English Media Defends Reckless Tackling

Those seeking to find out why English football has declined need look no further than the English media and the way they see the game. For the thinking of the English media reflects the thinking of English society.Take the BBC's report on Liverpool's 1-Nil Champions League win over Inter. This is how one of its writers saw the sending off of Inter defender Nicolas Burdisso:

"Inter's hopes of mounting a fightback were dealt a cruel blow after 49 minutes when Burdisso - who had already been booked - collided with Lucas...The challenge looked innocuous and Inter were understandably enraged when Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo produced a red card that was harsh in the extreme."

Some might quickly point to the objectivity of the British media company in standing up for a player on an Italian team. But that would be missing the point.The fact of the matter is that Burdisso deserved to be sent off not just for repeated infringements of the laws of football but also for the dangerous final tackle itself. Burdisso did not collide with Lukas as the BBC reported, he charged at him full speed with studs up after already having been booked. The red was not harsh. It was fully warranted.It seems that at least one BBC reporter is as deluded as Scottish coach Alex McCleish who the other day pulled out a conspiracy theory about Sepp Blatter's intentions to change the game of football. McCleish cast the English game in a positive light by calling it robust. But the fact of the matter is that the English and Scottish are simply a bust. It is sad that the very people who first wrote the laws of football in the nineteenth century are now being undone by their misinterpretation of those laws.By celebrating a game full of fouls they may be creating a spectacle in their leagues but the cost is that they no longer produce enough technical footballers. For how can a country develop talent when everyone including the media is defending the kind of reckless tackling that we saw from Inter's Burdisso yesterday.

Source > 12.03.2008