Wayne Shaw has made a fool out of himself. In fulfilling the terms of Sun Bet’s promotional punt – roly-poly goalie to eat pie during FA Cup tie – the Sutton United reserve made it seem like he was either breaking rules on gambling or moonlighting in marketing for a bookmaker. Neither is a good look. He damaged by association the club he loves and they were well within their rights to ask him to resign.
The furore over “Pie-gate” has as much of a whiff about it as the stunt that went before, and the smell is not the glorious one of beef, gravy and undercooked pastry. It is of companies promoting their own commercial interest, most obviously Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, which has lent its brand to Sun Bets, a joint venture with an Australian gambling firm that was the brainchild of one Rebekah Brooks. It is of confected outrage at perceived po-faced sense-of-humour losses (the usual suspects are involved here and they rhyme with Fierce Organ). It’s the sound of the Twitterati showing their solidarity with the ordinary 24-stone blokes in the stand.
Related: Give the poor Sutton goalie a break: this was pie-eating, not match-fixing | Anthony Clavane
Continue reading...