Barry Clifford: But This Behaviour Is Just Not Cricket

It seems Uruguay is in national mourning. Their flesh chomping hero, Louis Suarez, who has a fetish for biting shoulders in particular, has been thrown out of the world cup. One paper bannered their outrage and stated that they are all Suarez, which is a bit up from saying that they are just with him. Maradona asked, “Who did he kill? This is football.” The question should be framed more like ‘who did he try to eat’? Three so far and counting and racial abuse is also on his menu with head butting referees for a possible desert.

Even the President of his country came out in support to greet him at Montevideo’s international airport along with other die- hard fans. All of this had me thinking that football is not just a game and is more than national pride; it represents the victory of battles long past and those yet that have to be fought.

Let us hope football popularity never wanes for at least it can all be decided by a referee and everyone gets to walk away almost in one piece. Though Louis Suarez may have bitten off more than he can chew on the soccer pitch there has been far more outrages happening on that patch of green that would make even him stop in his tracks.

Think back to Roy Keane and it may have been only a game but the sportsmanship was long gone when he deliberately drove at Alf-Ing Halland in a tussle for the ball in a 2001 match, shattering his leg badly. He did not feel the need to even play it down when he said: “I had no remorse. My attitude was fuck him. What goes around comes around. He got his just rewards. He fucked me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye.”  His narrative could have come straight out of a General George S Patton speech rather than one about a dust up over a leather ball. That ‘Fucked me over part’ stemmed from Keane 4 years before, where he injured his own knee in trying to do the exact same thing to Halland. But the last and final tackle pretty much ended Halland’s career and any more chances of earning mouth watering salaries to feed his family.

Of course who could forget Vinnie Jones. Back in 1988 he grabbed Paul Gascoigne by his testicles and not because he fancied him. Mind you picking on Paul is like picking on a poodle with a broken leg. But of course boys will be boys and all that…….  Which brings me back to my earlier thoughts: it is not just a game. But as long as they will always be just playing with a football we can safely say that they will live to fight another day and are the best paid soldiers on any field. But this behaviour is just not cricket.

Barry Clifford