Money brings out ugly side of beautiful game (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Money brings out ugly side of beautiful game

11:32am Tuesday 9th February 2010

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I can see it now — all those green double-decker buses lined up along Bridge Street by the Boulevard — and all the men striding off t’match along Bolton Road.

We in the Jubilee would be busy doing good business with local supporters and the out-of-town visitors.

The self-appointed Rovers’ mascot would bob in, wearing his blue and white scarf and top hat, brandishing a huge wooden rattle.

The beautiful game, though, is no longer as fair as it used to be, for as with most things it’s not been improved by the huge amounts of money.

Players get large wages and, in many cases, lots of adulation, but most of them are only working-class lads.

The cash, life change and young women constantly pushing themselves forward, hoping to gain money or recognition, must have a strong effect – not to mention the longing for home among foreign players.

We’ve local football teams with none or not many local lads playing; time was when footballers lived in the town.

Now, they’re a commodity – bought, sold and moved from team to team, with no real loyalties. To me, it’s sad. All those fans cheering a home team, often without home-grown players.

And the same thing has happened with our politicians. I’m sure that they all started off with the very best of intentions. They were going to save the country, but those two ugly sisters – greed and avarice – seem to have seduced some of them.

Will making an example of four of them get back our trust? I doubt it.

What we want and desperately need is a much smaller government. One we can believe and have faith in, one to which the welfare and interests of the people are paramount, not their damned expense account.

One solution is for those MPs who have ‘overstepped the mark’ to stand down with no £40,000-odd ‘disturbance’ money and put themselves up for re-election. Let their constituency decide.

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