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Rewarding
Mediocrity
Watching
the news of the draw for the so-called European Champions
League the other day I couldn't help but wonder why
the word "Champions" is used in the competition's
title. Now Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle
United are all good teams of course but champions they
certainly are not - that hard fought and richly deserved
honour belongs to Arsenal. So how is it then that teams
finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in their national league
can take part in a competition to find the champions
of Europe? Well, the easy, cynical and undoubtedly truthful
answer surely is one word - money. Make the competition
as big as possible, sell the games to television, sit
back and watch the readies come pouring in. That's modern
football for you. Money is everything. Feed the rich
and the devil take the hindmost.
The
most farcical aspect of the competition for me though
was the fact that the teams forced to qualify (namely
Man. United and Newcastle) were given the safety net
of automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup should they
not qualify for the Champions League. How valid does
that make the UEFA Cup as a competition? Why should
failure in one competition be rewarded by entry into
another? Surely sport (or at least professional sport)
is all about the pursuit of excellence and surely if
failure is rewarded won't that act as a disincentive
to excel?
Talking
of which, it was refreshing a couple of weeks ago to
hear a well-respected and experienced man of football
(Sir Bobby Robson) speak candidly about England's failure
in the World Cup. He described England's second half
performance against Brazil as "awful". Well,
it certainly was that wasn't it? Playing against ten
men for over half an hour and we struggle to mount one
meaningful attack. Yet, if you believed the garbage
written in some of our national papers you'd have thought
we'd won the cup. There was even talk of England coming
home to a national reception hosted by the President
(sorry, Prime Minister!). Reception for what, a celebration
of the fact that we reached the quarter-finals along
with the mighty Senegal and USA and yet finished below
Turkey and South Korea? Is that a cause for celebration
and the red carpet treatment?
Maybe
I'm wrong but I think sport (certainly professional
sport) is about winning not finishing among the also-rans.
Of course, it should be played within the rules and
the spirit of the game but that should be the only limitation.
Give the prize to the winner and nobody else, because
if you give a prize to everyone the prize becomes worthless.
The
way I see it, as long as we in this country celebrate
and reward mediocrity we will win absolutely nothing
and will remain among the also-rans. Somebody once said
(and he wasn't from these shores) "Winning isn't
everything - it's the only thing". It may not be
politically correct but I think he was right. Praise
effort always and give encouragement to the mediocre
but the reward must be the exclusive preserve of the
winner.
JE
Sept 2002
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