Thetownend.com

Never thought I'd say this, but Joey Barton has got a point

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/joey-barton-blasts--tax-exile--lewis-hamilton-s-spoty-win-100902567.html

No he hasn't. SPOTY is nothing more than a popularity contest where the main award is concerned.

Hamilton was born in Britain, has a British passport and is British

Barton is a prize tit. Always has been.

SPOTY Is shite....

Lots of knighthoods dished out when the queens grand daughter won it.....then the horse went lame and she couldn't go to the Olympics....perhaps the horse should of won it then!?

Would have liked Pavey to have won it as her achievement was much more incredible than any of the others. Knowing a bit about swimming too, Peaty's achievements this year have been phenomenal.

I think Barton has a point (even if he is a tit).  I'm tired of watching Lewis Hamilton wrapping himself in the Union Jack while choosing to live in tax exile.  The more you think about it, the more contradictory - and unedifying - it seems.

I should add that he is perfectly entitled to live where he wants and to pay tax where he wants.  But please - can you stop trying to make out that there is a British dimension to your victories.  You're out there winning races for yourself and for your sponsors.

It's a nice story but winning 2 golf majors is a incredible achevement in that sport

Never been a fan of F1 - I just cannot see how the drivers can be compared when it is all down to the car.

Rory should have won. His achievements blew every other one of them away.
Hamilton won a two horse race. Wow.

It's been a farce since zara Phillips had it fixed for her. Joke of an award

Personally not interested in Hamilton,  F1 or SPOTY.

Getting irked by who won or who should have won Sports Personality of the Year is like whinging that your favourite contestant got knocked out of X Factor because everyone voted for Jedward.

Hamilton hasn't got a personality.

But it's sports personality of the year, not hobby personality of the year..

 Haven't watched it in years....when it was Sport's Review of the Year and presented by Peter Dimmock, it was decent.

 Back then, and when Cliff Morgan was a co-presenter, with latterly David Coleman...it would take a look at each sport and just talk about what had happened....a great way to refresh the memory. The Beeb, of course had plenty of footage to show.

Have to admit to being particularly gutted in 66, when Briggo (Barry Briggs) was second....the nearest Swindon has come to a winner.  He was pipped by some bloke called Moore.

The warning bells started ringing in 71, when HRH Princess Anne won  :-[  However, David Steele's win in 75 proved, there was still some life in it.

The 80's rightly had a golden crop of athletes as winners, but that was just about it, as it descended into parody through the 90's.

Of course, a long running format has to change with the times.....hence the name change around this time from Review to SPotY, a kind of symptom of the Thatcherite shift from collective values to the vacuous cult of celebrity, which infects our society.

Top notch rant Reg.  :clap:

He does, it's just one of a jumped up cunt.

McIlroy deserved it in my opinion.

I would argue that Cavendish, Calzaghe and AP were all very worthy winners. All legends of their sport.

This would be the same Barton who himself avoids tax and criticises Hamilton for being a bad role model?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2393278/Barton-stubbed-cigar-in-players-eye.html

Well said, in addition Hamilton spends most of the year away from the UK as...er...part of his job. I can't remember the same criticism of Damon Hill when he won despite being a tax exile.

Being a tit doesn't mean you're never right about anything.

See also: Brand, Russell

Bit harsh on DMR there

Yeah, I'm always right.

is driving cars around tracks more of a sport than golf?
Fair point. Phil the power must be due one then?

tehehe.

Rory isn't even British by birth

True, even a broken analogue clock is right twice a day.

He'd never avoid tax though

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/money/tax/article3820107.ece

Oh

He elected to play golf for Ireland in the Olympics instead of GB, so as far as I'm concerned he should have been up for the Overseas sports personality.

Ah well, we can all agree that it least it wasn't a fucking dressage rider that won.

In all seriousness, for me
  judged sports = hobby
  clear winner (first past the post, lowest score, goals, etc) = proper sport.

My sister used to work in McIlroys.. . .
on the perfume counter.

Lewis is a cunt but Golf isn't even a proper sport....

....whereas driving a car, thats a proper sport.

Load of shite 'competition'.