Ryall case not part of a pattern
Les Murray
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Sebastian Ryall affair has apparently energised some apologists for the endemic sleaze that infects the sport of rugby league, swaying them to suggest that the sordidness is present in all football codes, including soccer.
They are barking up a wrong tree.
The FFA acted swiftly in applying sanctions to Ryall who, according to the letter of the FFAs code of behaviour, was appropriately dealt with for being the subject of a criminal charge.
This is not to suggest that the FFA action was morally just, given that the charges are yet to be heard and that the player must be deemed to be innocent until proven otherwise. But Ryall, like any other contracted player affiliated to the FFA, has signed certain documents agreeing to a code of behaviour and, however odd or bizarre paragraphs of that code might be, that is why the FFA felt justified in taking the action.
The Ryall revelations came just days after the ABCs Four Corners exposé of a catalogue of incidents which indict rugby league as a sport infested by a culture of booze-fueled infatuation with manhood, manifest in the cowardly mistreatment of defenceless women.
Despite the wishful thinking of some, the anecdotal evidence stretching back many years suggests that this malady is pretty much the domain of rugby league, at least in this country. I feel for my friends who are rugby league fans and I do have some and in particular for the NRLs chief executive, David Gallop, a very decent man.
Gallops task in keeping his sport clean of this Neanderthal behaviour is thankless and just about impossible in the short term. I wonder why he hangs in.
The problem is cultural and is apparently unique to Australia. Such sick behaviour, and I refer in particular to mob sex, is rare if not unheard of in most other countries.
I have no doubt that the majority of rugby league players are decent people. But it is only rugby league which appears to attract a certain breed of men, whose rippling biceps camouflage an inner weakness and an inadequacy which in turn prescribes a need to get blotto, with the mates, before the insecurities are numbed and the strength is attained to make liaison with a woman, usually with physical aggression and preferably collectively.
The fact that the recipient of such advances is a woman willingly excited by the prospect of intimacy with men of fame, is inviting it and is even prepared to brag about it, does not make such behaviour by the men right or acceptable.
The 19-year old woman in Christchurch seven years ago was evidently dumb, naïve and prone to recklessly exposing herself to all manner of dangers. The men, who were all grownups, should have had the sense and the decency to back off, tell her to keep her knickers on and walk away.
Not doing that was their big mistake. And I fear others in the sport, who still believe that what happened in Christchurch was somehow ok, will go on making that mistake so long as the lethal cocktail of booze, testosterone and a small brain rule their instincts.
Happily this is not widespread, at least not to the degree where other sports by deduction may be automatically implicated. The historical and anecdotal evidence is simply not there to suggest that all team sports primarily played by men are prone to this kind of sick behaviour.
Football has had its share of sex scandals of course, from Sven-Goran Eriksson bonking the boss secretary to Ronaldos ill-fated frolic with three prostitutes who turned out to be men.
But the Sebastian Ryall case is not part of any pattern, or a matter to which one can point and suggest that its indicative of a broader football malady.
Football, though not exactly a sport played by choir boys, is simply a very different culture to rugby league. The need to booze after training as a form of bonding and collectively go on the prowl for sex is simply not part of football, nor of most sports, and to suggest otherwise is to make mischief.
On another matter, cracks are beginning to appear in the strong bond that has existed for over a decade between Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal fans.
Is this a sign that Wenger is finally ready to exit the club where he has been since 1996 and which he completely re-fashioned in his own image?
Is there something in the rumours that Real Madrid has been calling?
My view is that he wont leave but Wenger at Real Madrid is none the less a fascinating thought. Given the traditional belief by Madrids fans, and its soon to return president, Florentino Perez, that the club should always play football of elegance and eloquence, you could say Wenger would be a perfect fit.
There is no question that the on-field class, for which Madrid has been known for many decades, and at which it has recently been eclipsed by Barcelona, would return under Wenger. And hed have a recruiting cheque book he doesnt have at Arsenal.
The big question is could he live with a controlling board and the interference from above which are not part of his current existence.
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/print.php/ryall-case-not-part-of-a-pattern-188883
WTF?? :?
