Fuck This Industry

I was meant to publish this earlier, but was delayed, so now Rooney has been charged and faces a two match ban, which emphasises the point that once the big Other gets hold of something it is very hard to stop its momentum.

I said yesterday that by swearing into the camera Rooney brought swearing into the public eye and as such there is an automatic reaction from society - moralising newspapers moralise. Such a reaction is always, I would say amusing, but given it's our player maybe amusing isn't the word.  Martin Samuel has a very long, very dull opinion piece that suggests interesting isn't the word either. He takes (what feels like) several million words to reach the conclusion "smile, it might never happen," which, from my experience, are the clichéd words of an idiot... He suggests that the most disappointing thing is that Rooney didn't show any joy in scoring, which, given the way that Rooney clutched the ball after full time and kissed it seems spectacularly short-sighted of Samuel - unless he's just leaving stuff out that doesn't fit his agenda.

The silliest thing is the way people make up stories to emphasise their point - Graham Poll -

I have a friend who sat and watched West Ham versus Manchester United in his living room with his six-year-old son, who asked: ‘Daddy, why has Wayne Rooney just said ‘f***’? It was not what he expected at lunchtime on Saturday. Why should we  tolerate such an invasion and one that is likely to come without any punishment?

Bullshit.  Not as bullshit as this though:

Dermot Collins, the manager of the FA’s Respect campaign, told Telegraph Sport: “The other day, my son had a group of friends over and I took them to the park to play football. A couple of the lads played rugby at the weekend and one of them said to me: 'Great, football, that means we can swear.’ 

As if this incident happened. It's the whole class division thing between Rugby and football which this guy is playing on - footballers are working class oiks who need a lesson in manners is the message.  And this from someone who is apparently involved in football.  Absolute tosser.

And this bullshit from The Sun:

a flood of complaints from viewers of the lunchtime match. 

A flood of complaints?  I've yet to seen any figures which suggests to me there are no figures to report.  Who watching that game would have been arsed to complain?  My (entirely real btw) mother, who hates football and hates swearing, sat and watched it and wasn't even shocked, she just tutted at "ignorant footballers..."

The worst comment:

The Premier League’s global appeal means the footage has already been aired all over the world and the sight of Rooney swearing on television has tainted the image of football in this country — a view that is not lost on the FA’s top brass.

Tainted the image?!  Showing passion and commitment taints the image?  Really?

Why football writers feel the need to be the moral champions of the age is utterly beyond.  Step forward Patrick Collins with a awful piece on the whole thing. One gets the feeling he's just angry at rich young working class men getting paid a lot of money - he's angry that the calls of the middle-class rich white men for "respect" have been ignored by the young white men playing the game - 

If anybody was going to reveal the ugliest face of the beautiful game, then Rooney was always a leading candidate. ... He conforms to every squalid stereotype, being massively rewarded, wilfully irresponsible, treating praise as his due and being affronted by the notion of criticism or blame

I think he should stick to watching Rugby...

The most sensible voice I've seen in the whole thing, Sam Wallace in The Independent:

Rooney was goaded mercilessly by West Ham's fans, in the same way that he is at many grounds. In that respect his response, although not to be encouraged, was not surprising. Had he used the same language towards the West Ham supporters, rather than the television viewers, there would have been no need to apologise at all. Those who provoked him deserved what they get. The rest of us have to accept that attending a football match means you will get caught in the crossfire. 

He also points out that the intimacy of Sky's cameras comes at a price:

Another key player in this drama is the Sky Sports cameraman who haunts the touchline with the aim of capturing close-up shots of the emotions of the players. As Rooney prepared to take the penalty for his third goal, the cameraman positioned himself to the right of the goal, in front of the away fans, because experience told him that is where Rooney would go if he scored.

The Sky pitch-side camera is – one supposes – another innovation that makes the game more exciting to watch for those at home. There is a new trend, started by Steven Gerrard, for running straight at it and planting a kiss on the lens to celebrate goals. Mark Noble did so after his first penalty for West Ham on Saturday. It is becoming a focus for celebrations.

But if Sky are going to thrust their camera into the face of a player just seconds after he has singlehandedly led his team back from two goals down, all the time being subjected to abuse about his family, would you not say that there is the chance that something a little ripe might be uttered into the oh-so-sensitive living rooms and saloon bars of the nation?

We cannot have football both ways. We cannot have the raw, edginess of a player like Rooney in a hostile atmosphere and pumped up with adrenaline and then at the same time expect him and every other player to behave like they are taking tea on the lawns of Brasenose College in 1923. 

What would be truly shocking would be to see the steady, always from a distance, TV coverage of 1950's football interrupting by a player shouting swearwords into the camera. Things have moved on though, now it's not really shocking, it's only shocking at one remove, as I pointed out yesterday - shocking for the non-existent other.