SOUL SURMISE

STOCKI SURMISES THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOTBALL AND THAT LAST KICK OF THE SEASON

It was to be our day of destiny but I was always the
doubter. Mind you once we got the Zabaleta goal I was pretty convinced that we would go on and win our first League title in 44 years, the year before I started supporting Manchester City. The first 45 minutes of the second half then went the way of the last 43 years. Somehow the best team in England contrived to find themselves 2-1 down to one of the relegation possibilities. It was awful. QPR ten men, because they were actually down to ten men after Joey Barton got sent off, behind the ball and City’s crosses and shots being
blocked time after time. With five minutes to go we had about 40 shots and 1 goal. I had had enough and left, put my City jacket on and headed for the garden where I stood against the wall thinking...

For nine minutes I stood in deep depression. I had had
no idea how much this meant to me. Forty three years of hurt and disappointment and being laughed at by the red side of Manchester was too much to bear. This was heartache. This was stupid. It is only football. I even said, “God, you know I don’t pray about this sort of thing but just once...” I was looking into the abyss. I was thinking of how long we had been laughed at... and now there was even more laughter to come. I had written my concession of the title to
United fans on this blog way back in March for a moment such as this. Yet, here I was standing in the rain, staring at the ground feeling so utterly desolated. Actually there was a raging sense of injustice. They had won it so many times. We were the best team this season... by far. Here we were way beyond a rational way to lose it. Injustice and the thought that if we didn’t win it today then we might never. The thought that this was it; our empty depressing fate.

A huge cheer broke my silent self imposed isolation. Thinking it came from a few doors down I assumed there were United fans already
starting to gloat. As I made my way towards the kitchen my wife appears laughing. Women just don’t get it, I thought. Then behind her with a beaming face stands my pal through thin and even thinner, Monty. “WE DID IT! WE DID IT!” Time stood still as I tried to take in the insanity of this surreal moment. I uttered something how we couldn’t have but as I did my mind was sharp enough to
tell my heart that if we hadn’t Monty wouldn’t be standing here laughing and joking. He is always more depressed than me. By this time I am starting to believe the impossible and rushing into the lounge where Boyd is on his feet, my daughter is sitting wide eyed and QPR are kicking off. Fifteen seconds later and we are League Champions. Oh my word! Champagne corks are popped and Calvin’s
Institutes are being blessed. Boyd, Monty and a shell shocked self are to say the very least happy boys! Incredible!

When the fuss had died down... a little bit... on the way to Church my daughter asked me as she often does, “Why is football so important Daddy?” I think it is the first time she has asked knowing that it was important. She’d just seen something she’ll never forget. Grown men crying and jumping around her house, their wives in tears for them. Suddenly as a grappled for an answer I realised, that though it sounds crazy and I have preached about its unimportance, it is actually vitally important for those of us nurtured and conditioned under its hypnotic pull. That is why I was in the garden. This was part of me. It has a huge chunk of my heart. I had dismissed this for so long but could deny it no more. As Janet Morris, in Church, asked
us to clear our minds of what was taking our attention I simply laughed and for a few reflective moments in our Quiet Service thanked God for the events and feelings of that afternoon. I did dare in the garden to say, “God I don’t believe in praying about this stuff but please, just this once!” I am not going to get into the theology that asks why God would answer a seemingly stupid sporting prayer and not some that I would see much more important but hey!
Maybe!

In footballing terms this is a major breakthrough. In the zone that United win trophies, City won. When we usually throw it away as
we nearly did, we didn’t. We believed until Aguero’s last kick, after Balotelli stretched beyond himself to just nudge it on. We were hungry. We are Champions. As Boyd texted today, I don’t think any feeling will beat the feeling of that 94^th minute goal. Everytime I see it I cry. I am sorry to tell United fans but until you’ve been starved for 44 years you really have no clue what that feeling was. It is why I’m glad I changed to support City in 1969. To misquote CS Lewis, “the pain then is the joy now.” And what joy. What joy! I fancy more. Now that the monkey is off our backs I will have the faith to stay in the room the next time. “Fergie time” has become “Noisy Neighbours” time. After it all calmed down I realised that it hadn’t been the neighbours I heard in the garden, celebrating their chance to laugh on, it was my mates Monty and Boyd, celebrating the fact the laughing was over. The world is transformed!

SPORTING SURMISE: CITY OR UNITED? WHAT AM I SAYING NOW!?

