 | THE SHAME GAME The other aspects to consider: |
Footballers have been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Serious criminal allegations and unsavoury tales depicting a lurid off-the-field lifestyle have brought their behaviour into sharp focus.
We have already examined what lies behind the bad behaviour, but how do their misdemeanours compare to those of other sports stars and players in other countries?
Why is it that footballers' bad behaviour makes the headlines when other stars can sin in secret?
How bad is it?
By Tom Fordyce |
Remember the story about the two young England internationals caught on camera brawling outside a Leeds nightclub?
You might think you do, but you might also be wrong.
This is not the tale of Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate, but Leeds Rhinos stars Chev Walker and Ryan Bailey, who in July were both jailed for their part in a street fight.
Bowyer was found not guilty of grievous bodily harm and affray while Woodgate received just 100 hours of community service, but the court case received a thousand times more column inches than that which saw Walker and Bailey jailed.
This is not to condone the conduct of Woodgate, Bowyer and their friends Neale Caveney and Paul Clifford, but it does illustrate how the bad behaviour of footballers is considered more newsworthy than that of other sports stars.
Dan Carrier, showbiz reporter for the Daily Mirror newspaper, admits: "We get people phoning us up with stories about footballers the whole time.
"Although we're only really interested in the Premiership stars, it depends on the strength of the story. If the behaviour has been really bad, we're interested - and as we know, there's a huge chance of bad behaviour."
So why does football get more attention than other sports?
"Football is the national game, and the players are much more recognisable," says Carrier. "Rugby players and cricketers are very minor in comparison.
"Rugby players are notorious for their debauched behaviour, but they don't earn so much money so there's not the same glamour or bling-bling factor.
"Rugby is also played by posh public schoolboys, and that isn't very sexy."
Out of line, off the pitch
There is an anomaly here. Critics are entitled to ask why French or Italian footballers playing in the Premiership, who are subject to the same pressures as their English counterparts and are if anything more glamorous, are not plastered all over the front pages of the tabloids.
Thierry Henry and Robert Pires play for one of the country's biggest clubs, earn thousands of pounds a week and appear in high-profile television advertising campaigns, yet neither has stepped out of line off the pitch.
Henry, like William Gallas and Nicolas Anelka, is one of several French stars in the Premiership to have gone through his country's youth academy, L'Institut National de Football.
Here, the best 13 to 16-year-olds are coached for three years before being sent off to professional clubs - and as head coach Andre Merelle told the BBC, discipline and good behaviour and integral parts of the youngsters' education.
"We teach them to behave well here first," says Merelle. "We don't have big problems. They know that if there is trouble, they will be fired - and that keeps them from behaving badly.
"They must shake hands with each other, be polite, say 'bonjour'. We teach them what to eat and drink, and tell them that they need lots of sleep.
"In French football there is not the custom of going out after games and drinking. Even when you go out late, very few players drink.
"And also the French players in England are maybe a little older, more mature. They have wives. They behave like normal French people - if they do drink, it is not heavily - maybe a glass of wine with a meal."
There are more English players in the Premiership than any other nationality, so in theory an English player is more likely to make the headlines.
But there are more than 60 nationalities now plying their trade in the Premiership, with English-born players making up just 40% of those on show. Yet it is invariably English players involved in non-football-related scandals.
Those arguing in defence of British players can, however, point to several high-profile players whose reputations are just as untarnished as those of Henry, Pires and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Michael Owen, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, Sol Campbell and David James form the spine of the England team and have behaved impeccably off the pitch throughout their careers.
US Sport in the dock
That contrasts with the situation in America, where some of the nation's biggest sporting stars have had their names dragged through the mud this year.
Last summer alone, LA Lakers icon Kobe Bryant was arrested on a sexual assault charge, fellow NBA star Damon Stoudamire was arrested on his third drug-related offence and former All-Star Jerry Stackhouse was charged with assault following an altercation with a female property manager.
Problems are not limited to the NBA or professional sport. College basketball star Patrick Dennehy was murdered in July, with a team-mate arrested on murder charges.
Then there is the tale of Dallas Cowboys safety Keith Davis, who was shot several times after an altercation at a strip club but miraculously managed to avoid serious injury.
Go back a little further and you have the incredible tales of excess that dogged the Cowboys after they won three Super Bowls in the early 1990s.
In March 1996 wide receiver Michael Irvin was caught in a hotel room with two topless dancers and a mountain of cocaine, just as stories began to emerge of the "White House", a building near the Cowboys' training ground which players allegedly rented and used to host parties for women other than their wives.
This came on top of All-Pro tackle Erik Williams writing off his car and nearly killing himself while driving drunk, and drug suspensions for defensive tackle Leon Lett and cornerback Clayton Holmes.
Sports stars, it seems, reflect the society from which they emerge.
MMIX
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