Don’t hate the player
There’s nothing like football – that’s the best thing about it. It’s also the very reason why our game is so complicated and difficult to love at times. There’s no doubt about it – we’re addicted to the madness. We might call it The Beautiful Game by name, however if the sport that’s loved by billions is to keep this pseudonym – it needs to iron out some of the ugliness first.
We’ve just about had enough time to break our half-arsed New Year’s Resolutions, yet we’re already discussing the same talking points we’ve been agonising over for what feels like forever.
As supporters, it’s easy to feel like the victim a lot of the time – rightly so too. With the game becoming more lucrative on a daily basis, fans sometimes feel like the afterthought that bears the biggest brunt. And after almost two years of being allowed to go to games, then not being allowed to go to games, then only some of us being allowed to go to games. Clubs and sponsors alike know that we’ll do almost anything to be able to reconnect with football as closely as we can, for as long as we can.
Despite us fans being pulled from pillar to post for the most part, with each pillar and each post costing an arm and a leg more than the last. It’s beginning to feel like there’s an even bigger set of losers when it comes to the current landscape of the game – and that’s the players.
Crossing the line
The naysayers reading this are already audible, so is the usual discourse surrounding professional ballers. “They get paid millions. “They’re living the dream. “I’d do that job for free” and so on.
No matter where you sit on the money equating to happiness spectrum though, we can all agree that it doesn’t eradicate all of your problems completely, not for good anyway. So while I can sympathise with those that don’t sympathise with footballers to an extent, in the same breath – not now, yeah?
It’s a far more nuanced argument than that.
In some ways, this is the best time to be a professional footballer ever, and in other ways – it couldn’t be any worse. Playing for nearly a year in front of no crowds? Far from ideal. Missing birthdays, weddings, births and funerals due to lockdown restrictions, while still being expected to perform at an elite level? Unimaginable. Not to mention those that dedicate their whole lives to making it as professionals – only to fall short at one of the final hurdles
And when fans finally did return, so did the abuse. Barely a ball was kicked before the bullshit started again.
Not one football person will sit here and tell you that Marcus Rashford’s form since returning from injury this season has been anything other than woeful – like seriously not good. And it’d be even more hypocritical of me to suggest that – as a Liverpool fan – his name hasn’t been the butt of one (or twenty) of jokes aimed at the United fans within the four-walls of my group chat.
There’s a line though and after the Red Devils’ exit from the Champions League last week, footage emerged of that very line being crossed.
I’ll be the first one to say that footballers should be open to criticism. Scrutiny is a part of football that makes it what it is. Whether you’re an ex-pro, a could’ve been a pro but I injured my knee, or you’ve never kicked a ball in your life – every fan deserves to have their say on the game we love so much.
But waiting after a game to hurl abuse at any player from behind a barricade is just plain bizarre. And as Uncle Wrighty perfectly put it in a public response to another one of Rashford’s apology statements – Marcus shouldn’t have said sorry for his retaliation. He should’ve just told the fan to “fuck off” and kept it moving.
Something has to give
We saw even worse scenes at Sao Paulo game recently, where a so-called ‘fan’ stormed the pitch carrying a knife before a few more wronguns decided to follow suit in what can only be described as some really disturbing scenes. The sad reality is – it’ll take for an even more serious incident to happen before something is done, or there’s change in mentality from these idiots.
There’s always a line, and it starts way before you think about going to confront a player during a game, throw objects at them from the crowd, or abuse them based on their race, gender, sexuality, religion, or speak about their family.
When the game stops being fun
And if players aren’t being abused by so-called fans, then they’re more than likely being exploited by those in positions of power. While the human rights issues that have continuously cast a cloud over this winter’s World Cup have been more than well-documented, concerns over player welfare have (quite understandably) been fairly muted to say the least.
No one denies that footballers are in a hugely privileged position. It’s a dream job for so many, and one that at the highest level – pays more than handsomely. You just can’t put a price on your mental well-being though. Which is exactly why former Brighton and PSV midfielder Davy Pröpper recently decided to walk away from the game at just 30 years old.
Despite representing an anomaly, football’s decision-makers shouldn’t take Pröpper’s retirement lightly. The constant clamour to add to an already congested calendar will only drive more players down the same path. More tournaments. More rounds. More games. And it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the governing bodies aren’t as interested in player welfare as they claim to be.
The unfortunate reality is that football only seems to be heading one way right now. Players are being pushed to their absolute physical and mental limits and the governing bodies are doing nothing but thinking about lining their pockets. They say “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” But how about the game started showing the players a little more love, eh?
