Fair Play and Dishonesty on Display

By: Bob | February 12th, 2007

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was a time of fair play and it was a time for dishonesty in England this week. We’ll start with the dishonesty and there is no finer place to start than at Leeds United where manager Dennis Wise is peeved that one of his own players had the audacity to allegedly reveal his team’s lineup to Crystal ahead of their Championship clash on Saturday.

The player has not been publicly shamed, but he is on Wise’s permanent shit list.

“It was a fantastic result for us, but unfortunately I’m very disappointed,” Wise said. “One player gave my team to the opposition at my football club and I found that out. It disappoints me immensely and I told the players before, and he won’t be playing for this football club again. It’s as simple as that because I can’t have that.

“This is what you sometimes have to deal with. That player’s not going to play for this football club. I spoke to the players and it hurts a lot and they responded for me and I’m chuffed to bits with them.”

Why a player needs to talk to his opposition in this day and age of the Internets remains a mystery, but nevertheless selling out your own team like that while it is in a relegation battle ranks up there with selling your enemy blueprints for a nuclear weapon.

In contrast, we have the fine example of Bolton midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos, who has to be Greek and if he isn’t he should sue his parents for passing along such a cumbersome name. His parents, however, taught him well when it comes to the lessons of fair play.

With a chance to score the match-sealing goal against Fulham late in the match, Giannakopoulos instead kicked the ball out of touch because he noticed that Fulham fullback Franck Queudrue was lying injured on the pitch. His boss, Sam Allardyce, was not very pleased with his kindness

But Giannakopoulos said: ‘I did what I felt was right at the time and to play fair. I don’t know why some fans or somebody else didn’t have the same opinion.

‘During the game nerves are very high and you have passion for winning the match. But at that time, I thought about his (Queudrue’s) football career as well. If I was in his place I would like him to do the same.

Even if I can’t pronounce his name and I am a bit disturbed by his fondness for Bolton’s furry mascot, I am now a fan of Stelios Giannakopoulos.