Former News of the World editor turned PR man Phil Hall created and
staged a highly original and moving tribute to George Best for West
Ham, prior to their home game with Manchester United.
Tributes
before the game from Hammers legend Trevor Brooking guaranteed all West
Ham supporters listened in total silence. He was followed by Bobby
Charlton, one of the few football legends who, like Brooking, is
respected far and wide by all true fans of the game.
Then came
one minute’s applause as opposed to one minute’s silence, a loud and
moving demonstration of the respect for the incredible talent that
George Best displayed on the pitch.
Original, emotional and so effective – well done Phil – I hope your West Ham clients appreciate it.
Related
Talking
of George, Carole Malone’s comments were a breath of fresh air and
reality in her Sunday Mirror column. Following days of totally
over-the-top adoration from the media, which virtually elevated George
to the status of sainthood, Carole put this true footballing genius
into perspective. She said: “This national outpouring of grief for a
wife-beating alcoholic who was 100 per cent responsible for his own
death is frankly ridiculous.”
“Like most alcoholics, Best was
selfish, self-absorbed and didn’t care enough about the people he loved
to give up alcohol for them.
Yes it’s sad when anyone dies –
especially for the people who loved them – but to hail Best as a
national hero is an insult to this country’s REAL heroes.”
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Strong
words indeed Carole, but so true. He was a great footballer, but never
close to being a great man. In my view he wasn’t fit to tie the shoe
laces of another recently deceased footballer, Fulham and England great
Johnny Haynes.
Also my congratulations to Simon Jordan (a
client), Crystal Palace Football Club’s outspoken chairman. He has,
with absolutely no help from me, produced a consistently revealing and
informative sports column in the Observer, working with a talented and
understanding journalist, David Hill.
His column however has
landed him in hot water with the FA due to damning, but constructive
observations about the unacceptable inconsistencies of referees. He
raised the important question: “Why aren’t referees publicly
accountable like the rest of us?”
On Wednesday he was called to
account by the FA. Ian Wooldridge summed up how I feel about this whole
matter in his column in Monday’s Daily Mail: “Instead of hauling him
over the carpet, why don’t they bring out a few bottles of champagne
and welcome him into the inner sanctum of an organisation whose
timidity and prevarication requires a time bomb in its committee room
to wake it up before the game lurches into financial jeopardy. Simon
Jordan strikes me as just the man, he writes and talks more common
sense than any football club chairman that I have ever read or heard.”
But the FA and common sense have always seemed to me to be very distant relations.
Final
congratulations go to former PR man, David Cameron, who as the new
leader of the almost extinct Tory party will be trying to gain the
trust and respect of the British public. Let’s hope he has greater
success in his new role than he did as mouthpiece for Carlton
Television and Michael Green. Politicians deserve to be trusted as much
PRs.
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