Scoring High Marking Deep

Book excerpt: On a foggy Saturday afternoon George Best turned with the ball in the centre circle and ran route one toward the opposition goal. Ron Chopper Harris scythed Best at the knee, but Best rode the tackle and ran on, beating two more defenders and the goalkeeper to score an amazing goal. This quality of action is lost in millennial football as players fall to the ground before contact is made. The taming of football has removed the sporting element from the game as physical contact is deleted from the activity on the pitch. This removal of authenticity is not an accident but is an institutional plan to sanitise the game into a commercial entertainment, suitable only for television, media, and sponsorship. This process of ruin started in the 1980s when the government attempted to control the constructed problem of hooliganism which culminated in the tragedy of Hillsborough. This was the point when people looked at football and planned the elimination of violence but also the destruction of the game as an authentic sport.