El Tel's 2009/10 Blog

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Whereas the rest of my site is impartial, unbiased and, above all, scientific, this blog is meant to be the complete opposite. Those who know me will be aware of my biases already, those who don't will probably be able to work them out. These articles are unashamedly prejudiced and not always complementary or subtle. No offence is intended.

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Part 3 - February 2010

Playing away

Mixed views about the John Terry affair. On the one hand I am full of admiration for Fabio Capello's handling of the situation. It took him just 12 minutes to send out a very powerful message to the whole of the England squad. I also get the impression Capello's decision was as much to protect John Terry as to punish him. The downside of the decision is that England have lost their best captain for many years. I have written before of the importance of having a 'proper' captain rather than a figurehead. Within reason, you have to divorce sporting performance from morality. Otherwise Capello would have a major problem finding a replacement captain. Five first team England regulars are widely reported to have had affairs. Others have been linked with drugs, gambling or assault. I say within reason. When the FA allowed Sven Goran Eriksson to select Lee Bowyer I considered this to be a national embarrassment. Conversely, when the British Olympic Committee upheld their ban on drugs cheat Dwain Chambers, I did feel proud to be British.

John Terry went above and beyond normal indescretions in two ways. Firstly he cheated with a team mate's partner. It's amazing how many men I've spoken with who feel that is far worse than cheating on your own wife. "Toni Poole was just his wife, but how could he do that to Wayne Bridge ?". Absurd as that statement seems when written down, I cannot help but sympathise with it. And if we assume for a moment, that it would be impossible for Terry and Bridge to go to the World Cup together, it would be totally immoral to sideline Bridge as a result of a problem entirely of Terry's making. It is well known that Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham didn't get on at Man. Utd. Alex Ferguson's view, quite rightly, was that it was not a problem unless it affected team performances. Howard Wilkinson reportedly had a similar situation to deal with at Leeds in 1992 resulting from an alleged fallout between Eric Cantona and Lee Chapman. On this occasion, the guilty party (Cantona) was shipped out the door very quickly to Manchester United and the rest is history.

Terry's second mistake was to try to suppress reports of his affair with a superinjunction. The superinjunction is a very nasty instrument to suppress press freedom. It is also tantamount to an admission of guilt. Who would go to those lengths to suppress a false story? Many people in football are subject to false rumours and some of these are particularly vile. Arsene Wenger has been subject to one of the most vile false rumours and he, to his great credit, has never reacted. Taking out a superinjunction, as Terry has done merely fuels the fire. It also makes him look like a bit of a coward, using expensive legal instruments to suppress the truth rather than facing up to his mistakes. And on the pitch John Terry is the bravest player I have ever seen. The 2007 League Cup Final is the perfect example of this as he took a boot to the face in the line of duty, (for a game remember that he was supposed to miss through injury), got knocked out and somehow still made it to post match celebrations.

So England's World Cup plans have suffered a setback, though by the time Capello had a decision to make, the die was already cast. One last thing springs to mind. Vanessa Perroncel was French. Was this whole incident a dastardly plot devised by the old enemy to wreck England's world cup bid ? And if so was it actually an act of retailiation ? Thierry Henry had an English wife and he failed to perform, let alone score, in any of the 14 or so major finals he appeared in. Did the French realise he'd been nobbled and retaliate in the only way they knew how ?

Change the record please

The African Cup of Nations is my favourite of the six continental competitions. The European Championships are far too depressing as England manage to be even more of a let-down in that than in the World Cup. The South American Championships are basically a tussle between 9 Spanish speaking teams and a Portuguese speaking one. Where's the variety? They even tried inviting non-South American teams in to liven things up. Only the CONCACAF Gold Cup runs the African Cup of Nations close, but even there you are generally looking at a USA-Mexico final and the whole thing gets a bit repetitive as the USA seems to host it every time nowadays.

But I have to confess that I get annoyed about the constant complaints emanating from Europe about the African Cup of Nations taking place in January. These complaints mainly come from clubs who are happy to sign African players in the full knowledge that this competition exists. The clubs do it because the African players are initially cheaper than their European equivalents, not to mention exceptionally talented. Even now, Michael Essien is one of the lowest paid of Chelsea's first team regulars. Drogba by contrast is extremely well paid but it took him quite a while to earn top dollar. I will acknowledge one exception to my previous assertion. Chelsea signed Salomon Kalou in the full anticipation that he would be an international for Holland, until a very principled stand by a Dutch minister called Rita Verdonk who changed legislation thus preventing Kalou (who had no qualification other than residence) from playing for the Oranje. But, with the exception of dual-nationality players, clubs know the downside when they are signing an African player. If they are unwilling to accept this downside, perhaps they should be signing non-African players instead.

Is it really too much to ask ?

The CAF have barred Togo from appearing in the next two African Nations Cups as a punishment for their late withdrawal last month. African football used to be plagued with withdrawals and this led to the CAF taking a very tough line with teams who withdrew just before, or even during, a competition. But in this case the Togo team withdrew, under heavy pressure from their government, as a result of a terrorist attack on the team bus. Whether the team had decided to play on or withdraw, it would have been a controversial decision either way and it is true to say that, with the exception of the Sri Lankan team who came under attack in Pakistan last year, there are very few sportsmen who have been in a similar situation. So in the name of humanity, I hope the CAF realise they have overreacted on this occasion and do not punish Togo any further.