The impact of these riots on Sport

Hi Guys,

Its hard at the minute not to get away from the violent scenes that are sweeping our major cities.  What originally started as a so called peaceful protest has now moved to complete criminality leaving all those not involved fearing for their safety.  Obviously the safety of innocent bystanders is the most important issue for local authorities and our government but another aspect of the riots is the impact it is having on the sporting world.

London is due to hold the Olympics in less than a year.  What kind of message are these rioters sending the athletic world?  Teams are probably watching these riots on the news and fearing for their safety, and may decide to move their pre and during training camps away from England.  What's the view of the Olympic Committee?  I am sure they are regretting their decision to award London the Olympics at this moment in time and this bad image will have resonating future effects for when England or even the UK try to be awarded future events.

Already in the footballing world England's international friendly vs Holland has been called off.  The Premier League are going to have talks to discuss whether games will go ahead in London this week.  Now with riots breaking out in other major cities it could end up that the Premier League push the start of the league back until this issue is resolved.  So the ones like us looking forward to the start of the new premiership season are deprived of this.  The cancellations will more than likely spread into the npower leagues and also other sports.

What these rioters do not realise is that while they are having a smashing time, they are causing the government millions of pounds in damage as well as huge losses from the cancellation of these sporting events.  Now as if the government didn't have enough to deal with from the recession they have this huge headache as well.

Maybe if some of these rioters participated in recreational sport it may give them focus and drive in their lives and keep them of the streets.  Sport can teach you so many important life skills such as team work and honesty.  Now I am sure a lot of these rioters play sport but they obviously have not taken in the lessons they should have learnt from it.

Hopefully these riots can be sorted as soon as possible so that those who live and work in these areas can do so in peace most importantly, but also so we do not damage our major event holding reputation and us sports enthusiasts can enjoy our favourite sports at weekends.