10:00PM BST 18 Oct 2012
Allardyce, the
The success of British athletes at the
Luis Suárez has also been accused of diving after a string of recent high-profile incidents to further damage the reputation of the national game but Allardyce insists football does not deserve such negative coverage in comparison to other sports.
He said: “I think that the game is a volatile contest so people will lose their temper, but nobody seems to highlight the fact that rugby players stamp on each others heads, gouge each others eyes, and that seems to be acceptable.
“Or fans go to watch ice hockey players beat themselves up with the sticks and that also seems acceptable, but a footballer kicks somebody, or does something that’s slightly untoward to the rules and it’s ‘lock them away, ban them for life’.
“There’s a lot of jealousy around the way football is in this country, I think, and as it’s known as the peoples’ game, then I think more and more people complain about the price, whereas all the other sports it’s not quite the same.
“So, it’s something we have to live with. In comparing it to the Olympics, it’s not as fierce a competition, because there’s not that day-to-day, week-to-week, competitive edge. It’s a build-up of four years – a very dedicated four years of course – and the delight of winning and the end of it must be one of the biggest highs anybody’s ever experienced.”
For more insight from Sam Allardyce plus Barclays Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport
