Talk’s cheap to Joel but Osaka has the right to remain silent
CONGRATULATIONS to Joel Glazer for managing to overcome his chronic fear of talking in public. Friday’s session with Manchester United supporters cannot have been easy for him. All those faces, all those questions.
No child growing up with a poster of Gordon Gekko on the wall ever thinks about the downside of big business dreams. Plotting and scheming over ways to maximise profit margins in fancy restaurants with like-minded venture capitalists – that is what the game is all about – not having to interact with the customers.
Glazer was so far out of his comfort zone he must have been left wondering whether all the dollars were worth it.
For a fleeting moment he may have even have contemplated the old ‘lost connection’ Zoom trick.
But credit where credit is due. Glazer may have been dragged kicking and screaming into his appearance by the protests against his family’s ownership of the club at Old Trafford and it may therefore have been entirely self-serving but he did at least front up directly.
Scan around the Premier League and there are not many owners who do that.
It is years too late to save the Glazers’ scorched reputation – and in any case the numbers will always speak louder than words in their case – but open communication channels never hurt in sport.
Of course, unlike Naomi Osaka, Glazer had a choice whether to speak up or not.
Had Osaka carried out her threat to boycott her media obligations all the way through to the French Open final – a run which admittedly would have bucked the trend for her on clay – her cumulative fines would have amounted to an astonishing and disgraceful £75,000.
When Serena Williams called the umpire a thief and a liar as she threw a monumental tantrum in her
2018 US Open final defeat to
Osaka she was fined a mere £12,000.
There is, it seems, no greater crime in tennis than wanting to keep quiet.
It is, of course, a sport that needs the voices of its stars to be heard to help it cut through into the mainstream of the general sporting consciousness.
The French Open organisers were terrified that Osaka’s decision would lead to a copycat response from other leading players.
As it turns out there has been no stampede of press conference no-shows even with meditation app Calm pulling off a nifty publicity move by offering to pay their fines.
Tennis players are conditioned to do interviews and the majority see it as part of the job at the highest level.
And while some would say the tennis press conference is, in general, one of the gentlest examples of the genre, with the main threat to players’ well-being terminal boredom rather than any mauling by tabloid Rottweilers, there is no one-size-fits-all approach and allowances have to be made to protect those who feel they need it.
That is the right thing to do.
OSAKA must have been in a bad way not to have felt able to face the remote video screen interviews that have replaced the traditional format at Roland Garros because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A natural introvert, she has made some important interventions in areas outside of tennis she feels strongly about over the past year and should be commended for it.
She appeared to be growing before our eyes but outward looks, evidently, can be deceiving.
Consumed by anxiety on the inside, she took her vow of silence for the good of her game.
It was callous for the authorities to fine Osaka for looking after her vulnerable state of mind and there should be a revision of the Grand Slam regulations on the back of what happened in Paris.
However, any alterations should also recognise the contribution that those players who can and want to talk for their sport make to it.
Prize money should continue to be paid on a performancerelated basis as at present but on top of that a bonus payment should be issued to all those players who do take part in interviews. Overtime pay, if you like.
Tennis, while having a duty of care to its participants, still needs to promote itself beyond the court and communication makes the world go round.
It just has to be done in a way where people are not forced to do so against their will.
As Joel Glazer will tell you.