Sport would sell its soul to any bloody country that pays them

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It wasn’t awarding the Winter Olympics to Beijing or the World Cup to Qatar that proved sport had sold its soul – but it still marked new depths to which these well-aid suits were prepared to sink in pursuit of the mighty dollar….or petrodollar as the case may be.

Certainly, neither governing body gave a second’s thought to the actual competitors – or indeed to the fans – when deciding to stage the biggest football event there is in heat that would leave a mad dog chasing the shade, or the Winter Olympics in a country where human rights are as commonplace as Team Ireland medals for tobogganing.

The World Cup is the bigger scandal, because it has absolutely no redeeming aspects; it’s disrupting the entire football calendar so that players might actually get through the 90 minutes without having a heart attack from the heat.

The ‘winning bid’ was achieved on the back of bribes to FAFI officials; the stadia have been built by sacrificing the lives of thousands of migrant workers, and the whole thing will happen in a country where the right to freedom of expression is as rare as a cold, wet day.

But before all that, we’re now in the throes of the Winter Olympics which began in Beijing this week – and it’s wonderful that our Diaspora means we now have a squad of six representing us…a country where snow is so rare that we come to a complete standstill when it lands higher than one inch.

Then again, just because these are not our traditional sporting disciplines is no reason we couldn’t enjoy it – if only it wasn’t in a country where the Government routinely spies on innocent people and ‘disappears’ them for no greater crime than questioning the consensus.

Even suggesting it’s a consensus is of course stretching things – because China’s consultative process could take place in a phone box. And there’d still be room to spare.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.