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We can only hope that football learns from the sordid Adam Johnson case We can only hope that football learns from the sordid Adam Johnson case
(6 months later)
When Brian Clough was the greatest football manager in England, he paid forensic attention to every aspect of his players’ existence. Above all, he valued stability, forever encouraging his players to find a wife. More recently Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, took the same view. “I’ve always been an advocate of players being married and settled down,” he said in 2009. “You know where they are.”When Brian Clough was the greatest football manager in England, he paid forensic attention to every aspect of his players’ existence. Above all, he valued stability, forever encouraging his players to find a wife. More recently Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, took the same view. “I’ve always been an advocate of players being married and settled down,” he said in 2009. “You know where they are.”
Does anyone know where they are now? I doubt it. If there ever was a time that marriage provided a bulwark against sexual misconduct in football, it has certainly passed. There are plenty of tabloid stings to suggest that married players are no less likely than their single peers to sleep around. If the consequences never seem to be calamitous, you would guess that that’s the result of a hard-headed calculation by their partners, rather than any real rapprochement.Does anyone know where they are now? I doubt it. If there ever was a time that marriage provided a bulwark against sexual misconduct in football, it has certainly passed. There are plenty of tabloid stings to suggest that married players are no less likely than their single peers to sleep around. If the consequences never seem to be calamitous, you would guess that that’s the result of a hard-headed calculation by their partners, rather than any real rapprochement.
None of this is even really scandalous any more, since the word 'scandal' denotes a sense of shockNone of this is even really scandalous any more, since the word 'scandal' denotes a sense of shock
None of this is even really scandalous any more, since the word “scandal” denotes a sense of shock. Football’s circus today is understood as an endless, and endlessly bleak, bacchanal, and its power brokers appear to have concluded that since they cannot reverse this tendency, the only option is to accommodate it.None of this is even really scandalous any more, since the word “scandal” denotes a sense of shock. Football’s circus today is understood as an endless, and endlessly bleak, bacchanal, and its power brokers appear to have concluded that since they cannot reverse this tendency, the only option is to accommodate it.
I feel like Mary Whitehouse for finding this depressing, except that it’s not the sex that gets me down: it’s the frenetic, acquisitive, objectifying spirit in which it is pursued, and how perfectly this aligns with the beautiful game’s uglifying concentration of power. I was struck last week by Louis van Gaal’s description of the dead-eyed drive that he wishes to see on the pitch. How does he try to communicate this to the entitled young men in his charge at Manchester United? “I often,” he said, “use the word ‘horny’”.I feel like Mary Whitehouse for finding this depressing, except that it’s not the sex that gets me down: it’s the frenetic, acquisitive, objectifying spirit in which it is pursued, and how perfectly this aligns with the beautiful game’s uglifying concentration of power. I was struck last week by Louis van Gaal’s description of the dead-eyed drive that he wishes to see on the pitch. How does he try to communicate this to the entitled young men in his charge at Manchester United? “I often,” he said, “use the word ‘horny’”.
When assessing the grim implications of the Adam Johnson case, it’s important to be clear about who bears the primary moral responsibility. It is Johnson. No adult should need pastoral care to understand that sexual activity with a child is a heinous crime. Nor are the women who footballers sleep with the temptresses of misogyny and myth: when a model sleeps with a defender, it is not her fault – or the defender’s – when a winger then grooms a schoolgirl.When assessing the grim implications of the Adam Johnson case, it’s important to be clear about who bears the primary moral responsibility. It is Johnson. No adult should need pastoral care to understand that sexual activity with a child is a heinous crime. Nor are the women who footballers sleep with the temptresses of misogyny and myth: when a model sleeps with a defender, it is not her fault – or the defender’s – when a winger then grooms a schoolgirl.
But that is not to say that Johnson can be written off as an aberration: he is the product of his circumstances. For the baldest description of football’s moral torpor, compare Johnson’s case with that of the three Leicester City players who took part in a racist sex tape on a pre-season tour. James Pearson – the son of the club’s then manager, Nigel – Tom Hopper, and Adam Smith were all fringe players. They were all summarily sacked within a month without much fuss. Johnson was a player of real talent in a team at risk of relegation. And even though the club knew that he had sent the girl messages and kissed her, he was allowed to play on. Some Sunderland fans, who I guess probably didn’t follow every twist of the court case, sang “he’s done nothing wrong”, and “he shags who he wants”.But that is not to say that Johnson can be written off as an aberration: he is the product of his circumstances. For the baldest description of football’s moral torpor, compare Johnson’s case with that of the three Leicester City players who took part in a racist sex tape on a pre-season tour. James Pearson – the son of the club’s then manager, Nigel – Tom Hopper, and Adam Smith were all fringe players. They were all summarily sacked within a month without much fuss. Johnson was a player of real talent in a team at risk of relegation. And even though the club knew that he had sent the girl messages and kissed her, he was allowed to play on. Some Sunderland fans, who I guess probably didn’t follow every twist of the court case, sang “he’s done nothing wrong”, and “he shags who he wants”.
Of course, it’s not just Sunderland. When you consider the apologists for the rapist Ched Evans, Liverpool fans who deemed Luis Suárez’s ban for racial abuse an outrage, the Chelsea supporters who still think that John Terry is a legend, you reach an inescapable conclusion: in football, culpability is inversely proportional to your value to the team.Of course, it’s not just Sunderland. When you consider the apologists for the rapist Ched Evans, Liverpool fans who deemed Luis Suárez’s ban for racial abuse an outrage, the Chelsea supporters who still think that John Terry is a legend, you reach an inescapable conclusion: in football, culpability is inversely proportional to your value to the team.
Related: Adam Johnson played on while his victim's world fell apart
If it’s the clubs that hold the levers of power, then it’s the fans who could compel them to pull. But we don’t. We’re rank hypocrites, captive to the partisan instinct that makes us abuse the referee even when we know it was a foul. Prone as I am to yelling at officials, I understand the infantile root of this impulse. A football fan who doesn’t nurse a persecution complex isn’t really a football fan at all: the game is all about standing up for your own tribe even when reason tells you that you’re wrong. If anything about sport was rational we would all support Barcelona.If it’s the clubs that hold the levers of power, then it’s the fans who could compel them to pull. But we don’t. We’re rank hypocrites, captive to the partisan instinct that makes us abuse the referee even when we know it was a foul. Prone as I am to yelling at officials, I understand the infantile root of this impulse. A football fan who doesn’t nurse a persecution complex isn’t really a football fan at all: the game is all about standing up for your own tribe even when reason tells you that you’re wrong. If anything about sport was rational we would all support Barcelona.
So much for the fans. Some will wonder whether the sexual abuse of a child will be enough to prompt a belated moral response from the clubs themselves. If so, maybe it could start with Sunderland’s close and transparent scrutiny of the decision-making process that led them to a position that could be mistaken for acceptance or apologism. I don’t hold out much hope.So much for the fans. Some will wonder whether the sexual abuse of a child will be enough to prompt a belated moral response from the clubs themselves. If so, maybe it could start with Sunderland’s close and transparent scrutiny of the decision-making process that led them to a position that could be mistaken for acceptance or apologism. I don’t hold out much hope.
If nothing changes, we’re not without indicators of how dark the consequences can be. The Johnson trial ended a week after the publication of Dame Janet Smith’s inquiry into how Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall were able to commit sexual abuse at the BBC for decades. It found a culture of fear, and a macho environment in which powerful figures were revered and allowed to do as they chose.If nothing changes, we’re not without indicators of how dark the consequences can be. The Johnson trial ended a week after the publication of Dame Janet Smith’s inquiry into how Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall were able to commit sexual abuse at the BBC for decades. It found a culture of fear, and a macho environment in which powerful figures were revered and allowed to do as they chose.
If this sounds familiar, we should acknowledge that the consequences could be the same. It is easy to imagine that we might one day learn of a footballer who assaulted women on a systematic basis, who believed it to be his birthright, who went unchallenged by the powers that be, whose victims were considered to be at fault. If it does happen the clubs will say that they couldn’t have seen it coming. Well, they could. They have been warned again and again and again.If this sounds familiar, we should acknowledge that the consequences could be the same. It is easy to imagine that we might one day learn of a footballer who assaulted women on a systematic basis, who believed it to be his birthright, who went unchallenged by the powers that be, whose victims were considered to be at fault. If it does happen the clubs will say that they couldn’t have seen it coming. Well, they could. They have been warned again and again and again.