You are the boss of a national football association whose international team has been dumped out of the World Cup by blatant cheating. You want to stress the seriousness and importance of this situation. How do you do it? How about offering a comparison with something you — and, you assume, everyone else — holds in utter contempt? Domestic football.
Two episodes of Prime Time this week neatly demonstrated the absurd polarities in Irish attitudes to football. None, or very few of us, are football fans, and we are all football fans.
Oh dear. Now Ireland is out of the World Cup, Dermot Ahern wants to call in the UN to sort out the French.
There must be something in the air out in north county Dublin. The recently invented, politically-sponsored Sporting Fingal has featured in a Dáil debate already.
Someone at obscure Scottish outfit Hearts is having a coronary over the warning by Aberdeen boss Mark McGhee that the Scottish league could soon be at the level of League of Ireland.
An Irish newspaper based in Britain is anxious that an Irish goalkeeper based in Britain might get injured, perhaps leaving the Irish team in the disastrous situation of having to play France with an Irish keeper up until recently based in Ireland. Geddit? Neither do I.
Every now and again, you get to read a news piece on an event that you saw for yourself, and wonder if its reporter is on the same planet.
RTÉ- Extratime
- loi.ie
- Eleven-a-side
- Soccer Republic
- The Big O betting
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