Sent back to the dressing room? From left: Alex Curran (married to Steven Gerrard); Abigail Clancy (engaged to Peter Crouch); Coleen Rooney (married to Wayne), Lisa Carrick (married to Michael)Derided for their luxury lifestyles, England’s wives and girlfriends have been told they are not wanted on the team’s voyage to the World Cup in South Africa. But is their pariah status justified? Sports journalist Alison Kervin puts the case for the defence
The young woman in front of me is fulfilling the fantasies of thousands of schoolgirls. She’s got the man, the house, the car, the body and the wardrobe. But over the next few weeks she’s going to face a massive challenge to her marriage, her reputation and her sanity. ‘This is the worst time to be a Wag,’ she says. ‘I love watching football, but I hate the World Cup…’
A lot of people will struggle to have sympathy for these women, who get so much, materially, out of the relationships they forge with rich young footballers. As a sports journalist and editor for almost 20 years, I’d often brushed past them dismissively at matches, seeing only the clichés – the french-manicured nails, skin the colour of a ripe tangerine and hair painted daffodil yellow. The designer labels, alarmingly large sunglasses, and more make-up than your average drag queen. Then I spent some time with them, and I found it a sobering experience.
The Wags I met felt isolated and forgotten as their partners pursued their goal of sporting glory. One told me that she felt unwelcome everywhere. In nightclubs, girls would flock round her husband and look disparagingly at her, clearly wishing she weren’t there, and whenever she and her husband were out having dinner, fans would elbow her aside as they fought for his attention. ‘I’ve never felt so worthless as I have since becoming a footballer’s wife,’ she said. ‘I feel I have no real place.’
And, of course, every time a player gets caught out having an affair it’s a further blow, because the more players who are up to it, the greater the chance that your partner will be, too. ‘It’s particularly hard to cope with the rumours because many of us are isolated from friends and families. You don’t realise when you first fall in love with a footballer how temporary everything will be in your life with him. You can meet him playing for Arsenal and the two of you settle down in London, then he’s signed by another club, so what do you do? Stay in London while your husband moves around the country without you? No ****ing way, not with all the girls hanging around.’
The England wives and girlfriends were under constant scrutiny in Germany in 2006 
From left: Shopping in Baden Baden; Rio Ferdinand blamed the 'circus' for England's failureAnd now the World Cup is about to add to the pressure. One of the Wags I spoke to said her partner had had the date circled on his calendar since the beginning of the year, and the whole family has suffered months of stress leading up to it.
If a player has made the England squad, his girlfriend won’t have seen him for weeks while he’s been at training camps and altitude camps in preparation for South Africa.
Instead she’ll have been holding the house and the children together, making sure everything ticks over so that he’s free to train. And now, when it’s time for all the hard work to pay off, she’ll have been told to stay away because her presence in South Africa will put the players off.
‘It’s incredibly offensive. Fans, coaches, physios, businessmen on corporate freebies…they’ll all be there, and they don’t even know my husband – but not the women who’ve been there for the players every morning and every night, picking them up when they’re down and encouraging them to keep going. We’re told, “You’re not welcome; you’re a distraction.” Just think how you’d feel if that was you.’
Wives don’t have the network of fans, fellow players, coaches, managers, agents, doctors, physios and club staff that players enjoy with every new club or international competition. They’re left to fend for themselves under the watchful eye of the press, with only other Wags for company. Much is expected of them – to be a role model, a good wife, a style icon, to be discreet and stay in the background, to take the blame when things go wrong, and to smile sweetly and turn the other cheek when their husband misbehaves. And many of them are very young to have to cope with all this.
‘We went out, partied, shopped and did our own thing, but then we were told that we caused England to lose. I’ll never understand the logic behind that’
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. Their daily jaunts to the shops and late-night drinking parties were covered extensively by newspapers, and by the end of it all we knew more about Victoria’s purchases at designer stores than about David’s corner kicks on the pitch. Many fans felt that a carnival was created by the Wags’ presence, with photographers following them everywhere. Many football pundits thought the crazy focus on the women must have distracted and perhaps even embarrassed the players.
‘It was very difficult in Baden-Baden,’ one Wag explained. ‘We got to the stage where we didn’t know what to do for the best. We felt like punchbags for England’s mistakes on the pitch. If we’d hung around the players all the time, we’d have been accused of being clingy and distracting them. Instead we went out, partied, shopped and did our own thing, but then we were told that we caused England to lose. I’ll never understand the logic behind that.’
Whatever you think of the Wags, the girl’s got a point. Yes, they drank a lot and spent a fortune on hair accessories and maxi dresses. But England centre-half Rio Ferdinand blamed the ‘circus’ surrounding the Wags for the team going out of the World Cup. Eh? Could a team destined for World Cup glory really be distracted by pictures of their wives buying make-up and wearing hot pants with cowboy boots?
This time the Wags are being discouraged from going, and told that if they do they will have to stay in a different hotel from the players. As a result, many of the most high-profile Wags, including Coleen Rooney and Steven Gerrard’s wife Alex Curran, have indicated that they’ll be staying home.
‘I understand why [England manager] Fabio Capello has said that,’ says one of the Wags who was in Baden-Baden, ‘but it’s hard to stay in England on your own. We know that newspapers send “plants” into the players’ hotels to try and seduce them so they can get a story. We know that young girls flock to wherever the players are. We know that the players are surrounded by willing young women all the time, yet we’re told to keep away from the players to let them concentrate on “playing”. It’s very difficult to just sit back. Most of the Wags I know met their partners when they were very young and just starting out in the game. We fell in love with them as people before they became footballers. There’s something very scary about the girls who hang around bars just wanting to meet a player – any player.’
Simply banning the wives won’t keep them out of the papers, and won’t necessarily result in a change in England’s fortunes. When the England rugby team won the World Cup in 2003, they had their wives and families with them. There’s no evidence that isolating players from their families makes them more likely to win – indeed, the most successful sides tend to be those working in as ‘normal’ an environment as possible, with family and friends around them (this is one of the reasons why home advantage is so significant in team sports).
And what if – just imagine – England win? Then, surely, it will be a glorious time to be a Wag, right?
Well, consider these statistics: 70 per cent of sportsmen’s marriages end in divorce, and this rises to an estimated 83 per cent if they win a major title or achieve a career goal. It’s a shocking statistic.
‘You’d have to be superhuman not to worry,’ says oneof the Wags, ‘and although we have nice homes and nice clothes, we’re not superhuman, not by a long way.’
Alison Kervin’s new novel Wags at the World Cup is published by Ebury Press, price £6.99. To order a copy for £5.99, with free p&p, contact the YOU Bookshop on 0845 155 0711, or visit you-bookshop.co.uk
source :dailymail
