Tuesday, April 1, 2008

GAA troubles: some consolation

With spoongate, as Willie Joe has dubbed it, still fresh in the minds of Mayo GAA followers, the Mayo News decided to have a bit of April Fool's fun with stories of undercover stewards and segregation of fans next Sunday for the local derby between Mayo and Galway.
As GAA fans we're blessed that we can look back-- at what for the GAA was a serious crowd disturbance-- slap our thighs and have a bit of a laugh. Other sports fans are not so fortunate. The headlines following the Merseyside derby on Sunday are all about police inquiries into serious fan abuse of players, while in France the nation has recoiled in disgust, yet again, at the behaviour of Paris St. Germain's so-called supporters.
At Saturday's League Cup Final against a team from northern France, Racing Club de Lens, Paris supporters briefly displayed--because it was pulled down by stewards on the instruction of President Sarkozy who was attending the game--a long banner which said "Pédophiles, chomeurs, consaguins: bienvenue chez les ch'tis". Paedophiles, unemployed and in-bred: welcome to the home of the ch'tis (in reference to a hugely popular movie about people from the north of France).
Happily, we've no such incidents of hate-mongering and spite in the GAA.

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