New York tradegy puts football in its proper perspective

'Football is nothing'. That stark statement delivered by respected Danish referee Kim Milton Nielsen, summed things up this week.

Nielsen was responding to criticisms of UEFA that the body was too slow in deciding to postpone some Champions League' and UEFA Cup matches out of respect for the many victims of Tuesdays terror attacks in the US.

'Football is small where more than 10,000 people have been killed,' added Nielsen, who had been expected to referee the Olympiakos v Manchester United match on Wednesday.

Many of us have loved quoting Bill Shankly's 'football is not a matter of life and death . . . its more important than that' but we knew that the great Scot was only exaggerating in that unique way of his. Sport is a frippery, a lightweight, meaningless decorative ribbon. This week's earth-shattering attacks put it properly in perspective.

Professional soccer, even at the rarefied level of the elite Champions' League, is no exception - if anything it looks even more ridiculous this week, precisely because of the overwhelming excesses of modern day media coverage of the game.

But on the other hand, with the world seemingly spinning off its axis with every video replay of passenger jets exploding inside public buildings, some signs of life going on as normal are just what the doctor ordered. UEFA and the Premiership took different approaches to this week's events. With death tolls estimated in the thousands, European soccer's governing body took the unprecedented step of postponing all Wednesday night's matches.

The Premiership decided instead that maintaining normal service was the best way to respond. Both sides have their merits.