Gordon Taylor has made footballers as popular as bankers by fighting for them to keep their millions
WE live in an age of heroes – when every day brings acts of kindness, courage and humanity that shine like a light among the darkness.
The nation unites every Thursday night at 8pm to applaud the doctors, nurses and carers who put their lives on the line every time they go to work.
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But there are other unsung heroes, working in low-paid jobs, that leave them exposed while the rest of us are safe at home.
I think of the cleaners who go into those hospitals every day.
Our bin men are heroes, too. And the bus drivers — nine already dead in London alone from Covid-19. And the pharmacists filling out prescriptions in tiny, windowless shops.
And the postmen, delivery drivers, papergirls — and anonymous neighbours who put notes through doors offering help for the vulnerable.
And the supermarket workers who stack the shelves to keep our nation fed. And a round of applause for our Queen, 94 this month, who gave the speech of a lifetime last Sunday — and for our Prime Minister who ended up in intensive care.
From the bin men to Boris, we are surrounded by heroes — but the one glaring exception has been elite football.
Despite individual acts of heroism, such as Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford raising £20million for underprivileged schoolkids, football has not covered itself in glory during this national emergency.
NHS FUND
On Wednesday, Premier League captains announced they were banding together to create a fund to raise millions for the NHS.
This is a big-hearted gesture but can’t hide the fact that for much of this health crisis the national game has been hopelessly out of touch with the national mood.
When the Prime Minister was seriously ill, it made the skin crawl to see whining millionaire footballers resisting pay cuts from clubs that have nothing to sell, no revenue coming in and no idea when football will begin again.
Gordon Taylor, the £2million-a-year chief of the Professional Footballers Association, has made his members about as popular as bankers.
While the country fights for its life, Taylor has fought for the rights of loafing footballers to keep every last million. He has badly misjudged the moment, as have the clubs owned by billionaires who have furloughed their tea ladies while pampered footballers continue to earn up to £350,000 a week.
It has been embarrassing to see hypocritical footballers mistaking “lockdown” for “lock-in”, acting like the new rules do not apply to them.
After previously urging fans to stay at home, Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish emerged bleary-eyed from an all-night party and pranged his 80-grand Range Rover.
, soon before telling the peasants to social distance and save lives and blah-blah-blah. All that stuff about washing your hands, Kyle — should that be before or after the escorts have been round?
ONE RULE FOR THEM
And Spurs manager Jose Mourinho oversaw a training session on Hadley Common, for all the world as if there was one rule for the princes of football and one for the plebs who pay their wages.
Do the fatheads of football ever watch the news?
Mass unemployment is coming. Many of the millions about to be chucked on the dole will be football fans. So how the hell can football — the players, clubs, PFA — continue to kid themselves the bubble they exist in has not already burst?
The world has changed.
There should be no more all-night parties, no more escort girls and no more car prangs. Like it or not, footballers are role models and many will follow their lead.
Troy Deeney, Watford captain and one of the prime movers behind the Players Together fund, defends Jack Grealish’s busy social life during the time of lockdown. “What’s he going to do?” Troy asked. “Sit in the yard on his own?”
Yes, Troy — because that’s what millions are doing right now. Shocking, I know, but the new rules apply to footballers, too.
Most footballers come from working-class backgrounds but too many of them have a sense of entitlement worthy of Marie Antoinette.
Look what happened to her.
Good as it cams for Leo
NEVER going out is placing an unbearable strain on relationships.
So it is nice to see that Camila Morrone, 22, and Leonardo DiCaprio, 45, seem to be happily self-isolating together.
I was afraid Leo might decide Camila’s just too old for him.
Sickening
STEVE HEDLEY, rail union fat cat at the RMT, boasts that he would “throw a party” if Boris Johnson died of coronavirus – and hopes “the whole Cabinet of Tory b******s” also become victims.
If Hedley was on a ventilator fighting for his life, would he check how the doctors and nurses caring for him voted at the last election?
You don’t think those NHS heroes all voted Labour, do you, Steve?
Virtual royal duties
WILLIAM and Kate carried out their first virtual royal duty this week, thanking teaching staff who look after the children of key workers.
I have never seen smiles that wide on the faces of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
I am sure that, deep down inside, they are really missing Harry and Meghan.
They are just covering it up really well.
Farewell...it's been an Honor
FAREWELL Honor Blackman, who has died at the age of 94, immortal for ever in her career-defining role as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger.
It is funny how certain names fall out of favour.
At school I had mates called Keith and Ian, but nobody is called Keith or Ian today.
Same thing with Pussy Galore. Bond girls just don’t get called things like Pussy Galore any more.
Penalise the few not many
THIS lockdown is taking an enormous toll on jobs, education and mental health but most of us understand it is necessary.
I am infuriated, though, by the constant threats to intensify the lockdown, including closing the parks, if a handful of idiots continue to flout the rules.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock rages that he finds it “unbelievable that people are not staying at home” – and threatens to ban all exercise.
Personally, I find it unbelievable that Hancock makes threats like some little home counties Hitler.
Give credit to the MILLIONS who are doing their best during the lockdown.
Don’t threaten the decent majority with a punishment beating because a selfish minority break the rules.
If this Government ramps up the lockdown they will lose the British people. And something will explode.
If some morons can’t stick to the rules, punish THEM – not the rest of us.
Eve has killer outfits
KILLING EVE lost its way when the show’s creator Phoebe “Fleabag” Waller-Bridge bailed out after the first series. The second series was painfully naff.
Early reports on the third series, starting tomorrow on BBC iPlayer, are not promising.
But Jodie Comer as Russian assassin Villanelle will always make you want to tune in. Even if it is just for her new outfits.
Global catastrophe
THIS global catastrophe started in China.
When the dead are buried and we stand among our ruined economies, there MUST be some kind of reckoning.
After World War Two, the Potsdam Conference decided that Germany should pay $23billion for what Germany had inflicted on humanity.
China is now boasting that life is back to normal there, while we are burying NHS nurses like Rebecca Mack, 29, who worked in a children’s cancer unit. She has been hailed as a “wonderful daughter” by her heartbroken parents.
Coronavirus was not an act of God. It started in China.
A study by 15 senior Tories concludes that the UK should pursue China through international courts for £351billion in coronavirus compensation.
Germany paid for starting the war. Why shouldn’t China pay for coronavirus?
PM is fit? Weight a minute...
GREAT news that Boris is out of intensive care and on the way to recovery.
But when he emerges from that ICU, he must give himself all the time it takes to fully recover.
And then Boris has to lose weight. I saw David Cameron describe Boris as “very fit”.
Sorry – a 55-year-old man who weighs over 16st is emphatically not “very fit”.
He is a serious illness – a heart attack, stroke or diabetes – waiting to happen.
I know from having Boris as my neighbour for years that he loves his jogging and cycling. But please slim down, Boris.
most read in opinion
Carrie and your unborn child need you. So does Dilyn the dog. So does your country.
Because Boris Johnson’s great genius is for giving people HOPE.
God knows we need some of that right now.
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