Prevention is Better Than Cure

The boxing world got flipped on its head when two British boxers decided to bring a little taste of Finchley to Munich. Any achievements that either Haye or Chisora have earned to date will be always be overshadowed by their immature displays of aggression.

I personally blame both Klitschko brothers for the Haye v Chisora bonus undercard fight. When Chisora slapped Vitali in the press conference Vitali should have made it his duty to ensure that Chisora learned a lasting lesson about disrespect. If Chisora had had the taste knocked out of his mouth, he wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to square up to Haye. Fact.

Younger brother Wladimir also failed to adequately address the issue of disrespect. No opponent should ever be able to design apparel depicting images of your dismembered brother and not end up literally and figuratively KO’d.

Both Haye and Chisora took their pre-fight and press conference shenanigans to a place it didn’t need to go. Not only were they unable to back it up, there were no consequences to their actions which seemingly leading them to believing their own hype.

Now the sport of boxing has been brought into disrepute, Chisora’s been questioned by the police and Haye’s sporting achievements have been somewhat discredited. Not what you expect from professional athletes, eh?

The moral of this story is… the next time you have a job to do, do it properly.

J

Plasters and Old Wounds

The UK’s social and institutional approach to racism in football has usurped headlines and timelines of late.

Last week alone we’ve seen Terry lose his arm band, Capello raise two fingers to the situation, Suarez miss the memo about handshakes and a Manchester United fan banned from football for three years for unacceptable behaviour.

Institutional responses to some of the recent offences feel inconsistent and haphazard because they are. England have been clear about their commitment to stamping out racism, but weren’t clear on how exactly to approach the issues.

Whilst the search is still on for the best approach to this inconvenient issue, England are at least making the effort to keep their social misfits from causing offence beyond UK borders. The Manchester United fan who was fined for racially abusing striker Kenwyne Jones has not only earned himself a three year ban from any football ground in England or Wales, he must also surrender his passport when England play internationals abroad.

Harsh? Maybe. Effective? Hopefully.

Whether or not other countries see the need to address the issue is another blog for another day.