Spice Boys (footballers) - Scandals and Controversies - Vandalism, Humour, Pranks and Orgies

Vandalism, Humour, Pranks and Orgies

The Spice Boys were largely showcased in the media because they involved high profile players, many of whom played for their National Teams, where McManaman and Fowler had already been associated with the drinking games and "dentist's chair incident" prior to the Euro 1996 and the trashing of a Cathay Pacific flight cabin with Paul Gascoigne.

This media focus meant that players were caught each time they were behaving like this and their behaviour and lack of decorum- such as their antics at the Liverpool Football Club 1998 Christmas party with drinking, sex toys and strippers (labelled as the "most debauched Christmas party in the world...ever" by The Independent) highlighted for the nation their infamy, and got them castigated by the media to such a large degree that it warranted national attention and outcries for lack of discipline and effort, on the basis that these players owed a duty of care to their national team, and that their lack of discipline would affect their professionalism. Older players like Ince and McManaman were also blamed for being a negative influence on the younger stars, like Jamie Carragher, who was photographed stripping his Hunchback of Notre Dame costume and cavorting with a stripper and wielding whipped cream, before having sex in front of revellers in Liverpool's 1998 costume party- an incident marked by newspaper The Guardian as one of the top 10 examples of footballers behaving badly. In the aftermath of that notorious night at the Pen & Wig pub, press reports ran stories filled with lurid details of men tearing off their clothes to have full sex in the name of "unwinding" and "festive fun" in front of guests; the obscenity of which shocked the nation and even Liverpool's own fans claimed that Bill Shankly's original purpose of Liverpool's Christmas party (to "bond" the players) had been lost in a new generation, focused on debauchery.

Fowler and McManaman were also labelled for being serial pranksters with a scally sense of humour that was not appreciated, reported widely in the media, with reports of them cutting up team mates' shoes, destroying team mates' rooms, and doing pranks at Bisham Abbey before live cameras, which did not help their shedding of the negative labels, and earned them a cult following of fans. Fowler was reported in the media for several controversies, some of which were on the pitch- including his sending off during an Under-21 game in Austria for swearing; getting punished by the FA for baring his backside to Leicester fans; and an incident on an Under-21 trip to Portugal when a hotel room shared by Kevin Gallen was damaged, plus an infamous airport punch-up before tabloid cameras with team-mate Neil Ruddock in 1995/96 where Ruddock punched Fowler up for cutting up his 300 pound Gucci shoes, when Fowler claimed he only did that because he thought Ruddock had instigated players to urinate into his footwear. Ruddock and McAteer meanwhile had also been making several tabloid headlines following a widely reported "Porsche incident" involving a coat hanger where Ruddock called the police over to McAteer's house to help him with his car, and the police told McAteer to get a coat hanger so they could help him open his car doors as he had locked his keys inside, and he went and brought out a wooden one. McAteer was also notorious for several other such stories that filled the tabloids, including a "pizza" story, where McAteer was asked if he wanted a pizza cut in eights and replied, "Nah, I'm not that hungry, just cut it in fours please", where after which, McAteer obtained a new nickname instead of "Dave"- "Double Trigger" (both based on Only Fools and Horses characters) for his perceived lack of intelligence.

The Spice Boys were also popular for their tongue in cheek antics that were ahead of their time, with them ranging from anything from having half the squad dye their hair platinum blonde or with blonde highlights as part of summer pranks before the 1996 and 1997 seasons, to driving round the city sitting on the bonnet of a stretch limousine, to antics at horseracing festivals, such as the Cheltenham festival and Aintree, where McManaman and Fowler led the Spice Boys to collectively purchase two thoroughbreds and called them "Some Horse" and "Another Horse", just so they could have a laugh (to the commentator's chagrin) when results and the commentary was broadcast.

Read more about this topic:  Spice Boys (footballers), Scandals and Controversies

Famous quotes containing the words pranks and/or orgies:

    Literary criticism now is all pranks and polemics.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men,
    I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers.
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)