GIMME A BREAK
With the year-end reviews going on we’re being exposed again to a round of sanctimonious twaddle about Thierry Henry’s goal that eliminated the Republic of Ireland from the World Cup. I ought not to be but I am astounded by the number of current and ex-pros who parrot the line that Henry was “cheating” and “cheating has to be eliminated from the game” and such. Even after Roy Keane, to my mind, definitively pricked this particularly stupid balloon the commentaries continue unabated.

Football is a game not a morality play as much as the ruling powers and media like to present it as such. This ridiculous posture has been so persistent thast I assume that it's based on market research on the part of the media that the great majority of fans accept this kind of rubbish. The posture of sports establishments (not just football) is a broader sociological and poliical issue that takes on different colors from country to country and is not susceptible to simple analysis. Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains the World is a good book on this topic. Ex-pros who make money as pundits are subject to a selection principle that weeds out those who aren't willing to go along with the baloney.

I may be repeating myself here but to my mind it says something of Canada's relatively adult culture that a figure like Don Cherry has remained in the media for so long. For example, his rough equivalent in UK football, Jack Charlton was effectively blackballed from punditry after his famous "I've a little black book" remark (i.e. acknowledging that he actively sought to even the score with players he thought were dirty).