7 Reasons Sports Personality 2009 Was A Joke

Written by

Ryan Giggs - Sports Personality of the Year 2009

1. Andy Murray. Where was he? If Andrew Strauss could be on a live link, then why couldn’t Murray? He may have had a legitimate reason, but as things stand he has just made it slightly harder for me to like him again. Goodness me, that boy’s an effort.

2. Coach of the Year. Yes, Fabio Capello has done a good job with England – I say good job, it’s actually a sad indictment of English football that it takes an Italian coach to make the players England possess play well together – but what did he actually coach us to? Top spot in the qualifying table. The last time I checked that meant sod all – apart from that it is part one of the proper job. Have the panel ever heard of Ross Brawn or Declan Kidney? How did they not even make the shortlist? Muppetry.

3. Team of the Year. Well, the pundits got this half right. The sport was right, sadly the team was not. England Women’s Cricket Team should have won this. What more did the pundits want them to do? They won the Ashes. They won the World Cup. They won the Twenty20 World Cup. That’s really quite a big clue. More muppetry.

4. Kelly Holmes. What the hell was she wearing? If I was a girl I am pretty sure that would have been the kind of outfit I would want to have worn when I was about twelve and going bowling with my friends Bianca and Stace.

5. James Corden. For a minute I thought he had just wandered into the wrong studio, but then he appeared on stage. And then he presented an award. If the BBC wanted him to present an award they should have had him on BBC2 getting ready to handover the Pukka Pies UK Snooker Championship trophy.

6. Andrew Strauss. Personally, I think he should have won – for reasons I have outlined before on this website – but not even coming in the top three is bizarre. He single-handedly dragged a team that was humiliated in the West Indies to winning the Ashes just five months later. It wasn’t like 2005 when England had beaten everyone in the past eighteen months. What more do our sportsmen/women have to do to please people?

7. Ryan Giggs. Yes, the big one. How the bloody hell is Ryan Giggs Sports Personality of the Year 2009? I am still trying to work it out. Yes, he had a fine year. Yes, he is a fine player. Yes, it is refreshing to have a footballer with humility in a sport where there is severe lack of it (not that that should be grounds for winning SPOTY). But seriously? He did not have a better sporting year than six World Champions. He did not have a better year than an Ashes winning captain. He did not have a better year than a tennis player who reached the ranking of number two in the world. He did not have a better year than a six-time Tour de France stage winner. Give him a lifetime achievement award someday, sure, but no one can tell me he deserved to beat the other nine contenders this year. But as you voted for him, please try. I really need to understand this.

Comments

19 responses to “7 Reasons Sports Personality 2009 Was A Joke”

December 14, 2009

Matt Noble

Ok, firstly im a huge Giggs fan, but dont get me wrong, im surprised he won it, however in his defense, all the other were expected an do amazing things this year, we all knew murry would become a major player, we knew England could win the ashes, but the one thing that set giggs apart was, he did it despite the fact that no one whould he begrudged him if he had of hung his shoes up at the end of last season, On 16 May 2009, he became the first footballer to collect 11 top division English league title medals. On 8 February 2009, the only player to score in every season of the Premier League since its inception in 1992. On 5 December 2009, Giggs’ appearance against West Ham United – equalled countryman Gary Speed’s outfield record of 535, and surely that is a year of a great?
December 14, 2009

Jon

That’s a career of a great. Not a year. It just so happened that he reached those milestones this year. He has only started 15 games. Yes he won the PFA player of the year, but that was a vote based purely on sentiment. He did not win World Player of the Year award. Nor did he receive any votes for the Ballon d’Or. Rooney, Gerrard, Terry and Lampard did. Why weren’t they on the SPOTY shortlist? In a year when we had six world champions, it’s a bizarre decision.
.-= Jon´s last blog ..わたしを。日本語。同性愛者のアイコン。うんベイビー！ =-.
December 14, 2009

Tom

Andrew Strauss captained a team to victory in a competition featuring TWO teams. I’m gonna say that the odds were slightly more favourable for him than for Ryan Giggs (largely) captaining a team throughout an entire Premiership campaign. I am, like everyone else, very surprised that he won the award, but I think it is churlish to try and detract from his success, and foolish to do so using Andrew Strauss as your preferred option.

Besides which, what you seem to be forgetting is the word “Personality”. It was not an award for the greatest achievement in sport this year, which would surely be even harder to decide, but an award for the sports-person who best presented themselves whilst competing at the top of their game. Although Ryan Giggs might not be the most obvious choice, with this criteria in mind, it is hard to deny that he is a worthy winner.
December 15, 2009

Jon

Manchester United weren’t in turmoil during 2009. The England cricket team was in a horrendous position both on and off the field at the start of the year, Strauss had to sort all that out. Then he went out and outperformed everyone else. His accomplishments acknowledged by the ICC. I am not sure Giggs actually outperformed his own teammates. I am not detracting from Giggs’ success because there is nothing to detract from. He had a very good year. That’s it. Strauss had an outstanding year. As did Button, Ennis and Cavendish. Based on fact, one of them should have won it.

