Can wags lift the fortunes of the English football team in South Africa 2010?
At the last World Cup, the Wags or wives and girlfriends of the English football team accompanied them to the tournament and gave them their full support. Maybe this time round, the wags are too busy doing their own thing or forging ahead with their own careers. If they were allowed to show up at this World Cup, they could have done some good by trying to lift the spirits of the England team? Maybe they could help Rob Green get back into his stride. But the real question is do wags actually make a difference in the performance of the players or are they just a beautiful distraction?
Wags have become icons in their own right in the world of celebrity meets sports. It seems they appeal to a certain type of woman in the world, the kind that supports a football team but more than that she supports the fashion, style and status of the wives and girlfriend of a famous footballer. Is that all they are about though? Some have forged successful careers in fashion and music, Cheryl Cole being the favourite here but some are content sitting back and enjoying the good life. But why have wags been banned from travelling with the team to this year's World Cup in South Africa. An article online may give us the answer.
"She’ll have been told to stay away because her presence in South Africa will put the players off”. The article this quote was taken from goes on to talk about what happened at the last World Cup in 2006 when the Wags were allowed to go along with their partners. "Of course, the reason that many fans, pundits and even the England coach are so against having Wags in South Africa is because of what happened last time. During the 2006 World Cup, the wives were based with the players in the pretty German resort of Baden-Baden and attracted an astronomical amount of publicity”. These poor girls, if you can in any way call those poor, couldn't win. If they hung out with their husbands and boyfriends, they were seen as a distraction; if they went out for parties, they would have got massive amounts of media attention and could have been a distraction. So it seems that it was better to tell them politely to stay at home.
You almost feel bad for a footballer's wife or girlfriend. The nature of a footballer's career is such that they are never based in one place for too long. If they are transferred to another club in a different country, then the family has a tough choice to make – either move to a new place or the wife can stay back while the husband goes off and takes his place in a different country. Well let's not feel too bad for them because they can always find consolation in the millions upon millions of pounds they have in the bank. This issue is faced by many families all over the world and the only difference is that normal people don't have camera crews and tabloid journalists following them around all the time.
This concept of wags isn't limited to football. It is alive and well in the cricketing world of Australia as well. The wags in Australian cricket are pretty similar to the ones in the UK, with insane amounts of makeup, huge sunglasses, designer outfits, extremely skinny bodies and orange skins to attract the media towards them. But they seem to have a different purpose down under than they do in the UK.
"But I suspect having the WAGs on tour is less about making the team happy and more about keeping cricket in the news. The Australians have struggled for coverage in recent years and fielding an underwhelming side for this tour was bound to lead to the need to generate interest”.
Is this exploitation of these women; are they even aware that it is happening? Do any of them care might be a better question to be asked here. There seems to be something about the nature of being a wag that attracts them to the spotlight. They don't shy away from the camera very easily.
Whatever fate is in store for the wags in South Africa 2010, they certainly won't be a part of the English side in this World Cup. From the pretty lukewarm performance the side put in against the U.S. a few days ago, maybe having them along wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all.
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