Why Sven is right to crack down on boozers

Clare Balding13 April 2012

By refusing to pick Frank Lampard for his England squad this weekend, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Adam Crozier could not have sent a clearer message to all those hoping to be considered for a World Cup campaign.

"Football is a serious game and I expect you to take it seriously" is at the heart of Eriksson's decision to leave the Chelsea midfielder sitting at home, reflecting on his night out with the lads in a Heathrow hotel.

Opinion is split on the relative wrongdoing of the Chelsea Four and reports of their insensitivity to American visitors may have been exaggerated.

However, I suspect Eriksson is not punishing Lampard on the basis of his behaviour and its timing (however much he may privately disapprove of it) but rather, on the basis of his excessive drinking.

There is no more effective or painful punishment than to be left isolated from a big match and, perhaps more tellingly in the long run, from his team-mates.

There is a team spirit being built by Eriksson that is based upon mutual respect, something that is impossible to maintain if some of the team are making the wrong kind of headlines and the rest are seen as goody-goodies.

They must all believe in themselves and in each other, even if that makes them boring and one-dimensional.

Their own ability and commitment to the England cause is what will keep them in the squad and as a first example of Eriksson's refusal to accept anything less than total commitment, this could not have come at a better time.

The risk factor may not be great: England should beat Greece with or without Lampard, but still Eriksson could have quietly left him out rather than making it perfectly obvious why he is not in the squad.

It makes Chelsea's fine of two weeks' wages seem pathetic by comparison.

Chelsea have always enjoyed and promoted the King's Road club mentality and part of the allure for exotic foreign players has been their proximity to the hot-spots in town and the club's willingness to let them enjoy said spots.

It should not have surprised anyone that the management took the soft option of a fine.

In doing so, they could make a superficial gesture of public disapproval without jeopardising their own performance by suspending four of their key players.

The whole point about making a stand is that it sometimes hurts the one who is making it as much as the one against whom it is made.

As far as Eriksson is concerned, he will not tolerate players who drink to excess during the season, so much so that even if it upsets his plans in the short term, it is worth it in the long term if the message gets through to the rest of the team.

Eriksson is a strict and tough taskmaster as he showed in his dealings with Lampard. However, he was a little more forgiving with Steven Gerrard once the Liverpool midfielder had apologised for a late night drinking session in Southport on Monday. But at least the line is now clear and all existing and potential England players know where it is drawn.

Just imagine how Eriksson would have reacted to Paul Gascoigne in his heyday. He may not have selected him that often but Gazza's time at the top would not have disappeared prematurely down the neck of a bottle.

Even Gascoigne would probably admit that if a manager had taken a harder line with him, he would not have ended up fighting the problems that I hope he has finally conquered.

L'Arc provides some holiday relief to the poor punters

Spare a thought for those who booked their time off work around the Cheltenham Festival, for Ireland against England in the Six Nations rugby and the Ryder Cup golf.

What price all three being disrupted? However, those who make the annual autumn pilgrimage to Paris for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe will be climbing aboard the Eurostar safe in the knowledge that their chosen sporting highlight is alive, if not necessarily in rude health.

The strange thing about racing in France is that the French offer it no more than a Gallic shrug. They really couldn't give a damn and so, even on their biggest day, it is left to the British to make up the numbers, something that they generally do with gusto.

The lure of a weekend in Europe's sexiest city is enough to persuade a younger, trendier and more liberal brigade to troop over the Channel. Whether they're captured by the racing itself remains open to debate, but this year for the first time the French authorities have addressed the race-day itself with five other Group One races supporting the main event.

The quality of the Arc field has suffered over the last decade by the increasing allure of international races in America, Hong Kong and Japan, although for the past two years the Arc has been won by high-class dual Derby winners - last year by Sinndar and the year before by Montjeu.

This year, Galileo heads for America and the Arc market is headed by Sakhee, second in last year's Derby and hugely impressive since his return from injury.

For what it's worth to the travelling brigade and those who stay at home (who can bet on the race without paying tax) I would recommend Hightori and Egyptband at 7-1 and 12-1 respectively.

The tennis sisters of no mercy

It doesn't take a genius to work out that Martina Hingis doesn't like the Williams sisters and they don't like Jennifer Capriati and she doesn't like Mary Pierce and they all hate Anna Kournikova, but I can't wait to get the fly-on-the-wall accounts of the pot-plant throwing and Barbie doll tantrums from the dressing room.

Tennis is one of the few women's sports that is given as much attention and kudos as its male equivalent but there is a price to pay for that amount of coverage. The price is the same for pop bands, film stars, stand-up comedians and children's TV presenters: you can have the glory but you have to cope with the grime as well. I would never condone press intrusion into any of their private lives but if they are falling out with their professional colleagues, behaving badly in public or throwing tantrums outside the privacy of their own home, they have to live with the consequences. That is justifiable journalism.

The book (written by American tennis journalist L. Jon Wertheim) promises details of the locker-room bust- up between Hingis and Kournikova, of the latter's attempts to throw matches so she can get out of tournaments early to play lucrative exhibitions instead, and of the simmering animosity towards the Williams sisters.

It will no doubt irritate and outrage the women on the Tour but for us ordinary mortals, who try to concentrate on the action on the court but are secretly intrigued by the personal clashes off it, it will provide a fascinating series of snapshotsof life on the circuit. Kournikova will inevitably come out of it very badly on the personal side (although anyone who didn't already know that she is a spoilt, self-obsessed drama queen must be living on a different planet) but will no doubt use the publicity to make even more money out of her next advertising deal.

Similarly, Hingis and the Williams sisters will find their profile increased as the age-old adage "all publicity is good publicity" kicks into action.

The one player who will come out of the book smelling of roses is Lindsay Davenport, whom everyone likes because she is a decent, honourable and thoroughly amiable individual. It won't win her any new sponsorship deals, nor get her photographed more frequently but at least history will do her the service of remembering her as a great player and a decent human being.

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