Rightly or wrongly, Sports Personality of the Year has never been about awarding the sportsman/woman who has the best personality. Despite the name it has always been about rewarding the person who has accomplished the most in the last 12 months- as the winners since it’s inception have proved. If it was then the shortlist would have been very different.
.-= Jon´s last blog ..Swanning About =-.
December 15, 2009

Tom

I think that if you look back through the list of winners, you will find that it is not always the most successful person who has won it. Paul Gascoigne won no footballing medals in 1990, it was his personality and character which brought the admiration of the British public. In 1994 Damon Hill failed to become Formula 1 World Champion, while Sally Gunnell took gold in Barcelona. Yet he took the sports personality award because of the incredible rivalry he had with Michael Schumacher over the course of a season and the way he presented himself throughout. Sally Gunnell did incredibly well to win an Olympic Gold, but her efforts were largely concentrated on one week of the year, too short a time some people might say to get a measure of ones character.

Perhaps the BBC Sports Personality Award doesn’t always go to the person who has showed the most character over the course of the previous year. But there is no reason why it shouldn’t.
December 15, 2009

Jon

Okay, like anything there is going to be the odd exception, but in the vast majority of cases it goes to the person who is deemed to have attained the most. In the way you have picked 1990, I could pick 1997 – as bad a year for British sporting success as there has ever been if my memory serves me right. It was the perfect opportunity for the public to pick a real sporting ‘personality’ but they didn’t, they voted for Greg Rusedski who reached the US Open final and was ranked 4 in the world. While fine accomplishments, not amazing.

As for 1994, well it wasn’t an Olympic year – Barcelona was ’92 – the fact that Gunnell didn’t win anything on the World stage in ’94 almost certainly went against her (despite her winning both the Commonwealth and European titles). Yes, the fact that Hill was taken out by Schumacher in the final race probably helped Damon win SPOTY, but there is still a stronger argument for him winning in 1994 over someone who won European and Commonwealth golds, than Giggs has of winning over six world champions (plus Strauss, Cavendish and Murray).

I could probably get on board with your last comment if the BBC and the media didn’t bill it as a ‘who has had the best year’ contest. But they do. So that is why my argument is based purely on achievement.
.-= Jon´s last blog ..Swanning About =-.
December 15, 2009

a

Cock
December 15, 2009

Marc

tail?
.-= Marc´s last blog ..Pink. Not always a good colour. =-.
December 16, 2009

Tom

I think this has reached something of a conclusion.

I guess I am just a bit of an ideologist at heart, who took a certain amount of pleasure from seeing the award going to someone who wasn’t the most obvious choice, but if the original spirit of the award was adhered to, perhaps should have been.
December 21, 2009

zeezoo

You should really do your research about why Andy Murray was not able to attend before you write these stuff. He’s in the middle of training at the end of the season in Miami in a bit to have his best season. Coming down for this would seriously disrupt his preparation for the first grand slam. Am assuming from the tone of your article that regardless you wouldn’t like him, but it’s pretty poor not to have any research carried out.

Btw, BBC should have mentioned why Andy was not able to attend and that was very poor from them!
December 21, 2009

zeezoo

Whoops, replied without realising you guys wrote it (am tired). Thought was guardian reporter and so kind of got mad at your Andy Murray research! I would have deleted it but I don’t know how. You know how I am about this! Whoops

I do agree about your other comments though
December 21, 2009

Jon

Zeezoo – I didn’t expect him to attend, but I can’t remember anyone who has ever been nominated not being either in the audience or on a live link. What would have happened if he had won? Yes, the BBC could have said, but Mr Murray could easily have mentioned on twitter or on his website that he was away and so couldn’t attend. It’s a prestigious award after all. I just don’t think he does himself any favours and so makes himself hard to like. He’s a great player, people want to support him. He just needs to stop alienating people. Welcome to the website though. Stick around. You can do a guest post – 7 Reasons Andy Murray is great.
.-= Jon´s last blog ..Swanning About =-.
December 21, 2009

Tom

How come I didn’t get a “Welcome to the website”?!

Hehe. Just kidding.
December 21, 2009

zeezoo

How do we know that it’s Andy’s fault that there was no live link? If BBC couldn’t be bothered to explain why Andy wasn’t there, they couldn have been the reason there was no live link. We don’t know whose fault it was. Perhaps BBC felt that Andy wasn’t going to win and therefore didn’t set up a live link. The fact that they didn’t even mention where Andy was out of order! Andy has been tweeting where he was all this time and on that day, he said he was playing tennis! Actually Heather Watson who was a nominee for young SPOTY (pretty big for youngsters) was not there as well because of the same reason as Andy… she was training abroad. If Andy had won, someone would have collected on his behalf most likely, but it didn’t seem like BBC thought he would win

Nice to have joined Jon. 🙂
December 21, 2009

Jon

@Tom: Many apologies. Welcome to the website. You can do a piece on Ryan Giggs if you want? I won’t edit it!

@Zeezoo: I agree the BBC should have said where he was. But he could easily have just tweeted, ‘Sorry I can’t be at SPOTY. Training started today.’ That would have been enough and I’d have had to think of another reason! Good point about Heather Watson. Where was her twitter update?!
.-= Jon´s last blog ..Swanning About =-.
January 8, 2010

chris @ rugby socks

These awards are very strange to say the least.
January 8, 2010

vernon @ local football

vote Tweddle
.-= vernon @ local football´s last blog ..How will this weeks fixtures effect top o the league =-.
October 18, 2010

Fresh Flowers to India

I do not accept ones like above which are not technically right in sense, but do not actually have any meaning with the above post. But could work with probably 90% of other posts.
March 1, 2011

Ayden

lol @ Ryan Giggs. That guy can’t do anything wrong can he