As the FT put it:
England football manager Sam Allardyce quit on Tuesday night after only 67 days in the job following newspaper allegations that he had offered advice on how to “get around” rules on the transfer of players.
So let's be clear: Allardyce did nothing wrong, except suggesting how to "get around" the rules. And he has gone. And in my opinion rightly so.
Why rightly so? Because in this interpretation what Allardyce did was akin to advising on tax avoidance. Tax avoidance is about supposedly doing nothing wrong, but getting around the rules nonetheless. And once that was seen as being smart. Just as Donald Trrump thinks that paying no tax is smart.
But the world has changed, and for the better. Tax avoidance is not smart any more. It's not even unambiguously legal now: the 2013 General Anti-Abuse Rule, with which I was associated, put paid to that. And the government is now planning an explicit programme of penalties for those enabling it, and in broad terms I approve of the plan to do so.
Why is this? Simply because football (like tax and the economy) has to be played on a level playing field where the only thing that matters is real ability.When that is abused just about everything in the game, from trust in the fairness of the result onwards, is destroyed. There is, in reality, no game left. And that is what Allardyce might have been condoning. Just as tax avoiders condone society being undermined and rigged in favour of those willing to cheat.
The time has come when there is no tolerance left for cheats. Thank goodness, and not least for the FA doing the right thing.
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‘The time has come when there is no tolerance left for cheats’-I think that is a mite bit premature, Richard.
I can hope
What I thought was even more telling about Allardyce (apart from thinking it funny to mock Hodgson’s speech) was his willingness to seek out even more money than the £3million plus bonuses he was being paid. In short, a greedy, self-serving man with little in the way of a moral compass. Beside that, he was going to turn out to be a shite England manager anyway, despite his boasts to the contrary.
In subtle mood this morning Ivan
Although I agree on all counts, including the last: the country has been saved by his greed
I note Allardyce is now claiming ‘entrapment won.’ To which my response is, ‘No mate, your greed and that of your partners in this affair won. Now stop bleating and live with it.’
In which case Ivan, he sounds like an ideal candidate for being a member of our current government. Greedy, arrogant, self-serving, dishonest, very limited ability but a very high opinion of himself.
🙂
From Alladyce to All-a-Vice in 67 days.
What is it about the corruptive influence of power again?
Give me the world of rugby any day (althought it has its own problems and money is increasingly creeping up in the game).
A friend who is a former chairman of a lower tier football club tells me that scams involving agents, managers and chairmen are of longstanding, widespread and well known within the game. Some of those involved were also members of the FA’s governing body. He gave me details of Allardyce’s activities at Bolton which I cannot repeat on here. The whole system of player transfer is riddled with corruption.
What I find remarkable is after all the others who have fallen for the Far Eastern businessmen trick – they still fall for it.
If I were the England manager and some Far Eastern businessmen wanted to meet me – my first reaction would be “journalist”.
I can only imagine their greed is truly immense.
“I can only imagine their greed is truly immense”
Because of their “position” they are incapable of recognising that their intelligence is not on a par with the rest of the country.
Fine at football.
Intellectual giants they are not.
But since their job is win-win, why should they care. Fail and they still get millions thrown at them.
Rather like politicians.