The treading of a dangerous line

One of the downsides of being a senior citizen – besides straightforward “invisibility” as far as other generations are concerned – is that often one can see “the bleedin’ obvious” when others cannot and yet nobody will believe or take any notice of you when you point out this benefit of your wisdom.

I’ve blogged many times before about the hypocrisy of so many world administrative bodies who mess about with the rules and laws of their games and sports in the cause of trying to make them more entertaining, easier to understand and attractive to spectators and yet often do so at the risk of destroying their essential integrity.

These days, it seems to me, we are being exposed to increasing examples in which the borderline between sport as an elemental, raw, thrilling, competitive contest and then that as it is presented to the paying public become blurred, fudged, contrived, sanitised, controlled and at times effectively semi-fraudulent.

The theme boils down to: “Can the fans, both those present in the stadia and the millions around the globe watching on TV or computers, actually believe what they’re seeing?”

I’m not just talking about video technology – or “VAR” in its various forms – which via scrutiny of the supposed “instant replay” (which de facto can take up to five minutes-plus per go) will come up with a verdict as to whether the wonder goal that the world and his pet dog have just witnessed – and will talk about in the pub lounge bar for the next fifteen years – is actually going to count or not.

Or “Hawkeye” in tennis, or the TMO in cricket [the introduction of both of which, incidentally, ironically for me seem to have operated pretty well for all concerned} or indeed the “man/woman upstairs in the truck” in rugby union who uses their microphone to alert the referee to a “no hands” shoulder charge to the head of a player trapped in a ruck that nobody on the pitch, or in the stands, or sitting at home on their sofa, noticed took place ninety seconds previously in an entirely different phase of play.

I’m talking about instances such as the farcical Formula One Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday which was first delayed for three hours by the weather and then lasted only two laps before being abandoned as a wash-out.

The modern example of what used in my day to be Bernie Ecclestone’s Personal Motor Racing Circus that went around the world persuading oil-rich nation states, tin pot dictators and others to stump up hundreds of millions of pounds per annum in order to become a weekend stopping-off venue for a mechanical spectacle that is probably the most contrived supposed “super sport” ever created by Man is just as “fraudulent” as Bernie’s ever was, only now pretending not to be.

It was therefore only to be expected that, overnight, Lewis Hamilton’s criticism of Formula One’s chasing-the-dollar “greed” in mounting such a disappointment has made the sport’s authorities “apoplectic”. (After all, they’ve got zillions to make and ruthless profit-seeking investors to satisfy).

In the wee hours of Monday morning I followed the newspaper “live updates” of the top of the bill boxing clash in Cleveland USA between YouTube star Jake Paul [“Who he?” I hear Rusters ask, justifiably] and the former UFC fighter Tyron Woodley over eight rounds – a contest “made” at a weight of 190 pounds.

I don’t doubt that both participants – and indeed their promoters, managers and sundry hangers-on – all made their expected “piles of cash” from the bout, which ended in a split-decision draw for Mr Paul, who remains unbeaten after this, only his fourth professional fight, having never had an amateur outing.

I then awoke this morning to read on the newspaper websites that social media around the globe is alleging that the fight was “fixed” in the YouTuber’s favour because Woodley had him wobbling on the ropes after a right-hand shot in the fourth round but then appeared reluctant to “follow it up” for the rest of the bout.

See here for a representative report as appears on the website today of the – DAILY MAIL

For me, boxing – which has historically and virtually openly always sailed somewhat close to the line – is making a rod for its own back by allowing such hyped “celebrity” bouts to undermine its ‘unholy pact’ with the paying public, this on top of the ridiculous state of its flagship “world heavyweight championship” soap opera farce which has been playing out between Messrs Fury, Joshua and Wilder over the past two and a half years and counting.