044 Fitba'

 

" Fitba' "

Football, or fitba' as they say up here, has come under the microscope for the second time in as many weeks due to being headline news for all the wrong reasons. It follows on from when the English game resumed and there were a few high profile cases of footballers doing things they shouldn't have in lockdown. It made many question what planet some of these guys live on which was fair comment but unfairly tarred all footballers with the same brush when 99.9% of them were being responsible and adhering to the rules.

It's no surprise that with Scottish football returning its been a similar scenario. In week one 8 footballers went to a pub after a game and 2 contracted Covid19. Football was given a special privilidge and rightly there was public anger when rules were flaunted. I do feel a little for these guys though. I dare say they were not the only guys out but it was their misfortune to go to a bar that later would be found to be a nucleus for another covid outbreak. And after the threat from the government that football may be shut down if it happened again, it happened again. Today it was revealed that a footballer "nipped over to Spain and back" before joining up with his teammates. Further rule breaking putting more lives in danger. The government though have not entirely carried out their threat. Match postponements are not a punishment never mind a warning. It further highlights how some footballers think they are above the law and selfish with it. 

But this post is not about football but Britain's obsession with it. In all this I heard one voice that asked a question noone else asked. Amid all the bile and hatred towards these selfish souls one ex-manager asked: does anyone know if the guys who caught covid are OK? Beneath all the obsession over the football rights and wrongs everyone had forgotten that two young men had caught a deadly disease. While they called down all sorts of nasties on them one guy asked what should really have been the most important question. Thankfully both are fine. But these people have friends and family who would have been worried when they learned of the news. It annoys me how quickly some have forgotten where we were. That compassion universally for all seems short in supply.