World Cup masks hidden darkness

Halfway through the year and some of us are taking stock of what has been and what we still haven’t got around to doing; marathon training, stretching, not swearing in front of the kids during the netball, football, rugby etc. Some of us could also add, not be racist and sexist to the list.

This sort of relates to my midyear resolution, which is to listen before I laugh at the sexists and racists. In a show of solidarity, I will attempt to see their perspective. Then at least one of us will be listening. Unfortunately just after I made this decision, I went on twitter.

There @ladieswholeague had tweeted a quote; ‘Why is women’s sport being pushed down our throats.’ Now usually I would laugh and say ‘What a bell-end,’ and continue along my manhating way. But, as a guy said to me today, ‘‘You seem like an intelligent woman,’’ and you know what, he’s right! I am slightly above average for a girl, so I did a Gilbert Enoka and went inside this person’s head.

First, I gathered the facts because all passionate statements like these are based on fact. I scanned the TV guide, ready to start gagging on pony tails. It must’ve been a freak weekend because there was the British Open, Super Rugby, NRL, cricket and football replays all featuring men. I didn’t even see a female cheerleader.

I admit, the incredible Black Ferns sevens team were shown winning the World Cup but I thought we might let that slide since they played just as well as the blokes. Not even enough women’s sport to make you hiccup.

Your Honour, with such strong evidence I feel I cannot support this person in their view, therefore I will return to my opening statement where I declared the accused to be a bellend.

The prosecution rests but only briefly because we now move on to racism in sport. As we all know, New Zealand is only a little bit racist just like I’m a little bit white but in Europe, political parties are built on racism.

As a London taxi driver pointed out to me, that’s due to all the immigrants so you can’t really blame them.

This week footballer Mesut Ozil put German officials and fans right off their bratwurst when he resigned from the national team citing ‘‘I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.’’

Ozil is the German-born descendant of Turkish immigrants and has copped a lot of the blame for the team’s failure in Russia.

It all started before the tournament with a photo of Ozil meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

At the time he was criticised for his poor judgment, standing with a man accused of human rights abuses. It’s now descended into a verbal State of Origin-like stoush over immigration, intolerance, religion and bad blood with Turkish and German politicians trading blows.

Typically an athlete’s resignation doesn’t turn into a geo-political scuffle unless it’s Trump and a high profile team with black athletes in America.

Sport can shine a light on problems in society. The truth is it can take so little: road rage, alcohol, a loss to unleash the nasty, abusive truth.

French and English players have faced racist abuse over the years. The majority of the winning French side are of African descent with around 50 per cent muslim. If they’d failed, would fans still be insisting that they are Frenchman first and foremost?

Around 20 years ago I was Martin Devlin’s producer on Radio Sport. When the Warriors played badly, people would ring in suggesting team would benefit from getting in more intelligent Aussie players. The racial overtones were clear. Devlin has become wiser and more mellow in his old age, so much so they’ve even put him on ZB. I’d like to think some of the listeners have done the same but I’m also much wiser.

Ozil’s story has shone the light back on a worldwide problem that, for a moment, was conveniently hidden under all the World Cup celebrations.

The least we can do is admit it exists even in sweet as enzed.