Bells on Sunday

Every Sunday morning I find myself subjected to BBC Radio Four's 'Bells on Sunday'. Now I'm sure there are many campanologists out there who set their alarm clock (or perhaps more sensibly record it as I see that 'listen again' is not available) for this as the pinnacle of their week perhaps but I have to say that this is, for me at least, the biggest down of the week and it is rare for me to do anything but go and put a kettle one in readiness for what comes next (this week it's a 'Lent Talk' (which, interestingly is by an Islamic scholar!).

And so, Quasimodo like, avoiding the bells I look towards today (Palm Sunday and the entry into Jerusalem) and the image of Jesus, in an open-topped bus travelling through Jerusalem with the crowds chanting his name as the procession heads towards a champagne reception at the town hall, fills my mind. I think back to the many times I have seen footballers do this and how, just like Jesus only a few days later, the cheers and applause turns to boos, jeering and cries for their demise. So often we hear (or read) of ways in which football is a religion. Could it be therefore that we might consider the question: Football, the new Christianity?

If so, and taking Chelsea as the last sacking, what does that make Andre Villas-Boas and does this mean that in the place of the Roman, Pilate, we have instead the Roman Abramovich?

May you have a blesséd Palm Sunday and a wonderful Holy Week.

Pax

Off the boots of babes and sucklings

One of the most rewarding (and exhausting) things that I get to do as a dogcollar is that of being involved in our Kid's Club. Pretty much every Monday and Friday finds us engaged in a variety of activities ranging from console games through to craft, cooking, snooker (extremely popular!) and football. It is in the football that we get to see society's values most clearly demonstrated. Here are three of the most common:

1. The culture of self.
Give a kid a football and he will set off for goal. There's no passing or awareness of anyone else on their side, it's them and the goal and no one else matters. They can have people in open spaces (kid's football is great you can fit everyone (apart from the keepers) into a five foot square) but they continue through the melee to consistently lose the ball! It is all about them.

2. The end justifies the means.
Watching the kids play, I am amazed at the blatant fouling, the use of the hand to control the ball and just about anything else that contravenes the laws of the game. When asked about the infringement, their responses can be summed up by this, "Anything goes as long as it brings about the desired result." Yes indeedy - the end justifies the means, one of the key mantras of our society today.

3. Always get even!
The tackles (often off the ball) almost always result in the acted against player seeking to 'settle accounts' and this usually means that there will be at least one full-on punch-up during the game. There's nothing about turning the other cheek in today's society, we live on a rich diet of revenge, retribution and a skewed form of rough 'natural justice'. What we see in the adults, we see sown at an early age in their children and the shoots of the same escalations that so beset our adult society are on display in the very youngest among us.

Want to see where our society is having problems? Take a look at kids playing football.

Hey Ho!