Not much consolation, I know, but at least he wasn't an ex-wife murderer.

OK, you've got me. Which airport's that?

Sorry, not an airport, I was referring more to the reflexive hero-worship of sportsmen regardless of what kind of people they obivously are. Although when "the Juice" does finally shuffle off the old coil, perhaps they will name LAX after him...

Although, talking about airports: under apartheid South Africa, Johannesburg International was called Jan Smuts, which isn't too bad given his role in founding the League of Nations: but Cape Town International was named after the notorious architect of apartheid, D F Malan.

Not sure OJ's a great example. He's not exactly loved these days. Tyson would be a better example, I imagine. You wouldn't want him to brutally rape your daughter, but, hey, she was no-one we knew, and the guy sure can box.

It's not just sportsmen, either. Tupac Shakur was a nasty piece of work. All his fans seem convinced that he was a man of peace.

For the record, even though I don't even like football, I could happily watch footage of Best for hours. Just astounding. And whatever else he did with his life doesn't change that. So by all means name various footbally things after him. But naming a big non-football thing like an airport after him implies that he wasn't just a great footballer but was a great man. People keep using the word "hero" about him. This act reinforces the message that doing great things excuses criminal brutality. Play football well, make great pop records, sail round the world, and your country will idolise you as you break your wife's arm.

To be fair to Best, he was honest enough to have a far lower opinion of himself than his fans and family have of him.

We could start on Liverpool's airport, too, of course.

Bloody football, full stop.

Tyson probably is a better example.

To be fair to Best, he was honest enough to have a far lower opinion of himself than his fans and family have of him.

I suspect that his extremely low self-respect is what made him prone to drinking. He often spoke about being unable to interact with people without drinking, and it tends to be a downward spiral; you feel inadequate, drink, do things that reinforce your feeling that you are inadequate, and so drink again. It's quite hard to pull out of such a pit. I'm not saying it excuses his actions, but perhaps the contrast between the hero-worship and the way he felt inside made him feel even worse. People with low self-esteem often feel like frauds anyway, just waiting for everyone to realise how terrible they are.

there was an article in the Sunday Times this week about the other problems this sis causing.

If you don't know George BEst was From NI and you're a pilot...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/art...87- 2200123.html

Sorry, Ross, but no, that's just plain wrong.

"Although UK airports, including military airbases, are identified on flight charts by a unique four-character code, their commercial names may be used during conversations between pilots and air traffic controllers."

In other words, the problem isn't the name of the airport; the problem is air traffic controllers being sloppy and pilots being irresponsible. If you're a pilot and air traffic control direct you to George Best and you don't know where that is, you're supposed to say "Where is that?" If you don't, you're a reckless fool who probably shouldn't be allowed to fly in the first place.

One of the golden rules of being an airline pilot is always to double-check any information you're not sure about. Failure to do so has caused crashes, and pilots are told about those instances in their training in order to ram the point home: never guess anything.

Re-reading that article, I can see that it's a masterpiece of selective quoting in order to create a story out of nothing. All that has actually happened is that the CAA have sent a letter to airports reminding them to use airports' official names in formal communications — in other words, air traffic controllers are to say to pilots "Bravo Hotel Delta", not "George Best". This is no real change: before the airport was renamed, they were still supposed to call it "Bravo Hotel Delta", not "Belfast City". This letter is merely a reminder of long-standing policy. The entire article is accurate apart from the first paragraph:

"BRITAIN’S aviation regulator has warned that the trend for naming airports after famous people may be putting passengers’ safety at risk."

Whoever drafted the letter would be surprised to hear that that's what they meant.

The key phrase in the article is:

"... for all formal aviation communications."

Which, of course, doesn't include advertising for tourism purposes.

Bloody journalists.