FOOTBALL
Club Before Country
TlIE trouble about most of us analysers is that we tend to stop thinking at a common emotional barrier; so nobody notices anything amiss. The resulting mixture of thought and unconfessed emotion is all the more dangerous for giving itself the appearance of reason illumined not only by warmth but 13) healthy con- tempt for the narrow-minded who merely feel. In my psychological terminology, that barrier is called 'Checkpoint Charlie': censorious emo- tions come in to check and to turn the individual into what, in the professional footballer's elo- quent parlance, is described as a proper Charlie.
'Far-sighted' officials and journalists have always bemoaned our lack of interest in inter- national football. With the approaching World Cup, whose eighth final we may win because we have been drawn against teams weaker than some of those previously eliminated (Czechoslovakia, Scotland, Yugoslavia, Poland), 'Country before club!' becomes the moralists' war cry all over Britain. When Scotland were still in the running, we had explosions of journalistic rage against managers Busby (Manchester United), Shankly (Liverpool) and Docherty (Chelsea), all Scotsmen, because they needed their players when Scotland wanted them for training. And as England (who probably would have been eliminated by now if they had had to qualify) are entering the last phase of their Cup preparations, club managers and the populace at large are being reminded daily of the overriding importance of the big event.
It is here that we reach Checkpoint Charlie. What are we looking for in professional soccer? How do we avoid provincialism? Through having the highest possible quality nationally repre- sented. Why, then, should we listen to those chieftains and their scribes who blame Busby and Company, while causing, or acquiescing in, Scotland's dropping of Law, Baxter, Gilzean and Mackay, or England's of Eastham and Greaves? If they had worked for a Great Britain side in the World Cup, the event would indeed be of supreme national interest to us. As it is, the nearest we get to a Great Britain side are our outstanding clubs: it is only with Manchester United that you can see Denis Law play for England. United, Liverpool, West Ham, Leeds, Chelsea and Spurs have played far better football than either England or Scotland. United are in the quarter-final of the European Cup, Liverpool and West Ham in the same round of the Euro- pean Cup Winners' Cup, and Spurs beat the Hungarian World Cup Eleven 4-0. Spurs and West Ham won the Cup Winners' Cup, while France knocked England out of the European Nations Cup and the other home countries failed to qualify for the World Cup. Can you blame the spectator if he reserves his whole-hearted enthusiasm for his club? He's doing better than the thinkers.
We shall, of course, support our regional side in the World Cup, but we must keep our pro- portions. I for one did not purr with contentment as we got stuck in the middle and the mud against Poland, after rushing about the place like a bunch of neurotic chickens chased into a 4-3-3 formation: I merely thought that the chap who invented wingers had a point. But then, our two best wingers are a Scot and a Northern Irishman.
HANS KELLER
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