Self Righteousness and Pots Calling Kettles Black
ByTrick question. What do clergymen who preach against adultery yet have affairs with married women in their congregation; or sexual offenders who volunteer at a rape crisis centre; or colleagues who tell you that they can’t stand the sight of black people, but qualify their blatant racism by saying that “you’re OK though, you’re not like the others”; have in common.
Tip: Something to do with pots calling kettles black.
Hypocrisy should have been added to the list of cardinal sins. Clearly it seems that the current 7 deadly sins are not enough to capture the true injustice and nauseating impact of the collective actions of the England football team, the British media, and all supporters of the game who have conspired to defend the indefensible.
Only this past Friday, John Terry shamelessly stood in front of the media and bluntly served up a nerve twitching, stomach churning defence of the ”honesty and integrity” of the English footballing culture. I find it hard to fathom how his disgraceful account of the so called English non cheating culture has been allowed to go unchallenged. Coming from an England captain, this was the sort of offence that would have people taken out back, made to kneel down facing the wall and given a good hiding with a cricket bat.
If the above quote by John Terry wasn’t nauseating enough, the conspiracy by the media to cover up for what is blatant cheating is even more criminal. We didn’t even have to wait long, as the facade fell apart in the very next game against Slovenia.
1. Wayne Rooney, the one who stupidly proclaimed that he’s an honest player less than 48 hours ago, pulled the shirt of the Slovenian defender.
2. Rooney scissor tackled and injured the defender on his simulated fall.
3. Rooney flaps his wings like a battered bird in flight and looks to the referee as if to say “did you just see that”.
4. The referee awards a penalty in error.
If that isn’t cheating and deceiving the referee, what actually is?
Eduardo was only last week charged under Article 10 paragraph 1c of the UEFA disciplinary rules. For reference, the article states:
Article 10, paragraph 1c of the UEFA disciplinary regulations (misconduct of players)
“Players may be suspended for two competition matches, or for a specified period, for acting with the obvious intent to cause any match official to make an incorrect decision or supporting his error of judgment and thereby causing him to make an incorrect decision.
Does an England player have to maim an opponent for the English media to call it for what it is? Forget I asked, Martin Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo on February 23rd 2008 was really just a tap on the ankle, nothing much. It was unfortunate it nearly severed Eduardo’s ankle from the rest of his leg. Taylor is not that sort of lad they said, he’s an honest lad – really? It must be gut wrenching for him.
It’s sad and disappointing to listen to commentator after commentator and pundit after pundit shamelessly try to find an excuse to explain Rooney’s actions and the award of the penalty that wasn’t a penalty.
For over 10 days and counting, the media have relentlessly persecuted Eduardo for supposedly deceiving the referee, yet even after Terry’s and Rooney’s proclamations leading to the match, the same media and punditry machine can only look for excuses for their English darlings.
If you find some time, look up the definition of Xenophobia.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
I gave up watching England matches a few years back when the idea of supporting a team containing the likes of ‘Honest’ John Terry , Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney and Steven GBH Gerrard became too unpalatable to contemplate.
Since discovering the quality blogging which is available (and can be unearthed with a little work) I also gave up reading sports journalism as peddled by the national print media. Yesterday however I made the mistake of opening my Independant to see the Terry interview given prominence and not being torn apart by the journalists. Awful racist nonsense which would never find space unchallenged outside of the sports pages.
Not only is it xenophobia but it insults and patronises all sports fans as being unworthy of competent, well thought out, well researched and above all balanced journalism.
Talk Sport Responds to Stone Cold Arsenal
I took the unusual step of e-mailing the lead presenter of the Talk Sport Weekend Breakfast Show Mark Saggers, who recently moved from BBC radio to Talk Sport radio. I think that he’s one of the very few professionals who understand the concept of journalistic integrity and that’s why at the least, I expected him to listen. I have absolutely no expectations though, that the hypocrisy will stop with regards to calling cheats for what they are.
I find it difficult to say the same about other presenters, but that’s another story for another blog. Mark has actually taken the time to respond and if only for that action alone, I respect him.
My communication with him and his response follows:
Hi Darius,
Thanks for the email and thanks for listening. We’re talking about the diving today and Rooney will certainly be getting it from myself and Mick! Mick thinks that any kind of diving is cheating even when it’s Gerrard! As a station talkSPORT are in a unique position because no presenter is told what to think or say. We’re all passionate sports fans and I assure you there’s no bias towards any club.
Stay tuned. Mark.
—–Original Message—–
From: Darius Stone
Subject: talkSPORT.Net: The Rooney Penalty (Not) – and Pots calling Kettles black
Dear Saggers.
I regularly listen to weekend sports breakfast, though I sometimes find the station’s approach to some issues questionable.
I would like to challenge both you and Quinny to an opportunity to show how fair minded and impartial the station is. Let’s talk about Rooney’s penalty that wasn’t and let’s discuss what people feel about it.
The media are not discussing it, and everybody seems to be looking for an excuse for the indefensible.
My view is that Rooney deceived the referee to gain advantage. For the record, I am an Arsenal fan who is incensed by the way the media has gone over board with the Eduardo diving incident. I totally agree that we should root out cheats, and the Rooney incident is a perfect opportunity to show how people are serious about what they say, or whether they are just outright biased.
I also write an Arsenal blog and you can view my sentiments on this issue at Self Righteousness and Pots Calling Kettles Black.
Steww.
I think the injustice is the collective assumption by the media is that we’re all mugs.
Hoddle is saying it now, Venebles said it in the 70′s. England are just not technical enough.
This team will never win anything because they’re pre-madonnas who can’t do anything but believe the hype.
Darius
I remember hearing an England supporter in a bar a few years back, I believe he was a Bristol city fan, saying how glad he was that Walcott was at Arsenal because now at least one England player might actually be taught how to keep the ball.
Darius, Very good piece mate. There is no better way for CUNTs to demonstrate their CUNTitude than to be blatantly two-faced. Anyway, we Arsenal fans are too good to be fooled by them and their xenophobia.
@Steww.
I’m so excited about Little Jacky Wilshere for this reason. He may be just 17, but he is miles apart from current England players because he has the ability to seduce the ball and own it. He is majestic with it and every time he has it, you expect something to happen.
All I see now is the “we’re crap but we’ll scrap” mentality.
@LRV, they own the air waves and print media, we own the blogs. We need to carry on our job and not take it lying down.
I can’t wait for Eduardo to nutmeg Terry, turn around and do a back flip before rolling the ball into the net with his backside.
what on earth is wrong with the English media? I can understand why the England footballers think that their excrement exudes a floral aroma when they can say or do anything with total impugnity, but why are they never called out? I’m American, and our media certainly does more than it’s fair share of jocksniffing, but usually if an athlete is spouting total nonsense he/she is called on it.
Hi Darius, well played for emailing Talkshite, just wondering if you listened to the show, and if the coverage of Rooney’s gamesmanship was in any way as vicious as I’ve heard it was for Eduardo? I could never bring myself to listen to the idiots on the station. My guess is the “experts” were nowhere near as outraged as they were after last week’s incident.
If you want to see the future of English football take in some Youth team games, Wilshire is just one of many young Englishman with pace power and great ball control. The way they demolished the holders Man City and Liverpool in the final all supports the Wenger way rather than the give it a go loved by the media.