The Theatre of Broken Dreams

When I posted my previous  blog yesterday afternoon I did not consider that I would be posting  another in less than 24 hours about broadly the same subject – the decline in sportsmanship and sporting conduct especially in football.

The "Theatre of Broken Dreams"

The scenes at Old Trafford when Real Madrid defeated United  last night, I think, proved precisely  the many of the points that I made in my previous blog. The anger and behaviour following the sending off of the United player Nani was offensive to all who love football but more important deeply worrying about what it says about sport in general and wider society's response.  What would the footballing genius and gentleman Bobby Moore have thought? What would Pele think? – when he witnessed the behaviour of allegedly top players like Rio Ferdinand sarcastically clapping the referee or poking an accusing finger at him. How does that square with Pele’s assertion that he (and by association other top players) have a responsibility to show youngsters “how to be like a man”?  Where does  Alex Ferguson’s thrusting of people out of the way as he charged from his seat to shout and scream at match officials  fit in with Ferguson’s great predecessor’s (Sir Matt Busby) comments about  arguably United's greatest player Duncan Edwards – that he was always very calm and his temperament was perfect? Ferguson showed no capacity to be calm or be of even temperament. And  in the end all the anger and lost tempers came to nought - the general feeling in the aftermath of the events is that as a result of their anger United lost concentration – they fell apart when, to use Kipling’s words, they failed to “keep [their] head when all about them were losing theirs”.

United players harass and try to intimidate the referee after
the sending off of Nani

It reinforced my increasingly held view that Old Trafford, the “Theatre of Dreams” as it has long been rightly known is now rather the “Theatre of Broken Dreams. The dreams are broken not because United lost a match and failed to progress further in the European Cup – that is unimportant, it is simply a game of football lost – but because what was once the proud epitome of all that was good in football and sport is no more. Instead of skill, graceful football, sportsmanship and proud tradition being what Manchester United and Old Trafford represented we now have aggression, anger, vitriol, mob rule and lack of sportsmanship in command. Of course, this is true at many great stadiums up and down the country – but none have the glamour and with that the worldwide fame of Old Trafford.

The whole situation was compounded and made worse by the refusal by Ferguson, a man paid huge amounts of money and at the peak of the footballing world, to speak after the game – he was, we understand, so incensed at the sending off of his player that he refused to speak to reporters.  Thank goodness United’s second in command Mike Phelan showed a little more dignity, professionalism and calmness on behalf of the Club and his unsporting and aggressive master when he explained: "I don't think the manager is in any fit state to talk to the referee about the decision. It speaks volumes that I am sat here and not the manager of this fantastic football club. We all witnessed a decision that seemed very harsh, possibly incredible at that moment in the game."

The tackle that caused it all

Phelan was correct – the decision was controversial but that doesn’t make it wrong nor does it, therefore, give free hand to players, managers and so called fans  to behave in the way they did. Indeed, it didn’t stop there; Roy Keane – the ex-United Captain and ex-club hero - had the temerity to suggest on TV that although the sending off was controversial he thought it was the right decision by the referee.  He has since been howled down and vilified by all and sundry.

When people start losing their heads then the mob take over - and the mob can change on a whim. No one is safe when the mob rules.

Old Trafford once was  a place where some of the very great of football – Edwards, Charlton, Best, Busby, Law, Cantona and others wove their glorious patterns and provided some of the very greatest moments of the national game. It was a place to aspire to, a place where footballing dreams might be realised – a Theatre of Dreams. Sadly, no more. It seems, with one or two notable exceptions such as the ever calm Ryan Giggs, it has become a place permeated with an undercurrent of violence and aggression. Any decision or act  that goes against United is immediately the subject of the manager’s rage. Any dubious decision or act that United commit is above the law. Alex Ferguson is famed for what is called his “hair dryer treatment” when he angrily,  aggressively and, some say, violently castigates his players. Any referee who has the temerity to raise Ferguson’s blood pressure will be subject to his bile. And if the leader can be so easily aroused why not the players? Why not the Old Trafford faithful?  Is that the root of what has happened at Old Trafford – anger, aggression and violence ruling rather than sportsmanship, skill and gentlemanly conduct? I fear so and last night proved the point. It is perhaps not surprising that today I read that over a hundred miles away from Old Trafford, an eighteen year old in my area of the country, was so incensed at the sending off of Nani and so caught up in the aggression and controversy that he saw on his TV screen that he actually rang the local Nottinghamshire police to complain that the referee was a criminal! One might laugh at this - except that it is not  funny. It is what happens when aggression, anger and the mob take charge - unthinking, immature people do stupid things - even when they are a hundred miles away - when they have been egged on by rabble rousing leaders like Alex Ferguson or Rio Ferdinand. What is not funny is that the referee has received many death threats today on Twitter - presumably all from so called football fans who agreed with the anger and abuse on display and masquerading as football and sport at Old Trafford. Pele was right - those involved at the pinnacle of sport and football in particular have a huge responsibility to show a  lead on matters of behaviour - and "how to be like a man" . There was a complete abdication of this in Manchester last night and sadly, this has become  common place at the Theatre of Broken Dreams under Alex Ferguson's stewardship.

