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Football thugs threaten our society, Tiger Woods is a cheat: Jeff Powell

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They punch horses, don’t they?

Well, they didn’t before but they do now and if we’re not very careful we’ll soon be carrying people out of football crowds on stretchers with blankets over their faces the way we used to.

But it’s only a minority, isn’t it?

Well, if it is then it’s a big minority who are beginning yet again to exploit football as the valve for releasing their pent up hatred and malice

The danger is that it’s not only the rioting – at its most graphic at Wembley Stadium and in Newcastle city centre last weekend - which is back. It’s also the complacency.

Split: Millwall fans booed their own brawling supporters in shocking scenes at Wembley

Too much: A young girl is brought to tears by the violence

    More from Jeff Powell...   JEFF POWELL: Vorsprung durch technique (and speed, strength, fitness) - how the German super-athlete came to rule the football world... but what can Rooney and Co learn? 30/05/13   JEFF POWELL: Brutal Froch-Kessler fight has given a face-lift to the battered image of this hard old game 27/05/13   Jeff Powell's ten greatest British battlers... but where does Froch rank on the list? 26/05/13   Warhorse Froch eyes another charge at King Ward after heroic victory over Kessler 26/05/13   Best of British: Froch-Kessler could become one of the best - but what were the others? 24/05/13   Bring on the Gladiators - Froch v Kessler II could go down as one of the greatest fights in boxing history 24/05/13   Jeff Powell on Friday: Scholes and Co bowed out in typically understated fashion (unlike you-know-who), the bland new England shirt will cost parents a fortune... and City owners will have a conflict of interests in New York 23/05/13   Jeff Powell: Forget Beckham's millions, Manny and Money Mayweather show the hard old game is still a real box-office hit 20/05/13   Jeff Powell: Beckham transformed a reasonable talent into immense wealth and fame... for that, I have nothing but admiration 16/05/13   VIEW FULL ARCHIVE  

The prolonged hesitation In properly addressing hooliganism bred death and destruction in the 70s and 80s.

It almost killed the game to boot.

Now a laissez-faire attitude to what the rest of Europe used to call ‘the English disease’ is letting the mob off the leash once more.

But isn’t that football’s problem?

Well, that’s what they used to say, too. In part they were right because the game’s authorities were as slow as the Government in tackling the issue.

But the real core of the matter runs deeper than that, to the powerful undercurrent of violence coursing beneath the surface of our society.

It is evident on the streets of not only our cities but many country towns on Friday and Saturday binge nights.

The scenes of semi-conscious young men and women lying in gutters awash with booze, urine and vomit while drunks who can still stand are smashing-in shop fronts are like something out of an apocalyptic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

The state we're in: A young girl lies beside an ambulance in Bristol city centre

There are times when all this follows football matches but this is not so much the game’s problem as society’s.

Hooliganism has been suppressed in football grounds for some time, by heavy policing, all-seater stadia, closed circuit TV surveillance and advance intelligence about pre-planned trouble gleaned from monitoring mobile phones and the social media.

But the sickness has never been cured and now the contagion is creeping back into the national game. Not necessarily inside the grounds, although the notorious element among Millwall’s fans succeeded in reviving the spectre during Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

In Newcastle they rode the excuse of local derby defeat into the city centre where, in the midst of running battles and property damage, a self-professed animal lover landed that punch to the head of a police horse.

Laughable: This unemployed Newcastle fan punched a police horse during the chaotic scenes and later professed to be an animal lover

Strands of this man’s existence would appear to run through the unrest festering in this country. He lives off disability benefits and admits that drink fuelled his despicable act.

There, in a nutshell, is the kernel of the failure of successive metropolitan-centric Governments to relate to the poverty of much of life outside London.

Most of our regional cities are wastelands of empty offices, shuttered High Streets and unemployment. Particularly among young people, work has been replaced for many by listless drinking interspersed with mindless brutality.

This is now a land in which a mother can face following into prison her three sons who have been convicted of killing a stranger simply for kicks, but for whom she tried to provide fake alibis.

As it becomes increasingly difficult for school-leavers and university graduates to find jobs even in London, the temptation for youngsters to vent their frustration and expend their energy through violence becomes ever greater.  

The opportunity for doing so under cover of turbulent football crowds – be they in the grounds or the streets outside – also grows increasingly convenient. Nowhere does testosterone run more rampant than in a mob.

Bubbling under: A bloodied fan is led away by police after trouble flared at Upton Park between West Ham and Milwall supporters during the Carling Cup second-round match in 2009

It was bad enough in what are often described now as the dark ages of hooliganism. But now there are more sinister factors at work - racism and terrorism.

The potential for both those evils of exploiting the chaos of crowd violence are further, compelling reasons for nipping the resurgence of hooliganism in the bud.

Not that the safety issue is any the less urgent.

Let us hope that the recent outbreaks – as well as Wembley and Newcastle there has been a spate of other incidents which have gone largely unreported – pour cold water over the ill-judged campaign for a partial return to standing terraces.

