The Olympic legacy could be the death of football.

Before the Olympics started I have to say that I wasn't really caught up in all the hype and expectations that surrounded the games. However as the days went by and Team GB's medal haul began to grow it was difficult not to get swept along with the tide of good feeling that spread across the nation. What particularly struck me was how well spoken and gracious both in victory and defeat all the athletes were. However when the closing ceremony ended I didn't really think I'd miss the Games. I wouldn't lose sleep over not being able to see people doing sports that I know little or nothing about, would I? Well not until the football season kicked off.

Suddenly the sporting perfection, sportsmanship, camaraderie and humbleness that was seen in London was put into true perspective by the (mostly) sub human scum who jog around professional football pitches every weekend. In the 1st week alone of major European domestic league action; Newcastle's manager had pushed a linesman, Juventus' title winning manager was banned for match fixing, Robin Van Persie joined Arsenal's rivals Man Utd all for a few extra bob a week, and Rangers were relegated because they were formerly owned by a crook.

Yes it really hit home. Was I really going to have to go back to watching cheating, moaning, overpaid, thankless, yobs after having been treated to one of the best sporting highlights that I have ever seen? Well I know one thing for sure, however difficult it may be to not get drawn into the Premier League saga in England I will try my damnedest not to!

Hopefully a few people within football's governing bodies will have been affected in the same have, and if they weren't then they should have been. I don't think I'm alone with being disillusioned by football in its current state. Our national side is barely followed outside of major tournaments and England fans were hardly rushing to travel to Poland and the Ukraine for the Euros, the Olympic football team fell flat on their faces but no one cared, and I believe it will only be a matter of time before interest in the Premier League begins to wane as well.

How can any fan possibly feel an allegiance to, or bond with any of today's football clubs. My team for example, Hull City, have become nothing but a feeder club for Premier League teams, so every six months the team sheet dramatically changes as loan players are switched back and forth just as fans were beginning to learn about their players. A ticket to watch these hastenly assembled misfits can cost as much as £30. I guarantee that you could go and watch an athletics meeting, a cycling race, an amateur boxing event, and any other Olympic featured sport for less than that.

Football fans need to wake up! They are being fleeced and yet they happily go back time and again just to show their 'loyalty'. What they must now ask themselves is whether these teams and their players are actually worth any sort of loyalty let alone hard earned cash.

This isn't the only thing that fans should be asking themselves. The Olympics also brought home to me that sport is something that's there to be done not just watched. Many people round the country will no doubt be riding a new bike and growing Wiggins-esque side burns this autumn, a lot of folk will be dusting off their running shoes and pounding some pavements. However because the Premier League doesn't promote the true values of 11 a side football 11 a side teams are actually dwindling in number across the country. Let me tell you now when you have the option to play a game for real or to watch it you should always play. Don't listen to Sky Sports telling to you to catch every game of the season, don't listen to the clubs trying to steal half your weekly wage for gate receipts, take a step back and think what else could I be doing with my time. Do I really want my kids to grow up with Suarez, Rooney, and Barton as their idols?

For me the London Olympics' true legacy will have been that people saw for just two weeks how sports should be contested. There must be alot of people doing some soul searching in football grounds up and down the land, as they're faced with a league that sold its soul and whose legacy could well be the beginning of the end for the beautiful game.    

I thought golf was a sport and then this changed my mind!

This story popped up a few days ago. Golf and Rugby 7's have been included in the 2012 Olympics. I have always been a little sceptical of none athletic sports being included in the Olympics. Rugby obviously is an athletic sport, but golf treads rather close to the line that divides Games and Sports. You could argue that with the inclusion of air rifle shooting and other such Games, that the Olympics has already abandoned its search for true Athletic perfection. This however is no excuse to continue letting un-athletic events into the Olympics. Golf however had (before today) convinced me that it was indeed a sport that was worthy of being an Olympic discipline. The person who had convinced me was Tiger Woods. He has single handedly shown that by being fit, strong, and healthy you can perform at a much higher level in Golf than if you were fat, weak and unhealthy.

What then is this event that has come to my attention today which has changed my mind, and shown me that in fact Golf is not worthy of Olympic Medals. 'The Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open' is a PGA tour Golf event that all the major names in the game will attend. The problem I have is this; Why can it not be called the 'Shriners Hospital for Children Open'. What does a pin up pop star have to do with sport and why is his name plastered all over a charity event? He could have supported the event and been the face of the tournament but just without the sickening self promotion. I implore everyone reading this to visit http://www.jtshrinersopen.com/ and marvel at the way 'JT' has managed to sneak a ticket line link for his shows right next to the donation link for the charity. Yes he is doing a charity concert after the tournament but still you get the feel its rather more for 'JT's' benefit than the kids.

Deplorable as this, advertising in the guise of charity, maybe why should it effect how Golf is treated by the Olympics? The answer is simple; Golf is a game that is driven by marketing (aimed at fat businessmen) and money. Just as Cricket is designed around meal times, Golf is practically designed for a business meeting. Supporters of the sport will say that there are other sports such as Football and Tennis who could have the same allegations thrown at them..... and I will Football and Tennis should not be in the Olympics.

To sum up no sport should be in the Olympics unless the Olympics is the pinnacle of that Sport. No one in the game of Golf cares about the Olympics it would simply be another payday for (now Billionaire) Tiger Woods and his understudies.

