The bizarre circumstances surrounding Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick celebration last week have continued to make headlines a week later and will continue to plague the England man’s unrepentant and mercenary attitude. Rooney was subsequently given a two match ban from the FA for swearing into a pitch side camera after scoring his third goal of the game. Sportsmen and women have often used rage to propel them in athletic competitions and their effect has seen them come away with medals, Seb Coe in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Sir Steve Redgrave in the 2000 Sydney games come to mind, but Rooney’s tirade seemed unprovoked and above all daft.
The FA’s decision bore critics who dispute that swearing is inevitably part of the game and the culture from players to fans is extremely difficult to change. Others suggest they should have gone further and used Rooney as an example to punish football’s acerbic attitude; and to try and incorporate a greater respect and professionalism from sports like Rugby. What perhaps is most noticeable is Rooney’s reaction midweek and performance in the Champions League. The argument that appears to have a definitive answer is that Man Utd will most likely capture their nineteenth championship. Sir Alex Ferguson’s calculating brilliance and continuous atmosphere of ‘them versus us’ attitude appears to have spurred United on to play their best football of the year so far.
I personally think swearing is something you cannot stop and is partly because of the people who play the game. It is corrosive, inarticulate and breeds aggression; but tempers will flare in competitive sport with the pressures and scrutiny upon everyone who plays it.
Despite all this, it will continues to defy the reputation of the FA and their impotence to control or regulate anything on or off the pitch.
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