Friday 24 February 2017

A Culture of Honour

As a resident of Leicester, I’m shocked with the sacking of a hero. Claudio Ranieri worked against the odds to produce the upset of the century in football terms, with Leicester City winning the English Premiership last year. According to the BBC, the season ‘ended with a success that defied history, logic, the odds and the game's natural financial order, as he turned a Leicester team that narrowly avoided relegation into champions.’

Yesterday, after a run of bad results, he was fired.

He didn’t deserve that and it was done for the usual short-sighted reasons of money and politics.

There seems to be such a culture of dishonour nowadays. We see it in the Brexit debate. These are important decisions and it seems reasonable to discuss them, but the moment a former Prime Minister raises those issues, there’s a dishonouring of him as a person- nothing to do with the debate.

Sadly it seems the same with the comments and tweets of the new President in the States. It’s not whether he is right or wrong, it’s to do with honouring the other point of view.

Back to Leicester. I don’t want to be part of something that is so short sighted and ruthless. I want to honour a man that in sporting terms did the impossible. Manager of the Premiership winners, Coach of the Year in the BBC awards and with the same award from the official body, FIFA.

I don’t expect he will read this, but Claudio, we honour you. There will be many in Leicester today who want you to know we have nothing to do with this decision. We choose a culture of honour, not dishonour. We trust you will remember Leicester fondly and will be able to forgive this crass dishonouring of your accomplishments.

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