There are two rules relating to trading on International football matches a) Never bet on Spain and b) Rarely bet on England. Consequently, last night's match held limited appeal until the Spanish Federation chose the morning of the game to announce that they had overturned a decision that had criticised the national team manager, Luis Aragonés, for "conduct which could be considered racist".
Leaving aside the Orwellian doublespeak that implies that calling Thierry Henry "that Black little shit" wasn't racist, Aragonés' "justification" - that he was obliged to motivate his players to achieve the best results - doesn't reflect very well on Spanish society as a whole.
Racism in the stadia in Spain is out of control as the numerous occurrences involving Samuel Eto'o and others have shown and, for the Spanish authorities to validate Aragonés' racism, is a dreadful indictment on the state of Spanish football overall. By selecting the morning of the England game, the Spanish authorities were deliberately creating a focus on the last time the teams met at the Bernabeu when the Black English players were treated to a torrent of racist abuse throughout the game.
The decision makes a mockery of anti-racism campaigns orchestrated by FIFA and UEFA. These are tokenistic marketing campaigns at best and a willful acceptance of racism in football at worst. Neither Aragonés nor Blokhin were sanctioned for their racism prior to the 2006 World Cup as FIFA wished for the focus to be on the beautiful game and not it's inherent problems (see previous post for an assessment of racism in the sporting hierarchies at: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/01/yo-guvnor.html).
I made the choice to watch the match on BBC in the mistaken belief that some constructive anti-racist statement might be uttered in support of the Black players who were racially abused in Spain. Nothing. Motson put out his usual bumptious Ladbrokes-inspired disinformational drivel and Lawrensen tried to get as many pithy one-liners in as possible. But racism never got a mention.
Why? Not to offend your Spanish guests? Not to face up to the fact that racism in the game is indicative of racism in little England? Perhaps Motson was just worried that he is so out of touch that he wouldn't be able to put together a suitable sentence without appearing racist himself? Or, perhaps, countries like Britain and Spain have still not dealt with their grotesquely imperial and racist history?
Whatever the reason, it is shameful that the BBC chose to shirk this issue - at least, in Greece, we don't have to pay a license fee to witness this rubbish.
As for the match itself, England were dire; McLaren is out of his depth; Carrick is totally overrated; Lampard is a duplicitous liability. Professional traders avoid backing Spain as the degree of regionalism in Spain undermines proactive team building yet McLaren managed to make Spain look like worldbeaters.
No doubt he is on the phone to Max Clifford this morning determining how to put a positive spin on all this.
