South Wales Guardian Opinion (From South Wales Guardian)

South Wales Guardian Opinion

5:50am Wednesday 18th July 2012 in Sport

With London 2012 on the horizon, sport is everywhere at the moment.

However, the Olympic Creed – that it is more important to take part than to win – seemed a millions miles from the fiasco surrounding some of the biggest names in football last week.

The absurdity of whether a court would decide to convict John Terry as a racist for calling Anton Ferdinand black amid of string of foul-mouthed abuse has placed not only our sports, but our legal and court systems in dock.

No-one who took even a passing interest in the case can have not been shocked by the vile abuse these two grown men – both on annual salaries the rest of us will never earn in a lifetime – spat at each other.

Whether Terry’s words were racist is ultimately irrelevant: If you addressed someone in the street with the rest of the exchange, you too would find yourself before a magistrate. But for these sporting superstars everything apart from one word is forgiven.

They used to say that sticks and stones would break your bones, but words would never harm you. When it comes to football’s over-paid egos, words could be the very thing that destroys them and the sport that rewards them like kings.

It seems that if winning isn’t everything then neither is taking part. To these so-called role models, the only thing that matters is making complete and utter fools of themselves and each other in front of an audience of millions.