Over the last few weeks, I approached a number of football fans who were expressing negative views on the season restarting, to establish what their specific concerns were, and it became apparent in each incident, the concerns were based upon the fear of controlled environments being compromised. I don’t believe it to be an unfair comment, by the way, to believe that some if not all of those I exchanged with ALSO had unspoken concerns about the unseemly business of people dying in hospitals, while football clubs became impatient to start printing money again.
Bringing back football is sheer madness in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic.
A few years ago, I met socially the very white owner of a Chelsea blog, at the home of a man who was of Black, Asian and/or a Minority Ethnic origin. In a quiet aside I asked him how he rationalized or even compartmentalized “it”.
His response caught me off guard. “We’re an amoral club!”
Before I was aware that I had processed my reply, I heard myself say out loud, “They all are”.
Anyone reading that, not screaming white privilege at their screen is a rare bird indeed. I’m not entirely divorced from reality.
However, that’s the truth. There is no morality. Only a fool would seek to impose it upon a multi-billion pound business. So when I hear Spurs fans waffling on about not spending and growing the club organically, that’s when I start cracking jokes about Mr. Levy knitting players. It’s all hokum. All the clubs are “at it”, it’s all about the money for everyone. Whatever vestiges of days of yore, or what the voices in your head are telling you… it’s all hokum.
So consider this piece from the Belfast Telegraph.
The show must go on, it will go on, and a controlled environment means just that, controlled. The identification of these 10 players proves that the protocols to make these final games of the Premier League season are being observed.
The return of amoral football will bring with it perfectly decent boosts to the collective mental well being of fans, also, it will re-energize the economies of all those whom the sport feeds.
My mental health has improved because of the virus! Not watching the drivel that Spurs were serving up has made me healthier on an emotional level. The closer we come to a return the more my nerves will be shot by an impending Sissoko shot, a Winks back pass and a Dele attempted nutmeg.
I’d imagine even in the days of yore with teams like the Royal Engineers and The Corinthians in the nineteenth century money was being spent to gain an advantage, some things just don’t change. I have a vague memory of some club being banned then for paying players to come down from Scotland then to sew up the League. I have no problem with football restarting, I just don’t want anyone dying because of it.