London Met Police is here!

Indervir Grewal

ENGLAND manager Andy Halliday loves his job, especially the pressure that comes with it. It’s a job that requires Halliday to manage all the team’s off-field issues. Halliday doesn’t shy away from anything. He even “did the team’s laundry all night” once after a match against the Netherlands in the rain. Thinking on his feet, and handling pressure situations is nothing new to him. “I was a policeman for 30 years,” said Halliday. 

He was a specialist firearms officer in the Metropolitan Police. He saw one of London’s worst terror attacks, when over 50 people were killed in the 2005 bus and tube suicide attacks. “That was a tough time for England,” he said. He was also part of the police team that was involved in the incident in which a Brazilian national was fatally wounded; because of that he had to miss the 2016 Rio Olympics. But Halliday, who retired in 2010, decides to use his police experiences in his current work. “It helped me understand how a team works,” he said. Halliday also does charity work, but he has a unique way of raising money. “I had this idea to dribble the ball over long distances. So, before the 2012 London Olympics, I completed the London Marathon while dribbling the ball. It took me over five hours,” he said. He also climbed Britain’s three highest peaks, raising 10,000 pounds. He also dribbled from Cardiff to London, almost 250km, raising 50,000 pounds. His “next would be in the Himalayas”, but he prefers to divulge no more.

England not taking chances

Last year at the World League Finals here, England were among the unlucky teams hit by illnesses. A few English, German, Belgian and Dutch players fell ill, many of them with stomach problems, during the tournament. The organisers came under criticism, so did a particular five-star hotel. This year, the English team is staying at the same hotel. This time, though, they are not taking any chances. After showering the hotel with praises, England manager Andy Halliday confirmed that they “have a person overseeing” what is cooked for the team in the hotel. He insisted that the main reason for the decision was to provide the players with the right nutrition. Fair decision, it seems.