why

there are times when you see a story that just makes your jaw drop. i suspect that as the world cup and the olympics draw closer there will be more and more of sports oriented stories that will make me go: "what the fuck..."

recently it was the hoohah over wayne rooney have a bit of gambling bill to pay. a story that had the unctuous ex-tory mp, user of prostitutes and chelsea fan, david mellor, suggest that because there was no legal contract between rooney and the guy who arranged the bet that rooney should just refuse to pay. so mellor's advice is just to break your word, to welch on the deal mind you as this came in an article that basically accused most of the young, very rich, footballers as being gormless imbeciles it really shouldn't have come as a surprise....

and now it is the joy of seeing manchester united, one of the richest foorball clubs in the world. a football club that pays many of it's players more than £50,000 a week, getting a lottery grant of £30,000.
now why does manchester united, a privately owned football club need £30,000? well it is to help get their staff fitter.
"This is all about getting staff in sedentary jobs active and getting them to take fewer days off sick."
now it may just be me - but surely lottery money (which isn't being paid to me in a huge winning jackpot) should be going to companies, organisations, clubs and associations who need the money and not to people who have more than enough money to deal with their staff?

and what are they going to do with the money? help a number of it's staff get fitter. a worthy goal to be sure. but as manchester united are a sports club they more than lilely already have sports equipment on site that the staff can use, so why do they need money for any scheme? it is more than likely that man u are in a position where they can get cheap gym membership for their staff.
more importantly if an individual wants to be fitter and healthier they can join a gym themselves. given that there is going to be an element of taking a horse to water but you can make it drink type scenario here (and i speak from experience of starting gym membership and then not going) i hope that there is a reporting mechanism to make sure that the lottery is getting value for money.

john leech (a liberal democrat mp) has said the money should have been used to get those people who can't afford a gym membership into gyms. and i have to say i totally agree with him.

all in all an own goal by the lottery.