English press are hypocrites
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
If there is one thing that I
have learned from this World Cup it is that top European
football is becoming exceedingly physical. It's a trend
that culminated in a rough World Cup final, but it has
been going on for quite some time. The English press
acted as if they had never seen fouls like De Jong's
before and were hypocrites for their pretend disgust.
In your average Champions League
game the almost kick of Sneijder, the kick of Iniesta
and the foul of Van Bommel are common place. You see
tackles such as Van Bommel's on a weekly basis in the
Premier Leagiue, the Bundesliga, the Serie A or in La
Liga.
Every week the pundits argue about
challenges and elbows and a few times a year a leg gets
broken. There is argument but nothing's done about it,
as it is a men's game. Right... It is, but we don't
like to put it on display when the whole world is watching.
When the queen of Spain and Mick Jagger are in the stands
of course you want to see sexy football. Holland didn't
do sexy on Sunday. They would have lost 4-0 if they
had.
Alan Hansen, Lee Dixon and Alan
Shearer couldn't handle that and stirred up a whole
nation against a team that did everything to win, in
ways not unfamiliar to any of the three distinguished
gentleman in their active career. They were appalled.
Keep your eyes open lads, you see them almost every
week. Only in the World Cup final we don't want to know
that...
Of course De Jong deserved a red
card. And the referee made a big mistake - he made
many. But it was conceivable that he didn't want
an early red card. Still he should have addressed De
Jong, and Van Bommel much firmer, for they had speculated
before the game that Webb would be very reluctant with
the red...
Anyway, the fouls and the referee
were bad. But the reactions of Hansen, Dixon and Shearer
were even worse. Like triplets from a West-Virginian
boys choir they sat there in total shock, as if they
had never seen such hairy thugs, who should all be hanged
and split in four by wild horses.
Not a word about the appalling
referee.
The English newspapers followed
suite and slagged the Dutch to bits. All English reporters
appeared reborn! They had all apparently just opened
a fresh set of eyes, and their milky virgin view couldn't
handle the simple truth: in a World Cup final there
is something at stake.
But of course English pundits and
reporters can hardly know that, as most of them were
kids or unborn when their team last played a final of
anything.
The fouls weren't that bad, Alan
and Lee. No bones were broken. No ankles chopped off.
Can't say that about the Premier League in the past
few seasons... It was rough, yes. It was too rough.
But it wasn't anything we don't see regularly on European
football pitches, and that's perhaps what Hansen, Dixon
and Shearer should speak up about.
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