Archive: Britain stands tall without a footballer in sight
This years short list has been revealed for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012 and what can you say but wow?
Simply put it is one of the very best for several years.
To some perhaps, it may be a surprise once again that no British footballer is in sight.
However, I believe that football has been overlooked due to quality exuded by athletes from numerous other sports.
Not, as some may suggest because of the kicking the game's reputation has taken due to racism debates, unjustified sackings, sex scandals and so forth.
How can a game that relies so much on team coherence compare to a man who cycled 2,173 miles to win the Tour de France? An athlete who competed in seven different events to win gold? Or a an 18 year old swimmer with dwarfism who took home four medals? It just can't.
I'm not arguing that these individuals achieved their own greatness alone, but when it came down to it, they were the ones who had to make it count.
The most recent football victories at Sports Personality, Michael Owen (1998), David Beckham (2001) and Ryan Giggs (2009) all defeated more deserving candidates.
I love football, but the chances of a player being nominated, let alone winning, in the near future are very distant due to the quality of other British sports men and women succeeding.
Now we wait, good luck to all the nominees.
Having just looked, there have been a few footballers nominated since I wrote this, but the only winner was Beth Mead in 2022. That shows a huge, and deserved, leap forward for women's football. I suspect the Lionesses will be up there again in 2023 after their World Cup runners up performance.