The ratio of metaphors used to words spoken or written about football may be higher than for any other topic. Expressions, however bizarre (“part and parcel”?), are more contagious than nits and become cliches almost before you have heard them. Some are amusing, often in a playground fashion. Some are arresting and attract attention in the midst of the clamour. Many are hackneyed and banal, but to describe a player who fails to control the ball as “having the touch of a rapist” or a team comprehensively beaten as having been “raped” is simply profoundly offensive.
Rape is a horrific crime that can ruin people’s lives. A rapist is someone who commits this crime, not someone who misjudges a pass. Last year, 435,000 people were raped or suffered sexual violence. 9 out of 10 rapes are never reported. More than a third of serious sexual assault victims tell nobody what has happened to them. The long term effects of rape are not about a poor goal difference or failing to qualify for the Champion’s League – they are about depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide.
Choose a different term.
