Leeds bad boys put soccer in the dock

Over the weekend there seemed to be despairing unanimity in the British media about the Jonathan Woodgate/Lee Bowyer case. Look at the pictures. See two lucky young men walking away from a brutal, bloody case, one having been found guilty of having having some part in it, the other having been exonerated, though branded a liar.

As much as anybody else the media are responsible for the warped value system in a game which once felt, at least, as if it belonged to the fans but now seems as remote and untouchable as a private Hollywood party on Oscar night. There is a Masonic world of celebrity attached to football and we don't really understand its rules.

It is fair certainly that a jury may not be told about the previous record of a defendant but daft that the judge may then permit himself to be influenced by his estimation of the defendant's demeanour over the space of a trial. Sure, the past two years have been an ordeal for Jonathan Woodgate, a torture that has taken toll on his grey face as well as his football but most defendants experience the same stress. The amount which a person has to lose, professionally or personally, cannot be a consideration in sentencing. If it is we end up with a class-based legal system.

Jonathan Woodgate hasn't endured an ordeal any worse than that experienced by somebody with far less to lose, somebody without a million pounds to spend on fine lawyers and consultants. He has suffered only a miniscule fraction of what his victim has been through. And in the end, Woodgate has escaped with some community service while his mate has gone away for six years. It's called getting a result.

It was said all along the case wasn't racist and, in fairness, beyond appearances it was hard to prove it was. The implications of the Woodgate and Bowyer business have profound implications for racial relations in a region where things are strained already. From Tebbitt to Blunkett every clumsy white man's measure of assimilation has failed to charm the Asian community in Britain, failed to make them feel safe at football grounds and failed to bring through a proportionate number of Asian youngsters as professionals. Woodgate and Bowyer will have a resoundingly bad effect on progress on and off the field.

Then there is Michael Duberry, another victim in the business. I heard somebody recently describe male friendship in terms of response to crisis. One man calls another and says 'I'm after killing the wife' and his true friend says 'I'll be around in 20 minutes with a shovel'. So it was with Duberry who did nothing more than take a late night call from some mates who had got themselves into trouble and then went to pick them up. For this and the lies that it inevitably involved Duberry suddenly found himself risking five years in prison. So he told the truth and got a legal bill and the tag of snitch, grass, informer, and traitor to carry around for the rest of his career.

The true test of Leeds United's integrity will come in the next few months when we see how the lesser talented Duberry is treated in comparison to Woodgate. It would be a cleansing and symbolic thing for the club to quietly sell off Woodgate. One suspects Duberry's departure will come first.

And we'll continue to press our noses to the window trying to fathom the incredible indulgence of English football clubs. Think of it. If you have an asset to whom you pay anything from £15,000 to £60,000 a week surely there is a responsibility to keep that asset in prime condition. Surely alcohol should be virtually banned for supposed athletes. The Sonia O'Sullivans, the Jonathan Edwards and so on, aren't out on the tiles consuming vodka mules and alcopops and lager tops one or two nights a week. To do so would be a betrayal of their profession.

Looking in from the outside, it's difficult to understand how Leeds, a club awaiting the verdicts on two of their star players following a drink-related incident outside a night club, could, at an official club party, go on such a procession through Leeds watering holes that a freelance photographer would have the time to arrange and conspire with others to get a photo of Robbie Fowler.

CLUBS make an earnest plea to players to join education streams, but when you have your £20,000 wage packet in your pocket plus match bonuses and sponsors dosh and the chirp-chirp-chirp of your agent in your ear the whole while you might often find it hard to concentrate on A level French.

The downside of collecting a bunch of young talents like David O'Leary has assembled at Elland Road is the players live in a time when there is more easy money to be had from football than anybody ever dreamed off back when Jimmy Hill was fighting the minimum wage. Graeme Souness said last week clubs have players for three hours a day at most. They are prey to the world the rest of the day.It is a wonder not that so many of these energetic young millionaires find their way into trouble but that so few of them actually do.

News that Woodgate is apparently referred to by fellow players as Village, this being short for Village Idiot, doesn't inspire a lot of hope for his future good behaviour. Nor do the close shaves he and Bowyer have had in the past.

When will English clubs introduce a no-drinking during the playing season rule for their players? It sounds stentorian and draconian at first but given what is at stake and the amount players are being paid it is something players should perhaps be imposing on themselves voluntarily.

For even the best of them appear to live in a bubble. There's the guy who spent twelve grand in one walk down a main shopping street, there's the player who in an eastern European country a few years ago gathered a small crowd of the local urchins together outside his hotel and showed them an impressive wad of the local currency which he then proceeded to burn, and there's the chap who threatened to "semtex" a fan who was staring at him. Those are just some of the stories you pick up hanging around the Irish team.

The misfortune of the modern player is to live in a time when the ambient weather is a steady widespread shower of easy cash. The Woodgate and Bowyer case was a truly shocking insight into a world that will be roped off again now. With the verdicts, football managed to dodge a bullet. For the future it should do more than equip itself with celebrity-insulated bullet-proof vests.