Cahill raises the issue of player behaviour again

This story somehow passed me by but seemed worthy of comment. It raises the question again of whether player behaviour off the pitch should have any impact on their career and should be headline news and frowned upon by all and sundry.

Fracas

Apparently on the night that the Australian football team attended the Hilton Hotel in Sydney for the Australian Football Awards, Everton midfielder Tim Cahill got himself into something of a fracas in a nightclub.

As this incident coincided with Australia’s bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup and came the day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched the bid, Cahill has been roundly criticised by the Australian press.

Drunk

At the Trademark club in Sydney’s Kings Cross area it is alleged that Cahill was asked to leave and got into some sort of altercation with the security staff. Witnesses have said that Cahill was asked to leave as he was, “so drunk he couldn’t even stand up”.

It seems that bar staff refused to serve him anymore alcohol and when security staff asked him to leave there was allegedly a little bit of pushing and shoving.

It should be made very clear that the police are not carrying out an official investigation and that the Football Federation of Australia cleared Cahill of any wrong-doing after just a three hour investigation.

Cahill was with team-mates at the time of the incident and an FFA spokesperson said,

“They were asked to leave when the nightclub was closing, along with every patron, and the bouncers ushered everyone down the stairs at the same time. We’re not aware of any such incident taking place. Based on our inquiries there’s nothing to look into.”

Cahill is widely regarded as one of Australia’s top players and he is one of the few who have been caught up in this sort of story. It is unfortunate for him that not long before this incident he was quoted as saying,

“You want to celebrate but in this day and age in sport, you can’t afford to drink alcohol and go too silly.”

Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who wasn’t at the club at the time, has come out in support of Cahill and criticised the reporting of the event in Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph,

“It was inevitable that the press were out there to try and find a story on a footballer and obviously a very prominent footballer. Timmy’s a bit unfortunate. We understand our position that we are role models to people, but to create a story out of something that really has no substance to it is quite remarkable. But unfortunately that’s just the world we live in now and it’s a bit of a tall poppy syndrome.”

The incident has caused a rift in the Australian football squad with senior players allegedly falling out over it. It is alleged that one player has sent an e-mail to the press criticising Cahill and Schwarzer for supporting him.

Cahill blames player agents for the rift,

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what’s happened in the last couple of weeks. Obviously there’s player agents involved who are very bitter and it’s something that’s very difficult to explain, because me as a person, you think you can play football and that’s all that matters. Outside of football, commercially, is one thing you would hope wouldn’t affect a team. It’s one of those issues that definitely will be addressed after this whole camp. It’s something that’s made me angry and something that as a team, when we play we are unbelievable, but outside when it comes to other issues it’s a bit sad. The best thing I can do is let my football do the talking and that’s what I’ve done for years which is what has brought me to where I am. Some big footballers have come out and supported me and understand the politics behind the scenes with players’ agents only, which is sad. I do my business on the pitch. It doesn’t affect me because it doesn’t faze me. It disappoints me, that’s all.”

As I said at the start, whatever the reason for all the publicity and bad feeling, this matter again raises the issue of whether it is fair to expect young men who happen to be footballers to behave better than any other young men.

In every town in England on the night in question, and I’ve no doubt, in Australia as well, there were young men who had too much to drink and behaved badly. Is it fair to plaster the odd incident involving a footballer all over the front pages of the newspapers?