A Patriot's Call

As i glanced at the back pages of some newspapers in the library today, i noted that it hadn't taken long to fall out of the minds of the media. Roughly three days. Two in some.

Once again it was football football football that dominated the proceedings. Lots of money thrown about. Lots of tantrums. Lots of grown men old enough to know better. Like me.

What transpired at the weekend in China was forgotten about. I refer to a British sporting triumph.....a one-two for British drivers in the F 1 Grand Prix. The cherry on this sweet, sweet cake? The team was British too.

As a fan of F1, i thought it marvellous. It is tinged with the blue grey tint of sadness though, as this achievment was met almost with indifference by much of the population. BRITAIN dominated. Is that not a reason for the sporty to be cheerful?

Later on this year, a bunch of over-paid nancy boys head out to South Africa to try and win the World Cup. People say we have a chance. They say that every year.
I remember the last one.....we were let off work early if we wanted to watch the game (I did then!), we were allowed late back from lunch if a game was on. The sport dominated the front pages and reduced grown men to tears when they finally realised we were rubbish.

If we get to the Semi-finals in footy, i'm sure it'll be all over the news for weeks. We always seem to reward losers in this country which makes me wonder when i'll be getting paid. If we WIN, i imagine there'll be a national holiday and everyone's wildest dreams will come true.

Its a long shot of course. I can't see it myself. I do know however, that we have a sport that Britain is currently excelling at, and i wish as much attention and newspaper pages were lavished upon it as they are on football.

My Two Cents if you're interested....we will never be world beaters at football because the Premiership signs shed loads of foreign players. We teach them how to be good, ignoring our own talent. Then in the World Cup these players use the skills they learned from English clubs against England. Therein lies the rub. By all means have foreign players, but don't go crying when your national team sucks.