The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| West Ham boss blames Thatcher for British football’s decline Posted: 09 Jul 2011 07:52 AM PDT LONDON, July 9 — West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has blamed former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for "killing football" and creating a modern-day generation of unfit, obese children in the United Kingdom. Allardyce says that all UK sports, not just football, are suffering because of policies adopted by Thatcher's Conservative governments throughout the 1980s.
"Kids are now more obese and unfit than ever. All the prime young athletes we were ready to develop just aren't there, so we get a lesser quality of player. "It has not just undermined our game, it has undermined many sports in this country and created an unhealthy child. Thatcher killed football, there is no doubt about it." A recent report stated that one in three children in Britain is obese or overweight and that 32 per cent of children play less than an hour of sport a week. In the last 20 years, around 5,000 school playing fields have been sold off or built over as England's men's national team have continually floundered in attempts to repeat their 1966 World Cup triumph. Allardyce, a keen student of sporting education, continued: "Look at how little kids do to what I did. I was a 200 metres runner, a 4x400m relay runner and a triple jumper. "I was a batsman in cricket, a freestyler in swimming and swam for the town. I did the pommel horse in gymnastics and I was really good on the trampoline, as well as being a footballer. "Kids don't do any of that now. All of that sporting activity allowed me to play in the top division in this country." Allardyce, who recently took over at English second division side West Ham, maintains the consequences of Thatcher's policies now mean clubs are having to sign up children at increasingly young ages to ensure they have opportunities to flourish. "This was a working-class game but it's only at private schools where the children get the sports opportunities I had — and even then a lot of them don't play football, it's mainly rugby," said the ex-Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers boss. "Despite putting in place all sorts of advanced academy systems at clubs we are only producing half the players the school system used to." The Football Association estimates it takes 10,000 hours of training and education from the age of about seven or eight to be able to be good enough to play professional football — accepting a child has the talent to begin with. Allardyce added: "Even a club like Manchester United can only provide 4,000 hours at the moment. It's hard to do more because parents have to drive their kids there four nights a week as well as on a Sunday. "Until we wake up and realise how important school sport is to our kids we will never repair the damage," he concluded. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Webber beats Vettel for British GP pole Posted: 09 Jul 2011 06:25 AM PDT  Webber waves after qualifying in pole position for the British F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 9, 2011. — Reuters pic It was the team's ninth pole from nine races this season and Webber's second in a year that has yet to see him beat Vettel on a Sunday. The German, 77 points clear of McLaren's Jenson Button and Webber with 10 races remaining after Silverstone, extended his run of successive front row starts to 14 with second place on the grid. Webber was keen to put sport back into the limelight after a morning dominated by team meetings and arcane argument about engine regulations, and whether Red Bull had been disadvantaged by a fresh directive before final practice. "Seb and I just concentrate on the driving," said the Australian, who won last year's race after Vettel took pole, of all the technical polemic. "Every year we have a new thing to talk about, this last few weeks has been about this (the engine and exhaust regulations), so let's hope everyone can find their common ground. "It's incredibly boring also for the fans. I think they cannot understand 0.1 per cent of what is going on. Even for us it is sometimes difficult. Let's get on with the racing and keep the rules as simple as possible. "From my perspective for tomorrow, I'm in great shape and have prepared well." Ferrari filled the second row, with double world champion Fernando Alonso qualifying third and Felipe Massa fourth ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button, hoping for his first home podium finish in F1. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, dominant winner of his home race in 2008, qualified only 10th on an afternoon of changing conditions and with the risk of sudden showers complicating strategy decisions. "I don't think the position is too bad but the pace is," said Button. "It wasn't a perfect lap, we lacked balance. I don't know where our pace has gone; I can have a guess but we haven't built a car that's 1.3 seconds slower than the Ferrari." Hamilton was equally disappointed. "There's not too much to say. The fans here are fantastic. The support we've had has been magnificent. Hopefully tomorrow we can do something special for them, get some points at least," he told the BBC. "I've probably got a couple of people in front who I might be quicker than. Overtaking here is difficult but we could still have an exciting race." One Briton who was delighted with his afternoon was Force India's Paul di Resta, qualifying an impressive sixth for his first British GP. Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado did a good job for struggling Williams with seventh place on the grid, ahead of Japan's Kamui Kobayashi in a Sauber and Germany's Nico Rosberg for Mercedes. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
In a scathing attack in The Sun newspaper today, Allardyce (picture) said: "Since Margaret Thatcher stopped teachers being paid extra money for coaching sports after school, all sporting activities have diminished on a competitive basis.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Sports To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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