Whilst not wishing to condone racism, sexism, homophobia or any other 'ism' or 'ia' in any way, am I the only one who thinks our national game is suffering from excessive levels of politcally correct bunkum at the moment?
Whatever the truth in the 'Clattergate' case I've got to say it looks suspiciously like sour grapes on the part of the team I've supported since I was about nine. The catalogue of errors in the officiating on Sunday leaves a lot to be desired, and it could have a massive impact on the outcome of the Premiership this season. I'm reasonably confident that all bar ardent United fans will be thinking along the lines of 'they always get the rub of the green' - it certainly seems that way to me. Obviously we will never know now, but the on-going investigations by both the footballing authorities and the police (who must have something better to do?) will rumble around football for ages. I'm not sure how much, if any, good will come of it.
The level that most of us get to play football at is obviously a long way downscale of the likes of Chelsea and United, yet 'industrial' language, hard tackling and personal banter are all part of the fabric of the game. It can, and does, go too far. But I think we need to reign in a bit or we'll end up with a practically silent, non-physical game where players are frightened to say 'boo' to a ghost or to tackle anyone.
Please, let's not let football get like the parish tea party!
An eventful evening's trading tonight, the highlight of which was doubling up on a previous lay of Reading (at 3-0) after they scored a fourth against the Gooners. Not normally one to cheer Arsenal goals, the fourth one, on the stroke of full time made me a handsome green this evening - proving that sometimes getting in deeper is the way to get out greener.
you are right Gun, it is turning into ever more of a farce.
ReplyDeletei can't believe i missed out on the Gunners match to watch Skyfall!
If Clattenberg has indeed racially abused someone, that is not 'banter' and reporting it is not 'sour grapes' - it's a criminal offence. It's funny how everyone seems to immediately think there's no way an official would have said something like that, yet no one thinks twice about suggesting the players are lying. It was only a couple of weeks ago that you'd have been laughed out of town for suggesting Savile was a paedophile...............
ReplyDeleteWhilst the whole thing seems unlikely, that doesn't mean it should be dismissed. Is it not progress of some sort that players feel able to come forward and report racial abuse? Better that than to be silenced through fear of not being taken seriously (which almost certainly would have been the case until recently), which judging from the comments of many ordinary fans, is exactly what people still see this as.
Political correctness can and has gone too far on many things but let's not forget what it was actually, often misguidedly, trying to achieve in the first place - fairness and equality for all. It's not all 'bunkum'.
Sultan, whatever the outcome of the investigation, and I understand Chelsea have made it 'official' and have complained of 'inappropriate language', my point was that this is all going too bloody far.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say might be true, but I'm a cynical old sod, and I wonder if this course of action would have been pursued had we won, or not lost, the game. I suspect, and fear, not! In other words I think that there were factors in the decision making other than the straightforward 'causal' one.
I'm not as confident as you about the intellectual origin of PC either, although I would say that if the 'fairness and equality for all' was the motivation then it is doomed to failure! Competition, the forming of social groups at lots of different levels, differences of opinion and outright aggression are part and parcel of the human condition. Every historical experiment I can think of that tries to enforce 'equality and fairness' has failed dismally.