Game Badly Served by Media Muppets

Most match reports for the recent Chelsea – Newcastle match, correctly reported that Kalou’s controversial Chelsea winner two minutes from time, was offside and that the match officials had made a huge mistake in allowing the goal. In the context of yesterday’s sacking of the Newcastle manager, Sam Allardyce, the referee did Sam’s and Newcastle’s cause a great deal of harm. But did the loss of the point that Allardyce’s team richly deserved cause his downfall? Certainly not. At best, it might have postponed the inevitable, but when you have a new owner, who has not picked his most important employee, there is always going to be problems.

However, not all pundits agreed that the goal was offside. Some suggested, unsupported from video replays, that the ball had been played off a defender and therefore the attacker was played on-side. Nobody bothered to correct the pundit. Nobody bothered to point out that the rule about being played on-side if the ball comes off a defender, was abolished in the late 70’s. Nor is this the only example of poor understanding of the laws by our so called media experts. You’d think that as ex-players, as most are, that they would know the laws of the game. But no, there they are struggling with rules, most notable with the definition of “interfering with play” in the context of the offside rule.

Nor are these the most glaring of the ignorance of the laws. Andy Gray has recently taken to praising anyone who deliberately falls over an outstretched leg as “perfectly entitled to go over” in winning a penalty. He also describes holding and deliberate obstruction by attackers at a corner/free kick, in winning time and space for other attackers, as “very professional”. Well, it’s not. It’s cheating.

It is a disturbing trend to see more and more punditry not only accepting cheating as “professional”, but that it is being praised. Does it matter? No doubt, what happens today on a professional field happens tomorrow in schoolyards up and down the country. But as more and more “professional” situations are accepted, and play acting to get opponents carded seems to be gathering support, the game becomes more and more difficult to control. You only have to consider how the World Cup of 2006 went to see the problem. The opening group matches were as good as any in entertainment terms, but as the competition went further into the knock out stages the “professional” behaviour got worse, culminating in a final that saw some of the worst play acting, diving and moments of petulance ever witnessed.

So yes it does matter. The media have a responsibility to the game as each individual involved is only a temporary guardian of the game. It would help the game enormously, if, instead of pandering to their ex-colleagues who are still playing, media pundits understood the laws better and they were quicker to condemn the cheats.

Reclaim The Game – The Week’s Events

• Just over half way through the season, and an eighth manager has departed from the Premiership. Far more than at this time last year. However, it is probably true to say that maybe in some cases the board should be the ones who shoulder the responsibility. Sammy Lee was never going to work out at Bolton and the Fulham board should be heavily castigated for giving the job to a person who was deemed to have passed his “trial period” because of one single victory against a team who was preparing for a European cup final!
• RTG is beginning to think that the failure to land Jose Mourinho as England manager is a blessing in disguise. Even out of the country, and out of a job, Jose seems to be hardly off the back pages in being linked to a number of top club management jobs. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona, seem to have shied away and he has been linked to the Bayern Munich, Liverpool and AC Milan jobs. He is in danger of being seen as a disruptive influence on already beleaguered managers. Of course, it could just all be the work of his mischievous agent….
• Jermaine Defoe took all the prizes, last night, in the “Worst Barnet of the Year Award” with his Capello- notice-me-please tuft of fuzz on an otherwise bald pate, not unlike a baseball seam. See the hair style towards the bottom of this page link.