The Olympics are the one time in 4 years that people around the world get to see athletes competing, not for money, not for fame, but just to know for sure that they are the best at what they do in the world. That is what makes the Olympics so special. If any more of these overly commercialized sports are allowed to enter then the focus will shift, from athletes who have trained their whole lives for their one Olympic moment, to athletes who just see it as another pay day. I don't want to see that and I'm sure that deep down the stars of the Golf game probably feel the same.

My ranting will probably all be in vane though and we will probably have to put up with 'JT' opening the Games with a rendition of 'Sexy Back' as he rips some woman's bra off Super Bowl style!

Anyone Whos Anyone Loves the Olympics

Copenhagen is the place to be this week. Top politicians, A list stars, and sporting legends are all descending on the city. Why? Because this is where the IOC (International Olympic Committee) have decided to sit, and get buttered up by la creme de la creme of humanity, before deciding where they will send the 2016 Olympic games.


So who are the candidates and who do they have fighting their corner? They are Rio, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago. Rio is going to wheel out Pele and its president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Tokyo's envoy is spearheaded by two Olympic gold medal swimmers Kosuke Kitajima and Ai Shibata. Madrid is relying on the king of Spain and a flamenco dancer named Sara Baras. Then there comes Chicago with Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey. Yes that's right Oprah will be trying to seal the deal for the US city.

So what does Nickssportrant have an issue with here? Simply that the two people spearheading the Chicago bid probably know nothing what so ever about sport or their Cities bid. Barack Obama is probably the busiest man in politics at the moment, so how long has he been briefed on Chicago's bid? 5 minutes maybe less. However the other cities are taking along heads of state so why should I pick on Chicago? Well because all the other cities are taking backup. Pele, Tokyo's swimmers, and Sara Baras all know the details of their bid and are all active sports men and women. Chicago's back up is Oprah Winfrey, a woman who has never sweated in her life and who therefore probably doesn't care too much about the pending result.

In fairness none of the official faces of the respective campaigns probably know any of the in's and out's of their bid, and here in lies the real problem. Every bid after the 2012 Olympic games selection process will now look this way. This is because Tony Blair's covert chats with top IOC officials are widely recognised as what swayed the committee to vote in London's favor. Unfortunately because the IOC even allowed those meetings to happen they will now be blinded by glamour and stars when what they should be doing is focusing on how good the bids themselves are.

When the bids themselves are scrutinised further it is also clear that Chicago has one thing that sets it apart from the others. It is a money making scheme. The IOC and the US Olympic committee have already started squabbling about who should take the revenue made at the games. The Olympics is supposed to be about the world coming together and promoting sport. Promoting it to the young to insure they adopt healthy lifestyles and true sporting values. The Olympics should not be about setting up a private Olympic TV channel (As proposed by Chicago) or any other monetary issues.

The bidding process is just another extension of this over commercialisation of the Games and should be scrapped. Only officials who have an in depth knowledge of the bids should be allowed to represent them. All meetings should also be made more public so that no covert deals can be made between IOC members and high profile bid backers. This way the bidding process would distance itself from the glitz and glamour that doesn't truly represent what the Olympics are all about.

Having looked at the respective bids online at their official websites, it seems to me that Rio should be the obvious choice. The Olympics has never been held in South America and the bid in general is a strong one. The only concern is Rio's crime rate, but that hasn't stop the Football World Cup being given to South Africa. I for one would like to see a sporting party of epic proportions that would be remembered forever in Rio. What I do not want to see is a few already rich Americans making a fast buck whilst Oprah tells us how without her the Olympics wouldn't happen!

Did you know England are European Champions

Yes! we have triumphed, the players are out on the town being showered in glory. We have just beaten the Olympic and World champions, Germany no less. Its true England were today newly crowned as the Hockey champions of Europe. Our team of sleeveless shirt stick swingers won 5-3 in a tense and immensely entertaining final in front of a rapturous crowd in Holland.

Who knew? well nobody in England. The only reason I knew was because my girlfriend plays the game and informed me that England were taking part and had a chance. Why then is this the case? Why is no one in the country being told of its representatives achievements? The simple answer is that the English press refuse to promote minority sports, except when the Olympics is on or when something truly remarkable happens (Usain Bolt for example). In general though the media in the UK hates to take a gamble on sports that aren't Football, Rugby, F1, Tennis, Cricket and Golf. Does this happen in other countries too?

I currently live in Vienna, Austria. Although I realise that the Austrians may struggle to get too excited by their own football league, the media here do treat minority sports differently to their counterparts in the UK. Take the example of beach volley ball. When the Schwaiger sisters beat Germany at the Olympics, Volleyball was actively promoted and reported well after the Olympics by the Austrian media. It is now one of the most socially played sports in the country.

The only two places that I could find coverage of the Hockey this week were the Telegraph and the BBC sport website, and both their coverage was minimal at best. The question is though; Why should we care? We should care because these are the sorts of people who will be challenging for Olympic gold in 2012. If we don't build up their profiles before the games then they will come into the public eye quickly and then disappear even quicker.

The Media has a responsibility to highlight minority sports prior to 2012 and it is also in their interest to do so. Hockey amongst other sports could be turned into a popular sport that could fill column inches throughout the year rather than just during the Olympics.

For this to happen though the British media have to pull their fingers out and start building up all of our London 2012 hope fulls, otherwise we risk wasting this huge opportunity to showcase new and exciting sports to the UK public.