The 2012 Olympics are coming to London and, if Gordon Brown gets his way, the
2018 World Cup will follow. “I just see this as one of the great sporting
decades in this country’s history,” he said. If only he could guarantee that
we will win something.
Talk of turning Britain into “the sporting nation of the world” sounds rather
fanciful at a time when the football team are faltering (again), the cricket
side have been whitewashed in the Ashes, the rugby team are heavily
dependent on Jonny Wilkinson’s good health and gold-medal athletes are an
endangered species.
But you have to start somewhere. And Brown believes that you can start with
him.
Politicians embrace sport as cynically as they cradle babies at photo
opportunities. It makes them seem like regular guys, men of the people. But
perhaps more than any previous resident of No 10, Brown will be able to cite
a genuine devotion to all things sporting.
His enthusiasm has endured beyond losing the sight of one eye in a rugby
accident at school. He visits Stark’s Park, home of Raith Rovers, of the
Scottish League second division, as often as the day job allows. He loves
football with a passion that most assume he reserves for stealth taxes and
macroeconomic stability.
Within a minute of sitting down, the next Prime Minister has exchanged a juicy
tale about a prominent Scottish club for the inside track on the England
squad. Chats with Steve McClaren and Sir Alex Ferguson are casually dropped
into the conversation. A budget meeting is delayed while Brown asks Ed
Balls, the Treasury Minister and sporting sidekick, about Balls’s club,
Norwich City. Brown even knows to ask after the form of Darren Huckerby.
None of this may amount to a reason to vote for him and political-speak does
intrude. Sound-bites and strained statistics are peddled over tea and
Treasury biscuits. Yet the millions who do endlessly fret over sport should
probably be encouraged that Brown at least has identified the nation’s lack
of prowess as something to tackle. People will worry less about his
motivation — is it to win votes or trophies? — if promises are
followed by sustained commitment.
“I think countries can take decisions about wanting to excel more in sport,”
he said. “Australia made a decision to be a successful sporting nation. I
will give you an example. Ninety per cent of Australian adults will not be
smoking by 2020. We will not get to that figure until 2050. Australia made
that decision to be a nonsmoking nation.
“Finland made a decision to tackle heart disease and 60 per cent of adults
take part in some physical activity every week. In Britain, the figure is
just above 20 per cent. There is a huge drop-off after people leave school.
“We can make a decision that, as the Olympic nation, as a prospective World
Cup nation, we are going to be a sporting nation and focus more on physical
fitness, the availability and accessibility of sports in schools. [With 2012
and 2018], this is a huge opportunity.”
When Brown talked recently about improving school sports and ensuring that
four hours (two inside the curriculum, two outside) are provided for every
child by 2010, it was met with cries of hypocrisy. Some leading
administrators said that Labour was the party that had undermined school
sport in the first place, neglecting facilities and promoting a
prizes-for-all culture at the expense of healthy competition. Tony Blair
confessed over the weekend that schools sport “had fallen on hard times”, so
Brown can hardly deny it. But just as the Prime Minister talked of “tough
safeguards” to increase the number of playing fields, so Brown talks of
“turning the corner”. He claims that Labour’s renewed concern is being
shaped by personal experiences.
“It was so important to me that I think of school less to do with academic
subjects than the sports teams I was involved in,” he said. “I think of the
joys of being picked in the rugby team, of going up to the notice board and
seeing your name on the first team for the first time. I still have the
colours I won.
“I am a great believer in competitive sports. It is still said that one in six
children is obese but it is not just vital for physical fitness. Playing as
a member of a team is good training for everything else you have to do in
life.”
Yet if his colleagues are to be believed, Brown has not always been seen as
the greatest team player in the Cabinet.
Brown is expected to boost his sporting credentials by coming to the rescue of
the 2012 Olympics. With the budget appearing to rise every day, he is
expected to make some concessions on a VAT bill of up to £1 billion.
The World Cup should be a bargain in comparison. It will reach more corners of
the country and Brown, who has watched Scotland in every tournament since
David Narey’s toe-poked goal against Brazil in 1982, believes that the big
events will prove value for money by inspiring future generations.
