In a famous FA Cup match played in the early 1970's, lower league Hereford Town beat the then top-flight powerhouse of Newcastle United with a long range scorcher of a goal that subsequently became a symbol of what is widely termed “the magic of the FA Cup”. For many years English Football has been home to many a varied clichés but the one most fitting, pertaining to the FA cup, is that “Every dog has its day”, implying that forgetting the form book and the current lowly league status of any given club, that it is possible for them to pull off an upset which will be remembered in club lore for many years to come.
The footage of Ronnie Radford’s amazing goal for Hereford is still used to this day by the BBC in their opening titles for their FA Cup coverage. It coveys in a 5 second clip, more succinctly than any words, the pure beauty of not just football but indeed all sport. Unfortunately for the purists, upsets of this magnitude in any sport are now increasingly less likely as greater professionalism (read: “money”) has entered the game and the gulf between the “Herefords” and “Newcastles” of this world has become wider and wider until it is nigh on untraverseable.
Going forward 20 plus years and heading to the sub-continent of India we arrive at the scandal surrounding alleged match-fixing by the then South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and the sporting world suddenly wakes up to the now familiar phrases of “match fixing” and “betting syndicates”. Phrases which have unfortunately seamlessly entered the 21st century’s lexicon of Sport. Whilst rumours have persisted in sport since time immemorial that “boxers will dive”,” goalies will drop” and “jockeys will ease off” it was only with the Cronje incident that the world sat-up and became fully aware of the sheer potential scale and breadth of the rumoured activities of these oh-so-powerful and shadowy betting syndicates that now theories even persist that the aforementioned Cronje and latterly the former England batsman and then Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, deaths may have actually had some link with these clandestine gambling activities.
Now that the spectator is fully educated to the purported activities of these syndicates, and their wide ranging tentacles of influence, every time something occurs in World Sport that could be badged with the headline “the magic of...” then the cynic immediately starts to hypothesise whether all is exactly as it seems. From floodlights failing, to huge “no-balls”, unbelievable second-half comebacks, to bizarre team selections; every time the very things occur that actually drew us to the sport in the 1st place, (or even the downright bizarre,) some step back and think “I wonder?”.
Roll forward to the present day and last night the unbeaten leaders of the Premiership, Manchester United, were beaten 2-1 by the team in last place, Wolverhampton Wanderers. By all accounts they were very worthy winners and a complacent United got what they deserved. However on the same day three Pakistani cricketers were accused of “spot-fixing” and though prima facie the two stories have no link, other than they may well share the same back page tomorrow, the tragedy is that a link does exist, even if only in the mind of the cynical reader, and even if only 1% of your brain begins to say “I wonder?” then that part of your love of Sport has died a little bit more.
The world’s love affair with sport was built on Highs and Lows, Good times interrupting seemingly endless bad times, but if for just one moment you felt that your emotions were being consciously manipulated by another, as in the world of romance, that love will die, to the extent possibly you may never love in the same way ever again.
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