JM Thorn 

3rd December 2005

“I wouldn't change a thing about my life. Women, booze, gambling – I’d do exactly the same again.” – George Best

The death of former footballer George Best at the age of 59 has provoked a public reaction probably not seen since the death of Princess Diana. Some commentators even compared the lingering manner of passing – he was in intensive care for over a month – to that of Pope John Paul II. During his final illness there were regular updates on his health and reports of visits by friends and family members to the hospital where he was a patient. When news broke last Friday that he had succumbed to multiple organ failure caused by a lung infection it led all the TV news bulletins. It was on the front page of nearly every newspaper in Britain and Ireland for three days. Reams of articles and photographs recounting his life were published. Radio and TV schedules gave way to programmes dedicated to him. A seemingly endless stream of tributes poured in. These ranged from football fans and former teammates to entertainers and politicians; Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and Mary McAleese all broke engagements to make public statements about George Best.

That a sportsman should receive the type of coverage reserved for monarchs, presidents and popes, is amazing. Even more so given the fact that he had not played football at the highest level for thirty years. Clearly in the public imagination Best was more than a footballer; he was a symbol of an era. This was reflected in many of reviews of his life, which bracketed him with the Beatles as a cultural icon of the 1960s. For a generation of people in Britain and Ireland he represented the freedom and optimism of that time. While there is a degree of nostalgia in these memories, in some ways that period did indeed represent a kind of “golden age”. It was the high point of the post-war economic expansion when there was low unemployment and a general rise in affluence. Also, for the first time the doors of academia were opening to young people from working class backgrounds. These developments gave rise to the belief that if people had talent and determination they could break through the class barriers into which they were born. This is often summarised by the term “social mobility”.

George Best was one of the figures of the 1960s who came to epitomise this concept. He was a boy from a council housing estate in east Belfast who through his athletic talent would become the most celebrated football player of his generation. In the context of Belfast at the time, George Best not only escaped from the limitations of being working class but also from stifling sectarian divisions. In the early sixties, when Best left for Manchester, these had abated to some degree. It was the sense that things were improving and that reforms could be won which partly spurred the civil rights movement. However, this proved to be an illusion when the civil rights challenge to the northern state provoked the most violent reassertion of sectarianism. George Best was fortunate to get out if Belfast when he did. Indeed, a lot of his appeal derived from the fact that he was relatively unmarked by sectarianism. He showed little interest in and even less knowledge of the politics of the north. An example of this was a comment in his last biography in which he expressed surprise that his father, a Protestant, would support a Catholic team such as Glentoran. Yet, anyone with some basic knowledge of the Irish League would know that Glentoran’s support is overwhelmingly Protestant. In terms of nationality, George Best had no problems in defining himself as Irish, and had called on numerous occasions for the creation of an all-Ireland football team. While this rankled with unionists, it had little political significance. Though he was Irish, George Best’s connections with Ireland, north or south, were limited. He was defined by England; it was where he spent most of his life, and the place he considered home.

The heyday of George Best’s football career was with Manchester United in the mid to late 1960s. In this period the club won two league championships and the European Cup. The year of the European Cup win, 1968, was probably the pinnacle of Best’s achievements as a footballer. As well as scoring in the final against Benfica, he finished top goal scorer in the league that year, and was voted English and European player of the year. He was still only twenty-two years of age. However, after this triumph the fortunes of both Best and his club went into decline. In 1973, he left the club after a dispute with the manager; the following season Manchester United were relegated. Although George Best played for other clubs, his career in top-flight football was effectively over.

Despite its early success the career of George Best is seen as disappointment. It is generally agreed that he did not fulfil his potential. A central factor in this was his increasing consumption of alcohol, which eroded his skills and fitness. What exactly caused this is speculative, but it was probably due to the pressures of fame and the loneliness and sense of alienation it can induce. He articulated this sense of alienation in one of his biographies: “I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn't identify with the person on the screen. I couldn't get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.” Though unaware of it, he is describing the classic Marxist concept of alienation in a capitalist society in which humans are removed from the products that they labour to create. In the same way, George Best the person was removed from George Best the football star. He had effectively been turned into an object and a commodity over which he had no control. While this cannot be compared to the sense of alienation suffered by the working class, it is part of the same process. For the working class alienation can often take the form of projecting their hopes and aspirations onto entertainers and sportspeople, of living vicariously through the famous because they have no hope of realising them themselves.

Working class heroes?

People who rise out of the working class, such as George Best, are often described as “working class heroes”. While there is no doubt that they are heroes to many working class people, the reality is that they do not advance the cause of the working class. In many ways they justify the continuation of capitalist society. Their role is to perpetuate the myth that there are a limited number people who have a “special” talent and can break through the barriers into which they were born. If you’re not one of these people then it’s too bad. Often such stars, as in the case of George Best, are ascribed the title of “genius”, inferring that their skills are unique.

As well as playing an essentially conservative role in society, these “working class heroes” often propagate the most right wing opinions. Though George Best could show intelligence and wit on occasions, more often than not he was spouting reactionary trash. The TV interviews, newspaper articles, after-dinner speeches and innumerable biographies that become the mainstay of Best’s career after football were full of celebrations of the most self-indulgent and sexist behaviour. While much of this was self-mockery, some did touch on politics. For example, here is his view of trade unions from an opinion column he wrote for the Mail on Sunday in June 2002: “I thought that union heads were decent people who worked for the good of their members. In fact many are on at least 10 times as much as their ‘comrades’, living it up at their members’ expense and awarding themselves inflation-busting rises year after year”. George Best was no working class hero. The real heroes are those he contemptuously dismissed in the quote above. They are the anonymous trade union members, such as those in Irish Ferries or Gate Gourmet, who are struggling in the face most oppressive conditions to defend the rights of workers.

Sanitised in death

Towards the end of his life, George Best’s behaviour was becoming more difficult to defend even for his most loyal supporters. This included beating his wife so badly she ended up in hospital, driving while drunk and returning to drinking after a liver transplant. Ultimately it was continuing abuse of alcohol that resulted in his death. However, since his death there has been attempt to sanitise his life, with most of the media coverage leaving the unsavoury things out or downplaying them as the type of weaknesses we all share. There were even claims that on his deathbed he found Jesus. In death all of George Best’s sins have been washed away. While such eulogising is understandable in the period after a person’s death, there has also been a more sinister attempt by the British government and unionists to hijack George Best as a symbol for the Northern Ireland state. He was effectively given a state funeral, with the service taking place in the Great Hall of Stormont before a congregation that included senior civil servants, police chiefs, political leaders, and government ministers. It was the DUP controlled Castlereagh Council that took over the arrangements for the funeral. This produced the spectacle of the councillors, who included Peter and Iris Robinson, greeting Best’s coffin as it was carried into Stormont. The attempt to claim George Best for Northern Ireland is particularly distasteful as he was largely unmarked by the sectarianism of that state.

George Best wasn’t a saint, but neither was he a monster. It must be acknowledged that he was a talented sports man whose skills on the football pitch gave pleasure to thousands of people. But he was a product of a class society, and suffered the limitations and disappointments that it imposes upon people, even these who have reached the top of their chosen career. However, we are not condemned to this as our fate. We don’t have to share the fatalist belief expressed by George Best in the quote at the head of this article. As humans we have the capacity to change the society in which we live; through struggle we can break down the class barriers that hold us back. We can create a new society in which humans cease to suffer alienation and are at one with their humanity. In this universal and classless society everyone will have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. The physical and intellectual achievements that are now seen as products of genius will be commonplace. In such a society there will be no need for heroes.