Has the Premier League ever been better than this? Maybe the drama that became the movie Fever Pitch when Arsenal beat Liverpool in the last few minutes of the season will be hard to beat (though not Premier League!) but here we are with three games left and the two Manchester giants both have the title in their own hands. Of course even then that “in their own hands” has a caveat because if it goes to goal difference, as it just might, then what the other team scores or their opponents concede is not actually “in their own hands!” It is exciting though, very exciting. Sir Alex’s bum has never made so many squeaks; he thought the noisy neighbours had been shut up. Mancini on the other hand has a little glint in his eye but continues to concede the title.

Of course avid readers (there must be 3 or 4 of you) of Soul Surmise will know that I conceded the title to United back at the beginning of March. Have I changed my mind? Well, if you have followed results, since I laid out that argument, City have done everything to prove me right; losing to Swansea, almost losing to Sunderland at home and that late, late goal conceded against Arsenal should have finished us off. United though, as I have said all season, are not the old United and they have faltered too. Yesterday’s 4-4 draw at Everton revealed the truth of United’s season. They have more than enough up front to score at will but behind that there are huge weaknesses particularly in midfield where, whatever anybody says, bringing a player even of Paul Scholes genius out of retirement did show a weakness. Fellaini and Pienaar exposed that weakness to full effect yesterday. City have shown a few weaknesses too. With all the Tevez controversy, few realised that City had therefore only three strikers and when one is manic Mario then a lack of options for the manager isn’t helpful. Losing Ya Ya Toure to the African Cup Of Nations interrupted the system but there has been only a flicker of the bright lights of early season form since January.

So, should I change my opinion? Have City still a hope? Well, our position is better than it was last week. However, United are 3pts ahead and will only need a draw at City to hold a huge upper hand with two games left. City need to beat United and then if that wasn’t hard enough go away from home and beat Newcastle United, the Premiership team in real form. Those two games were high in my evaluation of the situation two months back. The other side of that is that City will be disappointed that they are not in at least one Cup Final at this stage of the season. So let us imagine that United is for the Champions League, Newcastle is the FA Cup Final and we need to beat QPR to win the League! My belief is that that is too high an order. Few win trebles like our opponents have. The saddest part is that this was City’s best chance. United will be so much stronger next season. They’ve been in transition this year and will buy strong midfield players in the summer. I think Arsenal and Chelsea will also be stronger next season. Of course so will City.

Three Cup Finals. Could we? It would be amazing of we did. Tevez has had a habit of changing the outcomes of seasons. City did have to beat Newcastle 4-3 at St James Park to win their last title. It would be lovely! Just as long as United don’t beat Sunderland 11-0 to sneak it on goal difference with a defence of O’Shea and Brown! I do have to say it is more exciting than mid table!

STOCKI SURMISES AND WITH DEFAULT PESSIMISM HANDS THE PREMIERSHIP TO UNITED

Maybe you should read this article through the lens of a soccer fan whose default position is pessimism after decades of losing, relegation and an empty trophy cabinet but this was the weekend that as a Manchester City fan I reluctantly conceded the Premiership to Manchester United. Some friends say that it is lack of faith and that we are the better team. Others have called it negative karma. Some have suggested that the big fat ladies haven’t even cleared their throats. Sadly, they have. They are singing. If you lean in and listen. I do agree with my friends that City are by far the better team. I wouldn’t replace one City player with a United counterpart. So, lack of faith has nothing to do with it. My waving of the white hanky is all about facts.

Sadly the better team on paper does not always win the league and in the past ten years when the best team on paper have not won the league it has usually been Manchester United who have won it; and so it will be this May. The facts are that they are two points behind City and United have an easy run in. For City to win the title United would have to really slip up and the facts are that that does not happen. Some people have said that those “easy” teams are fighting for their lives, and might cause an upset or two, but in truth this year’s easy teams are so very poor and United might slip up once but they would have to slip up at least twice because it is really unlikely that City can win every game with their run in. Indeed, if we do get around to that Manchester derby with both sides having won every game until then the English Premiership will have become the Scottish League which will be a very bad thing for all!

The facts are that United had to drop points over these last three league games before their easy run in commenced. To get nine out of nine against Liverpool, Norwich and Spurs, the last two games away from home is simply too good. These are title winning results. The facts are that although City are so superior on paper that Sir Alex Ferguson can work out how to play badly and still win football matches. This title will be his greatest achievement. A lot of very young new rookie players, a few key players injured including Vidic and a team so weak that he needed to bring a 37 year old player out of retirement. To even be in the top six from that foundation is simply genius. Ferguson has over these past twenty seven years at Old Trafford worked out how to win matches and gain points where his team simply shouldn’t. His rotation of players and his use of Ryan Giggs, who if he’d been playing for any other team some stupid manager would have had him retire three years ago, and Paul Scholes is quite remarkable. Fair play!

