i Editor's Letter: The emotional power of sport
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On today's Views, Simon Kelner waxes poetic about the Leveson Inquiry in a column written well in advance of his beloved Manchester City winning the Premier League title in the most extraordinarily dramatic afternoon of football you could witness. I am sure we will all hear so much more about his special afternoon at the Etihad Stadium.
Having written the other week through my rose-tinted spectacles about how FA Cup Final day is not as good as it used to be, I will now anger many of you, by arguing there was never a better conclusion to a season than yesterday's. Obviously not when Leeds United lost to lowly Wolves in 1972 in their last game of the season to cost Don Revie's all-stars the double; not when Arsenal travelled to Anfield needing to beat Liverpool by two goals to nil, and did so with Michael Thomas's last-gasp goal. No, this was the best — although James Lawton may well disagree.
Yesterday's drama gave the lie to the idea that the Premier League is full of overpaid mercenaries that don't give a xxxx about winning. It saw so many sub-plots: the bitter ex-manager who almost ruined the party; the wayward bad-boy captain whose red card nearly got his team relegated; the other bad boy whose late introduction so galvanised his team and made chokers champions in just a few crazy moments.
What extraordinary emotional power sport has over us. Here at i yesterday in my hearing there was just the one QPR fan and one United fan, but you never heard a group of men (and women) screaming at the TV with such passion about teams in which they had no real investment.
One last thought (you may know it's a pet hate of mine): those City fans who left the Etihad early when losing can always savour for the rest of their lives the memory of how they beat the Manchester traffic.
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