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Men's Football An open media, unique football kits and an unpatriotic US president all in one week

IT’S been an interesting week in sport for various reasons so where better to offer my take on what’s been happening than in these pages?

It’s best to start off with England’s media in the build up to the World Cup. Much has been made of their open access day on Tuesday, where all 23 players of Gareth Southgate’s squad were available.

It was unprecedented to see all the players talking freely and the journalists loved it.

For anyone familiar with sports in the United States, this was nothing new and if anything long overdue.

Part of the reason I love following American football and baseball is the access journalists are given to players. It is something I have long called for to happen in football and, given how successful it was this week, I hope clubs will adopt this method.

They will surely be hesitant at first, but start off slow. The week before the season starts, each team should hold open media days, similar to what England did this week.

Allow local and national journalists the opportunity to speak to players about whatever they want. The England team showed that they enjoyed it and players rose to the occasion.

Danny Rose opened up about his depression and Raheem Sterling spoke eloquently about how he handled the abuse he received from a national daily newspaper last week.

Once clubs stop being stingy with the media, they will find the negative headlines and scandals will die down.

Some newspapers can’t help themselves and thrive off rubbish front pages to try and entice readers. But most football journalists got into the industry to talk to players and tell their stories.

And it happens in other sports. The Women’s Super League holds a media day before each season, making every club captain available. Rugby league and union do it as well. 

Football is still in the dark ages when it comes to media availability but Southgate and the Football Association’s senior communications manager Andy Walker did a fantastic job this week and I hope the Premier League, Championship and other leagues were watching.

I was sat at Wembley last weekend where Nigeria debuted their dazzling new kit. The shirt made global news for how quickly it sold out and has since been the envy of many fans.

Its unique look at a time where all other shirts are carbon copies of one another was a breath of fresh air, and it is no surprise that if you want one you are looking at over £300 on Ebay.

Kit-maker Nike have already said they won’t be making any more, making the lucky three million people who managed to get one extremely lucky.

It shows that, when they want, Nike can make a shirt unique to a team and I hope the FA are on the phone over the summer to get the same treatment.

Even if they have to put their hand in their pocket to pay for something different, fans will flock in their millions to pick up something new and fresh-looking.

It’s not surprising that those people who picked up the new England training kit prefer it to the official home shirt. The red and blue design on the chest is much better than the plain and dull look the players’ shirts have.

Fans are fed up of paying upwards of £70 every year for a Nike template.

It is time the decision-makers change the deal they have with Nike. Force them to design something that relates to the history of England and lasts for one tournament cycle at the bare minimum.

Donald Trump was made to look the most silly this week and it was hilarious, though it didn’t start out that way.

Trump took offence to the Philadelphia Eagles players speaking out against his national anthem policy, and his response was to act like the spoilt brat he is and cancel their planned visit to the White House.

It reminded me, and a lot of other people, of the kid who wasn’t being passed the ball enough so he picked it up, went home and stopped everyone else from playing.

Trump dragged the Eagles players and organisation through the mud, claiming the reason for the cancellation was their supposed disrespect of the United States flag and anthem.

He told their fans that the team were letting them down by not making the trip to Washington. But not to worry, said Trump, he would hold a special party at the White House, to celebrate the national anthem.

What followed was pure comedy. Videos from the event showed at least two people kneeling during the anthem, one of the men heckling Trump as he did it.

Then another video was released that showed that Trump clearly does not not know the words to God Bless America, a patriotic anthem taught to nursery-school children.

Trump decrying players’ alleged lack of patriotism only for the president to show it himself sums the man up.

However, his diehard supporters managed to find excuses for him, helped along by a compliant media. Fox News reported the story with still images of Eagles players praying before and after matches last season, claiming them to be pictures of protests during the national anthem.

Though Fox later apologised, the damage had been done, with many rightwingers demanding that they be deported. It’s not clear where the US government would deport US citizens.

Funnily enough, it’s not even the first time Trump has been caught not knowing the words to a nationalistic song while professing his patriotism.

A video from January 2018 of a university American football game in Atalanta shows him mangling the words to the Star Spangled Banner — which US school children are encouraged to sing daily.

With National Basketball Association teams Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors both confirming that neither team will visit the White House should they win the NBA finals, it got me wondering whether British teams invited to 10 Downing Street would want to go in the current climate.

Imagine the unthinkable, that England return from Russia with the World Cup. Would they all accept an invitation to see Theresa May?

Given the state the country is in after eight years of Tory and Lib Dem austerity, I would hope that at least some players would say No.

Sterling, who has donated some of his wages to the families affected by the Grenfell fire, would be one who immediately springs to mind.

Those who don’t consider May, or her predecessors, as toxic as her US counterpart clearly don’t read this paper.

But still, it would be interesting to see the reaction from players should they ever be invited. I hope they politely decline.

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