Cheers, tears and jeers…another week of sporting quotes collated by JANINE SELF
“Before the draw Fabio Capello said to me ‘I hope we don’t get drawn out with France’. At the end of the draw he tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘I shouldn’t have said that’” Laurent Blanc, France coach.
“We forfeited our chance in this competition to get to a cup final and we must treat Swansea like a cup final” Steve Kean, the Blackburn manager, suggesting his team were happy to be knocked out by Cardiff in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.
“I refute suggestions that we did not treat the game with respect. I’ve never, ever given up on a game. To suggest that we would deliberately forfeit a game would of course be wrong” Steve Kean has a re-think 24 hours later.
“Yesterday at work, the chaps all wanted to talk about Socrate…Socrates the languid midfielder, Socrates the doctor, Socrates the intellectual, Socrates the rebel, Socrates the heroic drinker, Socrates the man who sustained us all in the fantasy that we didn’t have to choose between admiring Che and Camus, and playing for Brazil wearing very short sky-blue shorts. And of course, we remembered Socrates the smoker, getting into trouble with the Brazilian management for lighting up on the team bus” The Times pays tribute to the Brazilian footballer, who died on Sunday.
“Che, Fidel and John Lennon” Socrates when he was asked to list his heroes – Guevara, Castro and a Beatle.
“Whatever is claimed to the contrary, the nearly 10 million or so buyers of the most popular women’s weeklies have no sustained interest in sport. If they had, all those magazines would carry features because they know what their readers want. There is no objective standard regarding taste, but it is unrealistic and unfair to criticise men’s magazines for not featuring women’s sport when women’s magazines show not the slightest interest in doing so” Brian Moore enters the fray about media coverage of women’s sport.
“On Wednesday the Sports Journalists’ Association announce the winners of their own members’ awards made separately to men and women. Astonishingly Sarah hasn’t made the shortlist for that, either. She is entitled to feel these media snubs are an even bigger kick in the teeth than any received on the mat” Alan Hubbard, veteran sports diarist at the Independent on Sunday, questions the democratic outcome of the SJA’s Sportswoman of the Year ballot, in which taekwondo world champion Sarah Stevenson did not make the top six.
“The extraordinary total of £209,600,000 has gone out of the game in the past three years. A towering mountain of money is now swilling around the bank accounts of various spivs and chancers, leeches and parasites. This, remember, is money which football has generated, yet will never enjoy” Patrick Collins, of the Mail on Sunday, questions the need for agents in football.
“It just feels awesome whatever it is” Tiger Woods asked whether he was elated or relieved after winning his first golf tournament for two years.
“The point of the foundation is to support fair, free and independent journalism anywhere. We regard journalism as an essential tool of an open democracy” Simon Kelner, former editor of The Independent, announcing the formation of the Lebedev-funded Journalism Foundation.
“I was told off… because the quotes I made up were not good enough” Richard Peppiatt, the former Daily Star reporter, in evidence at the Leveson Inquiry.
“In my 32 years in office I’ve been charged more than Al Capone – and never once been punished. I just ignore these chancers, these critics who float down at me like parachute jumpers. Just let me get on with my mandate. Four more years: I am all about peace, patience and balls.” Julio Grondona, head of the Argentine FA and deputy to Sepp Blatter at FIFA after his latest corruption charges failed to bring a conviction.
“It would have been a grand if the manager had known I’d gone to an art gallery another night” Pat Nevin on how he was fined by a club manager for spending an evening at the cinema, rather than on the lash with his team mates.
“The crowd’s support was fantastic. It was because of them I was bawling my eyes out” Shane Willliams, the Wales wing, after saying farewell to rugby against Australia.
“He’s a once-in-a-generation player and deserves very acknowledgement he gets. I wasn’t excited at the time of the try until I saw who scored it.” Robbie Deans, Australia coach.
“Revival? Where? Perhaps the most eloquent testimony to the shamble at Twickenham lies in what is deemed there to constitute a revival. Last week we were encouraged to hail better days, possibly because the application of a load of manure is meant to nurture green shoots. What evidence for a revival actually exists? You need more than a new PR company and a few good intentions” Stephen Jones of The Sunday Times on the on-going crisis at the RFU.
“That was the most excited I have ever been on a golf course. I just hit a perfect bunker shot and once it landed on the green, it never looked like going anywhere else” Rory McIlroy, after shooting a brilliant 65 final round to win the Hong Kong Open
“The Duchess has always been a keen sportswoman and is, like everyone, greatly looking forward to the Olympics being held in this country. The Royal Family has always had a connection with the Olympic movement and this is just taking that one step further. All three are very excited about what next year will bring” Royal Aide on the news that the Duchess of Cambridge, husband Prince William and Prince Harry will become an official ambassador for the London Olympics.
“It is always a privilege to attend the annual Derby Awards lunch organised by the Horserace Writers’ and Photographers’ Association. You meet a much superior class of hooligan there and the pleasure is invariable compounded in the company of Sir Peter O’Sullevan, who at 93 continues to work tirelessly for his equine charitable trust” James Lawton, The Independent.