Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Sometimes, sport – and in this case, football – can be a stage for us to view the changes society has undergone over the years. Football is just a good example of it, because there have been so many interesting stories recently.

In the past, for example, a player wouldn’t necessarily fly home from their tour of duty, or miss matches to spend time with their wife or their children. It seems to be happening everywhere now, though.

Manchester City have given Carlos Tevez permission to fly back to Argentina to be there for the birth of his child, and they are a team that is battling for a place in the top-four and in the Champions League. Now they’ll have to do without their prolific top scorer for a while.

John Terry, who has had a lot of marital trouble recently flew out of the country to find and talk to his woman, too.

I think that, increasingly, the father is being seen as a hugely important figure in society. The father is just as key as the mother: it is important to have him there, in the early stages of a child’s life. And it’s reflected in football; it’s reflected in all sport.

There might be a story in the news about it, briefly, when the player first goes away, but it is soon forgotten. It’s accepted, it seems, and an entirely natural thing. It’s certainly interesting to think about.