Respect has been the big buzzword in sport this week.
Did snooker maestro Ronnie O’Sullivan show a lack of it by sniffily dismissing a £10,000 prize for a maximum 147 break as ‘too cheap’?
Did Lionel Messi of Barcelona show a lack of grace in his outrageous penalty against Levante, when he cheekily passed from the spot instead of shooting, allowing Luis Suarez to nip in and score, leaving the opposing keeper looking a bit of a Charlie?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=s66iJf_d8i0%3Frel%3D0
I’ve always been unconvinced by the argument that sport stars are or should be role models.
It’s a nice comfort blanket for the rest of us that the men and women who make millions adopt Corinthian values on their way to the top, and behave with a sense of morality which places them above the herd.
Like it or lump it a great many athletes are driven, demanding and selfish individuals, because often it is the only way to make it to, and stay at, the very top of their sports.
I suspect very few sporting greats set out on their chosen path dreaming about becoming a shining beacon of virtuous respectability.
It’s the fame, the glory and the money which drives them.
Top-class sport in the final analysis is all about winning, but it’s surely also about showing off the sumptuous skills learned in the years of slog and hard graft to make it to the top of the pile.
Fans pay hard-earned cash to savour the panache and style from their stars, who in the main have always worked to different rules from us hoi polloi.
In reality the top sports people always did.
The old maximum wage for footballers was regularly circumvented with extra money stuck in the boots by grateful directors, and through the mists of time many famous stars lived very ‘colourful lives’, with drink and gambling playing a leading role.
Would I have done what O’Sullivan did?
No: £10,000 might be chicken feed to him, but it’s a life-changing amount for a lot of folk, so it was a thoughtless action.
Would I have done what Messi did? Absolutely, it was impish, full of devilment, harmless and top entertainment value.
TAKING OWNERSHIP
Should a club owner ever meddle in team affairs?
Has Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson’s outburst last week put Mixu Paatelainen, his manager in an invidious position, and undermined his authority, or was he right to have a blast?
Thompson heeded my recent Courier column calling on him to communicate better with fans but in apologising to them, and challenging United players to ‘redeem their professional reputations’ has he strayed over a line?
The manager is there to deal with team selection, tactics and motivation.
The chairman is there to run the club, appoint the manager and let him manage.
Thompson criticised himself and his board and his anger is understandable.
However, the roles of chairman and manager are distinct.
Whether Paatelainen’s authority has been undermined is unclear, but many fans may now be wondering just who, as they say in football parlance, is ‘The Gaffer’.