Stray microphones can be dangerous things. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown found that out to his cost during last year’s General Election campaign when he was caught referring to a voter he had just been having a friendly chat with as ‘that bigoted woman,’ once he thought he was out of earshot.
Brown was wearing a Sky TV microphone when he got into his car and made the disparaging comments, not realising it was still switched on. It’s hard to say that this one incident cost Brown his job as Prime Minister when his party was already behind in the polls at the time, but it certainly didn’t help him keep it.
Now, demonstrating that no matter how high profile an example has been set as how not to behave when you’re wired up to a microphone, two of Sky TV’s own employees, football anchors Richard Keys and Andy Gray have lost their jobs for making unguarded and unsavoury comments about a female match official. Their only defence was that the comments weren’t intended for broadcast.
In Rugby League World issue 358, we interviewed Sarah Bennison, an RFL qualified touch judge and referee. Sarah explained that she took up officiating in Rugby League because of the lack of opportunities available for female officials in football. So far so sexist. Perhaps Keys and Gray really are representative of a Neanderthal tendency in the round ball game, rather than a couple of isolated fools caught out by their own arrogance.
However, Sarah went on to explain that she has also come across obstacles to progress in her Rugby League career put there purely and simply by people who do not like the idea of female officials in the game, so we can’t congratulate ourselves too much that such attitudes don’t exist in our own sport. Clearly they do, though to its credit, the RFL as a governing body works hard at the top level to encourage people from all walks of life into the game. It may take society at large a few years to catch up with their enlightened stance, but they are absolutely right to be taking a lead rather than having to be instructed by some awkward piece of legislation to play catch up later.
Indeed, though it was not a popular decision in many quarters at the time, the RFL made it crystal clear last season that homophobia will not be tolerated in Rugby League either. It is often all too easy to criticise the RFL for the things they fail to do, but in this instance, they took quick and tough action to nip an emerging problem in the bud. They have since become the only sporting organisation to be named in the top 100 of the Stonewall Workplace Index, the definitive national benchmarking exercise showcasing Britain’s top employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff.
Many will scoff at such things. Haven’t the RFL got better things to be doing than courting minorities? Promoting events like the Magic Weekend, for example. But are the two mutually exclusive? Gareth Thomas will be making his first appearance as a Rugby League player at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Perfect symmetry, if you ask me.
You can’t put a price on the value such positive messages have in the wider world.
It’s not about that dread term ‘political correctness’. It is simply about treating all players and officials with the kind of respect you would expect to receive yourself. It ought not to be too much to ask to judge people by their ability alone, by performances on the field, not by their sex, their sexuality, nor of course, their race. Not because you’re forced to do so by rules and regulations, or even peer pressure, but simply because it is the right thing to do.
The more open and welcoming Rugby League is, at all levels and to all people, the stronger it will grow and the more proud we can all be to be part of it.
John Drake, Editor
First published in Rugby League World issue 359 (March 2011)
