David Beckham finally helped the LA Galaxy win some silverware, when despite a hamstring injury in what was possibly his last game for the side it was his pass that found Robbie Keane in the 71st minute, an exchange that ultimately led to Landon Donovan’s strike that gave them a 1-0 victory.
THis win capped a wonderful career weighed down with honours and also meant that David Beckham became only the second Englishman after Trevor Steven to win a league title in three different countries, no mean achievement.
There is no doubt this final victory in his last game and being able to repay the club that lashed out GBP20 million on him over a five year contract must have been a huge relief, and no doubt he would want to share this success with his family as well as his team mates. Which he did, as he paraded the silver trophy on the pitch with his sons Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz. Victoria and four-month-old daughter Harper watched from the stands.
Now this is where we feel there has to be some change brought into sport. As a fan you support the team and the players who are privileged to represent your team. When they win as a fan you want them to share that victory with you, no matter how fleeting that may be. In the modern sporting world we are constantly witnessing children crashing the party. We have seen it in professional and amateur Australian leagues, but it is time someone put a stop to it.
These children should remain in the stands until their parents have left the field of play. They have done nothing to deserve the honour of enjoying the success the players have worked so hard for. They should experience it from the fans side of the ground and it should inspire them to want to follow in their father’s or mother’s footsteps, to experience that adulation, that joy of success. Letting them gatecrash the party has become both annoying as a fan, and one wonders what affect it will have on their future sporting aspirations.
Hopefully some administrators will have the courage to take a stand on this issue before every major sporting final is overrun with grinning children, in the victorious team’s photos and circling the ground on a victory lap they have done nothing towards.
Heaven help us if a Beckham led Great Britain team should take gold at the Olympics next year that we have him and his team-mates sharing the podium with their children
