蜜芽传媒

Last week my 11-year-old was walking home in his football kit with his friends, having played an after-school match - when they spotted our local professional footballer, Steven Davis, on his driveway. He鈥檚 no sensation-seeking headline grabber - doesn鈥檛 even have a mansion! - so you may not have heard of him, though he does play for our local Premier League team in Southampton. And he is one of my son鈥檚 heroes. The pro hailed the lads over, took the time to ask how they鈥檇 got on, and kindly encouraged them. My son didn鈥檛 so much walk through the front door as float in on air.

And then, on Thursday night, as it happens, Davis captained Northern Ireland to victory against Greece in a European Championship match which sealed their qualification to the finals of a major tournament for the first time in 30 years. He scored two goals to boot, sparking great celebrations not just in Belfast, but in a lad鈥檚 bedroom here in Hampshire. In the week that Sepp Blatter and others were suspended on corruption charges by FIFA, this was a much purer form of footballing gold to treasure.

So much has changed, of course, in the 鈥渋ndustry鈥� in recent years - it may be a clich茅, but once football really was more 鈥渏umpers for goalposts鈥�; now kids who have a kickabout are consumers, a target market for the over-priced replica day-glo boots of the stars.

Yet despite that - and the self-seeking of so many who鈥檝e run this beautiful game nearly into the ground - its intrinsic goodness, by its very nature, endures: teamship, artistry, camaraderie, community, and occasionally still that triumphal joy of the underdog... It鈥檚 a spiritual principle, surely, that in a world of corruption, the incorruptible will ultimately outlast and outshine all else.

That鈥檚 perhaps what Jesus meant when he compared earthly riches, which can be stolen from us, with treasures in 鈥榟eaven鈥�. By heaven, I鈥檓 sure he didn鈥檛 mean pie-in-the-sky, but that soulful place within us and the life of our communities which is home to the incorruptible. Football, like all sport, at its best has to be heavenly.

The real riches in life aren鈥檛 what we can grab for ourselves like a grubby backhander, anyway - but what we can give away, through even the smallest acts of kindness or goodness or love.

FIFA may ultimately not survive its present scandals, and yet: the exploits of the likes of the Northern Ireland team this week will be treasured not just by communities in Belfast for generations to come; but stored up, as well, for good, in an English schoolboy鈥檚 heart.

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