Do you ever cast your mind back to the world before Netflix? Before specialised channels on the Sky platform. Like the individual discipline channels. History, Arts, Golf, Movies, Racing, Cricket, Documentaries, True Crime. You name it. Now, I’m sure the non sporting genres listed previous always got their run out, it was just that they didn’t have the profile or the cult following as is the case now.
In actual fact, it could justifiably said that, back in the day, the non sporting dross got more than a fair crack of the whip. With, a very high percentage of the time, either Sports Stadium in Ireland or Grandstand across the water the only live sport from one end of the week to the next. Then, you had either The Sunday Game or Match Of The Day provided the only other comfort to those of us going through sporting withdrawals.
Money, though, changes everything. Thus, the advent of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Sports had sport available for consumption almost 24/7. Which, from the point of view of a sports nut, is the gift that keeps on giving. However, while that is the good side of money in sport, it is an unfortunate reality that the monetary influence on and in sport has led to plenty of nefarious goings on therein too.
Look no further than Sepp Blatter. Now, there’s no suggestion that Murdoch was in bed with Blatter, figuritively speaking, or anything of the sort, but only in the wake of his expulsion from football did how deep he was in the slimy cesspit of corruption become openly obvious. The image of protesters firing bundles of notes at the slithery old Swiss at what I think was his final press conference will probably remain as one of the most iconic sports related images of modern history.
However, if you thought Septic football expired with the expulsion of Blatter, you may think again. Because the scandalous manner in which Drogheda United have been treated by football’s so-called guardians in recent days shows that skulduggery in the game is alive, well and in far too good a health.
Basically, the Co Louth club have been precluded from competing in the European football for which they qualified on foot of winning the FAI Cup last winter. Why? Because some club also owned by the Drogs owners have qualified for the same competition. And, wait for it, because the other team finished higher up their domestic league than the Irish side had, they got the European slot in their stead. Such bullshit.
A much more succinct explanation would most likely be to opine that the other club involved obviously had more pull in important places than the maroon and blue. How they arrived at such a convenient advantage, I’ll let you figure out for yourself. Mind you, that the Louth lads lost their appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland is both disappointing and unsurprising.
Simply because, the latter adjective merits inclusion here because Irish football’s standing, in terms of the administration thereof, can hardly have been luminous given the many scandals which bookmarked the John Delaney era in the FAI’s governance and the many which have followed it and will most likely continue to. Then there’s the simple fact that the sport’s top brass in this country couldn’t give two sneezes about domestic football and they haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory regarding their duty of care to ladies soccer either.
Then again, it’s not only on the soccer scene that things are lopsided and some entities aren’t getting a fair crack of the whip. One could either pinpoint the fact that (a) despite extensive research, repeated emails to GAA HQ and two pieces kindly published in the Sunday Independent by John Greene, I STILL haven’t had the courtesy of a reply from Mr Burns who has sadly been far from eeexxxcellllennnt in his dealings with that issue or several others.
Or Exhibit (b): The farcical nature of the broadcast coverage of championship matches in recent weeks. When my colleague Fergal Lynch rightly pointed out that NONE of Meath’s group games had been shown on either RTE or GAA+ and that the likes of Clubber or TG4 were more than deserving of having broadcast rights to Championship matches, the smug, ignorant response he received from the ‘national’ broadcaster’s odious Head Of Sport, Declan McBennett, typified everything that is wrong with the Montrose slurry pit and why I would love to see RTE privatised and a lot of deadwood ran through a chipper.
Hiding behind “contractual obligations” (in contracts that nobody ever sees). the diminutive Monaghan native who, like all small men, has a big opinion of himself, failed to even respectfully address Fergal’s query regarding the fact that Meath hadn’t been shown at all during the All Ireland Series while other counties have been broadcast several times over.
Declan, you see, obviously never heard the old dictum that ‘When you’re explaining, you’re losing’. Even going so far as to include a broadcaster from a foreign country to justify that “Between RTE, GAA+ and BBC more live games than ever are being broadcast”.
Much to the chagrin of a lot of people, they’ll have to show whatever games we play from here in. They’ll have to take us seriously and treat us with a bit of respect that has been lacking so far.
We are Meath, nobody likes us, we don’t care!
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