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Last Sunday I came across Labour MP Joe Brincat’s opinion ‘Is sport dead?’ in The Sunday Times.
Dr Brincat talked about how corrupt and dangerous sport has become and that we should think twice before encouraging our kids to get interested in sports.
He mentioned greats like Maradona and the cyclist Marco Pantani as examples of heroes that went bad.
But it is funny he did not mention Pele. Yes, Pele was also a great but he comes across as a clean cut example of what a retired football player should be like.
I see Pele in a different light. He is clean on the outside but very dirty on the inside.
He was and still is involved in numerous scandals involving large sums of money.
It is wrong for Dr Brincat to simply point out great athletes who have had a bad spell in their life with drugs. He did not mention the ones that are corrupt.
Maradona was the greatest and he came crashing down but today he is on top again, clean and sober.
Brincat can be rest assured that schools are concurring with his opinion because they are not helping to encourage children to take up sports.
I am fed up with the number of times I sent my daughter to school in her PE uniform only to tell me that she did not have her sports lesson at school.
For our children there is more to life than just homework.
They need more sport activity at school.
I don’t see anything wrong if they look up to athletes like Beckham, Ronaldo or Adriano. They could also be examples of what can happen to people when they choose the wrong road.
Brincat mentions Gianfranco Zola as a model sportsman, but Zola would not be where he is today without the influence Maradona had on him.
Zola looked up to him as our children look up to the sportsmen and women of today.
If Brincat thinks sport is dead, I wish he could tell me what has happened to politics.
Allow me to quote him: ‘Unfortunately, sports, as we have come to know it, is big business. All values have been tainted. The idols are no idols for a good cause. The main objective is money. There may be one or two exceptions, but these can be counted on one hand’.
Now, if we had to replace the word sports with politics in the above quote, I think it would make much more sense.
Hot head Rooney
Last Wednesday we saw Wayne Rooney’s childhood behaviour on the field. A player does not go and clap in the referee’s face after being awarded a yellow card. Rooney deserved the red card and he was lucky Man Utd did not lose the game because of him. He needs to show more respect to the fans and to the players on the field. This time the players backed him up, but I am sure if it was the final of the FA cup or Champions League, I am sure they won’t be so forgiving.
sports@newsworksltd.com
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