When Bill Shankly uttered those immortal words a few years back about the importance of football in the grand scheme of things, everyone knew that the former Liverpool manager was jocularly reflecting the zeal with which fans of the beautiful game indulge their passion. Not for a second was Shankly seriously suggesting that football really was a matter of life and death, of course.
“Fabio Capello, you are charged with being a terrible England manager, under-performing at major tournaments, costing the FA a fortune and failing to live up to your reputation as a winner. How do you plead?”
Not guilty, and rightfully so.
The past few days have been a tumultuous nightmare of bad publicity for the England team and the Football Association. As the spiralling blame game continues, none of the associated parties are emerging without any fault.
Ally McCoist’s Rangers career hasn’t always been plain sailing. Despite his status as the club’s all-time top scorer, and, of course, the various winners medals he plundered as a player with the Ibrox club, there have been dark days along the way.
You can imagine how the story goes. It’s match point, Andy Murray is losing a crucial tie break at Wimbledon. His opponent hits a ferocious back hand which the umpire decides was in. However, Hawk Eye proves that the ball was in fact out. The Umpire has this impressive tool at his disposal, so the game continues. Murray regroups and wins the tie break and the match. Andy Murray marches on at Wimbledon, Britain’s sports fans rejoice. Now, imagine this quite different scene.