Andy Rivers - The Geordie Author

It looks like nanny Tony will soon have a decision to make about what’s good for our children because, after a forty-year absence, boxing is creeping back onto the school curriculum.

The revival has started in Bromley and will soon spread nationwide, sports minister, Richard Caborn, is in favour but it remains to be seen how the rest of his party react. Doubtless there will be much hand wringing about the potential for head injuries and suchlike but the benefits in health and fitness would outweigh these, particularly when placed against the predicted obesity time bomb and it’s financial repercussions.

Boxing has divided society since it’s legitimisation as a sport in 1867. Some claim it’s simply legal brutality and will subscribe to the view that we could be equipping the next generation of hoodies with the tools to assault people with their fists as well as weapons. However, the success of Amir Khan has brought boxing a whole new generation of fans and at the same time emphasised how cultural and class barriers don’t matter in a sport where the will to win is the most highly valued trait you can display. In this day and age, where feral youths are running wild and see anti social behaviour orders as a badge of honour, maybe anything that teaches them self-respect, discipline and honour can only be a good thing?

The few brave schools that have started this experiment have set the ball rolling, it only remains to be seen whether the government bow to the expected pressure to step in and wrap everyone back up in cotton wool or leave the next generation to learn the hard way that success only comes with application, effort and pain.

Andy Rivers

Is the Premiership in danger of alienating the new breed of consumer it sought to replace the original terrace brigade?

To the average eighties football fan, his team were the champions for his local area and represented him nationwide, however, the club chairmen thought differently, realised the potential of their cash cows and made a decision that would revolutionise football, they formed the Premiership. The subsequent partnership with Sky and rapid escalation of transfer fees, player salaries and admission prices proved, to them at least, that they were correct.

However, the signs over the last few years have suggested all is not well, the die-hards who would travel to Shrewsbury on a wet Wednesday were pushed out in favour of the corporate pound, their children, unable to attend matches, have grown up without the same fervour or passion for the team. Whilst the corporates and success supporters have come to realise that up to fifty pounds a ticket when ‘their’ team aren’t winning isn’t that good a deal and are voting with their feet.

You don’t believe that football’s in trouble? Well look at Blackburn’s attempt to get fans back by reducing prices and think back a couple of weeks to the attendance of twenty six thousand at St. James Park. When even Geordies are starting to boycott the FA Cup then you know the game’s up. 

Premiership chairmen should take note but fed on a diet of self-congratulation they won’t even notice. Only when they finally take their snouts out of the trough will they realise that they’re the only people left in the ground. If they then wonder where everyone’s gone then maybe they should look in the pubs first, because that’s where both the atmosphere and the real fans went. 

Andy Rivers