Sporting Life: Bits and Pieces
A bad time for Finnish men in the Winter Olympics. However, as in real life, the Finnish women take hold of the sails and keep the sinking boat afloat. Good news too from Sweden. Many of their medals were won by those with a bit of blue and white Finnish blood inside of them. So really Finland can claim to have won more medals than the league table admits.
Maybe we will see some major changes now in Finnish sport. We could see more women involved at the very top. We could even see a female as chief coach for the male ice hockey team. Bring em on I say.
In fact Finland should plan itself around the females for the future when sport gets really tough at the top. Apart from those few remaining male types in snow-boarding let us encourage our males to concentrate upon other things like X Factor or Sub Standard TV chat lines. The times they are a'changing.
My good predictions for the football are coming, in the main, true. Hope you trusted me and made your bets. Well done yet again to Roy Hodgson and his Fulham side. Another fantastic year for this small London club. It is Juventus next for them in the Europa cup game. Everybody wants this man to achieve success. He is not only a good coach he is also a damned fine gentleman. Finnish football misses him badly right now.
Portsmouth doomed to drop out of the Premier League and also doomed in the financial sector. Do not say you were not warned. Dare I say it. Yes I dare.
Norwich City are top of the league in division one and as I follow the Norwich game on Saturday I will be wearing my yellow and green hat and shirt. Childish I know but important. Did you know that the live online support blog gets about 2200 entries for each game. These entries come from all over the world. Now 2200 active online supporters is more than many clubs get attending a league game. Something to think about.
Did anyone believe a single word from that now famous Tiger Woods TV apology? Only those media that re-printed the Public Relations stuff seemed to believe him at all. To me Tiger Woods came out as a rather self-serving and fake personality. Anything for the money as they say.
It was more interesting to see a few talks of the town about the ice hockey players behaviour away from the Olympic rink. A few media had a good go at a few men there but, in the main, few were really interested. Maybe that was best. More interesting to study Berlusconi methinks. I am not sure about the news that says this or that ice hockey player is getting it off with his sister-in-law. Seems a bit trivial to me.
It is not very often that I write about some politician that displays some honesty. But when President Halonen waved her Finnish flag and jumped up and down I do believe she was acting in an honest way. Her joy at the Finnish ladies in the ice hockey was a joy to see. It was heartfelt. Thanks to that team and thanks to that president. That I can write and still sleep well at night. Well done you ladies. More please.
Steve Bowles

