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What a week for political sensitivities. In New Zealand we’ve had the sight of Government ministers, from different ends of the coalition, using public money to gain political points in determining who has the free-to-air TV rights for the Rugby World Cup. As if people watch sport on free-to-air TV these days anyway. In Pakistan we have had some bloke called Jamshed Khan Dasti, the head of Pakistan's parliamentary committee on sport (whatever that means) claiming the national team got up to “hanky panky” at the Champions Trophy. Quite what he was hoping to achieve with that is unclear, but it’s resulted in the resignation of the team captain and best batsman, so it was not entirely helpful. But politics in sport is not always about politicians meddling around where they do not belong, it’s about organisations being aware of the constraints in which they operate.
His crime? Drink-driving. In Australia. How they must laugh at across town at the Broncos. Because it is stretching credulity to think an NRL coach would ever be sacked for such an offence. After all, the Tongan coach got caught doing exactly that at the end of last year. But then the A-League is appealing to a different market in the cluttered, cut-throat market of Australian sport. League pretty much has the slab of XXXX market sewn up, and union has the double-barrelled surname niche to itself. Football, however, needs to appeal to the swinging voter who might actually think a bit about what they are associating with. That is why The Roar had to let him go, as well as being seen to address his underlying problem. The contrast between that and certain other coaches running around hotels naked could not be greater. No such problems for Ricki Herbert. He’s got 2 jobs. Last week he was doing his New Zealand job in a 40 degree sauna, this week he’s been training in a blizzard with a chill factor of around -40 degrees. But can his brain flick the switch like that? Last week, he concocted the tactic of 3 at the front as a way of coping with his imbalanced squad; this week he needs to work out how to get the ball to players who can actually score goals. The only constant is the 0-0 scoreline. The temptation must be for him to looking forward to November 14th, and telling his players to go soft on Shane Smeltz when they meet later in the month, That is human nature. But he gets more money for coaching the Phoenix than in the job that could propel him onto the world stage so he needs to clear the mind in a hurry. And then there is Sven-Goran Eriksson. Bless. Former manager of Benfica, Lazio, England, Mexico and now with, um, Notts County. Said to be in talks with big spending North Korea, which seems to be taking selective Communism a bit far. The world’s most travelled football coach in charge of players who are not allowed to leave the country without a written note from Kim-Jong II. Just so weird you couldn’t make it up. SGE has, of course, denied this; which means he’s just haggling the terms and conditions with either some North Koreans or dodgy Arab businessmen. You can bet small nuclear warhead on the fact that he will be in South Africa next year in some capacity. He may get the chance to catch up with Ricky while he’s there, but is unlikely to bump into Frank. Comments here
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