Back to the future

THE BBC TV series Life on Mars ended during the week.

You’re probably aware of the premise involved, even if you haven’t actually seen an episode: a Manchester detective is hit by a car and transported back to 1973. Hence the David Bowie song being used as a title.

But is the detective really in a coma and imagining everything, or has he actually travelled through time and must now solve some kind of riddle to get back to the present? You know it’s television because it’s manifestly unrealistic — the detective focuses on crimes rather than hurtling to the bookies in his Ford Granada to put his life savings on Red Rum for the Grand National (9-1, don’t forget).

There’s been a touch of the Life on Mars about the last week or so in a couple of sports. The ongoing rumbles about the Heineken Cup brings us back in time — firstly to 1998, when English rugby clubs decided not to participate in the top European club competition and gave it a severe wobble.

At that time there was something of an excuse — it was only three years since rugby had gone professional, and everyone was feeling their way to some extent. To drop quickly into the time-travel machine for a little perspective, in England Richmond and London Scottish both ceased operating as professional teams at the end of that 1998-9 season, for instance. That was the extent of the learning curve for some clubs — it was so steep as to be vertical, and they actually went out of existence as top-flight operations.

Now the professional clubs of England — and France — are on a stronger financial footing, it makes sense that they want more of a say in how the biggest tournament is run and marketed, no matter what your opinion of their methods. But all parties have to learn this game’s rules as they go along — professionalism is so new to rugby that there are still a handful of survivors from the first generation of paid players. Precedent is a little thin on the ground, hence the apocalyptic note being struck in some quarters over the last seven days.

Even in long-standing pro sports, the lessons of history may be difficult to take on board — but perhaps not impossible. Another game had a blast from the past this last couple of weeks, and the memories evoked went back a lot further than the late 90s.

The scenes at Roma-Manchester United in the Italian capital, and also outside Old Trafford earlier this week at the return leg, were a throwback to the bad old days of the 70s and 80s — in an odd way, back to the time and setting of Life on Mars itself.

It’s not quite the same as it was in 1973, or even 1983, of course. What was interesting about the analyses of the trouble was the disparity of views between both sides. United came out strongly in support of their fans, citing the different policing approaches in Italy and England when it comes to managing football fans and suggesting Italian authorities overreacted.

The Italian police disagreed, with their chief pointing to videotape that showed his officers surrounded by aggressive fans. Given the death of an Italian policeman at a Catania-Palermo game in February, a swift, sharp response wasn’t surprising.

Yet the fact that the default setting has moved on shows progress: there was a time before Nick Hornby and Sky Super Sunday and WAGs when European games were almost inevitably overshadowed by shots of fans — always in tight pants, for some reason — being chased by beefy riot police wielding large weapons with uncharitable intent.

It might be a backhanded compliment, but the fact that such trouble is rare enough to remark upon these days is its own commentary on the advances of the last couple of decades. Didn’t David Bowie get there first with that old standard of his? Not Life on Mars, but Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

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