When Bill Shankly uttered those immortal words a few years back about the importance of football in the grand scheme of things, everyone knew that the former Liverpool manager was jocularly reflecting the zeal with which fans of the beautiful game indulge their passion. Not for a second was Shankly seriously suggesting that football really was a matter of life and death, of course.
Those more inclined to counter that it is, after all, only a game, will be shaking their heads in righteous indignation following a weekend when the spirit of sporting behaviour wasn’t exactly to the fore. Handshakes, or rather the lack of them, have dominated the back – and front – pages, both north and south of the border.
This writer will confess to having always felt a little uneasy about the pre-match handshake. At the final whistle, of course players and managers alike should shake hands – anything less is obviously ridiculous - but the enforced (so-called) sporting pleasantries prior to kick-off attracts little more than a cursory touching of hands between opponents, most of whom barely look each other in the eye. And now we can see that it can do more harm than good.
In Scotland, we had the rather unsavoury sight on Saturday of two SPL managers failing to shake hands before or after the match, the two having had a spat during the week, following Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels’ insistence that his Hearts counterpart, Paulo Sérgio, should have resigned in light of interference in team selection by the Tynecastle club’s directors.
Of course, it could be argued that events at Hearts are simply none of Shiels’ business. That his own club are unable to occupy a position amid even the top half of a very mediocre SPL should be more than enough to occupy Shiels’ mind, without having to resort to calling the personal integrity of a fellow manager into question.
Some might argue that the Killie boss simply fell into the trap laid by sporting hacks feverishly looking for an easy back page headline. However, others may take a less benevolent view and suggest Shiels would be well advised to engage his brain before spouting forth in future. Another school of thought, of course, is that the touchline frostiness livened up what was otherwise an entirely forgettable match!
Meanwhile, 200 miles or so south of Ayrshire, a rather more controversial denial of the ‘sporting’ ritual was gaining notoriety, as Liverpool’s Luis Suarez refused to shake the hand of Manchester United defender Patrice Evra prior to kick-off at Old Trafford.
There are surely few fans of the beautiful game that are unaware of the background to this controversial case, and we won’t argue the rights and wrongs of what previously transpired between the two here. Better, perhaps, that we stick to the facts – Liverpool striker Suarez has only recently returned after serving an 8-match ban for racially abusing Evra during a match at Anfield last October.
Since then, many observers have nervously tried (and singularly failed) to grasp the thorny issue of racism in football, although what has been beyond doubt in this case has been the somewhat crass response to events from some of those associated with Liverpool FC.
Those Liverpool players who sported t-shirts professing support for Suarez following his ban, for instance, must have momentarily forgot the ‘Show Racism The Red Card’ sentiments.
Similarly, manager Kenny Dalglish’s increasingly toe-curling backing for Suarez has been downright distasteful, although a public apology following his petulant post-match reaction to events at Old Trafford is at least an acknowledgement of his woeful stance on this matter.
Not, it must be said, that the response from the Manchester camp was overly cerebral either. For instance, the aforementioned Evra might (even allowing for his feelings of being the victim in this sorry mess) just regret his over-the-top celebration at the end of the game for the, ahem, benefit of United fans.
Afterwards, Sir Alex Ferguson was quick to assert that Suarez should never play for Liverpool again. Now, I can’t quite recall whether Ferguson assumed the moral high ground quite so publicly when, say, Roy Keane (by his own admission) took Alfie Haaland out so brutally in a match years beforehand at the same venue, but perhaps Ferguson’s recollection of the past isn’t quite what it used to be either.
This column won’t be quite so forgiving, however, with Gary Neville’s assertion that an apparent half-time tunnel bust-up involving players of both sides was merely a reflection of the competitive nature of the Premiership. This, said a hyped-up (and salaried-up) Neville, is what makes the Premiership the greatest league in world football. Nice try, Gary, but I think not.
Neville, in keeping with the general theme of the Suarez-Evra affair, clearly demonstrated an astonishing lack of common sense in his musings. But then, as a wise man once said, the thing about common sense is, well, it’s not very common.
You’re left thinking that Bill Shankly must be turning in his grave at all this.