Footballers' affairs 'convince children infidelity is acceptable'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:25 AM on 29th December 2010

Divorced: Chelsea's Ashley Cole split from X Factor judge Cheryl in February after tabloid claims of his infidelity

Divorced: Chelsea's Ashley Cole split from X Factor judge Cheryl in February after tabloid claims of his infidelity

Lurid claims about footballers' private lives are making young fans believe marriage is an institution destined to fail, experts have claimed.

England players such as Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Ashley Cole have been the subject of newspaper exposés alleging infidelity and their rumoured behaviour could be encouraging their youthful supporters to assume adultery is a social 'norm', it has been suggested.

Reg Bailey, chief executive of the Mothers' Union charity and head of a Government review of the commercialisation and sexualisation, said sportsmen and women's habits could have a direct influence on children.

'I think there is a fair body of evidence out there that suggests that children are very influenced by certain individuals, particularly those in the public eye, a great deal, whether they be pop stars or sports people,' Mr Bailey told the Telegraph.

'One area that we will want to look at is where this influence comes from, what signals do children pick up from an early age and that will include role models.'

In the year of England's failure at the World Cup in South Africa, their onfield humiliation was accompanied by sleazy stories about the private lives of the squad's most renowned players.

 

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A Sunday tabloid claimed in September that Manchester United and England striker Rooney had been unfaithful to his pregnant wife Coleen with a £1,200-a-night prostitute, six years after the footballer was alleged to have cheated on Coleen with vice girls while a teenage player at Everton.

Chelsea's Terry, meanwhile, was stripped of the England captaincy in February after the News of the World claimed the married defender had a four-month affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-girlfriend of Terry's former Chelsea and England team-mate Wayne Bridge.

Wayne Rooney
terry

Off-field turmoil: Wayne Rooney reportedly cheated on his pregnant wife while John Terry was snubbed by ex-teammate Wayne Bridge after newspaper claims

Though Rooney and Terry have remained with their wives, their England colleague Cole divorced his spouse Cheryl in February after repeated allegations of his adultery.

And according to relationship support group Relate, media reports about footballers' family lives could have a lasting effect on children's views about marriage and fidelity.

'Actions have consequences and young people are growing up in a media-influenced culture where they perceive that having an affair is normal and a marriage that lasts in something which even many successful people can't aspire to,' said Relate's Jamie Murdoch.

'But what is of most concern... is the normalisation of infidelity as a consequence of footballers' activities.

'Celebrity and football culture and its portrayal in the media could already be having an impact on future relationships and we need to tackle this problem head on.'

Tottenham Hotspur player Peter Crouch was also alleged to have cheated on his partner with a prostitute this year while singers Mark Owen and Ronan Keating were reported to have had lengthy affairs.

 
People:
John Terry,
Peter Crouch,
Ashley Cole,
Wayne Rooney,
Mark Owen,
Ronan Keating,
Vanessa Perroncel,
Wayne Bridge
Places:
United Kingdom,
South Africa
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Comments (40)

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Footballers aren't given enough credit. A few stupid footballers do something wrong and then all footballers are bad role models, or dumb, or whatever else the public want to call them. I also think it's stupid how they're putting the blame on footballers when there are people from hollywood cheating, along with a lot of the general public, and it's not just men who cheat.

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"I am old enough to remember when fotballers played on a Saturday and had a proper job the rest of the week. They played for the town they grew up in a lot of the time and money was of secondary consideration to the game. They were real men that you could look up to and they were role models for youngsters. The present bunch of drug taking, boozing, womanising wasters couldn't hold down a proper job and you can see better football played in the local park any Sunday morning and it's free. There is a moral back lash coming in this country and it's long overdue. - John, stalinist coventry eussr, 29/12/2010 15:51 " What a load of rose tinted rubbish. Typical past it Daily Mail reader, the grass was always greener *back in the day*. This kind of thing has always been going on, its just more reported rather than swept under the carpet these days. But dont let facts get in the way of your rant there John....

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Monkey see, Monkey do... It doesn't take much to understand the truth in the headline. We have become a 'desencitised' nation. Nothing shocks us anymore. Nothing effects our emotions much anymore. The 'we've seen it all before' mentallity has taken over the majority. Its taken a good 30yrs to come to this extreme and will take another 20-30yrs to change attitudes of the mass populous. The media has glorified it for years...hiding behind shock horror headlines of betrayal etc, etc. Yet the media feeds the frenzied Hello magazine brigade their daily/weekly dose of celeb rubbish. We are entertained to death and dumbed down to the floor with useless TV/Magazines and Newspapers, all promoting adultery with little or no consequence. We love it, the media loves it and it won't change. Personally, I've been cultured into, live and let live...Don't judge others lifestyles etc. But were's the balance. Society has gone from one extreme to the other. We need a middle ground...

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I am old enough to remember when fotballers played on a Saturday and had a proper job the rest of the week. They played for the town they grew up in a lot of the time and money was of secondary consideration to the game. They were real men that you could look up to and they were role models for youngsters. The present bunch of drug taking, boozing, womanising wasters couldn't hold down a proper job and you can see better football played in the local park any Sunday morning and it's free. There is a moral back lash coming in this country and it's long overdue.

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>.....They live as the have always lived ,namely at the bottom of the social scale. How many footballers went to Eton, or any university. Its very true - you cant buy class !! - mike, usa< Your argument is that infidelity is directly corrrelative to soclal class. On the contrary, perhaps you'd like a list of all those perpetrators at the higher social scale, including those from Eton.

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I think cAshley & Susan Boyle would look good together.

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