Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
[QUOTE=Graham Breeze;670770]The one where he "Took the day off on Tuesday, a day for myself and no phone, no training, just me and Roscoe on the water."
Just "me and Roscoe" (the dog), a camera crew, the guy at the wheel, my publicist, make-up artist, lawyer, monkey butler....
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
Sigh... like Marcus Rashford, he's the darling of the BBC and general wokerati. Consequently any hint of criticism might get you turfed off to the 're-education' camps of Quislington. You've been warned, you lot!
Am Yisrael Chai
I hesitate to get involved in this topic as it could easily go downhill...!
SPOTY: It's so vastly open to opinion, as is the interpretation of what constitutes a "sport" (and indeed a "personality"!)
Knighthoods: I think sportsmen and women at the level of people like Hamilton are rewarded well enough within their profession, and don't think knighthoods should be handed out like they seem to be... imagine if England win the next world cup, there'll be a clamour for the entire squad to be knighted, which would just be a mockery. I'm all for sportspersons being honoured, but perhaps it should be in retrospect... will Hamilton's achievements stand the test of time? There's no doubting he's one of the greatest racing drivers ever, but there's the unavoidable fact that he's in a vastly superior car, and runs like his may become the norm in the next generation. Perhaps a couple of decades should pass before looking at achievements like this.
Marcus Rashford, football politics, etc: As someone who was formerly heavily into football, the whole thing makes me very uncomfortable. On the face of it, fantastic what Rashford is doing (although i'm sure we all have our own opinions on the in's and outs of the subject). Same with BLM and LGBT etc in football...
But football has a huge amount of problems which i feel would be better served sorting itself out first. I won't go into them in detail, but briefly...
- Sky appearing to place themselves as the moral compass for the sporting world, yet heavily pushing their gambling website.
- Players being held up as role-models, and sometimes outright praised for blatant cheating during a game.
- The entire saga with regard to the "big clubs" wanting to takeover football and shut everyone else out.
- FIFA/UEFA and endless corruption and bribery...
Ok these do not prohibit football players from taking a stance for BLM/LGTB/etc... but once you start holding yourself up as a moral educator, you put yourself in the firing line for uncomfortable questions (isn't Lewis Hamilton under similar criticism/scrutiny for lecturing us as to how we're all ruining the world and environment, whilst he's jetting off around the world every fortnight and driving a car at 200mph). And football is nowhere near squeaky clean.
How many of the Premier League's players will have the courage of their convictions and refuse to play in the Qatar World Cup, which was won by bribery and corruption, and where the stadiums are in part constructed by "slave labour"?
I'd be all for a boycott by England of the Qatar World Cup on the grounds of anti-corruption/slavery/human rights... but the cynic in me can't help thinking that the players will consult their sponsors and social media image consultants, and turn a blind eye to it.
Very well put, with many points I agree with. Football, Rugby and motor racing get way too much media and commercial - (money) attention.
It would be an absolutely game-changing (excuse pun) statement for countries like England/France/Italy/Croatia/Germany/Brazil to say we refuse to play in the world cup, and even host their own unofficial tournament, perhaps in a big African footballing nation (Nigeria/Egypt/Algeria/Morocco).
Otherwise the rainbow flags at UK football grounds etc, count for nothing, if those same players trudge over to Qatar and play a tournament in a country which has some very contrary laws on the lGBT theme...
Of course the opposing view is politics should be kept out of football entirely and just get on with it. Which i believe was FIFA/UEFA's original and preferred standpoint, and probably the one thing that i agreed with.
But now the cat is out of the bag, and i doubt it will ever go back in...