Football has had many shameful moments. Enoch West, a local man (I say that as a resident of Nottingham for the last 37 years) was a great example of one of football’s villains. Born in Hucknall, he played professionally for Sheffield United before transferring to Nottingham Forest for a fee of £5. He was the first player ever sent off whilst playing for Nottingham Forest and in 1915, playing for Manchester United, was convicted of match fixing. Four United Players and four Liverpool players were banned. West refused to admit his wrongdoing (possibly because he was wrongfully convicted) and his ban was not lifted until 1945 – a thirty year ban being the longest in Football League history.
For an American parallel, look to the Chicago Black Sox (not only a racist recasting of the White Sox name, but a crime against orthography) and “Shoeless Joe” Jackson. Of course, they have made films about that, but Enoch West has never, as far as I know, appeared on screen.
I love the history of sport, it’s just a shame that modern sport is so tawdry and diminished in comparison. The money is bigger but the characters are not the same.
Enoch West was banned for 30 years, Jackson was banned for 105. Balogun was reprieved before the ban was served.
Today, in contrast, Forest just announced they were selling Elliot Anderson to Manchester City for £115 million. Inflation of a high order indeed.
FIFA also announced the shortest ban in football history today too. Donald Trump got in touch with them to tell them that he didn’t think the offence that earned a red card, and a one match ban, for USA player Folarin Balogun was a foul.
Donald Trump is, of course, an oracle on all things, including the rules of football. And Gianni Infantini, after surviving many investigations for corruption, is an expert at being in the centre of controversy. Trump has already had a meaningless “Peace Prize” awarded by FIFA, isn’t he just being greedy by demanding they re-write the rules to suit the USA national team?
The trouble isn’t whether it was a foul or not, or whether the ref was right or not, it’s that football has made it look as if it is open to corruption, that if does not back up its referees and that the USA, if it does pull off a fairytale ending and win the World Cup, will forever be remembered for controversy.
We might have to start using an asterisk again, like they did for Roger Maris and his batting record.
Fascinating read! I was hoping Starma could now do the same thing for Jarell Quansah as he was red carded on Sunday 😂
I’m still waiting for confirmation of the final scores. By the time Trump has asked for a review of the result I’m fairly sure USA will be on their way to the next round.
😂😂
Isn’t it good to know that they lost anyway.
It was a very satisfactory result, both for Belgium and for the tournament. And for anyone who likes to think of sport in terms of heroic endeavour rather than money, politics and whining. 🙂
Of course, it isn’t over yet. Donald Trump (who knows about these things) may yet ring FIFA to have the result reviewed.
And I am very impressed by the photo of the stone fence and the trees. Excellent stuff. That is a photo I would love to have taken.
Thank you. I can’t claim much credit. It was the builders of walls and the planters of trees that did the hard work.
And maybe the US players were embarrassed and that went some of the way to a 4 – 1 defeat.
You do wonder, son’t you?
It was an extraordinary chain of events. I might have said unbelievable but sadly this sort of thing is all too believable these days. Come on England! They were pretty unbelievable too.
Yes, they did well. I’m normally happy to say that the spoilt and over-paid football prima donnas failed to deliver, but this time they did.
That last photo is a beauty. With Trump , it’s best to believe the opposite of what he says. That man is such a liar.
He seems to have no relationship to reality. It’s quite amazing.