Betting should never be done with the heart. It should be done with the head. It’s a little like voting that way. Coral, the British bookmaker, said that if you had decided to go out on a limb and put a” hypothetical £5 treble on Leicester, Brexit and Trump” to win, then you would have been paid out over £15-million.
The odds were: “Leicester (pre-season) - 5000/1; Brexit (day of vote) - 3/1; Trump (when first announced he was running for president) - 150/1.”
No-one did. No-one I know thought any of the three would come to pass. No-one I know thought Leicester could hold on to the dream and that the British and United States would swing so violently towards the right.
Yesterday was, as David Remnick of the New Yorker wrote, “nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism”.
Trump’s win may also trip up the country’s chances of hosting major sporting events, according to the BBC.
Los Angeles is hoping to host the Olympics and football World Cup in 2024. “Back in August, LA’s mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton, acknowledged IOC members had concerns over Trump,” reported the BBC.
'For us, I think IOC members might have said certain things,' he said. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-garcetti-olympics-20160807-snap-story.html 'An America that turns inward, like any country that turns inward, isn’t good for world peace, isn’t good for progress, isn’t good for all of us’.”
When IOC president Thomas Bach spoke this year about a “world of selfishness where certain people claim to be superior to others”, it was held to be about Trump’s plans to get target Muslims and ethnic groups with regards to immigration. “They wonder, “Is America going to take this strange turn?’” said Garcetti.
The turn has been taken, the damage done. An American friend, Steve, told me on Wednesday that he would pretend he was Canadian. He had no answer for those who would ask him, “What has your country done?”
Trump has exposed the dark, frightened, angry and desperate soul of the United States. Martina Navratilova was cut to the bone: “I knew America was racist but not this much. And I had no idea America was this sexist. Shame on us...”
Vincent Kompany, Manchester City defender, tweeted: “Let’s put all the idiots around the world in power and see what happens.”
Bob Arum, the boxing promoter was in New Zealand this week. “You cannot believe what a bummer I’m on today with the results of this election,” he told the NZ Herald. “I don’t know, I’m looking at Canada, I’m looking at New Zealand, any place that doesn’t have a wall.”
The lesson to be learnt. Never underestimate the madness of humans.
And remember to take a way-out bet on the utterly unexpected happening.
The Star