Top of the world
but only page 4 of the paper
The unanswered question that has dogged me all week is what do
you have to do to get on the front pages of an Irish newspaper's
Monday morning sports supplement. OK, so there was a heavy
weekend of sporting action with the football and hurling
All-Ireland championships providing crunching challenges for
provincial honours. Yes, Ireland was hosting a world class golf
field at Druids Glen, Steve Collins was successfully defending
his World Super-middleweight title, and the self proclaimed
``Lions'' were ending their South African tour.
Ireland 2 Ghana 1
However, do any of these competitions merit more attention than
the Irish youth soccer team who on Saturday morning beat Ghana to
claim third place in the World Youth Cup? They not only set a
record for an Irish soccer team, but they were, as RTE
commentator George Hamilton endlessly chimed, the only European
team to reach the semi-finals of the competition. None of this
seemed to matter to the sports editors of last Monday's Irish
newspapers.
The front page of the Irish Times had a fine action shot of
Meath's Tommy Dowd and Kildare's Glen Ryan. Fair enough, there's
still plenty of room left for our soccer heroes. First though
they chose instead to reproduce a copy of Colin Montgomerie's
score card from the previous day's final round of the Murphy's
Irish Open. Montgomerie retained his Irish Open title. OK, so
maybe the golf was fresher news, though of dubious merit. Surely
the last quarter of the page would proclaim Saturday's victory by
the boys in green.
Imperialist Lions
No, that space was held for another Saturday sporting story.
Irish Rugby player Jeremy Davidson had been voted ``best forward''
of the ``Lions'' South African tour. He was also joint winner of
the ``Most Improved Player'' of the tour award.
The soccer coverage was cut to a small front page flash telling
us that the actual story was on p4. It is an interesting insight
into how the Irish Times produces its sporting balance. One Irish
Rugby player on a team whose heritage smacks of the worst aspects
of British imperialism is worth more coverage than the exploits
of 11 Irish soccer stars playing in the world cup finals.
The Irish Independent gave the soccer stars no mention on page
one of their sports supplement. The GAA and golf got the column
inches, while Pete Sampras and the tiresome Lions got the
masthead news flashes. The soccer was relegated to the last page
of the sports where good coverage was given, but why it wasn't on
page one is a mystery to me.
Failed Examiner
The Cork Examiner gave all its front page coverage to the hotly
contested contest between Clare and Tipperary in the Munster
Hurling Final. The news flashes proclaimed Steve Collins and
Colin Montgomerie. You had to wait until the second last page of
the sport to get any mention of the soccer.
The Star (which, incidentally, was the only Irish paper to send a
reporter to cover the youth tournament from the beginning)
reserved a front page segment and despite the events at Drumcree
still found space on page four to cover the return to Dublin
airport of the soccer squad as well as a four page souvenir
pullout. The Mirror relegated the story to an inside page in the
sports section.
Sporting Tragedy
The tragedy is that this is not a story we will be able to return
to. This team will probably never play again competitively as a
group. Many of the players will make their way into the ailing
senior squad and bring fresh impetus and genius to a team that
has clearly run out of ideas.
It is a shame that we have no fitting testament to a unique team.
With the current set-up of the often dull senior soccer squad, it
could be some considerable time before we see Irish forwards
scoring in the first minute of a game, or breaking out of defence
with fluid passing and insightful running. The spirit of what was
achieved by the soccer squad in Malaysia has shown just what is
possible for Irish soccer in the future. Were you watching Mick?
BY NEIL FORDE
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