Executives: take a long hard look in the mirror
February 9, 2013
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Illustration: John Spooner
AS ONE of the ''punters'' attending and watching sporting fixtures in this country I wish chief executives and sports administrators would spare us their sanctimonious rubbish about drug use and match fixing. They, media barons and the corporate sponsors on breathtaking salaries created this monster.
They took our sports and turned them into businesses. They ignored the protests of the club devotee when we argued against rationalisation, corporatisation and amalgamations. They turned players from participants into corporate assets to be traded and bought. They took the players' club loyalty and converted it into contracts. They made winning, not participating, the ultimate goal. They forged the sponsorship deals with corporate gamblers who want to minimise the risk of losses and optimise profits. They created the cauldron in which the players find themselves.
Now they wonder why this has happened and promise to seek out the criminals and abusers. Look no further than yourselves for the real culprits.
Illustration: Ron Tandberg
Ken Stokes, Wanniassa, ACT
'Sport' a misnomer
IT'S not sport. Anyone who calls it sport is kidding themselves. It is business, and as in many businesses there is greed, corruption, cheating and an unhealthy obsession about who is winning.
That some people are paid millions to whack a ball around or get punched in the head raises the question of why aren't our teachers, paramedics, nurses and other really useful people paid more? Where do our values lie? It is a sad reflection on our society that it values talented and overtrained athletic people so much yet pays peanuts to those who we really need for our wellbeing. So next time when they call it ''sport'', remember it isn't. It's business.
Glenn Wilson, Tallangatta Valley
Representative of life
IT'S not a ''nightmare'', Caroline Wilson (''Dark days for AFL family'', 7/2). It's just part of our job as parents of AFL young men to be there to support and discuss their choices in work and life. Their clubs are representative of life and it's time all of society demanded that ''performance-enhancing social drugs'' are also unacceptable.
All parents find themselves struggling with these issues. I find the violent social cocktails of party drugs across most of our demographics - male and female - concerning. The AFL needs to investigate performance and social drug use in its ranks. We should also demand the same from our schools and our industrial and professional working environments. Drugs shouldn't be used to improve our ''workplace'' or our ''social'' performances, either.
Jennie Hawkins, Finley, NSW
Keep playing dirty
PEOPLE claim Australia is ''ahead of the game'' in cleaning up sport. That doesn't wash. One of the most successful arguments against taxing carbon is that we must not get ahead of the game. And just as all right-thinking Australians believe we should do nothing to make fossil fuels dearer for Australian businesses, so they will believe we should do nothing to make it harder for our athletes to get drugs and continue to win.
We must insist that nothing be done to clean up sport in Australia that is not also being done in every other country. We must ensure that athletes from Fourth World countries that have never won so much as an Olympic bronze are not enabled to steal our gold medals because we have put our athletes in a politically correct straitjacket.
What's the use of cleaning up your economy or your sport while everyone else is playing dirty? If we can live with sitting on our hands and doing bugger-all to secure the future of life on Earth as we know it, surely we can cope with doing bugger-all to save sport in Australia as we know it.
Colin Smith, St Kilda
Scales from the eyes
RECENT revelations about cyclists and footballers have bolstered my self-esteem. After a lifetime of being intimidated and sidelined by members of the sporting culture, I'm kind of delighted to discover that they are inadequate, bullying cheats. I have always suspected that they were.
Tim Hartnett, Balwyn East
Whither our children?
I DIDN'T really care when the Lance Armstrong saga of accusations, denials and ultimate confession was the main topic for the media. I didn't really care when the news of the investigation concerning the Essendon Football Club became public.
After watching the news on Wednesday night, my nine-year-old son asked me, ''Dad, do I have to take drugs if I want to be really good at sport?'' I do really care now.
Tony Burns, Heidelberg Heights
Why the surprise?
THERE is pressure from business interests to extend pub and club trading hours. Alcohol-fuelled violence results. Poker machines are introduced and spread rapidly, especially into poorer areas. Problem gambling and associated issues ensue.
Under the guise of being an adult society based on choice, pornography becomes endemic. Concerns are raised over the sexualisation of young people.
Sport is now considered an industry, and gambling interests - legal and otherwise - move in for their piece of the action. A win-at-all-costs attitude replaces notions of fairness and sporting behaviour. The rivers of cash run deeper and governments siphon off their take. Politicians are bought. The only surprise is that some people are surprised.
Stephen Dinham, Surrey Hills
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/letters/executives-take-a-long-hard-look-in-the-mirror-20130208-2e3ve.html#ixzz2MXgZvl9X