THE marathon trial of onetime Olympic athlete turned murder suspect, Oscar Pistorius, has reached a critical point now that a judged has ordered that he start a period of psychiatric evaluation at a state institution next week, before his trial resumes in a month’s time.
The blade runner has been diagnosed as suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) since he was an infant, stemming partly from the amputation of both his lower legs because of a genetic defect.
However, this anxiety disorder appears to just as widespread among some local athletes, notably footballers, with some thick-hide blokes attached to leading clubs reported to be taking the law into their own hands and unleashing violence, while others attend training sessions heavily intoxicated. Does this suggest diminished mental capacity or incapacity or just plain insanity? Reports making the rounds is that a promising young defender from one of the top clubs in the capital has allegedly spent a night in custody after he punched the lights out of his chairman. The enraged defender’s foul mood was ostensibly triggered by the tortoise-paced payment of his monthly salary. This ugly incident follows in the wake of confirmed reports that a quartet of dizzy eyed footballers from another big club recently stumbled onto the training field in a condition of total inebriation after guzzling large quantities of the Haya Waters of Moag, obliging the technical stuff to conduct a spot check through breathalyzer tests.
In all fairness, the unbecoming behaviour of the foursome brought the name of the club into disrepute with their off the field shenanigans. That sort of behaviour has the potential to damage the good image and reputation of the club and the beautiful game and could derail progress and undermine every aspect of good governance of what this great club stands for and should therefore not be tolerated at all. However, the buck stops with the management of the clubs themselves. The habitual reluctance of clubs to punish offenders by applying appropriate sanctions and if need be revealing their identities to shame them in order to discourage others is a cause for serious concern and ought to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
It is very important for professional athletes to keep a healthy distance from indulging in such shameless and unbecoming acts of indiscipline. Football clubs should introduce hard and fast rules 9non-negotiable) if they are to put an end to such unsporting behaviour. History will reveal that this is not the first time for players to physically attack club officials in full view of their colleagues. A couple of years ago, a prominent footballer from one of the big clubs floored his coach, who happened to be a foreigner, with a vicious right hook Wilberforce Shihepo would have been very proud of during training following a disagreement. Like I said before the habitual reluctance of clubs to enforce discipline among their playing personnel by giving offenders a gentle rap over the knuckles or failing to send them to Coventry is setting a precedent for would be offenders and is clearly a recipe for disaster.
No respecting professional would dare to stoop so low as to physically attack a colleague, let alone a club official, when there is clearly little or no reason to do so like in this particular case. Footballers should never be allowed to hold clubs at ransom just because the clubs need their services – that’s suicidal. Any player who assaults a team mate or club official should be kicked out of the club immediately and should subsequently never be considered for future selection into the national team. Period. I rest my case.