MONDAY VIEWPOINT : Game cannot carry the can for society

After football's week of crime and punishment, Pat Nevin comes to the defence of his profession

When I reluctantly accepted the job as chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association, I was reliably informed that it wouldn't take up too much of my time. The press would only make demands on an odd occasion if some sort of scandal broke.

It is hard to believe that I felt reassured by those words less than 15 months ago.

Within weeks the national media realised just how many readers, listeners and viewers can be attracted by football sleaze. Now some news agencies have become pro-active in garnering this type of story.

Now don't get me wrong, I applaud and admire good investigative journalism. However the invasion of the privacy of Eric Cantona and his heavily pregnant wife in Guadeloupe was a perfect example of the worst arrogant excesses of the modern journalist. The ITN reporter involved came back with a sore chest, very little sympathy and, happily, no film.

None the less, it would appear to have been a particularly awful month for football in this country. Surely the game should be cowering in shame after the troubles at Stamford Bridge and Lansdowne Road? I don't agree.

Quite simply, a small number of organised right-wing fanatics with no love or even interest in football, went along to a match for a scrap. Simultaneouslymanipulating the attendant press into publicising their political views.

It still infuriates me to hear them called football hooligans, they are hooligans at a football match. The blame is with the society not the sport.

The question arises, who managed to benefit from the fiasco in Dublin? In a mad world it was the thugs. They got the desired attention and free publicity tempered only by a few laughable fines. Meanwhile who lost out? The victims of course.

The real fans were endangered, deprived of the match, out of pocket and if some commentators had their way, they would be denied the spectacle of the European Championship in 1996.

Football also suffers, commercially. Advertisers may think twice about associating their product with a game which has a sullied reputation. The innocent players stand to lose out as well. If the trouble is repeated, holding Euro '96 in England could still be in question.

I've heard it suggested in the past few days that football has to accept part of the blame because racism is rampant in the game. Even though integration is such that 20 per cent of current professionals are black? Even though the PFA have been working closely with the Commisson for Racial Equality in a Kick Racism Out of Football offensive, with the full support of all the clubs?

The union, the clubs, and the fans through the Football Supporters' Association, have all tried various means to combat racist behaviour at the grounds. The point has to be made that the level of racism apparent at football grounds directly reflects the inherent racist problem that exists in our society today. I would strongly advocate harsher punishments for racially motivated misbehaviour.

The game has also had to face the embarrassment of the most recent "bungs" scandal, this time involving George Graham. Dark mutterings suggest that more managers will be questioned following murky dealings with shady agents. Maybe football can at last argue that it is cleaning up its act in this area, albeit belatedly and after much cajoling.

Many of our players will be happy to see foreign deals more closely scrutinized. If I lost my place and possibly my job to a foreign player who was no better than me, I would be furious if I discovered the transfer only went through to line the pockets of a greedy manager or agent.

Football is literally in the dock with Cantona after he dragged the game's good name through the Selhurst Park mud. How can you make an excuse for that outburst? Well . . . You can't, but you can give some reasons.

He was obviously provoked by some particularly vitriolic abuse and as we have seen in Boulogne's harbour recently, French strikers can be a volatile bunch. Eric momentarily cracked under the pressure in a totally unprecedented way. It was the clearest example of the exception proving the rule. Professional footballers are invariably admirably controlled under extreme pressure when taking torrents of personal abuse from opposing fans.

At the risk of getting all "Martin Lewis" here there is an unbalanced view of football at the moment. Only the bad news is reported and I believe the current stereotyping is far from the reality.

The truth is that the vast majority of players are hard working, diligent and professional men who are fitting role models for their young fans. The many hours players spend helping charities, coaching kids and integrating with the people in their area through the phenomenally successful Football in the Community Scheme, tends not to make the national press very often. Whereas the very rare fall from grace makes it on to the back or even front pages.

The much maligned football fans have been turning up in greater numbers and causing much less trouble than they have for decades. More families are going to watch football than ever before and the real fans, along with the rest of the sport, have emphatically attacked racism.

I also believe that those in the game taking money from it illegally or immorally are very few and far between and they are being hunted down at the moment.

I like football and have too much respect for many of the people I have met through the game to sit and watch it and them being made scapegoats for all society's ills.