So those are the facts. United are on a role and City need to win every game. Another lesson from Sir Alex across the City is to make sure your key player isn’t African. Losing Ya Ya Toure was City’s Achilles heel. For City it has been an amazing season. However, it might well end without any trophies. When my pessimism is lifted I see one Hollywood twist in the tale. Somehow City are still in touch on April 30^th and with five minutes to go as United lead 1 nil before a strange wee figure enters the fray and scores twice to win the title for City. Carlos Tevez should never be allowed to play for anyone ever again and if he scores the goals that win City the title he still should be booed from the field (Sir Alex was right again – fact!); but it would be a great story!

STOCKI SURMISES SUAREZ, EVRA, DALGLISH... and JOE HART'S BETTER WAY...

Well it was another sporting weekend with much to talk about. That an International Rugby Union match should be postponed when the players are about to run out onto the pitch and that the fans in the stadium were hearing that the game was off from texts from Ireland left professional Rugby Union looking a little bit amateurish and Zambia winning the African Nations Soccer Cup just a few hundred yards from where their 1993 team was wiped out in a plane crash brought tears to the eye. However, these two events were again overshadowed by the childish behaviour of professional Premier League soccer players earning hundreds of thousands of pounds per month.

Louis Suarez’s refusal to shake Patrice Evra’s hand before the Liverpool versus Manchester United match on Saturday was another lowering of the behavioural standards in English soccer. Suarez had been banned for eight matches for supposedly racially abusing Evra. The lack of offer of hand shake and the annoyance of Evra in not being offered Suarez’s hand was the complete opposite of the actions in the original confrontation when Suarez offered reconciliation but Evra brushed him off. That of course was in the heat of the game and a long time ago. With the tension of United Liverpool match players have a responsibility not to stoke the tensions in the crowd but diffuse them. Suarez actions were out of order. Indeed though before a match starts, there should be an argument that anyone refusing to shake an opponent’s hand should immediately receive a red card. As well as breaking Premier League etiquette it seems more provocative than the removal of a shirt after scoring!

Suarez has since been forced to apologise and indeed so too Kenny Dalglish. Dalglish has been under some serious pressure for supporting Suarez through the entire Evra affair but when confronted with the news of no hand shake during a Sky Sports interview Dalglish lost it and suggested the interviewer was bang out of order to suggest Suarez had anything to do with anything that happened during the match. Sadly, Kenny had been betrayed by the man he had supported all along as it seems he had been told Suarez would shake Evra’s hand. It was good to see Liverpool showing some repentance but when you hear that it might have had to do with share holders and value of stocks you fear the depth of contriteness. One assumes though that the Suarez/Dalglish relationship is a little more tense this morning.

Manchester United had a way to come out of all this with total respect and dignity. Another Premiership winning performance in what is their difficult run of fixtures had just pushed them above their City rivals to get back to the top of the table. Time to stand tall, heads held high, smiles a mile wide and walk off with utter respect. Sadly, if perhaps understandably, Patrice Evra’s rage got the best of him at this stage and his over elaborate celebration, some timed beautifully to be done right in the face of Suarez let United down a little too. This was also bang out of order and couldn’t have done anything to ease the tensions in the stands. If Sir Alex suggested rightly that Suarez actions could have caused a riot, then he needs a word with his own captain who was just a few yards away from getting out of the cauldron in perfect shape. It sadly meant that at the end of the match Evra, not Suarez, was in the spotlight and the bad boy on Facebook discussion; I am sure Sir Alex will have a quiet word!

A light at the end of the tunnel came on Sunday when Sky caught a lovely moment when Joe Hart removed his shirt and gave it to a fan before leaving he pitch. That the fan was a supporter of the other team and had spent 45 minutes directly behind Hart’s goal gave a fine example of how mutual respect between players and opposition players and fans can and must become a reality in soccer. That Liverpool’s hierarchy made Suarez and Dalglish apologise can only be good. That the Premier League hierarchy force players to shake hands and then have no ruling when they don’t can only be more stupidity at the top of the game. I believe it should happen but when players use it as a way to dismiss players and stoke up tension action needs to happen!