“I went to Glasgow to see the ‘Schools Olympics’, ” he said. “I met this girl
and she was telling me about her training; about getting up at 4am, then
going to school and training again at 4pm. She said ‘you can come and see me
on Saturday or you can see me in 2012.’ That is ambition. A lot of young
people can be persuaded to focus when we have these big events.
“I won’t go into the Olympics now but I do believe that the country wants the
Olympics and is very proud that we managed to achieve it. I think we will be
successful.”
Unlike the 2006 World Cup bid, doomed before it began by European support for
Germany, England should be front-runners for 2018. So who will Brown support
if England face Scotland in the final? “Because that’s the most likely
scenario, isn’t it?” he said with a laugh.
“If Scotland are playing England, I’m supporting Scotland. But I am not one of
these people who thinks that Scotland does best if England loses. It is good
for the game, the sport, for Britain if they do well also.”
A passionate football fan he undoubtedly is — but that was spoken like a
true politician.
RAITH GET THEIR MONEY’S WORTH FROM CHANCELLOR’S ‘INVESTMENT’
As Raith Rovers cruised to a 3-0 victory over Alloa Athletic nine days ago,
Gordon Brown took particular delight in a fine performance from Marvin
Andrews. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had been instrumental in securing
the centre half for his club; a tale that reveals both the depth of his
commitment to Raith but also how he hopes to use sport as a broad social
policy.
When the club approached Andrews, it was Brown who drove Craig Levein, then
the Raith manager, to the meeting. And it was Brown who did much of the
talking, persuading the Trinidad & Tobago defender that his future lay
in the Scottish second division rather than at Wolverhampton Wanderers or
Hibernian, who were offering far more money.
“Gordon was a fantastic help on that deal and a number of other things,”
Levein, now at Dundee United, said. “There would be periods when we would
speak two or three times a day. He’d pop down to my office after matches.
“He’s a frustrated football player. And like a lot of people who are
successful in other fields, he is doing what he can for his local club.
Obviously he has got some very good contacts and he brings them together for
the good of Raith. He can’t be doing it for the votes.” Brown was one of
just 1,763 fans to watch the victory over Alloa.
Brown, who sold programmes at Raith as a boy, talks of “a new kind of
community football club in Scotland”. He helped to buy out the previous
directors and has roped in some notable shareholders, including Nick Hornby
and Ian Rankin, the authors.
He persuaded Andrews, a devout Christian, to come to Raith by telling the
World Cup defender that he would support him in a new project aimed at
providing sporting opportunities for local youths.
“We are starting this midnight football project in Kirkcaldy and Marvin is the
linchpin,” Brown said. “They will put a flyer out to the kids and round the
schools saying, ‘Come to this park or football ground at 8.30 in the
evening.’ It’s been incredibly successful where it has been piloted, a
sporting alternative to being on the streets.”
And, for Brown, a small encouragement to invest in sport as social policy.
Matt Dickinson
WELL GROUNDED
By 2018 England will have an assortment of stadiums that should satisfy Fifa
standards. Here Rick Broadbent gives a sneak preview of the leading
candidates.
New Trafford Home of that one-time, well-known club, the Manchester
Rednecks, features include the Glazer Gates and a Starbucks coffee shop.
Highbury With the Emirates Stadium long since damned for the pretty,
overelaborate approach that serves no useful purpose, Arsenal revert to
their previous ground. Access issues remain — especially for home-grown
players.
Fratton Park Home to the holders of the Anglo-Russian Cup, after
Chelsea’s liquidation, the South Coast’s finest get the nod for their
excellent facilities. “It’s one big toilet,” gushes Michel Platini, the Fifa
supremo.
Carla Lane Liverpool’s new ground captures the essence of the city with
the Harry Kewell beauty parlour and the Boris Johnson self-help clinic.
Twickenham With Wembley still not complete, Sports Minister Sir Clive
Woodward backs the case of England’s best stadium. “Football, rugby — what’s
the difference?” he says.
