Participation Envy

Too often these days, VAR and football officials become the headline. The same across rugby, cricket and other sports.

One wonders if from time to time there is a participation envy behind the headline-grabbing, as officials cannot themselves score tries or goals nor hit sixes out of the ground. Or they are that incompetent.

I notice the same in the British Countryside. The twitchers and other mere observers tend to scoff on social media at those who are actually relevant to shaping rural life – at the farmers, gamekeepers and landowners.

Sport, and that includes country sports, allow free citizens to become part of the show rather than to merely observe the experience.

The observers on the side-lines are always the complainers. The Karens. The whiners. Those who seek ‘radical’ and ‘urgent’ change to dislodge the real and relevant participants.