A FEW RANDOM SURMISES ON AN ENGLISH ENGLAND MANAGER

The England Soccer manager circus has kicked off again with another resignation that had nothing to do with the game itself. The first irony seems to be that as soon as an Italian resigns over a racist issue with the captain that almost the entire nation gets xenophobic by screaming how much they need to make sure the next manager is English! And this after an Italian who was statistically the most successful manager that England have ever had; a 67% win ratio to the great Sir Alf Ramsay’s 61%! Lovely to also see in those stat tables Glenn Hoddle alongside Sir Alf on 61%. It is good to remember two things about Hoddle; he lost his job over a philosophical statement, not for footballing reasons, and it pretty much ended what was one of the most promising managerial careers of the era!

As the English press, public and footballing community all call for Harry Redknapp, just cleared by a jury literally hours before the job becomes vacant, to succeed Capello there are a few points to consider. Firstly, is the job any longer big enough to entice Harry away from his most exciting run at the premier League title with Spurs. Last year’s World Cup was a poor and unexciting spectacle. The Premier League is much more exciting and even bigger is the Champions League in which English teams are seen as major players. At international level England simply aren’t. One World Cup win almost fifty years ago is a blip on their records. It has to be understood by Englishmen everywhere that England are the Bolton of international football; mid-table but never really a threat to the big boys!

The call for an English manager is all very well while Harry Redknapp is doing well at Spurs. If Harry is clever enough, and he kind of confessed to not being of PhD intelligence in court last week, to stay in a much better job which Englishman do they then turn to? A quick look at the Premier League and we find 7 Scottish managers, 2 Northern Ireland, 1 Republic Of Ireland, 1 Welsh, 2 Italian, a Portuguese, a Dutch and a French, leaving just four English managers. It is not exactly a rich seam of managerial talent and one has to wonder why the other British Isles countries who know their place at international level can produce so many more good managers.  

However, maybe I’ve just read it all wrong and there is a recognition in all of this that actually England are not competing at a world level so a manager like Stuart Pearce, Gareth Southgate or even Paul Gascoigne, all untried at any kind of level, will do! Ah! Fair enough and that makes sense of Wayne’s Tweet, "Gutted capello has quit. Good guy and top coach. Got to be english to replace him. Harry redknapp for me." There seems a certain amount of contradiction there! Maybe a cunning way of getting rid of Spurs in the title race.

Stocki Surmises John Terry and Soccer Playing Role Models...

English soccer is in the middle of more bad publicity this weekend as the English FA stripped John Terry of the captaincy for the second time in a few short years. Terry was amazingly reinstated after his last demeanour, having an affair with a team mate’s partner, a few years ago and now having been charged with racially abusing an opponent he is once again demoted. We should remember that at this stage Terry has only been charged and we must recognise him innocent until proven guilty but the delaying of his trial until after the European Championships has not helped him in this scenario. Surely a speedy trial and the English captaincy could have been sorted well in advance.

Some sports’ commentators have suggested that an England captain has responsibilities beyond the ordinary player. Surely though any England player has gone beyond the ordinary player and representing your country has role model dimensions for all. I have probably blogged this before but there are many other work places, not paid half as much or with the prestige of an English International soccer player, who would get sacked for far less than betraying a work colleague by having an affair with their partner. When it comes to looking for role models within the England team who might succeed Terry as captain then we face more problems. Rio Ferdinand, if indeed he is still good enough in playing terms, has been through drug suspicions for missing dope tests. Tabloid headlines have seen Wayne Rooney accused of carousing with prostitutes; Steven Gerrard, though cleared, has been up in court for affray; and Ashley Cole’s adultery has been well documented.

Terry’s demotion from captain seems a correct decision at this stage but is it any worse an example of role modelling than all of the above and more. How long must we sing this song on this blog; soccer needs to clean up its act, not only for the good of the game but for the good of our wider society. However, before we point fingers we should remember the boys in grammar schools throughout Northern Ireland who would have been expelled apart from their ability to help win a School’s Cup! When holding silver cups for a year or four is deemed as more important than the behavioural health of a society for many years then neither should we surprised at John Terry and his soccer playing buddies nor indeed expect them to act any different than they have or might have done.  

Sports Surmise On Taking Part Being As Important as Winning

In my final year at school we were entered into an exam called Use Of English. It was a one off. I think we had an essay or two. It was short. With no revision needed I revelled and when my grade was higher than those a few months away from three and four A grades in their A Levels I caused some surprise and consternation. With the essay options I got lucky; “Sport is more about the taking part than the winning. Discuss.” With my love for writing even then, the honing of my ability in the Debating Society and my love for sport I was on a winner!

