My usual attitude to Premiership football is “fun to watch, but don’t expect me to get passionate about it”. The two teams I support are both, in their own ways, a good distance from the English Premiership. However, you can’t really avoid the whole Beckham affair, which is highlighting some of the worst features of modern football.
In today’s news we hear of Barcelona vice-president Sandro Rosell criticising Beckham and his agents for snubbing transfer talks. Huh? Maybe that’s what “no” means. And at a club where his colleague has already used the spurious promise of a Beckham transfer to secure votes in his bid for presidency, Rosell is already on shaky ground. That Manchester United (or so we are told) agreed the deal in principle without Beckham’s blessing serves only to dirty the whole business even more.
Then there’s Alex Ferguson, still losing his grip on reality. Yes, we’ve all noticed that Beckham, since his marriage to Tone-Deaf Spice, has “… developed this ‘fashion thing’”, but what about “I saw his transition to a different person”? Love and marriage tend to do that to people, Alex, and let’s not forget how the “different person” hauled England into the World Cup, despite the lacklustre efforts of his teammates and, once there, scored the crucial winner against Argentina. And unlike the pre-marriage Beckham, he didn’t kick anyone.
Let’s not paint an idealistic picture of Beckham as the mistreated angel, though. As a superb footballer and a great ambassador for the sport, there must be a better way of supporting the “Beckham brand” than to be part of a vast international management agency, which in turn is part of the allergic-to-free-speech Clear Channel…