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Journalism of Courage
John Cobbold, the chairman of Ipswich Town, was fond of saying to his then manager Bobby Robson: ‘‘Bobby, you must love the game more than the prize, because without the game there is no prize.’’ Jose Mourinho learned much from Robson during their time at Barcelona, but he might have been better off starting his education at Portman Road.
Mourinho’s conduct in his first season at Stamford Bridge forms a pattern of Machiavellian ruthlessness. Much of his manipulative behaviour was easy to dismiss as psychological mischief until he appeared to question the integrity of Anders Frisk after the Barcelona-Chelsea Champions League first leg. Let’s cut to the chase and say that following Mourinho’s attack, one of Europe’s most senior referees has been hounded out of the game.
So much for the victimless crime of clever pot-stirring, of deflecting attention from a defeat by accusations against Frisk and Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona manager. This time a man’s career has been destroyed. Not one fibre of evidence has yet been found to support Mourinho’s accusation. So Frisk has been driven out of football.
To Chelsea now, the prize is apparently all that counts. Just as Mourinho cared nothing for Frisk’s professional reputation when he alluded to possible connivance at the Nou Camp, so public order was apparently not in his thoughts when he abused Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher from the touchline and raised his finger to his lips in front of the Merseyside contingent during the final of the Carling Cup.
One day soon Mourinho will find himself in a room surrounded by new silverware. Spring’s light will glint beautifully on these pots. We know that he will think — ‘‘I’m clever, I’m the special one’’ — but what will he feel?
Will pride be among his emotions? Will the end have justified the means? A connected question is whether he really needs to practise the dark arts so relentlessly to take Chelsea where he wants them to go.
It may be that Roman Abramovich’s most important signing has worked out that modern football is post-moral, a jungle in which rules and ethics are for old romantics. Manipulation is part of the repertoire of most big institutions. But with Chelsea, politricks, as Lennox Lewis liked to call it, is taking over the soul of the club.
The players deserve our admiration and respect. Yet even here we are stalked by the disquieting realisation that John Terry’s decisive header last week was preceded by a choreographed foul by Ricardo Carvalho on the Barcelona goalkeeper.
Arsene Wenger calls the Chelsea board ‘‘naive and arrogant’’ for tapping up his Arsenal defender Ashley Cole in a central London hotel. But Mourinho is incapable of naivety. A more credible theory is that Abramovich’s lieutenants chose a high-profile location expecting or even hoping to be caught.
Two days before Arsenal faced Manchester United, Chelsea’s London rivals were destabilised. They still are.
The bigger the enemy, the harder Mourinho steams in. Last week at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona’s players, manager and fans left the ground wild-eyed and, in some instances, sunhinged. Indignant supporters threw plastic bottles. Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o clashed with stewards. Rijkaard was provoked to fury. All this, directly or indirectly, was Mourinho’s work. The master puppeteer was controlling the dance.
Frisk’s parting words echo in the soul. ‘‘This is a battle I cannot win.’’ Anyone who considers his decision to be prissy might ask themselves how they would feel if they had to ban their children from opening the post in case some lethal material was inside. Is any job worth that?
By resigning, Frisk has performed a far more useful service than he would by soldiering on. He has compelled the authorities to act. In part, Mourinho is also the best thing to happen to the Premiership in years, but power, money and ambition have pushed him over to the dark side, to the extent that Frisk has lost something he once loved.
In May, Mourinho will be able to tell himself that he stood up to Sir Alex Ferguson, displayed more ruthlessness than Wenger, put one over on Barcelona and responded with contempt to most forms of censure. He loves the prize, sure, but it would be reassuring to see evidence that he loves the game as much. The game is eternal. It is not Jose Mourinho’s to destroy.
(The Daily Telegraph)
Yellow card: refs warn of strike
LONDON
: Europe’s top referees’ official hinted on Monday that referees could strike after the retirement of Anders Frisk because of death threats to him and his family. ‘‘We cannot just do nothing’’, said Volker Roth, chairman of UEFA’s referees’ committee. “There will be a demonstration of solidarity among the referees as you have never seen before’’, he told Bild newspaper in his native Germany.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said: “I am appalled by the verbal attacks directed at referees. It is often such extreme behaviour that sparks off trouble among supporters. Anyone who attacks a referee, attacks the football environment in which he lives.’’ — Reuters
