Sport must know its place in social order
MILTON has been a popular refuge in the days of crisis. In particular, the mighty poet’s advice that ‘They also serve who only stand and wait’, has become a consolation at a time of social distancing, isolation and cocooning
It is taken from Sonnet 19, better known under the title ‘When I consider how my light is spent’.
Another piece of wisdom from that brief, wonderful work is also useful for these times. ‘God doth not need / Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best / Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.’
There is virtue in being silent and uncomplaining – and it is one that sporting organisations need to learn.
For some, it is already too late. UEFA, along with bodies representing Europe’s leagues and clubs, issued a letter on Thursday night, warning that if leagues are not concluded, it could affect access to the Champions League next season.
The letter suggested remaining fixtures can be completed in July and August. This is despite no government or public health official, anywhere, being in a position to state what will be permitted and what will not in three months’ time.
This presumption that the world will reorder itself with a timing that suits big sporting organisations is conceived in arrogance but also in greed.
It is of a piece with the increasing incontinence of ‘sources’ at Premier League clubs leaking ideas to journalists of how the season can yet be concluded.
The latest included plans to hothouse players from all teams in isolation camps, and then play matches with the public excluded, but with broadcasters allowed in to capture the action and share it with the world.
This is truly desperate stuff, in part about appeasing broadcasters, and while the season was postponed indefinitely on Friday, there remains an urgent desire to get it finished.
It is apparent just how desperately many of the teams in the world’s richest league need TV money to keep operating.
There is also the desperation to see Liverpool crowned champions in any way possible – and satisfy the tens of millions of the
Merseyside club’s supporters dotted in markets around the world – to consider.
Besides the greed and smallmindedness, it also reveals just how deluded sports bodies can be.
In the midst of a terrible challenge to how we live our lives, thousands die every day.
The drastic measures imposed by governments around the world to try and check the spread of the coronavirus only work because the general public understand the concept of priorities. There are more important things than who wins the Premier League, or the Champions Cup, or the start of the Championships.
Sport is important in the lives of many, but not so important that it can be shoe-horned into a place of importance reserved for healthcare workers and those maintaining law and order in a terrified society.
That is why the decision of British authorities to proceed with the Cheltenham Festival rankled so much.
Apart from the obvious risk of spreading infection in a town that had its first case of Covid-19 diagnosed the day before racing started, going ahead with it at a time when the seriousness of the situation was becoming apparent, was almost as frustrating.
It was a case of an event failing to appreciate its place in the social order – and as a result, there should be much less guff about how beloved the Festival is ahead of next year’s edition. None of the main Irish sporting bodies have, it must be said, oversold their roles in the country’s story so far.
While the GAA and FAI have set optimistic targets for resumption in June, no attempt is being made to push for this.
There appears to be an appreciation of what sport means at the current time. And the fact is, it’s as unimportant as most other things are.
That will change, and the day it does will be a blessed one.
The reverie of walking along the busy roads leading up to a stadium sustains many, and the simple pleasure of sitting in a stand and feeling heat on your face and waiting for the action to start will not be lightly regarded.
That is all a dream, though. Nobody knows when it can creep back towards reality – but it is no longer sensationalist or Eeyorish to wonder if it will happen this year at all.
That decision will not be taken by any governing body.
The administrators must do as the rest of us do: stay sensible and await further instruction.
There is no other way.