Twitter is in meltdown this morning. The decision of whoever it was to play the Saudi Arabian national anthem at Wembley Stadium before the heavyweight boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois has not gone down well.”This is the wokest thing I’ve ever seen,” says one typically angry and typically nameless twitter user. “Saudi national anthem at Wembley is woke nonsense,” says another. “We used to be a proper country,” rages someone else. Given that being ‘woke’ is clearly a good thing – aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice) – I am not entirely sure what the twitter critics are getting at but what I will say is this: what on Earth were the boxing authorities and their wealthy Saudi Arabian backers thinking about?
I am proudly fully woke and was appalled at the playing of the anthem. Here was a prize fight at England’s national football stadium and rather than wishing for God to save King Brian, your paying punter (and me) was subject to blatant, in-your-face sportswashing by being forced to listen to a dirge that goes like this:
“Hasten! To glory and supremacy, “Exalt the Creator of heavens! And raise the green flag. Carrying the written light of aegis; Repeat: “Allahu Akbar!” O my country! My country, As pride of Muslims live on! Long live the King. For the flag. And the land!”
Now, I don’t mind a bit of the national anthem before major sporting events, even if ours is actually the UK national anthem, not just the English one, and it’s crap, but I am not sure of the wisdom of covering Wembley Stadium green – the Saudi colour of choice – and then inflicting upon us such superstitious nonsense as “Allahu Akbar” and other such religious gobbledegook. (It is important to say at this point that my description of gobbledegook to Islam applies to all other religions, too, and frankly if King Brian is waiting for God to save him, he may have a rather long wait.)
The playing of النشيد الوطني السعودي was anything but woke. Saudi Arabia has an abysmal record when it comes to human rights, you know, the sort of thing woke people complain about, but they do have money and lots of it. Essentially, Saudi money bought British boxing last night and frankly brought shame on everyone who had a financial piece in the event. I’m talking about you, Eddie Hearn, and you, Frank Warren, as well as Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua who, I am afraid, may not know what day it is after the beating he took.
The fight itself was relatively short and brutal and if Joshua has many more nights like this, he will soon require assistance in tying his shoelaces and help to use the bathroom. I do not say this to elicit a cheap joke. Every time I watch a Big Fight, part of me wishes I hadn’t tuned in, knowing as I do that each heavy punch is likely to cause permanent brain damage. Given that the whole point of boxing is for a fighter to render one’s opponent unconscious, we should not be surprised. But when Joshua was floored by a devastating punch by Dubois in the fifth round, his efforts to regain his feet were highly unsettling to view. Hearing Joshua announce afterwards that he wished to fight on made one fear for his future. Someone needs to have a word. The trouble is all that Saudi money. I guess it will help cover care home costs when these fighters grow old.
Prior to The Big Fight, Liam Gallagher took the audience down memory lane, performing a trio of 30 year old Oasis songs. The band performed well enough and Liam did his age old swagger than the fans love so much, but my overwhelming thought was that he can’t sing and never could. That, I have been told, doesn’t matter because with Liam and Oasis it’s all about the performance and the atmosphere and if he rarely sings in tune, well, that’s Liam. I thought he was shit and if I’d bought a ticket for next year’s Oasis Pension Pot ‘reunion’ I might be on one of the resale sites, trying to get my money back.
If Liam was rubbish – and trust me, he was – then things got appreciably worse when the crowd struck up with Neil Diamond’s 1969 hit record Sweet Caroline, where good times never seemed so good. It appears that it is the law that Sweet Caroline must be played at any large sports gathering so I did what I always do at times like these, I muted the volume until it was over.
I do like a moan, don’t I? Watching a brutal fight which was supported by a country with a terrible human rights record and the best “entertainment” they could hire was a modestly talented performer whose better days were in a previous century. And guess what? 96,000 paying spectators and “the millions watching around the world” (M Buffer) loved every second of it. Secretly, so did I, even though I know I shouldn’t have because the whole thing, the murky world of professional boxing, stinks. Still, Liam did ‘sing’ Cigarettes and Alcohol. Do you think the Saudis might be having a word?