Those of us who witnessed death on a horrifying scale at Heysel and Hillsborough are appalled at the prospect. And can anyone who watched Millwall fans fighting each other really fail to comprehend the risk of crushing had that happened on an open terrace?

Never again: The tragedies which occurred at the decrepit Heysel Stadium (above) and at Hillsborough (below)

You might break a leg falling over a seat but the danger is not as great as being trampled underfoot in a standing area.

It is not only people but also football which is jeopardised by the return of the thug.

The game needs to maintain the highest level of vigilance. The government has responsibility for solving the root cause of a violent sub-culture.

This country is in trouble and football crowds are a key barometer of that distress.

 

As if we needed any further evidence of how odiously we should regard Tiger Woods, he supplied it himself at The Masters.

Much has been said and written about what amounted to his cheating at Augusta National but one vital point seems to have eluded most, himself included.

The minute he was told he had broken the rules – if he didn’t know it in his heart already – he was presented with his chance of redemption.

His last chance.

There in the spotlight stood the man who had not just broken up with his wife but humiliated her.

So did he seize the moment to prove that at least he is a sporting gentleman?

Not our Tiger. Not the bearer of such arrogance that even while the non-golfing world holds him in such contempt he still believes himself to be untouchable.

If you thought that was bad: Woods was unlucky to land in the water... but his problems were just beginning

The world is watching: Tiger Woods' drop on the 15th hole had the Augusta blazers in a panic

Instead of admitting his error and vacating the field with honour, he hid behind the erroneous fudging of the rules by a championship committee as fawning of his celebrity as he is himself.

Were they thinking of the TV ratings and all the money that comes with them? Probably.

But what the hell was he thinking? As usual, only of Tiger Woods. Of his incrementally eroding chance of surpassing Jack Nicklaus as the winner of most major championships. But not of how  many like myself who thrilled to his explosive talent in his early years now hope he falls short of that quest.

Most if not all the great former champions, Big Jack included, would have disqualified themselves out of respect for a game rooted in its unwavering adherence to the laws and the necessity at times of self-regulation by the players themselves.

The Tiger whimpered and played on.

But to what avail? He did not win. He would not have won even if they had not imposed the two-shot penalty which was not only a token but a condemnation of Augusta’s part in a disgrace which threatens the unique purity of the game.

And for the information of the misguided few who have come to his defence – no, the amended regulation regarding exception does not cover Tiger knowingly dropping his ball in the wrong place and then signing an erroneous scorecard.

Nor should he suppose that the deep Southern crowd who applauded him back onto the course next day are representative of golf and sport at large. These are the red-neck half-wits who scream ‘in the hole’ when he takes his drive on the tee at a par five.

If the cap fits: Woods should have disqualified himself at Augusta

And what were Nike thinking? There were suggestions that they discussed with Woods the possibility of withdrawal. It would be nice to think so. But if so then what a pity they did not tell him that unless he pulled out of The Masters then the multi-million dollar contract was over.

Not that he seemed happy. He looked old, surly and resentful at even being put to the question. He left a feeling that we have seen the best of him, if not yet the worst.

He still doesn’t get it. Not even that this was his opportunity lost.

The man who humiliated the woman who gave him his children has now betrayed the game which has given him an immense fortune and his now-tainted fame.

Now there is no way back.

Never.

 

After the terrorist bombing atrocity in Boston serious doubts have been expressed here as to whether this Sunday’s running of the London Marathon should go ahead.

What is happening to this country?

This is the city which resolutely defied the Blitz.

Give in to a few cowards with their back packs?

Never.

 

Sir Bobby Charlton told a delightful story at the SoccerEx European Forum in Manchester. It concerned the first match-day Saturday morning after he moved to a new house and how he and his wife Norma heard a prowler in the garden just after 7am.

‘I went downstairs and opened the sitting room curtains,’ said Sir Bobby. ‘There was Bill Shankly tapping on the window. I thought I’d better let him in so I opened the front door and we went to the kitchen.

Friendly rivalry: Liverpool manager Bill Shankly (second right) is all smiles after being awarded Manager of the Year at the Cafe Royal in 1973. Sunderland manager Bob Stokoe is on the left, with the Charlton brothers, Jack (second left) and Bobby (right) also in attendance

‘Norma made breakfast and we sat chatting until I had to go off and get ready for the game. The same thing happened many a Saturday after that if United and Liverpool were both playing in the area.’

Sir Bobby added: ‘I loved Bill.’

The late, great Shankly felt the same about Bobby.

May the supporters of Liverpool and United take note. Rivalry should be sporting, not personal.

At ease: Bobby Charlton and wife Norma look relaxed on This Is Your Life in 1969, while Shankly enjoys a cup of tea at Anfield in 1974

  More... WANTED! Police release images of these faces in their pursuit to bring Tyne-Wear derby troublemakers to justice Neigh bother! Horse punched by thug Newcastle fan pictured alive and well MARTIN SAMUEL - THE DEBATE: Tiger's no cheat but the belly putters used by Masters champ Scott and Chinese kid Guan... now they're hard to stomach We will run the London Marathon with no fear, says Kipsang as last year's winner reckons Farah factor will produce fast race














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