Media Training Proved Not To Help Sports By Swede Ibrahimovic
Posted: September 3, 2015
Updated: October 6, 2017
Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic made the sporting headlines again.
By being honest, direct and unwilling to treat the media as if they were the guardians of accountability, and his willingness to overrule his media training when mistreated by a disrespectful press with an agenda of their own and an axe to grind is quite, quite refreshing. And a bit by being the master troll he is.
There is, alas, just a little too much polish on sport these days. Footballers demonstrate this to be true with every post-match interview. Five minutes ago they were f-ing and blinding at their fellow players, the referee and the world in general, but now with a microphone stuck in their face and a camera up their nose they suddenly start to come across as if applying for a job at the UN. The opposition were just unlucky, their team played with heart, and they're always looking forward to the next game.
The cliches of football commentators are these days not quite as funny because so regularly are the comments of the actual players so predictable and repetitive that you could bet on them at ComeOn! Sportsbook if Swedish gambling laws allowed you to and earn a fortune. The same is true in other sports, Murray Walker used to delight with his cliché ridden commentary, but now with F1 drivers behaving like the sponsor's Stepford wives, conditioned by media training, it's just not as amusing.
This unfortunately means that many sports these days lack character, and character always attracted gamblers. Oh sure we'll wager on Mr. Cleancut and his crew, but we'd prefer to have the chance to bet on someone with a few rough edges, someone with whom we can identify. We loved John McEnroe for his manifest and obvious emotional investment in what he was doing, same with Gazzer to some
degree, their displays of caring for what they were doing, unsullied by media training, something we could all so easily understand.
The feet at which the blame for this ghastly progression into neutrality and PR are not, however, just those of sponsors alone, unfortunately we the public (at least certain sections of it) must take some share of the responsibility. It was we that made sportsmen “role models”. It was us that demanded they live unblemished lives of angelic holy behavior, setting standards for footballers and other sportsmen even politics doesn't demand of its participants.
Of course if you're gambling news outlets and their minions can't provoke a response when they want a quote, you'd be wrong. The press have been instrumental in inflicting sports with this goody-two-shoes media training necessity especially so that on any given weekend they can lure some poor victim into breaching the arbitrary rules and present them with a story, that they then sensationalize and put out claiming it as being in the public interest to know of these transgressions.
Thankfully there are still some sportsmen who don't always play by the media's rules, and despite perhaps going “off message” as far as their media training goes, still manage to best the press at the button pushing game. The most recent example of this came from Sweden's very own advert for macho Zlatan Ibrahimovic who found himself under yet another snide little attack from TV4's Olof Lundh during a press conference for the Swedish national team prepping for Euro 2016 qualifiers.
Lundh, who it's fair to say doesn't like Zlatan, decided talking about football at a football press conference was dull so instead asked about Ibrahimovic's other business interests outside football. Spotting this for the obvious troll-fail line of questioning it quite evidently was, Zlatan wasted no time reminding the reporter of his bias “I'm not allowed to earn money according to you.” Zlatan sneered back at the whiny little man from TV4. Going on to say he has outside business interests for fun, not for the money which he rightly pointed out he didn't need.
“These projects are fun to work with.” Ibrahimovic continued, aiming his barbed comments squarely at Olof the entire time, “It’s new adventures for me. When I’m doing well and you feel a sting from it, then I’m enjoying myself even more … It’s the same as when I’m playing football – I get an extra kick out of it if it hurts you. That’s the best feeling.” Which is one way to put a reporter in his place and if you like to bet on sports in Sweden, doesn't Zlatan's honesty make you want to back him, and Sweden, all the way?
By being honest, direct and unwilling to treat the media as if they were the guardians of accountability, and his willingness to overrule his media training when mistreated by a disrespectful press with an agenda of their own and an axe to grind is quite, quite refreshing. And a bit by being the master troll he is.
