.

Firstly, last Friday was the 22nd anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, where 96 people lost their lives whilst attending the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. I can still vividly remember that day. I was at the County Ground, watching Swindon take on Watford in a Division 2 game. I switched on my radio at half-time to see how the other games were going, only to hear that there had been “some disturbance” at the semi-final, and that a number of fans were injured and they believed that there was a possibility that 1 or maybe 2 people had even been killed. Obviously, that information just got worse and worse as the afternoon and evening wore on. It struck me to the core that these were fellow football fans, doing the exact same thing as I was on a Saturday afternoon, and they had lost their lives because of it. It was a seminal moment in English football, and years later resulted in the enforcement that every major football ground in the country should be an all-seater stadium. The ultimate sacrifice of The 96 will never be forgotten.

The other episode that brought the importance or otherwise of sport into proper focus was reported on the news bulletins last night. Neil Lennon, manager of Celtic, and 2 – possibly now 3 – other renowned Celtic supporters have apparently been sent parcel bombs in the post. Somebody has seemingly seen fit to try to take the lives of these people because of their football affiliations. I know that there is also a religious element to the rivalry between the 2 Glasgow clubs, but ultimately we are talking about sport here. People are dying all over the world because of real problems and real issues; let us not start killing each other because some are wearing a different replica top. Strikes me that some people need to grow up, open their eyes and see the world for how it really is.

Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death – it isn’t, and it never should be.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Without The Good!)

I step away from my blog for a few days and all hell seems to break out!

First off there was the Rooney incident at Wigan when he ambushed James McCarthy – flooring the Wigan midfielder with an elbow to the head. Somehow Rooney managed to escape without any punishment at all. The referee gave a free-kick but handed out no cards – which means there is no way he could have actually seen the incident because, if he had, then Rooney would have played no further part in the game. Then Alex Ferguson, who won’t speak to the BBC because one of their reporters looked at him funny one time, or something, sent out assistant Mike Phelan who whimpered that “we can’t dispute the referee’s decision”.

This farce was then made worse when the FA kowtowed to the “mighty Man Utd” and refused to apply any subsequent punishment on Rooney because, they say, the referee saw the incident and dealt with it at the time. I have to suspect that if it had been a different player, playing for a different team that a different outcome would have occurred somewhere along the line. Either the referee would have sent the player off, or admitted afterwards that he did not see the offence, or the authorities would have seen fit to apply a more proper and appropriate punishment after the fact.

Ironically it was Manchester United who were moaning about the officials in their very next game, when they slipped to defeat against Chelsea. No talk now about respecting the match officials’ decisions. Ferguson was angry that the ref failed to send off Davd Luiz and commented that he had “feared the worst” when he saw who the referee was to be. He also said that “you want a fair referee .... and we didn’t get that”. The irony couldn’t really get any thicker. Ferguson has a habit of disrespecting match officials when he doesn’t get his own way, and has a suspended 2-match touchline ban from last season for a similar offence. The FA has charged him again with improper conduct, but they seem incapable of applying any suitable and effective penalty. I don’t expect a different outcome this time either.

And further disciplinary controversy was to follow in midweek, this time north of the border. A very fiery Old Firm clash resulted in 3 Rangers players being sent off, 13 bookings, a series of touchline flare-ups and a very angry confrontation between Celtic manager Neil Lennon and Rangers assistant Ally McCoist. So bad was the atmosphere and behaviour at this match that the Scottish Government have intervened and announced that they will be holding a summit meeting between the two clubs, the Scottish FA, the police and themselves. 34 arrests were made inside the stadium, with plenty more outside. I am all for a bit of passion in football, but I think things may have gotten a teensy bit out of control up there. Wish I’d seen the game, mind!