Football crazy
By Sean O Donaile
- The Truth about Footballers (UTV)
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Radio One)
- Prime Time (RTE 1)
Tony Doran was my first hero but when Liverpool's Craig Johnson
came along he stood no chance.
Tony's freckles, missing teeth and Leo Yellow fertiliser ads were
no match for Craig's permed hair, ear ring, blonde wife and
Ferrari.
After that I switched my allegiances to the big ball, until I
remembered it was a foreign game and went back to hurling. These
days they're all playing the colonial game and with the rash of
soccer about to envelope us in the upcoming World Cup, I decided
to find out what all the fuss was about.
gus Deayton informs us in UTVs ``The Truth About Footballers''
that footballers are high up ``on the list of shaggibility'' as
football provides heroes and icons, a commodity we're in short
supply of in this age of materialism.
``Kiss and Tell'' page 3 girls still appear outside the dressing
rooms, but according to George Best's ex-wife, ``it was
horrible....I was a nothing who walked ten paces behind like a
loyal lap dog'', and these feelings would no doubt be
substantiated by Cheryl Gascoigne.
Woman are often looked on as trophies in the same way that
£50,000 Ferraries are paraded at the training ground. Hurlers
stick to the twenty pints and the twenty five stitches, although
this is arguably not as popular down the nightclub.
The lives of footballers as portrayed in this light hearted
documentary seem pretty vacuous - if you're a Gary Lineker type
you'll ``put on a Pringle sweater and yellow trousers at the local
golf club, which is really quite disturbing'' Then again, if
you're the Gazza type you'll swill twenty pints with Tommy
Five-Bellies and sport plastic boobs for the tabloids.
In fairness to ordinary plebs catapulted into £20,000 a week
wages and instant fame by an increasingly money orientated
league, it's quite easy to fall for the old reliables - sex,
drugs, rock `n roll...... and golf!
In Clare some of us used to sleep with our hurls before big
games, but had to discontinue this practice, following seedy
insinuations.
Still we didn't roll over kissing and crying every time we scored
or took a knock.
More mature-type footballers buy wax jackets and ``sit on rainy
mud flats for hours on end'' or buy mock-Tudor homes for half
their relations and even appear in ``Hello''.
There don't seem to be many scholars among them, which explains
the hard time Graham Le Saux and Steve Heighway got in their time
for reading or visiting museums instead of the pub.
The final damning indictment on this sorry lot comes from the
increasing number of women (12% of all season ticket holders),
who find these men no more sexy than hod carriers with cement in
their crevices.
One can't but agree with the sentiment that 72,000 women will
never fill Wembley or Croker on their own to see 22 others
running after a piece of pigskin, because at the end of the day
``they see there's more important things in life''.
Marcus Erude was one of many Brazilians imprisoned, tortured and
exiled by their dictatorship, due to their efforts to liberate
themselves through the power of education.
Not the type where the teacher bellows from his elbow-patched
domicile, ``Flanagan you clown, you know nothing, is it a toe in
the hole you want?''
Erude's belief in the renowned Paulo Friere alternative ``Pedagogy
of the Oppressed'' was highlighted on Radio One recently following
his progress from West Africa to Sandinista Nicaragua of the
1980s where there was a huge increase in literacy programmes.
Opposed to the ``teacher knows all'' ideology, Erude began the
process of consciencisation through education, where students,
young and old are encouraged to think for themselves and develop
increased self empowerment, self confidence and self esteem.
The biggest obstacle to this liberation has proved to be the
alienation and self inertia in individuals, ostracised by
generations of a political and education system not suited to
their needs.
This can readily be applied to many working class estates in
Ireland today where our system has alienated large tracts of our
population, who see no relevance in education. This can only be
overcome by an alternative education system, relevant to people's
lives, and where all are encouraged to think for themselves and
develop their confidence.
But one suspects the powers that be feel threatened by this, as
they have been by the new Relationships and Sexuality Education
Programme being introduced in schools in the 26 Counties, as
featured in RTE's Prime Time last week. The idea that primary
school children know all the correct terms for their body parts,
be familiar with menstruation and aware of sexual intercourse, is
seen as a threat by some, including elements of the church, who
have sought to undermine it.
Principal Gerry Doyle questions children's need to know ``these
words'' (ie ``penis and vagina''), opting presumably to stick with
such educational terms as willy, winkle and wadgery woo!
The RSE programme in fact is 95% based on the development of self
esteem, relationships etc. but this has been disregarded by the
fundamentalists.
Imelda Tobin ignores ``the startling lack of knowledge among Irish
youth of sex'', which leads inevitably to increased teenage
pregnancies and abortions, in favour of ``the tradition of the Ten
Commandments''. That is, ignorance is bliss.
Unfortunately and unbelievably this view has held sway in a
number of quarters, with a number of schools refusing to
implement much needed state policies and they have been allowed
to get away with it.
Which begs the question, who still controls our society?
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