There is, alas, just a little too much polish on sport these days. Footballers demonstrate this to be true with every post-match interview. Five minutes ago they were f-ing and blinding at their fellow players, the referee and the world in general, but now with a microphone stuck in their face and a camera up their nose they suddenly start to come across as if applying for a job at the UN. The opposition were just unlucky, their team played with heart, and they're always looking forward to the next game.
Who doesn’t love a master troll?
The cliches of football commentators are these days not quite as funny because so regularly are the comments of the actual players so predictable and repetitive that you could bet on them at ComeOn! Sportsbook if Swedish gambling laws allowed you to and earn a fortune. The same is true in other sports, Murray Walker used to delight with his cliché ridden commentary, but now with F1 drivers behaving like the sponsor's Stepford wives, conditioned by media training, it's just not as amusing.
Zlatan Lashes OutOddly it is only boxing that retains some semblance of true competitive honesty. Boxers will insist they're going to kill each other, and whilst there's one or two that have had some media training the vast majority of them resort to simplistic terms of the variety any of us might use, rather than attempt to launch into an intellectual essay on the guy in the other corner as if they've just come up with a really foolproof guaranteed sports betting system that they just know you're going to want to hear about.
• Reporter feels the Swede's wrath
• Ibrahimovic likes it when it hurts
• Sweden worth backing in Euro 2016
Media Training Has Sanitized Sport To Death
This unfortunately means that many sports these days lack character, and character always attracted gamblers. Oh sure we'll wager on Mr. Cleancut and his crew, but we'd prefer to have the chance to bet on someone with a few rough edges, someone with whom we can identify. We loved John McEnroe for his manifest and obvious emotional investment in what he was doing, same with Gazzer to some
Whatever happened to bad boys in sports?
degree, their displays of caring for what they were doing, unsullied by media training, something we could all so easily understand.
The feet at which the blame for this ghastly progression into neutrality and PR are not, however, just those of sponsors alone, unfortunately we the public (at least certain sections of it) must take some share of the responsibility. It was we that made sportsmen “role models”. It was us that demanded they live unblemished lives of angelic holy behavior, setting standards for footballers and other sportsmen even politics doesn't demand of its participants.
Of course if you're gambling news outlets and their minions can't provoke a response when they want a quote, you'd be wrong. The press have been instrumental in inflicting sports with this goody-two-shoes media training necessity especially so that on any given weekend they can lure some poor victim into breaching the arbitrary rules and present them with a story, that they then sensationalize and put out claiming it as being in the public interest to know of these transgressions.
Media Training Can't Tame The Beast Of Zlatan
Thankfully there are still some sportsmen who don't always play by the media's rules, and despite perhaps going “off message” as far as their media training goes, still manage to best the press at the button pushing game. The most recent example of this came from Sweden's very own advert for macho Zlatan Ibrahimovic who found himself under yet another snide little attack from TV4's Olof Lundh during a press conference for the Swedish national team prepping for Euro 2016 qualifiers.
If you provoke the Zlatan, he'll put you down!
Lundh, who it's fair to say doesn't like Zlatan, decided talking about football at a football press conference was dull so instead asked about Ibrahimovic's other business interests outside football. Spotting this for the obvious troll-fail line of questioning it quite evidently was, Zlatan wasted no time reminding the reporter of his bias “I'm not allowed to earn money according to you.” Zlatan sneered back at the whiny little man from TV4. Going on to say he has outside business interests for fun, not for the money which he rightly pointed out he didn't need.
“These projects are fun to work with.” Ibrahimovic continued, aiming his barbed comments squarely at Olof the entire time, “It’s new adventures for me. When I’m doing well and you feel a sting from it, then I’m enjoying myself even more … It’s the same as when I’m playing football – I get an extra kick out of it if it hurts you. That’s the best feeling.” Which is one way to put a reporter in his place and if you like to bet on sports in Sweden, doesn't Zlatan's honesty make you want to back him, and Sweden, all the way?
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