MARTIN SAMUEL: It’s crazy to punish Diego Maradona and Sir Alex Ferguson for loony tunes
There is a standard punishment meted out for disreputable behaviour in football these days: a slap on the wrist. It is what Diego Maradona received for abusing journalists after Argentina qualified for the World Cup, apparently, and Sir Alex Ferguson got one, too, for questioning the fitness of the referee, Alan Wiley.
Indeed, whatever sentence is passed on a football manager or player, it is instantly deemed not harsh enough. Emmanuel Adebayor received a three-game slap on the wrist for his behaviour against Arsenal. Craig Bellamy and Gary Neville did not even get that for foolish interaction with the crowd. More like a tickle on the tum.
Yet Maradona is banned from all football-related activity for two months for some rather fruity language after the win in Uruguay, while Ferguson will not be on Manchester United’s touchline for a Barclays Premier League match against Portsmouth and a Carling Cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur.
Slaps on the wrist? What should they have received? A year in exile? Seven hundred lashes? The sack?
There is almost no need for sentence at all when a manager switches to rant mode because the loss of temper and dignity is penalty enough. ‘The politician who loses the debate is the one who gets nervous,’ said Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, earlier this season. ‘As soon as you become aggressive on television you have lost. It is a basic rule.’
He is right. Had Maradona been calm and considered after the victory over Uruguay, his critics would have had little choice but to report that he had conjured a very useful away win to take his country to the World Cup. Instead, he was again depicted as a human train wreck and a liability to Argentina’s hopes of success. Maradona was the biggest loser here, in line with Wenger’s observation.
So, too, Ferguson who, having attacked Wiley’s condition, was quickly discredited when it transpired the official had run a greater distance than all but four Manchester United players during the match with Sunderland. The more a manager rails at referees, the less he is heard.
Part of Ferguson’s problem is that his criticisms are now seen as part of a wider ploy to detract attention from the deficiencies of his team, or gain advantage prior to an important game. United looked to have got the rough end of it against Chelsea last week but Ferguson was afforded little sympathy. He is presumed to be working the system so often that few care when it turns against him.
Many years ago, I had a ferocious row with Sir Alex during the ill-fated World Club Championship in Brazil. It started in a televised press conference and carried on halfway around the stadium and down into an underground parking area.
Ferguson thought I had quoted him saying preparations at the Maracana stadium were a shambles. Actually, that was given as my opinion, not his, and although Manchester United’s press man knew this he did not have the gumption to correct Ferguson in full flow. Television footage of an angry Sir Alex was, very briefly, a story at home until the next day when Manchester United drew with Necaxa of Mexico and David Beckham was sent off.
So should FIFA have acted against Ferguson as they did Maradona? Not for one minute. This was merely another PR disaster in a carnival of them at that tournament.
United were depicted as arrogant and aloof in the Brazilian media because their training ground was closed to local children and their lack of charity engagements contrasted unfavourably with the busy schedule of the other European competitors, Real Madrid.
United did have altruistic work planned, but at the end of the trip, not the beginning, so to get this point across their PR man primed a journalist to ask Ferguson about future commitments.
Unfortunately, the writer first mentioned Beckham’s dismissal, incurring Ferguson’s displeasure. So when he attempted to broach the subject of charity, Ferguson interrupted, snapped that he already had too much to say for himself and refused to take his question. There really is no need to punish football people when they do such a capable job themselves.
That is why we should not get too worked up over Maradona’s supposed verbal outrage. As the only English national newspaper journalist present, I can reveal that smelling salts for the offended were not required.
Maradona’s tirade was a victimless crime because he clearly wasn’t doing himself any favours and the guys getting the grief were giving as good as they got (and certainly did in print and over the airwaves the next day). Indeed, after the press conference Argentine journalists rushed forward and Maradona answered questions for another 10 minutes.
There would be something very hypocritical in following El Diego halfway around the world and claiming the motivation was to hear him mouth bland platitudes. The draw is Maradona, genius and loon.
Taking offence at his language would be like going to see The Who in 1969 and complaining because they smashed up the instruments.
‘Argentina will be the team to cover at the World Cup,’ more than one colleague has told me excitedly. Can you win a World Cup with a nutter in charge? That will be the narrative and FIFA will trade off it, too.
Ferguson’s verbal attack on Wiley is not perceived as victimless due to the most overplayed hand in history, courtesy of the referees union, who are now demanding a full retraction. Why? Ferguson regrets his public stance but that does not mean his opinion has changed.
Anyway, if our most successful manager sincerely believes a senior referee is incapable, we should at least listen, even if we do not agree. We have to differentiate between what is being said and the right to say it.
Respect is the buzzword in football right now but nobody lost respect for Wiley over what happened at Old Trafford. They lost respect for Ferguson.
Similarly, the combative Argentine press do not need protection from the volatile and unstable Maradona. They will get their right of reply because journalists always do.
So nobody needs a slap, on the wrist or anywhere else. If the manager tells you to suck it the best policy is to take it on the chin.
Related posts:
