Who decides what goes in the parcel?

They all say it. “Oh, it’s part and parcel of the game!” They say it when excusing some ghastly example of gamesmanship or cheating or aggression on the field – or bad behaviour from fans off the field.

Try remonstrating with someone at a match – local, national or international for their bad language – and listen to the weasel defence: “It’s all part and parcel of the game. . . and if you don’t like it, don’t come along!” I don’t know who’s making up those parcels, but it needn’t be so, and it isn’t integral to the business of sport that we use every dodge and device to win, because “winning at all costs is the name of the game”.

Nice guys come second, is the mantra – and generations are growing up invited to drink in the sad assumptions that sportsmanship is for sissies.

And, so goes the theory, that to be a ‘real supporter’ you have to ‘f and blind’ throughout the game – posture and strut and generally wind up the opposition supporters – while at the same time casting doubt on the parentage of the referee, and, heaven help him, the linesman (a brave individual whose proximity to the fans often makes for a very unpleasant afternoon).

It needn’t be so. It is not part and parcel of the game, whichever game that might be. Nothing is diminished by sporting behaviour on or off the field. On the contrary, sporting events then become accessible to families – and parents need have no qualms about taking their children along to enjoy the spectacle.

If instead of a good atmosphere, there is threat and ugliness, intimidation and foulness all around. What parent is going to expose their family to that? And the whole sporting culture will be lost. The sad irony is that local events are just as prone to the ugliness as the confrontational atmosphere of the big arenas.

Indeed, the local scene is worse, because the distances are reduced, the volume increased, and the ugliness and shenanigans inescapably in your face.

The time has come to resist and challenge. When some foul-mouthed spectator insists it’s part and parcel of the game they need to be told by club officials and good citizens alike: “It’s not part of our game!”