I remembered that essay this weekend when I was considering a change in attitude in my own sporting fandom in the midst of the fan tension around the Liverpool – Manchester United game and the QPR- Chelsea match. Both these games had gained some hyped hatred following on the field spats between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez and John Terry and Anton Ferdinand respectively. Managers and Football’s governing bodies were trying to defuse tension as the week went on and that was a rare and welcome contribution. However, there was still booing and tensions in the stands at both games. It is the ugly face of football, maybe even uglier than awful refereeing decisions just now, and they are ugly!

I can do nothing about what goes on with thousands of gathered football fans but I can change myself. Indeed as a Christian minister, that is the very business I am involved in! This season, with my team reaching the possibility of winning trophies, I took a conscious decision to change my attitude to the opposition and to be a better loser. The amazing thing is that it has caused me to enjoy the spectacle of my favourite sport in a wonderful new way. I have started to see even Manchester United as the other eleven players in the entertaining competitiveness of what I am watching. The matches against United and indeed Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal have become great games of football that it is a joy to be a part of and to sometimes win and sometimes lose. Without these teams there would be no point. What I have come to enjoy this season is the fact that the Manchester clubs are walloping London clubs in the League, yet London clubs are still in the Champions League and Liverpool have just dumped both Manchester clubs out of the domestic Cup competitions. There are a lot of teams who could win trophies, nobody is winning all the trophies and that is a wonderful thing for the excitement of being a fan.

So, in this competitive season, I think taking part is fun in itself. If my team, Manchester City, finally win the League that will be to be celebrated and I will celebrate! But fair play to Manchester United, with a much weaker team, they will not let go and they might well pip us to it which would be an amazing achievement. That will be no reason to hate even in my Facebook status or over coffee. It is time for respect of other teams and other teams’ supporters. How to lose is as important as how to win and I am learning how to do both in brand new ways?

Oh MARIO, BROTHER! Stocki Sports Surmises His Most Loved/Hated Striker

One of my City following buddies has Face Booked me from the States, where he found himself this weekend, looking for my opinion on the Mario Balotelli incident/s! He might just be looking for my City bias to come through and reassure him. Well not this time. Though another sky blue Lee Dixon stretched things a tad far in his attempt to give Mario the benefit of the doubt, I personally think that he kicked out and should have been off. Indeed he had already been booked. My only defence would be that I don’t think he knew that Scott Parker’s head was where he stamped, he wasn’t looking anywhere near where his heal hit, but he certainly intended something. If the Premier League don’t bring some justice to bear on video evidence my fear is that someone’s head will get mashed before something is done. However, neither have the Premier League always acted with courage nor to be honest has players’ behaviour improved with threats of fines or suspensions.

I should also say to my friend in America that Lescott should been sent off too, for an elbow/strong arm into Kaboul.  If City are going to shake off United, and win this elusive League title, they don’t need to lose players during games or for future games. Discipline is needed for the long haul. City have been down to three strikers with Tevez’s unprofessionalism. That has been a huge handicap that few have commented on. City need to get rid of him to add a striker for the run in but they don’t need to lose any other players. Yesterday’s win was a huge one for City, the last League game without the tower that is Vincent Kompany but United’s win was even bigger. If United can slalom the next five or six games their run in is much easier and City will struggle to hold them off. It will be quite an achievement for Sir Alex if that happens. Make no mistake this is an inferior Manchester United. City are much superior on paper but you don’t win trophies on paper.

Balotelli? Well the kid is a genius. His penalty was that of a mature soccer player; cool and calm. His behaviour though is far from it. He is a mess of a young man who needs serious social care. I have no idea what has caused the volatile young man that we have watched like a soap opera this season but help is needed. I would not find him easy to deal with as a member of my Church! Soccer could save his life but you hope he doesn’t really damage someone else in the process. Roberto Mancini has an awful lot on his hands to attempt to hone this genius and get the best out of him. You can understand why he is a hate figure and he is going to take abuse form fans. When I say he is a love/hate figure I mean as a City fan I change from love him/hate him, love him/hate him love him/hate him about ten times during every game. The Premier League will need to work out what to do with him. So will Roberto Mancini. Mark my words though, if he could stay out of trouble he could be crucial to City’s title aspirations. He could end up very loved in one part of England!

SPORT SURMISING ON SOCCER RULES Pt 1

Everybody hates it. Nobody talks about it. It is on very many occasions absolutely pointless. The only reason for doing it is to slow up the game and frustrate the opponent. It is just on the right side of cheating but cheating it feels. My solution is that there should be no substitutions in Soccer after the 85^th minute. I am amazed that no one has ever suggested it but it seems to me it would make sure that managers can’t interfere with the spectacle that is the exciting end of a soccer match.  

