Beckham’s Olympic mission ends in omission

I’ve always rather taken the George Best line on David Beckham’s footballing abilities: 

‘He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that he’s all right.’

But you have to say nonetheless – Beckham’s a thoroughly likeable and decent bloke and I wish, after all the work he’s put in, he’d been awarded a place in the British Olympic © football team. The England coach Stuart Pearce seems to be under the profoundly mistaken illusion that anyone in the country gives a monkey’s about our Olympic football team. We’ve had enough of the hubris of football, for a bit; we don’t care if they lose in game one to St Kitts and Nevis. But we do care that people who put themselves out for their country, and have a certain moral sense, should be treated with basic decency and civility. And who replaces Beckham in the side? Yep, someone similarly moral and likeable: Ryan Giggs. That’s football, these days.