Disclaimer: This author by no means wishes to offend, intimidate, humiliate, anger, infuriate or agitate anyone through his opinions expressed throughout this article, especially keeping in mind members of the female gender. If anything, the author is in love with the fairer sex and does not wish to harm his own chances with regards to women.
No, this is not an article discussing Ryan Giggs’ various shenanigans under the sheets; although I hope no one calls him ‘brother’ anytime soon. Nor does this article bad-mouth FC Manchester United or any other ‘player’ (pun intended) in any way.
So where am I getting with this rant?
What I intend to put across to every football fan today is , does the ‘morality’ or ‘family-friendly’ image of a player really matter in a global sport like football ? Do we really need moral-policing in a sport that has for so long been viewed by everyone over the world without such concerns being taken into account?
Yes, I agree that the Messis, the Ronaldos or the Gerrards of the world have been huge inspirations to football fans worldwide and at times have been idolised to such an extent that they have become role-models for peoples’ behaviour in social scenarios. Although this is very positive and paints a promising picture for the future of the game, these ‘influences’ may be negative or self-impairing too. Often, concerned and frantic teachers and parents all over the globe have voiced their concerns about celebrities being faulty or pathogenic role-models for their wards. What these often paranoid individuals fail to understand is that, it is their responsibility to make sure their children learn to differentiate between right and wrong. What I mean to elucidate upon is that the responsibility of a youngster doing drugs or partying into the wee-hours of the night cannot be put solely on the ‘influential celebrity’s’ head; instead , the concerned individual needs to make sure that he/ she is responsible for their own actions and no one else can be held at gunpoint for the same.
Yes, players need to make sure that they prove to be responsible mentors to fans worldwide, but that is a responsibility, not a necessity. Unless there is a visible drop in match-performances or club-discipline, I personally believe that a player needn’t face punitive action for his off-field antics. I believe that the latter can, at times, jeopardize the mind-set of the player and he may not even be able to focus where it matters the most, over 90 minutes of gruelling football.
Many players have been at the receiving end of this ‘faulty’ disciplining practice. A few that come to my mind are – John Terry (stripped of England Captaincy post a sex scandal), Ryan Giggs (Scrutinized for mingling with his brothers’ wife), Wayne Rooney (who allegedly hired professional sex-workers to have a threesome with him in a hotel room) etc. While Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs were not very highly affected by these allegations as these did not eat into their playing time with their club or country, John Terry, on the other hand, had had his England Captain’s Armband taken away from him just because of his ‘anti-family-friendly’ image. Yes, on a personal level, his actions were condemnable and deserved to be desecrated and pounced upon by the reporters yet, as a professional, I believe that he did not deserve to face such harsh consequences. His performances as a player had not dropped, hell, he apparently had had one of his most solid seasons at Chelsea’s Centre-Back position.
As a writer , I am aware that this opinion of mine might be scrutinized to death and people may end up rubbishing this article but what I really want you to ask yourself is , ‘ Is football a game that is worth blemishing just because a couple of players had a little too much fun ? Or is it a game that should stay beautiful because of the intricacies of on-field occurrences?’ You decide.
