Karma

A lot of people seem to think that karma is completely random bad things happening to bad people. This comes from watching too many soaps on TV. You know, character takes drugs, then he's knocked over by a bus. Gosh, drugs are bad. Can you name a soap character who took drugs and nothing bad happened to them ? It's so transparent [1].

The way I think of karma is as an inevitable consequence of your previous actions. Cutting a corner here leads to more problems further along the line than you would have incurred doing it properly in the first place. When the problems are so far down the line that they're someone else's problems though, that's when it all falls apart. Politics is a good example of that. Current governments are borrowing so much off future governments and generations to prop themselves up that it's all going to come crashing down when the bills finally come in. Mark my words. Er, anyway.

What relevance to football ? Well, the bills seem to be coming in at Chelsea. In the last week we've heard reports that first of all Ballack sloped off to Germany for an operation without the club's knowledge, which is an incredible thing to do and shows a total disregard for the club. Now Shevchenko has, reportedly, pulled out of tonight's Champions League semi-final with an imaginary groin strain because he wasn't going to be starting. Well, this is what happens when players join your club solely for the money or, in Shevchenko's case as far as I can see, because Milan didn't want him any more and no one else could afford him. They don't care. So there's no point acting all surprised about it when their commitment flags. Chelsea's final karmic day of reckoning will be upon them eventually, and at the risk of incurring some bad karma of my own, man it's going to be sweet.

And this weekend Leeds United fought their way out of the Championship, unfortunately (for them) via the wrong door. Their problems were created, of course, by Ridsdale and O'Leary paying fortunes for a bloated squad of players, all with money raised against up to 10 years of future ticket sales and sponsorship. What did they think would happen if they didn't keep that Champions League money coming in ? Since then various people haven't been good enough to turn the tide, whether they were decent blokes doing their best (Blackwell) or weaselly little self-serving cunts (Wise). So it's off to Hartlepool and Cheltenham for them next season, and while I'm here don't forget to lay the bejesus out of Leeds in match betting for at least two months next season. I saw how much teams were up for playing QPR in that division, imagine what they're going to be like for Leeds.

But should we take any pleasure in this misfortune ? Well, it's very hard not to. If Chelsea fans walked around saying "Well, it's nice, but we know it's all been done on external money just like a cheat in Championship Manager so let's not gloat", or Leeds had gone around saying "You know, we're doing great right now but let's not forget this is a big risk the way we've mortgaged against future income so let's not get carried away", then fine. Of course what they actually did was stick their beer guts out and strut around going "you lot are all shit aaaaaaaarrggghh". Thus, the rest of us may be excused the odd wry grin when it all goes tits up, as it inevitably will.

The struggle between good and evil in this world is closer than it might be because of balancing effects. Evil has an advantage because it's prepared to cut corners and, when it can get away with it, cheat. But evil contains the seeds of its own undoing, because the individual people involved are, by nature, evil and liable to turn upon each other rather than pull together when the going gets tough. It's all a rich tapestry :-)

[1] Actually this is a trick question, because you can't name any soap character who nothing bad happened to.