Press Coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic Unhelpful To Gamblers

With the press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic now bordering on the schizophrenic we look at how the press is failing not just society with its greedy self-interested pursuit of profit margins but damaging gamblers’ ability to place considered wagers through failure to provide adequate and accurate, and most importantly pertinent, information for their readers, viewers and listeners. No one expects them to be Ed Murrow or Walt Cronkite but their slide into tabloid sleaze seeking has gone too far.

One has to love the press. It’s that or hold public inquiries, find them in contempt of human decency and have them all shot. Their disingenuous pearl-clutching horror at the behavior of others whilst themselves treating people like cattle to be slaughtered in pursuit of rating, viewers, readers or listeners is truly pathetic. Wrapping themselves in the haughty aloof defense that they should only beholden to the truth, and that the public interest is whatever they say it is, and only coincidentally always involves tits.

Zlatan’s Press Rollercoaster

• Is the big Z in decline?
• Might he just be evolving?
• Or is he just unlucky in a ball game?

The press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic of late, however, does not highlight their complete moral bankruptcy and destruction of individuals for fun and profit, as much as it does their negative influence on the world as a whole. What the press is supposed to do is inform, present sensible analysis and actively seek to fulfill the role the fourth estate is meant to achieve, but in an overly commercialized world the press has long since fallen victim to the pressure to be info-tainment.

Those that like to bet on sports in Sweden will already be aware that with few goals and some poor results the press has started questioning if Zlatan is going off the boil, only for other parts of the press to say that far from being in decline he’s merely evolving. The press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a classic study in the idiocy of the press’ desire to farm people, carving out a narrative with easy to grasp concepts, rather than daring to try and actually do their jobs.

Press Coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Performance

Now I understand sports journalism can’t be held to the same standards as real reporting, the sheer irrelevance of their subject matter in the grand scheme of things (ISIS aren’t sending a team to the 2022 world cup, which says it all folks) means they’re apt to feel far less onus upon them to maintain any real standards, however the Captain Mainwaring-esque pomposity of the press in general is still much in evidence in the press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic as it has been in the reporting of sport over the last twenty years or so.

It would be easy to simply think of the press as a hostile beast awaiting to trip up the unwary or unworthy, to pick off the weak from the herd like some kind of socio-darwinistic culling of the unnecessary. However the truth is far more cannibalistic as the press themselves give birth to the very people they seek to feed off later on. Ibrahimovic’s reputation as a mega-star in waiting is as much a manifestation of the press coverage on ESPN or the BBC as it is of his football skills on the pitch.

They build them up, place enough pressure on them to create diamonds from coal dust, then gleefully cover the meltdown or decline as if the celebrity victim du jour were somehow inhuman for being unable to uphold the standards of performance and personal life that the press have laid down claiming the public make them do it.The press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic should be about his fitness, his attitude to the game, not which brand of perfume he’s launching, or gambling news stories on his charity work interest anyone except his press agent.

Swede Next For The Media Mincer?

Sport really has only one purpose; Gambling. Beyond that it is a pointless entertainment that these days can be bettered by a decent internet connection and some imagination (which I admit does tend to negate most football fans from managing it). However the press simply can’t allow its irrelevance to be so obvious and as in the press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and rather than tell us gamblers what we need to know to place accurate wagers at ComeOn! Sportsbook or Bet365, we get utter drivel.

The stick with which players of football get beaten most often is, of course, the “role model” argument where the press claim that these people are role models for millions of children and young people around the world and thus must behave in some saintly manner the entire time. They don’t stop for a moment and wonder what sort of shitty parents allow their kids to aspire to kick a ball about for a living instead of getting a proper job, no they just attack the players, mostly young men with brains only enough to play football for a living, for having the sort of fun young men have always enjoyed.

The press coverage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his recent less than stellar performance is merely part and parcel of modern football where the press have long since eschewed the chance to play the ball and have instead constantly played the man. It’s just such a shame that the press’ basic failure to do their job leaves those of us thinking of taking advantage of Swedish gambling laws to back Zlatan over at PSG have to do so with more information about his car than about his legs.