It was surprising to think that it was only last week that the Scottish independence referendum took place. The media storm has died down quite considerably here in the UK with Scotland remaining as part of the country. Unfortunately, Andy Murray was recently caught up in the Scottish referendum debate by stating that he wanted Scotland to become independent. As a consequence of his tweet on the day of the referendum, Murray has landed himself in a spot of bother.
In fairness to the Scottish superstar he had kept quiet on the matter until the day of the vote itself. But it’s just bad PR claiming that he did not regret giving an opinion and blaming the fact that he suffered a massive backlash from unionists on the wording of his tweet.
Mr Murray has probably failed to realise that by backing a yes vote that it would not have mattered how he would have worded his tweet—it was still pro-independence. Similarly, if he would have backed a no vote, you would have the yes campaign on his back. He was always going to get on the bad side of one group or another.
The problem with backing the idea of independence is that it could have had graver consequences than backing one that is against independence. After all (and apologies for stating the obvious), the majority of his support is British.
It is not the fact he is entitled to opinion or the fact he is a celebrity that is the issue. Celebrities are entitled to their opinions. Yet, with sports stars, especially with ones that are from Scotland, when they express their thoughts on this matter, nationality is inevitably going to get involved.
Murray is arguably Britain’s greatest tennis player of all time and his success at Wimbledon and the Olympics has made him a national hero for generations to come.
He worked hard on his image and even harder for his hero status. It took years for his reputation off the court to be restored in the English public’s eyes following his shockingly dumb statement in 2006 claiming that he would support anybody but England in the World Cup. Many proud Scots have made this jibe for decades, but it is still something that really should not have been said, even in jest, to a tabloid journalist.
It will be interesting how the Surrey-residing tennis ace will cope at Wimbledon and Queens next year. While the typical English middle class crowds don’t tend to boo the players that they despise, one can speculate the potential silence or dim applause that Murray will get when he walks out on to Centre Court next June.
And no matter how many times he said that he would have remained loyal to Great Britain in the tennis world, people don’t forget. And the media don’t forget either. The tabloids could really run with a story such as “rally against Andy” approaching Wimbledon, dragging up all his anti-English remarks no matter how tenuous.
This could really affect his sponsors later down the line. It will take a lot to rebuild his image with the British public after his comments and that could be a detriment to how much money he makes off the court—and Murray clearly loves appeasing his sponsors after the watch debacle during his US Open winning celebrations back in 2012. At least there is a bit of a silver lining for Murray with Scottish based Standard Life not withdrawing their sponsorship. Although, one has to wonder if that would have been the case if Scotland became independent.
At the moment, this debacle has blown over for Murray. Yet it would not be surprising if this issue was raised next summer and how the people, media and business will react to one of Britain’s sporting heroes.
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