So That’s Why John Harkes Didn’t Go to World Cup ‘98. (Allegedly.)

February 4th, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Do you like the word “alleged”? I hope so, because I’m going to use it a lot in the next paragraph.

The bombshell that is John Terry’s alleged affair with Wayne Bridge’s one time girlfriend sent ripples across the Atlantic ocean earlier this week, where former USA striker Eric Wynalda alleged that former USA captain John Harkes did something similar and had an affair with Wynalda’s wife before the 1998 World Cup.

“There’s a lot of similarities between what happened to us in ‘98 and what’s happening now to England,” Wynalda told the AP. “It’s an unfortunate time for England, because I know how that can affect a team firsthand. Obviously, we all know how we did in the World Cup in ‘98.”

Which would – finally – explain USA coach Steve Sampson’s seemingly mental decision to leave “captain for life” (I kid you not) John Harkes out of the USA’s 1998 World Cup squad.

As Wynalda alluded, the 1998 World Cup did not go well for the USA. It’s best remembered for the 3-6-1 formation, losing to Germany, Iran and Yugoslsavia, and finishing bottom of Group F. Steve Sampson took most of the blame, and now seems relieved that this story is finally out there.

“Maybe people will have a little better of an understanding of what happened in the final months leading up to the World Cup …

“I felt that these are the kinds of issues that need to stay in the locker room and within the team and not (be) exposed to the public,” Sampson said. “The private issues for me were the most serious issues. I think I could have lived with everything else and kept John on the team if it had not been for the private issues. It’s one thing to have an affair outside the team. It’s another to have one inside. … There are just certain lines that one cannot cross.”

Again, remember this is all “alleged” right now. So we’ll tread carefully.

Sampson may have been right or wrong to drop Harkes without revealing the real reason at the time. (He cited “leadership issues”, which is vague enough to be true I suppose.) You could even say it’s honourable that Sampson took the heat for dropping Harkes, allowing Hakres to be the victim and himself to be the bad guy. But what this proves – once again – is that we never really know what’s going on in football.

Despite the seemingly endless media coverage of the beautiful game, we never have the full picture. Teams, coaches and players only ever show us a tiny slice of the pie, so there is a multitude of events that take place behind closed doors, with no one present to report it. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. Quite the opposite, because not everything needs to be public knowledge. But I think it’s worth reminding ourselves while we’re blogging and commenting away, or even reporting on events in mainstream media, that we probably don’t know even half of what’s really happening.