Deafened by the vuvuzela and with sofa sores on my behind, I sit remote control in hand decidedly underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong; to me it is still the beautiful game. It has just started to sport a few wrinkles.
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You know it’s a quiet time in the world of football news when the banning of the vuvuzela by a handful of Premier League clubs makes the press. This is the situation in which we have found ourselves however, as the effects of a post-World Cup lull and a three and half week wait before the start of Premier League football begin to take their toll. With a distinct lack of anything meaningful happening in the transfer market, it appears that a plastic trumpet is one of the more newsworthy items on editors’ desks.
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For many, the phrase “its just a game” is an adage to live by when dealing with football. After a major disappointment, like a relegation or a heartbreaking loss, we are often told that, in reality, football is not the most important thing in life, even if that late goal or that blatant handball may make happiness seem a distant memory. But football is, in many cases, more than that; football can be the impetus for change in society, and can create social opportunities beyond a joyous group of supporters enjoying themselves in the post match pub. Football to many is not just a 90 minute distraction, but a way to change one’s life.
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Of England’s 23 man World Cup squad, a nice trivia question could have been ‘how many players have played abroad at some point in their career?’. You’d be certain to find a few working through the list, at least you would think. However, the results are shocking – only one player in the squad has tested his merits beyond the borders of England, and it was a brief one at that; Peter Crouch made 8 appearances as a 19 year old for Swedish outfit IFK Hassleholm in the summer of 2000, on loan from Tottenham.
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Whilst everybody basks in the warm afterglow of the World Cup, it’s perhaps important to put a bit of perspective on things and not paper over the cracks of some of the less positive aspects from the tournament. For example, the need for video technology has been particularly well documented, particularly in this country, following Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’ against Germany. However, equally pressing for the game’s governing bodies to address should be ‘player simulation’, or in other words, diving.
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