In the light of Manchester United player Wayne Rooney’s foul-mouthed outburst on camera during Saturday’s game against the Hammers (and subsequent charge by the Football Association with using insulting or offensive language), the sports pages of the major national newspapers are rustling with debate on the place of swearing in football.
Does it simply go with the territory – as The Guardian’s Simon Burnton suggests – a mere expression of the aggression necessary, and therefore desirable, to produce high quality football? Burnton even goes so far as to suggest that any attempt by the FA and the Premier League to legislate against such behaviour is tantamount to committing a heinous crime against football itself: every moment that poor, innocent Rooney – bless his cotton socks – has to spend concentrating on holding his tongue is distracting the footie genius from the job in hand, to the detriment of the quality of the beautiful game. For Burnton, the FA and its silly rules can f*** right off.
So what does John Nicholson, author of We Ate All The Pies, and regular columnist on football365.com, have to say on the matter? In Monday's article, he attacks the argument that ‘the kids will copy him’, advising that the answer to this is clear: ‘just tell them not to. If your kids take more notice of Rooney than you, then the problem is with you, not with Wayne’. Simples. For Nicholson, the media’s sensationalist pounce upon Rooney’s outburst is just a reflection of the gulf between the football media and their viewers who, John says, are under no illusion that this kind of behaviour merely goes with the territory. Michael Winner’s soothing ‘calm down, dear’ is not going to pull much weight with this crowd.
And what’s the obsession with football, anyway? That’s the subject of John’s book, We Ate All The Pies, available here priced £9.99
And if you want to find out more about Wayne Rooney himself, take a look at Rooney's Gold by John Sweeney, available here priced £18.99