Mark Selby’s fine is ludicrous: the sport is too woke and leaders need to see sense

It would be a crying shame if Mark Selby were punished by the World Snooker Tour (WST) for his slip after the British Open final. The four-time world champion was interviewed just minutes after his defeat to Jack Jones, which upset him as his use of the F-word caused a stir online.

Speaking to Channel 5, the Jester, from Leicester, said: “I’m just happy I have a day off tomorrow because I feel absolutely f***ed up. I’ve got nothing left.” This is literally true. That’s hardly the most controversial thing anyone has ever said, is it? Anyway, it was funny and had a lot of people laughing on social media. More attention to snooker can only be a good thing. But in the modern world, nothing can go unpunished, even occasional mistakes that do not cause any offense at all.

If you believe that anyone who listened to this interview was genuinely upset by Selby’s remarks, I have a bridge for you.

But with athletes constantly being held to impossible standards, both internally and in the media, a fine will almost certainly be imposed on the position.

It should be noted that Selby was interviewed just minutes after losing a high-profile final, and a very long one at that, with no time to recover from the pressure and exhaustion of it all.

How can sports stars be expected to maintain constant excellence under such circumstances? Selby just missed out on £100,000 in prize money. At least give the guy a minute to cool down and collect his thoughts.

The problem is not just snooker. The introduction of half-time interviews in football (which, by the way, absolutely no one asked for) only highlights the direction in which the sport as a whole is heading.

The entire industry is becoming overly sanitized. I woke up, so to speak. Every passing comment from athletes is over-analyzed by fans and analyzed to death by the media, without taking into account the fact that elite sports stars are ordinary people just like you and me.

Yet people still complain about the decline of great personalities in the sport while this ongoing sterilization occurs right before our eyes.

People argue all the time. This is nothing new. You can’t just hold these athletes to a higher standard and expect them to never make mistakes or leave room for error.

In this case, the interview aired close to midnight, and there was clearly no intention of offending anyone. So what’s the point of issuing a fine?

It’s all a little funny. If athletes were simply allowed to be people instead of media-trained robots, sports would be in a much better and even more exciting place.