I’ve been into various sports since childhood, having been encouraged to watch football by my friend when I was approximately eight years old. John was lucky enough to get a ticket for the F.A. Cup Final one year, and I, with childish innocence, spent the afternoon following the match on a television screen wondering if I would be able to find him in the crowd. Of course, I didn’t see him, but I had got enthusiastic about the spectacle of the big match. In my teens I became a dedicated football fan, with the results round-up at five o’clock|5pm|tea-time on a Saturday afternoon impacting on my wellbeing for the remainder of the weekend. Luckily for my parents, I supported a side who won more frequently than they lost!
Over the years, I set out to watch numerous other sports on television. Test cricket rapidly became a favourite at a time when an attack of glandular fever left me spending all my time at home during a series in the West Indies, snooker had been pulled from the pubs and clubs of the UK and mutated into primetime viewing thanks to some clever marketing and the realisation that this was a game that was relatively cheap and simple to broadcast. And then there was the Olympic Games, a stunning sporting spectacle which came around every four years and in which the whole world took part on the same terms. Or so we were led to believe.
Since my earliest recall of anything connected with the Olympics was the tragic events which happened in Munich in 1972, it’s maybe surprising that I embraced the whole concept of the event so much. But those same games also gave us Mark Spitz’s amazing haul of seven gold medals in the swimming pool – an achievement only bettered in 2008 by Michael Phelps. Years of seeing East European athletes effortlessly outdoing allcomers thanks to performance enhancing drugs which were not identified didn’t diminish my enthusiasm either, and I have avidly watched as much television footage as possible in past years – until now. (Is it any wonder that I now use glasses to see properly and am considering having Laser eye surgery? Too many days spent watching sport on television!)
It doesn’t matter how much I try, I’m finding it impossible to find any enthusiasm for the London Games. Even colleagues who generally don’t enjoy sport are of the opinion that they’d probably like to go and spectate at a couple of events, as it may be the only opportunity that they have in their lifetime, yet I, who claim to be such an enthusiastic sports fan, and can reach the main Olympic stadium in less than an hour from my house, have little interest in trying to buy tickets.
I would suggest that there are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I am tired of the number of scandals and less than savoury events that are starting to discredit many sports – violent footballers, bribed cricketers, drug cheat athletes, jockeys accepting backhanders, and in the background, the dubious criminals who do much of the damage and who create such havoc simply for personal financial advantage.
Secondly, big business has forced its way into on so many events now. Everything has business branding, events are planned to fit in with television executives wishes ahead of the fans, sportsmen and women are told which clothes they can wear and which products they are obliged to endorse, including diet supplements and Laser eye treatments – aren’t these effectively ‘legal’ cheating? But the end result for sports lovers is paying stupid prices to watch a match in order to line the corporate pockets of the organisations who are running everything, and without always being sure if teams or competitors are actually competing against each other on equal terms. The golfer who sings the praises of Laser eye surgery - doesn’t the surgery give him an unfair advantage? The football team whose owners use some obscure type of therapist – is everything he asks the team to do totally legitimate?
Finally, I don’t see the wealth of personalities in sport any more. There are a handful of characters who would be described as entertaining, but due to the money now involved, most sportspeople don’t think that they can do something outrageous occasionally because anything they do or say could have an effect on their contract. I find myself longing for another Linford Christie, James Hunt, Tony Currie, Henry Cooper or John McEnroe (though I can believe that he’d probably be publicising Laser eye treatment if he was still playing at his best now – although for the tennis officials rather than himself!)
Over the years, I set out to watch numerous other sports on television. Test cricket rapidly became a favourite at a time when an attack of glandular fever left me spending all my time at home during a series in the West Indies, snooker had been pulled from the pubs and clubs of the UK and mutated into primetime viewing thanks to some clever marketing and the realisation that this was a game that was relatively cheap and simple to broadcast. And then there was the Olympic Games, a stunning sporting spectacle which came around every four years and in which the whole world took part on the same terms. Or so we were led to believe.
Since my earliest recall of anything connected with the Olympics was the tragic events which happened in Munich in 1972, it’s maybe surprising that I embraced the whole concept of the event so much. But those same games also gave us Mark Spitz’s amazing haul of seven gold medals in the swimming pool – an achievement only bettered in 2008 by Michael Phelps. Years of seeing East European athletes effortlessly outdoing allcomers thanks to performance enhancing drugs which were not identified didn’t diminish my enthusiasm either, and I have avidly watched as much television footage as possible in past years – until now. (Is it any wonder that I now use glasses to see properly and am considering having Laser eye surgery? Too many days spent watching sport on television!)
It doesn’t matter how much I try, I’m finding it impossible to find any enthusiasm for the London Games. Even colleagues who generally don’t enjoy sport are of the opinion that they’d probably like to go and spectate at a couple of events, as it may be the only opportunity that they have in their lifetime, yet I, who claim to be such an enthusiastic sports fan, and can reach the main Olympic stadium in less than an hour from my house, have little interest in trying to buy tickets.
I would suggest that there are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I am tired of the number of scandals and less than savoury events that are starting to discredit many sports – violent footballers, bribed cricketers, drug cheat athletes, jockeys accepting backhanders, and in the background, the dubious criminals who do much of the damage and who create such havoc simply for personal financial advantage.
Secondly, big business has forced its way into on so many events now. Everything has business branding, events are planned to fit in with television executives wishes ahead of the fans, sportsmen and women are told which clothes they can wear and which products they are obliged to endorse, including diet supplements and Laser eye treatments – aren’t these effectively ‘legal’ cheating? But the end result for sports lovers is paying stupid prices to watch a match in order to line the corporate pockets of the organisations who are running everything, and without always being sure if teams or competitors are actually competing against each other on equal terms. The golfer who sings the praises of Laser eye surgery - doesn’t the surgery give him an unfair advantage? The football team whose owners use some obscure type of therapist – is everything he asks the team to do totally legitimate?
Finally, I don’t see the wealth of personalities in sport any more. There are a handful of characters who would be described as entertaining, but due to the money now involved, most sportspeople don’t think that they can do something outrageous occasionally because anything they do or say could have an effect on their contract. I find myself longing for another Linford Christie, James Hunt, Tony Currie, Henry Cooper or John McEnroe (though I can believe that he’d probably be publicising Laser eye treatment if he was still playing at his best now – although for the tennis officials rather than himself!)
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