What is it about mega-rich sports people that gives them the right to behave like primary-school children?

The answer, of course lies in the word 'mega-rich'. The Manchester United yobbos (players, not fans) who allegedly were involved in this, that and the other during their so-called Christmas party on Monday night all suffer from the same problem - how to adapt from coming from homes with nothing to lifestyles with everything.

Now I'm not going to get all nostalgic and sit with a Christmas cracker hat, box of dates and a scrapbook with pictures of Nat Lofthouse sitting on the top deck of a bus going to a match with the fans. We are living in a completely different world where morons, like the contestants of Big Brother, are given much more status and media power than our brilliant writers, directors and mainstream entertainers.

'We are living in a completely different world where morons, like the contestants of Big Brother, are given much more status and media power than our brilliant writers, directors and mainstream entertainers'


And so it is that the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes have swapped the anonimity of council estates for mock Tudor mansions with electric gates and can afford a £4,000 Christmas bash with, if we are to believe the gutter press, scores of hand-picked maidens to massage their egos (and much more).

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley admitted on Thursday that these parties have got out of hand and he was going to call a halt to them. And one can imagine what Sir Alex Ferguson is feeling with one of his players looking at a rape charge and others on the front, back and middle of every paper.

Whatever one says about Sir Alex, you couldn't possibly imagine him being involved in this kind of mess during his playing days. Sure, he was a tough cookie on the pitch and I'm sure he was more likely to be found downing a few pints in a Glasgow boozer than studying the philosophical tracts of Hegel or Kant.

But Ferguson is a man who knows the difference between right and wrong, as do most people of his generation. Today's so-called stars have no moral compass to guide them. I'll bet you they did have, however, when they were growing up without any material wealth.

Now if you were on anything from £20-50k a week it wouldn't do any harm to put the £4k spent on a night of booze and more booze back into the community so that other, less fortunate people from the same background might be able to enjoy a better Christmas. The clubs really miss a trick here. Instead of the occasional visit to a children's cancer ward for a photo-shoot for the local Mercury, why don't the 'advisors' of these mega-wealthy players organise Christmas events that the community can benefit from?

The reason is to be found in the self-fulfilling prophecy merry-go-round, where players are expected to behave badly and then find themselves splashed all over the media. What a sad indictment of our society that people who have the ability to bring joy and excitement to the lives of millions of others, also have the capacity to self-destruct.