I vividly remember when I scored at Wembley. June 1995.
Late evening sunshine, well over fifty or sixty thousand in the
crowd. The roar a constant in my
ears. I wheeled away like an unsteady
overweight Mick Shannon, windmilling arm, bathing in the cheers and
chants. It wasn’t too bad a goal,
either, not one of those two yard tap ins that so often settle cup finals, but
a nice piece of control a little over ten to twelve yards out, nice touch with
the outside of the boot to set myself up, and then a right footed shot that
beat the keeper on the inside post.
Memories indeed.
Tom Cairney scored at Wembley, last weekend. A beautifully taken goal from a glorious
through-ball by an eighteen-year-old Ryan Sessegnon - a wunderkind from
Fulham’s Academy. Such coolness under
such pressure, from both of them. It was
a terrific victory: fine reward for a fabulous season’s work. I even had my own Fulham shirt on in support
of the team in their play-off final.
Thankfully, the snugger fit offset by the fact I’m less of an overweight
Mick Shannon, these days.
 |
| I did have to breathe out eventually. |
Sport is a curious thing.
It used to be that there were rewards commensurate with the performance
of the team or individual. If you won
the First Division, you got a trophy and the chance to play in the European
Cup. If you won the FA Cup, you got to
play in the Cup Winners’ Cup. If you’d
had a decent season and finished in the top five or six, you may get the reward
of playing the UEFA cup, along with all the teams from the other European
leagues that had had decent seasons too.
If you finished in the top two or three of the Second Division, you got
promoted to the First, just reward for your year’s performance in the lower
league. Things change.
Now, of course, you can finish sixth and get promoted
through the play-offs and after a fantastic day out at Wembley – and you get a
trophy for that too. You can have a
fantastic season, finish third in the league and then miss out on promotion
because a team that’s finished three places below you over forty six games nips
a two yard tap in in the play-off final and takes your place as the third team
into the next league up. Due
reward? I’m not sure.
It’s the same with Super Rugby down under. New Zealand routinely produce the best rugby
teams and so the competition is fixed so that the top teams across the various
pools of teams are guaranteed a place in the finals schedule of games – and
with home advantage. So, the teams from
New Zealand that finish with more victories and bonus points than the teams from
across the ditch win the reward of travelling to play their Australian or South
African opponents, in their own backyard, after having slogged their way
through an hugely competitive New Zealand season. Due reward?
I’m not sure. Why work to get better and regularly beat the Kiwi teams
if you’re already guaranteed a home place in the finals?
The play-offs in the football are a response to the monetisation
of sport, and they have manufactured a big day out for their fans to
Wembley. Wembley used to be a special
stadium, cup finals and internationals.
Not any more. Tom Cairney scored
there for Fulham, the other day… and then players scored for Rotherham,
Shrewsbury, Coventry and Exeter. The
play-offs are popular, of that there is no doubt, but are they played out
right? Should a team that finishes sixth
be rewarded with a day out at Wembley and a trophy when the teams that finish
second and first don’t see the gigantic arch and their fans don’t get the big
day out? How about draw a line between
the two play off finalists and play at the nearest suitable venue? It spreads the money around, there’s still a
big day out and keeps Wembley as proper reward for Cups and
Internationals. Now, pretty much anyone
can score at Wembley... not just me with a beer can at a Bon Jovi gig.
No comments:
Post a Comment