BAD CALL TO MIX TRIBUTES TO STILES AND THE FALLEN

SO desperate is football to insert itself into daily life, clubs now observe Remembrance Day at any time that suits. The last home match before November 11, even if it’s in October, or weeks earlier. Which is how, at the weekend, the prickly problem of remembering the dead of two world wars while also commemorating the life of Nobby Stiles came about. Most lumped the two together so Stiles’ passing was also marked by The Last Post and a reading of Laurence Binyon’s poem, For The Fallen. Stiles was a great player, and deserved a fitting tribute, but there is a difference between achievement in sport and giving your life for the country. The two should never have been conflated and it exposes the ultimate shallowness of these premature ceremonies that they were.

AFP/NMC POOL Respect: Burnley and Chelsea observe a moment’s silence in memory of Nobby Stiles at Turf Moor as United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lays a wreath