McSherry’s Musings: Political football

It was June 1994 in downtown Manhattan when I met Pelé in a restaurant. As we washed our hands, looking at him in the mirror, I said, “Are you Pele?” to which he replied, “I am Edson Arantes do Nascimento”.

“Wow!” I ses, “I am Ronan McSherry from Coalisland. You were the greatest, that goal in the 1970 World Cup final against Italy, you hung in the air like a hawk before heading the ball to the goal”.

Pelé was commentating for Brazilian TV at World Cup USA ‘94. He said, “We all have greatest in us, let it come out”. It was my cue to tell him about the point I scored against Eglish that kept Gortin in senior football in 1979. He look confused, “You said you are from Coalisland?” and yet again I had to explain the move west for a few years in my late teens. “Pelé” I ses, “It’s a long time ago. Live in the day,” and went out to enjoy my meal.

“All changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty is born” wrote Yeats (‘Easter 1916’). Perhaps we do live in an era of greater social awareness and political correctness but somehow I preferred the old days. Now read on…

My friend Martin spent his formative years in Lancashire. Once on the way from school in 1967, he knocked on the door of Bobby Charlton’s house and the England World Cup winning legend came out and duly signed his autograph on a scrap of paper. Through the window Martin saw a glass cabinet with international caps. These days each player is a business entity with his own agent, a world away from the fans.

In this supposed enlightened era, as a poke in the eye to FIFA for not being allowed to wear a Rainbow armband in support of the LGBT community, man of the people England captain Harry Kane bought himself a £575,000 Rolex watch that features the rainbow colours. Meanwhile nurses and other workers are going on strike for fair pay as the number of foodbanks multiply across Britain.

There is only one openly gay male footballer in England’s top four divisions, Jake Daniels, a Blackpool forward. Peter Clayton, who chairs the FA’s ‘Homophobia in Football’ working group, believes clubs prevent players from ‘coming out’ as it may damage footballers’ commercial market value. There is also fear that the abuse from the terraces would be horrific. The England players and BBC pundits would do well to wear rainbow armbands and challenge homophobia in their own yard.

I have seen a few World Cups and this is by far the most politically charged.

Sport and politics have been bedfellows going right back to ancient Rome when cheap food and Gladiator games in the Colosseum pacified the masses. ‘Panem et circenses’ (Bread and Circuses) is a phrase attributed to Roman poet Juvenal, that describes this superficial appeasement.

Among the most enduring iconic images of the enmeshment of sport and politics, are from the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico when African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos each held an arm up in a closed black gloved fist salute during the medal ceremony to highlight racial inequality in the US. They became pariahs in their homeland.

Some gestures have been more trivial and humorous. The man sat beside me in Croke Park at an Ireland – France rugby international was hilarious. That was during the few years, the GAA gave headquarters over to the Irish Rugby Union when the new Aviva Stadium was being built. Our six county Ulsterman resolutely folded his arms during the national anthem, ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ but during a chorus of ‘The Fields of Athenry’ bellowed out, “Low lie the fields round Ballynafeigh…” One could only smile. God help his wit.

I ventured to the FAI Cup final a few weeks ago when Derry City put Dublin side Shelbourne to the sword. We watched on in bemusement as several hundred Shels’ fans were led up the road past a crowd of Derry supporters sitting outside a pub. Plastic glasses and expletives flew through the air as three Gardai officers kept the baying mobs apart; “Hould me back and I’ll fight!”. A Shelbourne attired lad of about 19, the face flying off him in rage, shouted, “Protestants!” Why are folk so angry?

Meanwhile back in Qatar the pundits roll from one political and social debate to the next. Roy was furious that Kane didn’t wear the rainbow armband, but not furious enough to walk out as he did at World Cup 2002. Gary Linekar did a half-time presentation critical of the massive carbon footprint left by traffic to the world event, his own footprint included, assuming he didn’t row there.

God be with the days when Eamon Dunphy responded to criticism in a newspaper article of Keane highlighted by RTE host Bill O’Herlihy. Dunphy roared, “Rod Liddle wrote that!.. a man who left his wife for a young one!” or when he threw his pen across the table in outrage at Jack Charlton’s tactics.

These days it is wooden pundits and political correctness. During apartheid, sports boycotted South Africa in opposition to its regime. By being in Qatar, the commentators and players have endorsed World Cup ‘22. Their protests about the deaths of workers who built the stadiums and LGBT rights ring somewhat hollow.