The power of the Premier League

IT was Ronaldo’s comeback game. Manchester United were playing Newcastle. I was the neutral. I am all Liverpool.

My mate Brent (family) was all Manchester United. His friend Graham (extended family and he of winning Survivor fame) was all Manchester United.

Graham had bought the retro Man United strip (it was not cheap). I said United would win and Ronaldo would score, at least twice.

United won and Ronaldo scored twice.

What a game, what an occasion and what a chat.

Which brings me to this:

Why do you support Man United?

Brent: “Easy, I have always supported United.”

Graham: “Not so easy.” Graham told me how he became a Manchester United fan.

“It was back in the day, a long time ago, and Newcastle were playing Manchester United. Newcastle was the team. They were dominating English football. Everyone was there. Everyone was backing Newcastle. I was watching the game. Everyone was going mad. Brent

WHERE IS PENG SHUAI?

It’s taken the Women’s Tennis Association, which oversees arguably the most popular and lucrative female professional sport in the world, to show the kind of leadership that has been lacking from governments, businesses and other sports organisations in calling out the Chinese government over its handling of the Peng Shuai affair. The WTA announced the suspension of all its events in China for one year. It’s a profoundly symbolic step. “In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault,” WTA chairman Steve Simon. BOWING TO CHINA

And so to the International Olympic Committee, that bastion of fair play and upholder of sport’s values. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, has held two video conference calls with Peng. Those video calls told us nothing really, nor the pictures the IOC have made public, showing Bach with Peng on a TV screen. In a statement, the IOC said it had offered her “wide-ranging support”. “We are using ‘quiet diplomacy’ which, given the circumstances and based on the experience of governments and other organisations, is indicated to be the most promising way to proceed effectively in such humanitarian matters,” said the IOC. Its statement made no reference to the abuse allegations Peng made in the now deleted social media post about a senior Chinese government official. “Our human and person-centred approach means that we continue to be concerned asked me, who I was backing? I didn’t care. He was like: ‘No, you have to pick a team.’ So, I picked Manchester United.”

In 2021, more than two decades later the person in question had the chat, Graham laughed and said: ‘Thank f@@k I chose United.’

Graham has never been to Manchester.

Graham has never watched a game at Old Trafford.

But my god United won well that day and Ronaldo scored twice, and Graham was happy. His team won. The world was okay. The team he loves won. The team he loves so much and the team he so loves he even buys their retro strip. Which leads me to today’s story. In sport there is nothing stronger than the Premier League. It is the league. It is the one we talk about. It is the one we argue about.

Everyone has an opinion about the Premier League.

Everyone I speak to has an opinion about the best striker, midfielder, defender or keeper

I support Liverpool because, as an eight year old in 1976, I started watching Liverpool and they won everything. I loved the way they played. I loved everything about Liverpool. They had the best players. They had the coolest colours. about her personal situation and will continue to support her,” the IOC concluded. Every word in the statement was painstakingly crafted to avoid upsetting China, which will host the Winter Olympics in February next year.

VAX ON VAX OFF

There’s anti-vaxxers – angry old mob they are too – and then there’s Novak Djokovic, who reckons he can cleanse water through his emotions. Djokovic has won the Australian Open nine times. Next year’s tournament requires all the players to be vaccinated with vaccines approved by Australia’s health authorities. Novak famously doesn’t want to take vaccines – as with the overwhelming majority of the anti-vaxxer brigade – because of … oh who knows, spirit water or something. Anyway, Novak’s daddy, Srdjan, ain’t happy – at all – about Tennis Australia’s stance. Asked in an interview on Serbian television whether his son would participate in Melbourne next year, Srdjan said: “He would want it with all his heart

They were just cool.

My question again.

Why do you support an English Premier League team?

I support Sheffield Wednesday because, at 16 years old, my dad trained at Wednesday and that hooked me. The questions is what hooked you?

I walked into an office and every day all the talk is about the Premier League.

And each day I question the people I work with about the why!

Why the hell do you support Chelsea?

How the hell is your day such a disaster because of Chelsea?

And my goodness, they tell me why.

People in Cape Town, tell me why it is United, Chelsea or Liverpool?

WTH!

I have never been to Anfield or been to the city of Liverpool. But the mood of my week is so influenced by whether Liverpool win or lose.

How absurd?

My question is: How many of you feel the same way every Monday morning about a city you have never visited and a team you have never watched play live?

OMG … The power

Premier League. of the

because he’s an athlete, and we would love that too. Under these blackmails and conditions, he probably won’t. I wouldn’t do that. And he’s my son, so you decide for yourself.” Blackmail? Really? When you think you can rid the toxins in water with emotions, your entire stance on medical science is a little warped. Stay in Serbia. SHAUN WANE, THE CRICKETEER

An old tale came our way this week, as told on Australia TV, by Shane Warne. Explaining how he got to be in a picture with basketball legend Michael Jordan, the former leg-spinner said he’d travelled to Nike’s headquarters in Portland, after signing a contract with the company. “I met with the head of Nike at the time, Phil Knight, and he introduced me to a room of about 100 people. He said, ‘everyone, this is a cricketeer, Shaun Wane, we’d like you to welcome him to Nike’.”

GET IN THE HOLE

Greg Norman is still out there defending his association with that new Saudi Golf Association. Given Saudi Arabia’s questionable (to put it mildly) human rights record, the criticism is understandable. “No, I have not been used for ‘sports washing’ because I’ve been to Saudi Arabia, and I’ve seen the changes that have taken place,” Norman told the Financial Times. “Every country has done horrendous things in the past … just look at America with racism, for example, it’s just so embedded here, it’s just ugly.” And because America is racist, that makes it okay to be the face of an organisation associated with a country that still beheads people, prosecutes homosexuals and makes women second class citizens.