You can hear the backlash already. “But it is tactical.” “There can be more injuries at that time of the game.” There are certain sympathies with the latter but we have no time to have doctors pronounce “injured” and we know the problems that that caused in Rugby. We don’t want to have players playing on with broken necks as the late Bert Trautmann did for Manchester City in the 1956 Cup Final. Yet, five minutes plus injury time which, unless you’re leading against an Alex Ferguson side, is normally three to four minutes is not too long and ten men increases the excitement. More crucially it is a more challenging dilemma to a manager’s tactical skills than bringing on two subs in extra time at 30 second intervals! The Meerkat would say, “simples!”

TOM ADEYEMI, LIVERPOOL SUPPORTERS AND THE SOCIAL MALAISE AT SOCCER MATCHES

A few years ago I experienced something at a soccer match that has had me surmising ever since and it came back to the forefront of my surmising again this weekend. City were one up I think and the game was almost over. As the game moved towards injury time many fans were leaving and a seat beside me became vacant right be the steps. As a fan was coming down the steps something happened that caused him to sit down beside me for the final three minutes. In those minutes this man f’ed and blinded our team, our manager, their team, their manager, the referee and linesmen. It was like seething hatred from a disturbed man. It would be easy to say that he was one yob in the pack, an individual and that everyone else at soccer matches are OK. Yet, I don’t believe that this is the case. During the Manchester derby on Sunday as a United player chased a ball at the edge of the pitch the TV cameras showed the City crowd behind him. The facial expressions, howls if you could lip read and finger gestures were there for all to see. It wasn’t one or two who stood out, it was communal hatred. We need to ask what causes this vehemence? Is there something wrong at the core of our society?

It happens every week. Players returning to play against their own team getting booed repeatedly. Players who are seriously injured and moments later getting carried off for maybe a year on the sidelines booed and abused. Every time a player moves to a part of the stadium where opposition fans are seated the fans are on their feet shouting abuse. This weekend Phil Neville was getting booed by Tamworth fans and no one could even work out why. Simply for being the best known player? This is simply the ordinary abuse. If players should join rival clubs that abuse is even worse.

This weekend the dilemma was highlighted again when a Liverpool fan is arrested for possibly racially abusing Oldham defender Tom Adeyemi. This is a fascinating incident. Considering the amount of abuse that players take from stadiums of between 40,000 and 70,000 people on a weekly basis for Tom Adeyemi to take exception to one hurl of abuse is extraordinary; not that he should ever have had to take the abuse. If Samir Nasri had done the same in a recent game at The Emirates the game would have been stopped every few seconds! What I would like to suggest is that in a cauldron of the kind of hostility experienced at weekly soccer matches a racial phrase can be a second away at every given moment; an adrenaline rush of such hatred and we all go looking for terms of prejudice. Beyond that why should racial abuse be deemed different than the other abuse that is directed at players, referees or linesmen.

Liverpool FC’s official statement speaks about the reputation of their fans for fairness and “the actions of any one individual do not represent our fans.” I could not agree and disagree more. Liverpool fans have always come across to me as being fair and fun. I have only been at Anfield once but my experience in the Kop was very positive. That visit was a long time ago but if I had to stand with my sky blue scarf in any opposing fans area it would be Liverpool’s. However, what happened on Friday night was not the behaviour of one fan. It is a communal disease at the heart of soccer that needs dealt with and dealt with fast.

I do agree with Gordon Strachan when he said on ITV that “we (Britain – ed) rule the world in yob society” and that soccer shouldn’t take “the blame for all sorts of social ills” but soccer might just have the power within their iconic players and managers to make an impression on this malaise in our society. In the increasing absence of Church in our society there is a need for a place of community where people are handed down examples of decent behaviour towards neighbour and even “enemy” though one of the first things needing dealt how we define “enemy.” Soccer stadiums are probably the gathering place of most people on a weekend. The leaders of these gatherings have a responsibility, maybe even an opportunity. Do managers by pitch side, or on the media, show a different example. And what about the players? The sooner their huge wage bills include such responsibilities the sooner we eradicate such behaviour, not only from soccer stadiums but maybe even society in general. Yes, Gordon Strachan, soccer shouldn’t take the blame but it should recognise the size of the matter and see its new role within social networks and maybe someday take the credit for putting it right!