Joey Barton believes that football can learn many lessons from the recent Olympic Games in London.
Athletes, organisers and volunteers alike were highly praised for the way that they conducted themselves at the Games over the previous fortnight.
On reflection, Queens Park Rangers midfielder Barton feels that football, and in particular the Premier League, has lost its identity.
"Football has got lost up it's own arse in so many ways – we get told this a lot as footballers in some shape or form – and compared to the Olympics it's true," Barton wrote on his official website. "Can we honestly say that football at the Olympics fitted in? I don't think so, the athletes there were still more detached, somehow. I'd go as far to say that it was a side-show, I really hate admitting this out loud about a game I adore, a game that's my life.
"It's time football got a bit of humility. Seriously. Our game was always the ultimate peoples game, crossing all boundaries, like the Olympics.
"Yet it's not anymore and surely we want to get that back? We need to."
Barton will miss the first 12 games of the season because of suspension.
Liam Apicella
