Boot madness!

Whatever happened to traditional black football boots? In a photograph of a park team in the local newspaper last week, I counted that six out of the eleven players were wearing coloured boots. And I don't mean red laces or a white tongue, I mean full on, visible from space fluorescent yellows and brilliant blues. The bright green number that Wayne Rooney wears at the monment looked a popular choice as well.


Now is it me, or do you actually have to be a pretty good player to get away with boots like that? As far as i'm concerned, some overweight, middle aged bloke trying to do step-overs in his Wayne Rooney boots on a Sunday morning makes himself a prime target for some particularly crunching tackles. Then again, if they're all wearing them, maybe not!

How long 'til those buffs catch on?

When is a sport not a sport?

What exactly is it that makes a sport a sport? I had this debate with a friend over a game of snooker the other day, and after much animated discussion we still could not agree.
"It's not a game, it's a sport!"
"No, it's a bloody game!"
So as I wandered home, I pondered this deeply philosophical question, and came up with a list of possible criteria.

Skill - Does sport have to involve skill? Most sports do require skill in some form, but what about things such as distance running? Running is not in itself a particularly skillful activity, but it is undoubtedly a sport.

Physical exertion - Does sport have to involve physical effort? The Olympic motto is 'faster, higher, stronger', although it could be argued that the plethora of Olympic 'sports' means that this is now a bit of an anachronism. Has sport moved on from simply being a measure of physical excellence?

Competition - Does sport have to be competitive? Competition is basically what makes sport exciting and inspirational from an observer's point of view. However, a casual kick-about in the park or a jog round the block to keep fit is surely still sport, even though it isn't competitive.

Rules - Does sport have to be organised and played according to rules? I think competitive sport does, in order to ensure fair competition, but what about 'freestyle' sports or activites, such as parkour?

For me, I think that the basic divide between sport and other activites is physical exertion. At the same time though, there are physical activites I could think of which I wouldn't class as sport.

So what do you think? What makes sport sport...