A Sad Day For Sport

‘RUPERT Murdoch’s Sun likes to protect its investments, but today’s leading news leaves a rather sour taste in the mouth.

Sussex celebrate the death of Sol Campbell’s father

“Sol’s Hell,” screams the Sun’s headline. And the story? It’s not that the Arsenal defender Sol Campbell has been banned from playing once more but that his father has died.

Bad news for Sol. Worse news for his father. But terrific stuff for Manchester United who can now face Arsenal at the weekend without the Gunners’ top stopper.

“He’ll miss Utd after dad’s death,” lauds the paper. And it’s another chance to say how in the Community Shield match the England player kicked out at United’s Djemba-Djemba.

This is just one of the most depressing takes on a personal tragedy we’ve ever heard. A man dies and somehow in the Sun’s perverted mind Manchester United profit.

There is more on the United-Arsenal match in the Mirror, where Ruud van Nistelrooy, the jump-jawed Dutchman, is saying how he’s going to murder Arsenal. Kill them. Slaughter them. Rip off their heads.

This football season is only a few weeks old and already the hyperbole has reached a frenzy.

It’s lucky that the cricket season has thrown up a genuine sporting story. The Express offers salvation to we who are tired of footballing hyperbole.

Yesterday Sussex won the county championship. This is a big deal since it’s the first time the southern county has won domestic cricket’s top prize in 164 years of trying.

The long wait was finally ended when the side’s Murray Goodwin thumbed a ball delivered by Leicestershire’s captain Phil Defreitas towards the boundary.

That strike took the Sussex score past the 300 runs they needed to secure a bonus point and with it the championship.

And Murray is every inch the hero. He not only hit the all important run but created his own record score of 335 not out. That’s the highest score a Sussex player has scored in the championship.

Of course, with this being a non-football story, we will put it into football terms. It’s like Swindon winning the Premier League. And Thierry Henry’s mother dying in a terrific plane crash.’

Posted: 19th, September 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink