The chicken and the egg
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I heard a story recounted recently of a relatively well known sportsperson who was promoting a product and agreed to fill in a questionnaire interview for their sport’s market leading magazine. When asked about the element of their job that they enjoyed least they responded “dealing with the media”, later when asked about three things they would change about their sport they included “banning journalists from being near the action” as one of their choices. There could be no misinterpretation of how they viewed the Fourth Estate but where this person’s stance fell down was in the fact that as the magazine hit the shelves so too did the edition of a major newspaper which carried the same sportsperson’s regular column, one published presumably at considerable expense to the paper and considerable financial gain to the individual, the conflict – being happy enough to take the media’s shilling and the profile it provided them but not willing to entertain the primary role of the sports press in reporting positively or negatively sportspeople, teams and administrations.
There’s an element of the chicken and the egg about the relationship between some sports and the media. Has the money and infrastructure invested in the world’s major soccer leagues impacted positively in terms of their image and crucially for them revenue generating capability worldwide? Undoubtedly. But equally would the broadcasters who have pumped millions into the game have done so was there not a product there that held a significant interest from the public? Unlikely. Regardless of which view you may subscribe to we have been led to a point where almost every aspect of the world’s biggest sports are covered in forensic detail; from cameras in dressing rooms in rugby league and increasingly lower league soccer to the wearing of microphones by golfers on the PGA Tour. While the sports junkie in me consumes it greedily, the nostalgic laments the days when you possessed a sense of the unknown, the mystique of what goes on behind the scenes remaining in the realm of your imagination unlike modern coverage which can often be akin to the magician showing you where the rabbit is hidden as he goes through the process of pulling it from his hat.
One of the undoubted by-products has been the escalation of sport stars to a level of celebrity that would have been incomprehensible to even the biggest names of days gone by, but with is has also come a practice of judging them on an ill advised scale of reference. Take for example the spate of players disciplined in quick succession for the use of abusive language while on the field of play recently. Wayne Rooney’s head to head with a Sky Sports cameraman at the Boleyn Ground seemed to cause some form of cosmic realignment resulting in an immediate number of similar incidents – Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off and banned for three games for giving a Serie A assistant referee an insight into the Italian swear words he has learned during his time with Juve, Inter and now AC Milan, one of basketball’s biggest stars Kobe Byrant fined one hundred thousand dollars for a lewd comment caught on camera questioning the sexuality of a referee and at home Gary McCabe sent off during the Dublin derby after his exchange with official Mark Douglas.
No right thinking individual will argue that there is a place for any such behaviour in sport at any level let alone the highest stage upon which each can ply their trade in the country of residence. But does the level of castigation directed at all four show an investment of faith in sports people that has no founding? I subscribe completely to the view that young fans take influence from the stars they see on television and abhor the notion that diving and simulation has found an increased presence in junior football but equally I struggle to remember a time when a fan at a match a close proximity to another spouting abuse and foul language throughout a game turned around and asked them to stop for the benefit of any young ears in the vicinity. Why then should we expect so much more of professional sportspeople many of whom live in a reality far removed from the people who pay their wages by either passing through turnstiles at the weekend or by paying our digital television subscription at the end of each month? Does fame and fortune so easily a moral guardian make?
I finish this week’s effort whilst listening to a discussion on radio of how the style of play and behaviour of players during Wednesday’s Champions League semi final between Real Madrid and Barcelona marks a new low for the sport. I’m Nou Camp bound for the return leg next week hoping to report back on one of football’s great spectacles and not another occasion where the level of expectation we invest in those on the field of play is again deflated before our eyes.
There’s an element of the chicken and the egg about the relationship between some sports and the media. Has the money and infrastructure invested in the world’s major soccer leagues impacted positively in terms of their image and crucially for them revenue generating capability worldwide? Undoubtedly. But equally would the broadcasters who have pumped millions into the game have done so was there not a product there that held a significant interest from the public? Unlikely. Regardless of which view you may subscribe to we have been led to a point where almost every aspect of the world’s biggest sports are covered in forensic detail; from cameras in dressing rooms in rugby league and increasingly lower league soccer to the wearing of microphones by golfers on the PGA Tour. While the sports junkie in me consumes it greedily, the nostalgic laments the days when you possessed a sense of the unknown, the mystique of what goes on behind the scenes remaining in the realm of your imagination unlike modern coverage which can often be akin to the magician showing you where the rabbit is hidden as he goes through the process of pulling it from his hat.
One of the undoubted by-products has been the escalation of sport stars to a level of celebrity that would have been incomprehensible to even the biggest names of days gone by, but with is has also come a practice of judging them on an ill advised scale of reference. Take for example the spate of players disciplined in quick succession for the use of abusive language while on the field of play recently. Wayne Rooney’s head to head with a Sky Sports cameraman at the Boleyn Ground seemed to cause some form of cosmic realignment resulting in an immediate number of similar incidents – Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off and banned for three games for giving a Serie A assistant referee an insight into the Italian swear words he has learned during his time with Juve, Inter and now AC Milan, one of basketball’s biggest stars Kobe Byrant fined one hundred thousand dollars for a lewd comment caught on camera questioning the sexuality of a referee and at home Gary McCabe sent off during the Dublin derby after his exchange with official Mark Douglas.
No right thinking individual will argue that there is a place for any such behaviour in sport at any level let alone the highest stage upon which each can ply their trade in the country of residence. But does the level of castigation directed at all four show an investment of faith in sports people that has no founding? I subscribe completely to the view that young fans take influence from the stars they see on television and abhor the notion that diving and simulation has found an increased presence in junior football but equally I struggle to remember a time when a fan at a match a close proximity to another spouting abuse and foul language throughout a game turned around and asked them to stop for the benefit of any young ears in the vicinity. Why then should we expect so much more of professional sportspeople many of whom live in a reality far removed from the people who pay their wages by either passing through turnstiles at the weekend or by paying our digital television subscription at the end of each month? Does fame and fortune so easily a moral guardian make?
I finish this week’s effort whilst listening to a discussion on radio of how the style of play and behaviour of players during Wednesday’s Champions League semi final between Real Madrid and Barcelona marks a new low for the sport. I’m Nou Camp bound for the return leg next week hoping to report back on one of football’s great spectacles and not another occasion where the level of expectation we invest in those on the field of play is again deflated before our eyes.
