Foreign Language

It's not so much that Michael Owen joins in the ridiculous "It's them damn foreigners who brought the dirty diving to our shores" chorus.  Yesterday I had a go at that silly attitude, but finished by suggesting it may be a bit forgiveable coming from the mouth of an older generation whose mindset is stuck in the past.  So it's disappointing that someone like Michael Owen would repeat such a line, but even more disappointing is that all the papers just let him get away with it.
In any other line of work saying, "bloody foreigners coming over here with their dirty tricks," would be frowned upon and openly criticised by any right-thinking person, but apparently footballers can say it and it's taken as a serious point.

"You can trace all diving in the Premier League to one small tribe in Italy, before then, in the midst of time, football was a joyful game, played in the same spirit as they still have in that wonderful utopia they call Rugby, people slapping each other on the back, patting bottoms, shaking the hands of their opponents when they score, 'good goal sir,' and at the end of the game going out for tea and scones with all the crowd.  The referee was more of a watcher, just a fan who got lucky and a close up view of the action. In this Italian tribe though, they played dirty, they had no respect for the opponent or the referee and tried anything they could to win, even downright simulation.  Then, one day, there was a flood or a drought or a plague or something and they were forced from their lands, and they spread all over the place, some stayed in Italy, others went out across Europe, some even found their way to South America.  Wherever they went they played football and cheated and infected everyone they played football with.  Football's innocence was shattered, it would never be the same again, except in good ol' Blighty, which held out until the 21st century until someone discovered the Channel Tunnel..."

So all the papers report it as some sort of interesting debate, instead of the silly xenophobic rubbish it is. The Guardian jut ignore it, concentrating on the more trivial line, Owen admitting he sometimes goes down a bit easy.  Which, to paraphrase Owen himself on Twitter, "no shit Sherlock."

And in case anyone was wondering, over 64% of Premier League footballers are foreign, so can we quickly escalate this debate into the "bloody foreigners, stealing all our footballers jobs..."