Reading manager Steve Coppell has been singled out as the 2006 Scrooge of sport — having outlawed Christmas shopping and seeing friends at home or away in the festive season for his players.
”If players have to go off Christmas shopping, it’s not the ideal preparation,” he said.
”This may sound stupid, but having to fight the crowds in a busy shopping centre, going off visiting, or having people visit you, can be demanding. The wives would not agree, but I don’t think footballers should be going shopping.”
After all, promoted Reading have a busy Premier League football schedule over the next days, hosting Everton on Saturday and visiting champions Chelsea on Tuesday.
The game at Stamford Bridge is part of the traditional round of Boxing Day football action in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Boxing Day has a long sports tradition in the United Kingdom, with football and horse racing taking over in the modern days from fox-hunting in the past.
Sport also dominates the day in other countries, with Boxing Day the annual start of the Sydney to Hobart boat race.
The Boxing Day cricket Test is the other big sports event in Australia, played in front of a massive Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd. This time around it marks the start of the fourth Test against England in the Ashes series.
Germany has recently introduced ice hockey league games on the day, but like many other European countries, keeps sports activities to a minimum over Christmas. Not even big ski races are scheduled for Boxing Day, despite big numbers of ski-tourists in alpine countries such as Austria or Switzerland.
The opposite is the case in the United States, where American football and basketball are even played on Christmas Day.
Sports fans in Miami will even be able to attend a double dose on Monday.
They can skip the turkey for a lunch-time game between NBA champions Miami Heat and the LA Lakers (they met the same day last year) and die-hards won’t have time to get the Christmas meal in the evening either because the Dolphins then host the New York Jets in the NFL.
NHL ice-hockey at least gives its players the 24th and 25th off before resuming with a full round on Boxing Day. — Sapa-dpa