Modern sport always comes back to money

Lines of decency are becoming ever more blurred by filthy lucre

LEE Westwood had me thinking of Clerks last week. During my early 20s, I spent more time than was healthy watching and rewatching Kevin Smith’s cult comedy classic. So much so that, even though I haven’t seen it in years, I can still quote large parts of the film verbatim.

So, when Westwood called himself ‘an independent contractor’, it immediately brought to mind one of my favourite scenes when Randal explains to his fellow clerk Dante the hidden tragedy behind the second Death Star getting blown up in Return of the Jedi.

‘A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer.

‘I’ll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing – plumbers, aluminium sliders, roofers,’ Randal proclaims.

Westwood used the ‘independent contractor’ excuse as justification for playing in the €20 million LIV golf invitational at London’s Centurion Club next month.

He plays the game for money, and he has amassed quite a bit of it during a career where he has won 44 pro events.

The 49-year-old Englishman’s career winnings almost total €40 million. In modern sport, there is no point where a lot of money becomes too much.

Apart from reminding people of cult indie comedy movies, Westwood’s words last week were a study in whataboutism.

Formula One are doing business in Saudi Arabia, so too boxing and tennis. And, of course, there is Newcastle United. Why should golfers get all the grief?

And he does have a point. In case we feel we are on the moral high ground in this country, it wasn’t so long ago that the Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and representatives from 60 Irish businesses went over to Saudi on a trade mission.

And some of our top trainers, including Willie Mullins, Jessica Harrington and Joseph O’Brien, have sent runners to the world’s richest horse race, the $20 million Saudi Cup which takes place in Riyadh every February.

But the whataboutism is exactly what those that are sportswashing want. It deflects and diverts. It is why BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey was wrong to take aim at all the critics and people sniping at Newcastle last week.

If we just focus on the football, or the golf, or boxing or tennis, we are doing the job for the Saudi government because we are not talking about the continuing genocidal war in Yemen or the 81 people beheaded by the Saudi government in one day recently, or its treatment of the LGBTQ community.

The day after the Saudi government executed all those people, excessive even by their standards, Newcastle played Chelsea in the Premier League and Toon fans started to sing to their London counterparts that ‘we are richer than you are.’ That is where we are with football.

The game has been in the thrall of filthy lucre for so long that the line for what is acceptable and what is in good taste has long been blurred.

On BBC 2 last Wednesday, as Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s Champions League dream was coming apart again, Kicking Off was broadcast. It was a documentary about the ham-fisted attempt by the evil cabal of 12 entitled football clubs to set up a European Super League, but it was also a telling observation about the avarice and greed now controlling the game.

Those crazy few days in April of last year were tremendous fun. And we might never see the like again, Remember that Gary Neville was cast in the unlikely role of football’s Che Guevara, and UEFA somehow came across as the good guys who were tricked by this group of billionaires and hedge fund plutocrats.

‘Football is not a religion, but it’s not far off for many people,’ a solemn Gary Lineker intones into the camera at one point.

‘For a lot of people, it is the most important thing in their lives and they don’t want it messed around with.’

But the thing is that fans have long been happy to see the game messed around with. There wasn’t too many Chelsea fans taking a stand when their club was bought by a Russian oligarch all those years ago. As long as money is being pumped into their club and they are able to compete, fans are more than happy to look the other way. We can see that right now with Newcastle.

ONE of the issues with the show is that it almost collapsed under the sheer weight of all the talking heads they got to offer an opinion. They all had something to say and, in the case of people like Simon Kuper, something pretty interesting.

You don’t have to search too far to see the outline for the European Super League starting with Neymar’s ridiculous transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.

All of a sudden, not even Barcelona could compete with the nouveau riche and their endless tap of money from the Middle East. The rules had changed.

To survive, clubs such as Real Madrid and Juventus had to make the playing rules more favourable. Their proposition of 20 teams, with 15 of the most historically successful ring-fenced to be involved every year, went against all concepts of fair play, apparently.

But here we are, a year out from the European Super League crashing and burning and UEFA are finessing plans to expand the Champions League, which would see the more traditional clubs get a way in if they fail to qualify. Why? Money, of course. It always comes back to money. And greed.

Which is why Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and whomever else are competing in a new golf tournament next month. It is another example of how sport has become in thrall of big money. Of course, we always knew that. But we managed to ignore that issue, because it wasn’t so blatant.

Not any more. Maybe, it’s time to take a break from this grim reality and re-watch Clerks again.