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Fox Sports FC last night hosted the second round in an increasingly ugly feud between ex-Socceroo and current football pundit, Robbie Slater, and Socceroo star, Harry Kewell.
Last Sunday, an article by Slater appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, “confirming” disharmony in the Australian team during the South African World Cup. In the article, Slater wrote: “No player will say it publicly but there was disharmony. And here’s one story to put a new spin on the spin.
“It’s an incident involving Harry and another player, whose privacy I will respect. It happened at Australia’s farewell dinner after the Socceroos’ exit in South Africa.
“Put simply, the player told Harry to f … off, saying he was of no value to the Socceroos any more.”
Straight away, Slater is guilty of hypocrisy. He goes to great pains to “respect” the privacy of the “mystery player,” but tramples all over Harry Kewell’s right to the same thing. For if such an exchange did take place, surely the anonymity of both parties should have been respected. If not, then the “mystery player” should have been named along with Kewell.
Of course, the whole structure of the article was designed for sensationalism and Harry Kewell’s name is enough to sell papers so there was no way his name could be left out.
But if you read the quote I have taken from the Slater article again, he does not directly say that the player who allegedly told Kewell to f… off and his informant are the same person.
Kewell was audibly ropable during a phone hook-up on Fox Sports FC, and made it pretty clear he thought Slater’s insider was Graham Arnold.
However, Kewell denied that such an incident had ever taken place and hinted strongly that he was considering legal action. During the phone interview, he also stated that he was felt he was fit enough to start in the Socceroos opening World Cup game against Germany, but would always be guided by the boss’s decision on such matters.
He rightly pointed out that the media circus surrounding his fitness leading up to the Germany game was not his creation. In his article, Slater blames Pim Verbeek for “allowing the circus to get out of control …”
Yet here is Slater, flogging that circus’s dead horse two months after the event.
Journalists are always keen to “protect their sources”. But Slater’s article wasn’t journalism – it was grubby muck-raking of a type that seems pointless and vindictive. Having an opinion on Kewell’s future worth to the Socceroos is worthy of journalistic comment and Slater’s standing in the game may have, up till now, given him the right to comment on that.
But apparently that wasn’t sensational enough for either him or his pay masters at News Limited.
Harry Kewell has certainly had a chequered history when it comes to the Socceroos, especially as a youngster who took the Premier League by storm at Leeds United. But no-one could deny his commitment to the cause through the last two World Cup campaigns.
His match-winning performance in the final group game against Croatia in 2006 was achieved despite an injury which ultimately ended his Liverpool career. His efforts to overcome chronic groin problems were a huge focal point in the 2010 campaign. Slater claimed the players were “sick to death” hearing about it, which is not exactly an earth-shattering exclusive, given a lot of players publicly expressed that view in South Africa, including Kewell himself.
They did so without blaming Kewell for it, and I’d wager a good amount that they would have loved for him to have been available for more than 24 minutes of the campaign, which is another thing Slater seems to take issue with Kewell for.
Simon Hill tried to act as a moderator on the show and brought up Kewell’s comments during the World Cup regarding the role of journalists being “supportive” of the team.
In this regard, I believe Kewell was wrong to suggest the journos act as virtual cheerleaders, but what Slater produced for the Telegraph was not journalism, nor was it even a vague critique of Kewell’s value to the national team in the future.
If Harry Kewell does take the action he hinted at, the whole business will continue to get more sensational and distasteful. If it transpires that Slater’s “mystery” informant turns out to be who Kewell not-so-subtly suggested it was, it will damage the reputation and standing of the Socceroos coaching and support staff.
All for the sake of a headline.
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