Alex Ferguson wades in

The sending off of Nani may, or may not, have been the correct decision. As I watched it last night my immediate reaction was that it was not a particularly  bad tackle nor was it  intended to be so. Like many others I was a little surprised when the referee judged it a sending off offence but I could see where he was coming from. Football is littered with similar situations and, as Roy Keane correctly observed, if you raise your boot to the height that Nani did then you must expect that there might be repercussions.But my opinions, the opinions of the crowd, the opinions of Roy Keane, the opinions of other players, the opinions of managers are irrelevant. The point is that  it is the referee's opinion that matters and he judged it to be a sending off offence. And in any sport the referee must be the final arbiter – not some hi-tech TV camera, not the howls of the crowd, not the abuse of other players, not the aggression and vitriol of a highly paid manager who should know better.  For when players, spectators and the manager lose the ability (as it has increasingly been lost at Old Trafford) to accept  a decision calmly and sportingly then sport has gone and we simply have a battle – the mob rules. As George Orwell noted seventy years ago – “..... sport is an unfailing cause of ill-will.......  Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.........There are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators.......” Orwell’s comments seem peculiarly resonant in the modern football world and not inappropriate when considering Manchester United’s response last night. What would Orwell think today?

Game over and Rio Ferguson sarcastically claps
in the face of the referee

I wonder, have United and does Ferguson ever consider the great responsibility they hold as allegedly the country’s and one of the world’s premier clubs? Did Ferguson wake up this morning and feel just a small pang of guilt for his childish behaviour – and if not why not? I have seen many examples of behaviour like Ferguson’s and Ferdinand’s over the years – always on the school playground with immature 9 year olds bullying others and then sullenly refusing to speak when questioned. I have seen the mob on the school playground baying while the bully lashes out at some victim or at someone who is brave enough to challenge him. I saw that, too, last night in the crowd and in the papers this morning when I read of the vitriol poured on Roy Keane and the referee. How quickly the mob can change. Once Keane was the embodiment of all that United worked towards – his presence, his commitment, his skills, his drive could win a game single handedly – he was glorified by the United faithful. But now, because he expresses a point of view that the mob disagrees with, he is scorned and vilified. In the papers this morning one reporter commented that the referee's name will go down in Ferguson's "little black book" - where he allegedly writes the names of those with whom he has to settle a score. Mmmmm! - that sounds exactly like many of the playground bullies that I have known in my life - the little boys who, having had an altercation with another child, will mutter, as the teacher walks away "I'll get you on the way home". It sounds exactly like the teenage gang leaders who rule parts of our inner cities streets and estates and carry out vendettas against other gangs and individuals when they are not shown "respect". What is even more unsettling is that in accepting either as fact or repute that Ferguson keeps a "little black book" and that some sort of future revenge might be exacted we are, as a society, legitimising it -  revenge, violence and mob rule are acceptable when Alex Ferguson does it so it's acceptable for the rest of society.

The unpleasant face of  Old Trafford football - where does
sport as an enjoyable activity fit in?

No, had United had a Bobby Moore on the field last night they might not have lost their heads but kept their concentration when a single decision went against them. Had they had a manager capable of controlling his anger and his aggression then common sense might have prevailed and he might have guided his team to success. The referee may have made a questionable call – what he cannot be held responsible for is the inability of United to overcome the problems, to show some kind of maturity, to control their emotions and to act as the very highly paid professionals they are reputed to be. 

As Martin Peters said of Moore “......you would know what you had to do........ he wouldn't shout at anyone, he wasn't like that, he was calm and collected. The quality of him, you just knew by the way he played and the way he acted that he was a quality man not only in football but in life as well”. But then United didn’t have a Bobby Moore. Their response, (unlike what Moore’s would have been) was to shout, scream, finger jab, clap sarcastically and lose their concentration and that is what mobs and the not so great always do - because it hides their failings, the deficiencies in their arguments and the paucity of their skills. And that is why United lost the game and why football and sport once again takes another step into the abyss. Alex Ferguson, Rio Ferdinand and the rest should be ashamed.