Should footballers be role models?

A Battle in Print by Paul Bickerton, coach development officer

Today’s high-profile footballers are constantly chastised for setting a poor example, both on and off the field. There is a danger that this clamour for increased responsibility is heaping unrealistic expectations upon the sport. To suggest that footballers should be role models not only ignores the root causes of wider issues such as antisocial behaviour, but can also come into conflict with the primary focus of high-level sportsmen and women – pursing sporting excellence.

The expectation that footballers be role models is relatively recent. No hysterical outcry followed Billy Bremner and Graeme Souness when they routinely raised fists and elbows in their attempts to win the ball. George Best’s off-the-field exploits were greeted more with amusement than with moralising. Nowadays, the snarling and combative Wayne Rooney is regarded as setting a bad example to the younger generation, and David Beckham’s alleged adulterous antics outside of football generate more publicity than his goals on the pitch!

Recently, Joey Barton, the volatile Manchester City midfielder, was accused of assaulting and swearing at a female steward in a match against Aston Villa. A report in the Guardian suggested that his ‘professional reputation has been dragged through the mud yet again’. You can just picture the head-shaking and tut-tutting amongst the authorities. Yet is it really his professional reputation that is in tatters? What fundamentally constitutes his responsibilities as a footballer? What is the role, if any, of high-level sportsmen and women in society?

In sport, the primary goal is to achieve the highest level of performance possible. The Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger) remain true today. Sport is defined by breaking boundaries, pushing the limits and producing inspiring, mesmerising moments of physical prowess and skill. It is this that elite sportsmen and women strive to attain, and in turn what motivates our young pretenders and contented community participants.

Rooney’s spectacular winning volley against Newcastle United last season, or Zinedine Zidane’s near-majestic ball control on the pitch, his ability to control the ebb and flow of a game like a conductor leads an orchestra, this is the very essence of the sport and why it captures the imagination like few other activities or games can. A footballer’s fundamental raison d’être is to achieve their potential as a player. That is the reason they have been recruited by their club and are so revered by fans, and they should be held accountable for this and this alone.

To speak of role models, then, is to create a mythical relationship between sport and society, imposing a responsibility upon sport that has nothing to do with its internal world. Asking footballers to be good role models heaps unrealistic demands upon them and the sport, and ignores the real problems sport is being associated with. Richard Caborn, the Minister for Sport, clearly expects footballers to impact upon the behaviour of youngsters in school, arguing that ‘what happens on the park on Saturday also happens in the playground on Monday’.

Possibly, but who is truly accountable for that behaviour? A child may well see a player blaspheming on a football pitch and seek to copy this, yet is it really for that player to teach that child what is right and wrong? Whatever happened to parental responsibility, the role of education, or the positive messages a coach can pass on? Children will come up against bad examples every day – if we want to tackle antisocial or offensive behaviour then we have to look far deeper than the influence of our footballing superstars! We mustn’t feel that our youngsters are such precious and vulnerable mites that they can be scarred for life by being exposed to a bit of effing and blinding.

Provoking and potentially combating antisocial behaviour is not the only connection made with the behaviour of these high-profile players. Oona King, writing in the Daily Telegraph, goes so far as to suggest that footballers can combat racism. What we need is a ‘Muslim Rooney’ she argues. This comment is so far wide of the mark it reminds me of Frank Lampard this summer! Sportsmen and women cannot be compartmentalised according to race and religion. The beauty of the game is that it wholly transcends these distinctions. Hence whether you are Muslim or not, that ‘Rooney moment’ against Newcastle is exactly what should inspire you to take up football, regardless of your background.

We should therefore be congratulating players such as Rooney for providing moments of footballing genius on the pitch, moments that any youngster seeks to then replicate in their local park and playground. Rooney, so far, is a phenomenal success because nowhere in his job description does it say ‘thou shalt not swear, get thrown out of restaurants or sleep with ropey old women…’

If footballers really are poor role models, then we have to look far beyond football to understand their behaviour. Let us trust that by addressing the genuine causes of racism and antisocial behaviour – such as through a greater focus on parental and personal responsibility, improving education and widening opportunities – this will gradually be reflected on the pitch. It is entirely unfair to try to reverse this process, to expect these players, catapulted into the public eye for their talent alone, to suddenly convert to the kind of model human beings everyone else is struggling to be.

With all this in mind, the key question emerges: is the wider role sport is being persuaded to play, and the function footballers are increasingly expected to fulfil within this, not at times in direct conflict with the very spirit of elite sport? Winning at all costs is frowned upon and admired in equal measure, yet this mentality is unavoidably present in all of the very best sportsmen and women. The barriers that these performers are prepared to breach to achieve their goals can at times be beyond comprehension, yet this is the sacrifice of competing at the very highest level.

Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave are often noted as exceptional role models, yet the attributes that allowed them to achieve successive Olympic gold medals were an almost perverse competitiveness, a single-minded drive to succeed and an ability to push their bodies well beyond breaking point. Considering that this dedication is entirely antisocial (bordering on the obsessive-compulsive) and that coaches are currently encouraged not to promote ‘excessive training and competition’, there is clear inconsistency here!

Football supporters actually demand a bit of naked aggression or over-zealous tackling on the pitch. It demonstrates passion, desire and commitment, a will to win that is in itself highly commendable and that should be encouraged, not over-regulated. At times certain indiscretions are an inevitable by-product of innate competitiveness. We must appreciate the cauldron in which footballers operate – the game is a highly charged, very physical, and at times exceptionally stressful, environment. Should it really be a surprise that some players do not always act in the way they should? In the heat of the moment one may easily lose control or react aggressively. Whilst these actions are, quite rightly, regulated by the officials, and these players should always seek to better control and master their anger, it should not be misinterpreted as a general representation of their characters. Zidane is as passive and mild-mannered off the field as he is competitive, and at times petulant, on it.

But whatever your off-the-pitch conduct, it’s still what you do in the ninety minutes that counts. Roy Keane’s on-field indiscretions were mirrored outside of football, yet he is still regarded as one of the games truly great players, not just because of his ability on the ball, but his single-minded determination and ferocious will to win. These aspects of his character were key to Manchester United’s success, and any injudiciousness was largely irrelevant because supporters understood that he fulfilled his major responsibility – to excel as a footballer. As a sportsman, Roy Keane is therefore no different to his more educated and eloquent counterparts such as Pinsent and Redgrave. He is every bit as successful and should be upheld and revered in exactly the same way.

In conclusion, we must understand that the relationship between football and these wider issues is far from harmonious and that by its very nature the game does not lend itself to being manipulated and altered. In fact it can lead to tangible problems. Surely asking Beckham to read out an anti-racism statement prior to the most important match of his career interfered with his psychological preparation and mental focus? Excessive policing of Rooney’s competitive nature could make him less of a force to be reckoned with in the future, and some argue referees already unfairly target him. Football is suffering in its new social worker role. As a result, let’s not get too hysterical when behaviour on the pitch gets slightly out of hand. Outside of football, let us trust that honestly confronting wider social issues will have an effect on the actions of the players themselves.

How important is football (or sport)? As Mick Hume and Duleep Allirajah have often noted on spiked, it’s just a game – possibly the greatest game on earth, agreed, but a game all the same. We must keep faith with developing and sustaining football in and of itself, and ensure that footballers are held to account to provide inspiration through their sporting exploits alone. A steadfast loyalty to this will guarantee the continued enjoyment of millions of footballers and supporters across the world, a worthy enough goal in itself.

 

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