Bad way to support a good cause

Clare Balding13 April 2012

Any strike by professionals who are lucky enough to be paid (and paid very well) for making their hobby a career is hard to comprehend. Personally, I hate the concept of strike action by anyone who works in sport because it deprives the fans, the people all this should be about, of their favourite leisure interest.

Anyone who sets the alarm for 7am, crams into the tube every morning, marches anonymously into an office, a school, a hospital or a shop and spends the rest of the day serving other people?s interests, deserves the pleasure they can get from the weekend when they can enjoy their own.

However, in this instance, the Professional Footballers? Association have a very sound argument, to which far too few are listening.

It?s the easiest thing in the world to think, ?rich, spoilt players wanting more money for themselves? but this is not about the rich, privileged ones at the top.

It?s about the less well-paid, the ageing and the injured ones at the bottom. The ones who find themselves jobless and future-less at the age of 35 with no practical training to do anything other than kick a football.

They may wish they had concentrated harder in Maths and English but there isn?t much they can do about it unless they have the support of an organisation like the PFA, who will pay for operations and help with retraining.

Similarly, their role is to educate the young players just joining the game, so that they are not left wondering where their mum is when they need her.

The clubs are too busy making money, planning tactics and training the fit players to worry too much about those who aren?t on the pitch.

It is for these men that the PFA exist and it is for their rights that the privileged few are joining forces.

I applaud their comradeship but wish that they were talking of a more positive combined action than a strike.

I do not dispute their right to five per cent of the television revenue, which after all is the same share they received last year but there are other ways for them to supplement their income.

Every player pays an annual subscription to the PFA of £75, whether they are earning £50,000 a week or £500 a week.

It would seem to make more sense to have a sliding scale whereby those on higher wages pay a larger sum.

The current income from subs amounts to only £190,350, a tiny fraction (1.3 per cent) of the overall PFA income of £13.79 million.

If the PFA looked to their own accounts and came up with some innovative ideas of raising more money, for example their own benefit match with the stars turning out to support the less fortunate, the clubs and the fans might feel more inclined to listen with benevolence rather than belligerence.

Turned off by TV 'miracle

People enjoy sport because it gives them a feeling of shared experience. They may not be able to kick, catch or throw a ball to save their lives but they can appreciate the skill of those who can. The thrill for the spectator comes in the excitement that they can show in public and share with others. What would be the fun of turning up to work and finding that no one else wants to talk about the match last night because none of them watched it.

That won?t have been the case this morning because the Liverpool match was on ITV but yesterday it was a challenge that would have foxed Anneka to find a single person who had seen Manchester United?s defeat by Deportivo La Coruna live. It?s one thing to have more sport on television than anyone ever dreamed possible, but what?s the point if no one is watching?

TV executives are already asking stern questions about the price of sports rights. The pay-per-view Nationwide League matches are so unpopular that it would be cheaper to ditch the live coverage and buy the tickets for The important matches and showcase contests will always matter but with so much on the sporting menu, the fan has become far more selective about what he or she wants to consume.

You can flood the market but you can?t make the customer drink water if they want wine.

They may be trying, but no TV producer has yet mastered the art of turning the former into the latter.

Racing needs another Frankie

No jockey has come close to emulating that magnificent seven, although every year the promotional talk hypes up the chances of Dettori doing it again.

He won?t and it degrades the memory to imagine for even a second that his feat that day was not unique. It was a wondrous moment for racing and Dettori has capitalised on the fame that he suddenly found with great dexterity. The sad element for Flat racing is that in the last five years, no jockey has emerged from behind the curtain of obscurity to join Frankie on the stage.

Johnny Murtagh made a bold bid last season and was always courteous and charming when required to make an extra effort, but this season has seen him based more in Ireland than England.

Kieren Fallon is unwilling to court the attention, Pat Eddery is too old, Mick Kinane too undemonstrative, Richard Quinn too quiet, and Kevin Darley denied himself the one chance he had of greater recognition by being too conservative during his successful championship challenge last year. The twin Hills brothers, Michael and Richard, are always willing to be interviewed but have so far failed to capture a broader public.

Of the younger brigade, Jamie Spencer, Richard Hughes, Darryl Holland and Jamie Mackay are finding their feet and their confidence, but without high-profile success it is hard for any of them to reach out beyond the dedicated racing public.

They need big winners and lots of them. All of which goes to prove that had Dettori not did what he did five years ago, he would be a high-profile, well-known and successful figure, but he would not have achieved anywhere near the global fame that he enjoys.

It was a magnificent seven for racing and a life-changing seven for Frankie.

Catt and Owen must slow down

In both cases, sports physios across the country will be screaming: ?Don?t do it, Ethel!?

Catt and Owen are supremely talented and committed, which should be even more reason for those around them to make sure the pair give themselves a proper time to recover fully.

The pressures of club success and the influence of a talismanic figure like Owen or Catt mean that managers are all too eager to allow an influential injured player to come back before he is ready.

But, thankfully, gone are the days of players being given cortisone injections so that they could struggle through.

And no more do we see the old warm-up routines that were considered complete once a player had pulled on his socks and bent down to lace up his shoes or, for that matter, the warm-downs that centred around the local pub. Diets have improved, drinking is discouraged, even banned at some clubs, alternative therapiesare explored and only the best doctors, physiotherapists and masseurs are employed.

Niall Quinn is hardly in the dawn of his career, but he has only just solved his recurring back problem. His warm-up and warmdown now take much longer than anyone else?s but he has discovered a key to the one thing every player wants: to slow down the ageing process and extend his time on the pitch.

If he could offer Owen any advice, I suspect Quinn would tell him that if he still wants to be playing into his thirties, the one thing he cannot do is rush his recovery.

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