I took a walk through our village playing fields not so long ago and there were a couple of kids' football teams playing a match. I should preface the next bit by saying that I fully accept the charge of being an old codger that will inevitably be laid at my door. Those kids were about eight or nine, and the language from them, and their adoring parents, was absolutely foul. Equally, the referee - someone, I remind you, who gave up his Saturday morning so that there could be a game - was being roundly abused by both players and grown-ups alike. Respect for the officials should be one of the basics in any sport, and football has lost it totally. Watch any pro' game and you'll see the ref' being harangued by players - it has become the norm, and it stinks. If a kid has no respect for the referee, why should they have respect for their teachers or any other figures in authority? Some deny that such a link exists, but I think they're wrong. Follow the following link if you think there isn't a problem.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/get_involved/4541798.stm
The cheating in football, both at an amateur and professional level, has been institutionalised. Two players go for the ball and it goes out of play: they both know which way the throw-in should be given, but both claim it, and it happens every time. They do that because they see the 'pros' doing it, and kids ape what they see in the top-flight game.
I haven't been to a professional game for about 30 years, since I got caught in a tunnel at Hillsborough when things kicked off after a Sheffield derby. That was shortly after the Aston Villa supporters came to town and had a race across the bonnets of the cars parked outside the Town Hall. I thought then, 'Why?' and I think much the same way today. I know all of the stuff about the problem of football hooliganism being less of an issue than it was back then, but if things are so good, why are fans segregated and herded from the railway station to the ground surrounded by police, and why are there such restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol? The fact is that the authorities have got better at keeping the lid on things, but don't let that fool you inot the thinking that the underlying problem has been resolved.
A friend of mine - respectable woman, pillar of society, chair of local magistrate's bench, etc. - is a Man U supporter (Scottish, never lived in Manchester, so she fits the bill perfectly), and another friend, who is a Villa season ticket holder, took her to Villa Park when Man U came to town. When Man U scored she leapt to her feet and cheered, whereupon a steward appeared and threatened to have her kicked out for 'provocative' behaviour. What on earth is that all about?
Then there are the players. I'm spared the task of singling out one or two dodgy examples because there are so many of them. Overpaid prima donnas, with role models hard to find.
When my daughter was about seven she started to take an interest in sport and I had this fear that she would come home one day and say that her hero was...here you can insert the name of any of the particularly unpleasant footballers that feature in the tabloids on an all too regular basis. It was simply unthinkable that should do that, so I started to get her interested in rugby.
Let's get the hoary old chestnut out of the way first. No, rugby isn't a middle or upper-class game. Head off to Gloucester and stand in the Shed - I've no doubt there are some middle-class types there, but it is predominantly a working-class sport in the city. They have a semi-pro football team but it gets a crowd measure in hundreds (on a good day) whereas Kingsholm, where Gloucester Rugby play, regularly gets a capacity crowd of 16,500. OK, it's not Old Trafford but many Championship sides would take those sort of numbers. The home and away fans mingle - there's plenty of banter, but violence is utterly unthinkable. Beer is widely available inside and outside the ground - plenty of people have more than one or two during a game, but again there is no trouble.
There's a police presence of course, but you won't notice it. When Leicester City play there are more than 100 police on duty with reserves on stand-by: when Leicester Tigers play there are no more than half a dozen, mainly directing traffic.
On the field the players respect the referee: a word out of place and they get marched back 10 metres, or they get sin-binned or red carded. They call the ref' 'Sir' and at least have the decency to look as though they mean it. After the game the players mingle with the fans in the bars and no request for a photo or an autograph has ever been turned down in my earshot. It is expected of the players that they play a role in the community, and that they behave well - some let the game down, but they are the exceptions not the rule.
The violence in rugby is plentiful, but it's on the pitch. I read something some years ago that reckoned that there was an inverse relationship between the level of violence on the pitch and the likeliood of it breaking out in the crowd. When I see football players diving to the ground clutching a limb and trying to con the ref' into awarding a free kick, I tend to hoot with derision. Some of the contacts in rugby are fearsome: a 15 stone winger running flat out and being tackled by another monster - the sound of the collision can be heard all across the ground - but more often than not they pick themselves up and do it all again. The physios reckon that a game of Premiership Rugby has the same affect on a body as being involved in a car crash...and these guys do it every seven days! As for diving: I once saw it in rugby and the ref stopped the game, and said 'We don't do that - if you do it again you're off, penalty against you'...as I say, I've seen it once.
Football fans that I have taken to rugby games by and large have loved it. Yes the Laws are incomprehensible, but that doesn't get in the way of the spectacle, and the atmosphere is great. If you're a roundball, wendyball - there are some other terms that rugby fans use to describe football but I'll spare you them on the grounds of political correctness - fan, give rugby a try: you might just be surprised.
Finally, I've just read these words on BBC On-line on the reasons for Wayne Rooney deciding to stay with Man U, make of them what you will: "However, fierce anti-Rooney banners in the stands during the game, the sinister visit of a gang of hooded members of the Manchester Education Committee group of hardcore fans to his Prestbury mansion, and an ominous death threat scrawled over the facade of a local Nike store had made Rooney think hard about his stance, and the consequences of a mega-money move to arch-rivals Manchester City."
Funny old world, isn't it?
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