The so-called “beautiful game” has the unstinting ability to deliver extra chapters which only add to my already heavily-weighted volume of antipathy towards it.
Mothering Sunday brought the unedifying spectacle of a Glasgow march by masked and flare-brandishing fans behind a banner many considered an incitement to violence.
The same weekend, coaches of our top two Courier Country clubs got involved in touchline handbags over which their tit-for-tat sniping simmers on.
But for football’s prat of the week award there was one runaway loser; from the moment he launched a mouthful of phlegm out the window of his luxury 4×4 towards a car containing a teenage girl.
Jamie Carragher’s immediate contrition for his disgusting act was no more than should be expected, and for many the derision directed his way has been replaced by surprise, to put it mildly, that he’s only been suspended from the pundits’ sofa and not shown the door, or indeed the inside of a court room as many might expect for somebody who spat at a child in public.
And spare me the notion that a passion for the game is somehow mitigatory in any or all of the above.
We’ve a lot of good people giving to their chosen sport who behave as role models should, beginning at the grass roots level which was once again in the spotlight of the Angus Sports Awards.
Coaches like Johnny Christie, whose Carnoustie Rugby Club’s community engagement ambitions saw him step up for the volunteer of the year gong; Gemma Lumsdaine, with wheelchair basketball accomplishments as both a coach and athlete that saw the Dundee Dragon recognised as Sports Personality of the Year; or the now two-time Coach of the Year Scott Haxton of Arbroath St Thomas, whose ability to bring out the best in young swimmers is delivering results from local to international level.
The passion they – and the many other nominees and winners – possess is helping youngsters like 14-year-old Young Sports Personality Zoe Rennie reach the lofty heights of representing her country in no fewer than three sports; cricket, netball and basketball.
Now that is beautiful.
