Can someone please tell me why we have to refer to this summer’s major sporting events by names which are illogical, misleading and downright inaccurate?

Both the European Cup and the summer Olympics were moved from last year to this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. They were inevitable and understandable decisions given the circumstances.

But what is considerably less understandable is why we have to keep referring to them by last year’s names: Euro 2020 and Tokyo 2020.

When you get to my age it gets increasingly difficult to remember what year it is in the first place without adding this sort of confusion to the mix.

I mean, the organisers of Glastonbury 2021, who have cancelled this year’s event, aren’t going to hold Glastonbury 2021 in 2022 are they? No. That would be silly.

And last year’s Eurovision contest was wiped from the calendar entirely, but when they finally hold the competition next month, it isn’t being branded as Eurovision 2020.

What about the people who were due to get married last year but postponed the event? They aren’t going to be walking around for the rest of their lives pretending they have been married for a year longer than they have.

So why does sport have to do strange stuff like this?

The respective governing bodies – the IOC and UEFA – will probably come up with some long-winded, elaborate and deeply intense explanation for their decisions. Maybe that keeping the original name is a ‘symbolic gesture of defiance in the face of worldwide pandemic adversity’ or some other similarly grandiose sound bite.

But in reality, the real reason is these governing bodies are being guided and advised by their marketing departments who, as we all know, are the real people in charge of sport these days.

“We can’t change the name! We’ve spent seven years and €3 million designing the logo! What would we do with all adverts we’ve filmed and the brochures we’ve printed? And what about the 100,000 souvenir foam hands? How are we going to get rid of those? I suppose we could try and change the ‘0’ into an ‘8’ for Euro 2028, but I think people might notice…”

To me the whole thing reeks of organisations in denial.

These two major tournaments are not being held last year, they are being held this year. And their names should reflect the reality of the situation.

In some ways, not changing the name is actually a missed opportunity.

The whole thing reeks of organisations in denial

When people look through the history books and see Euro 2012, Euro 2016, Euro 2020 they won’t know there was any difference.

But if they were to see 2012, 2016, 2021, 2024 – that break in the sequence would be a permanent reminder of the millions of lives that were lost in the pandemic.

VAR falls to the occasion

Well, that was a new and unwelcome twist in the ongoing horror story that is VAR.

If you didn’t catch it, last Tuesday night Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham robbed Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson of the ball and ran on to slip it into the net.

However, the referee blew his whistle for a foul before the ball actually crossed the line, which meant that, under the existing rules, the video assistant referee was not allowed to intervene.

If VAR had been allowed to have its say, what they would probably have told the Romanian referee is that it was a perfectly legitimate challenge and the goal should stand; maybe adding that he was a muppet for needlessly blowing his whistle in the first place and pointing out that he has the observational skills of a lettuce.

But because there wasn’t actually a ‘goal’ for VAR to review, they just sat there staring gormlessly at their monitors, leaving Dortmund fuming and the rest of the watching world in shock.

So, on those rare – very, very rare – occasions when VAR can justify its existence by righting a wrong, the whole process is brought crashing to its knees because apparently nobody saw this potential flaw in the system.

You introduce technology whose primary aim is to compensate for refereeing errors but then don’t give it the power it needs to do just that.

The mind boggles.

Racism Groundhog Day

Another week, another round of racist abuse on social media platforms.

It’s starting to feel like half the stories you read these days are about clubs condemning this type of incident.

Liverpool stars Trent Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita and Sadio Mané were among the most recent players targeted, while in Scotland, Rangers said midfielder Glen Kamara has been on the receiving end of abuse every day since their controversial clash with Slavia Prague.

Nothing nice about any of that, of course, but at least it has prompted a bit more of a response, with Rangers management and players starting a one-week boycott of all social media.

Sadly, that in itself is not going to make a huge amount of difference. While it is very welcome that a club of Rangers’ stature has taken a stand, you know that a week will pass, the players will get back online and the abuse will start again.

I wrote last week about Thierry Henry, who has walked away completely from all social media and vowed not to return until racist abuse is a thing of the past. That, for me, is the way this needs to be addressed.

But at least Rangers have done something, and hopefully seeing what the Scottish champions have done will prompt other clubs to follow suit.

Because this really is a case where strength will only come in numbers. And big ones at that. Club after club, manager after manager, player after player. They all need to join this boycott.

Otherwise I fear we will be stuck in this racist Groundhog Day for a long, long time.

email: james@quizando.com
twitter: @maltablade