Published on January 01, 2005

We’re in the entertainment industry. You’ve heard it said before by people involved in football, and you may have disputed the suggestion. You may even have quoted Bill Shankly in doing so. But we know better, don’t we?

We have just spent a week hearing about life and death – mostly the latter – and know we simply have to take our football as entertainment, escapism, a diversion . . . and nothing more important than that.

It had always been my intention to use this year-end column to make a couple of points – hopefully not too pretentious – about the way we see the game as well as the way we describe it. That hasn’t changed.

Been to a game in England lately? If you have you’ll be only too aware of the plus and minus points: the positives are all about the passion, the raw emotion on display in the stands . . . and the negatives are all about the same things. At Bolton’s Reebok Stadium, I was shocked to hear a fan, sitting some 20 metres from Newcastle manager Graeme Souness, spend the entire 90 minutes ignoring the game and instead spewing invective at the man. Apparently he was a Blackburn Rovers fan who had a grudge against Souness.

His attacks were of a personal, political and even religious nature. He looked delighted with himself when anyone nearby took offence and turned to stare at him.

He wasn’t alone, at the Reebok or any other ground in England for that matter. Whether it’s opposing fans taunting Manchester United with references to the Munich air disaster, Dwight Yorke being subjected to monkey chants or proud parent Arsene Wenger being called a child molester, there is a degree of vitriol present in any matchday atmosphere that has sadly become part and parcel of the “matchday experience”. It has to be challenged.

It would help if those at the heart of the game took a little more care over their own actions and statements. Fifa and Uefa should act immediately and effectively over the racism issue. A slap on the wrist, like that handed Spanish football, is not good enough. Sir Alex Ferguson should think twice before accusing the media of conducting a “witch hunt” against the thuggish Rooney. Wenger should remind his players of the importance of honesty on the pitch before accusing others of cheating.

This may be naive, it probably is clumsy, but it’s simply a call for reason, and reasonable behaviour. We in the media can help by refusing to sensationalise trivial incidents. We can try to cut out inflammatory or simply inaccurate coverage of the game – especially when it comes to incidents that provoke reaction, hostility and antagonism. In our studio at ESPN for instance we are working hard to erase from the pundits’ vernacular erroneous comments like “there was daylight, so he must be offside” (the rules say nothing about a need for daylight), or “if you raise a hand you’re off” (likewise with the rules).

Those decisions were prompted by two recent “flashpoints”. Firstly, the Rooney-Ben Haim tangle. Common sense tells us Rooney needed a talking to (and possibly a retroactive caution), so too Ben Haim, but only for play-acting.

Sam Allardyce, under enormous pressure these days, used the “raise your hand” argument and Fergie went on the defensive. Hence a media mountain out of a knock-their-heads-together molehill.

Secondly, officials’ handling of the offside rule is on the verge of throwing the game into anarchy. Remember Kluivert’s goal against Liverpool? According to a referee friend, the officials got it 100 per cent right: Kluivert was in an offside position during one phase of the attacking move, but not in the phase which saw him score. These “phases” must be dealt with in isolation, said our referee friend. Anyone who plays football disagrees – defences won’t know whether to push up and catch a player “off” or sit back and let teams bombard them into submission. It’s a mess, but one that could be resolved through common sense and reason.

Having referenced Bill Shankly at the start of all this, let’s call upon the great man once more. This time, though, endorsing a couple of his comments which ring as true today as they ever did. On the refereeing issue, Shankly famously said: “The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game”, and when asked which part of the game he disliked the most, Shankly simply said: “The end of the season.”

We’ve got half a season left. Let’s enjoy it for the entertainment it provides us.

JOHN DYKES/ESPN

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