Footballers’ private lives continue to provide an unwanted distraction

Oh dear. Just as it seemed that Wayne Rooney had turned the corner on the field after a poor spell by his high standards, it’s events off the pitch which are creating the headlines. The lurid details of Rooney’s extramarital liaisons were splashed all over the News of the World and the Sunday Mirror yesterday, and immediately attention has turned to whether the Manchester United striker is in the right frame of mind for England’s game against Switzerland tomorrow.

Rooney’s alleged discretion is not the first by an England player of course, with John Terry, Ashley Cole and Peter Crouch all recently hitting the headlines for exactly the same kind of reasons. At a time when Fabio Capello needs his players’ sole focus to remain on events on the pitch as he attempts to mastermind a post World Cup recovery, this provides yet another undesirable sideshow. Is this kind of story going to create an inevitable distraction for the foreseeable future?

Players ultimately have to take responsibility for their own actions, but with exorbitant wages and a lot of free time at their disposal it is hardly surprising that their private lives hit the front pages for the wrong reasons with alarming frequency. There is only so much their clubs can do to marshall this. It is after all their ‘private’ lives and as long as it is not affecting their performance on the pitch, what grounds to the club have to punish their behaviour?

Unfortunately it can have a worrying influence on their ability to do their job, as John Terry proved last season. Not only was there a noticeable dip in his performance levels after his affair with Vanessa Perroncel was made public, he also required time off from his club duties with Chelsea to patch things up with wife Toni on a holiday to Dubai. It is little wonder then that Capello wants to check that Rooney is not going to wear a similarly haunted look against Switzerland tomorrow.

The role of the tabloid media also needs to be scrutinised however. Their goal is to sell as many newspapers as they can of course and in an age where there appears to be an insatiable appetite for celebrity gossip, footballers’ private lives are easy to exploit. However, this is hardly cutting investigative journalism. Unlike the Pakistan cricket scandal, in which a serious sporting issue was exposed, this is a harmful intrusion into a very personal matter.

You can also predict that should England or Rooney fail to perform at the St Jakob Stadium tomorrow evening, the same tabloid newspapers will be the first to heap on the scornful criticism. Much is made of the need for footballers to provide suitable role models for the future generations of players that look up to them, but first and foremost they are paid to play to the best of their ability on the pitch and they may being held back from doing so when subjected to such press scrutiny.

Given this isn’t the first time Rooney has been caught out in this manner, he may need to seriously appraise certain aspects of this personal life in the weeks ahead. However, although he will inevitably be criticised should the decision backfire, it would be a shock if Capello did elect to omit Rooney from the team to face Switzerland tomorrow evening. He remains a world class striker but would do well to remind himself that it is not only his footballing ability on which he is judged.