I was reading an article in the Daily Mail today by the paper’s great sports writer Paul Hayward. He was writing about crowds. Last weekend, he went to a rugby match, where the crowd behaved beautifully: ‘no swearing, no vile chanting, no abuse of the referee, no baiting of opposition fans.’
The next day he went to a football match. How was the crowd? Full of obscene gestures and nasty abuse. And it suddenly occurred to me that a mystery had been solved, which is: why, when rugby players hit each other, do the commentators not seem to mind? The same question can be phrased in a different way - why, when footballers get even mildly aggressive with each other, do the commentators go spare?
And here’s the answer: it’s the crowds. The crowds, having completely separate traditions, must be treated quite differently. Rugby crowds are made up of adults, which means they can be served X-rated fare. Football crowds, on the other hand, are, effectively, angry toddlers - so all violence on the pitch must be censured very strictly, to set a good example.
Just watch a ‘brawl’ on the pitch at a football match. It’s mostly people bitching at each other. And then look at what happens in a rugby ruck, every few minutes of every game: gouging, punching, stamping. And all of this makes me ask another question: what on earth will happen to football when the fans, as seems inevitable, eventually clean up their act?