I was aghast and speechless when I heard that the England football manager, Fabio Capello, would not be attending his own son's wedding on Saturday due to having to manage the England football squad for their friendly match against Spain.
What is the man thinking?! This is his son's wedding, for gawd's sake. Now, I should state that I am not a football fan. My brother once took me to a football match and, apparently, I showed myself up when during the game I asked what time the interval was. Thus, maybe I am looking at this with some bias, but a football match does not trump a family wedding in my book, even if you are the manager.
I hate to be unpatriotic as well as pessimistic, but England probably won't do that well at the game either, and so will having Mr Capello in attendance really make much of a difference?
England play many matches a year - whereas Capello's son will (hopefully) only get married once and I am sure any father - in their right mind - would want to be there. He may be paid millions a year by the FA, but (as we have seen this week with the FA valiantly fighting for poppies to be worn during matches) the FA have a heart and surely they would show a bit of compassion on this occasion and let him miss just one FRIENDLY (it's not even for a trophy!) Do we know if Mr Capello even asked?
There are times in our lives where we have to make difficult decisions and have to pick whether we are going to go to one event or the other. Generally speaking, if one receives two invitations for the same time slot then one goes to the event one accepted first. Yet, as I experienced earlier this year, there are exceptions to this rule. I had a very important meeting with a very big London client booked in and then a good friend of mine died and the funeral was scheduled for the same day - miles away from London. In hindsight, I don't actually know why I was in such a quandary as the funeral should (and did) take precedence, but my presence at the meeting - I was told - would make or break the contract and I found myself caught between a rock and a hard place. As it happens, we did get the contract although work on it has been postponed until 2012, and I went to say goodbye properly to my friend - who is still very much missed.
Capello's decision may seem logical in his head now but when he resigns as England manager and is reflecting, surely he will regret not being there to witness what should be one of the best Capello family moments?