The ugly face of modern sport

28Jan/100

BEFORE you even think it. No, not my face. The last few weeks in local, national and international sport have unfortunately been dogged with controversy. Pictured below we see Carlos Tevez and Julien Dupuy. To introduce them, Julien plays for Stade Francais rugby team and was banned from rugby for six months after trying to remove Stephen Ferris’ eyes with his fingers. Twice. The other is Carlos Tevez, an Argentinian international footballer who, when celebrating a goal for his new side Man City against his old side Man United almost caused a riot. The City star, along with Man United player Gary Neville saw fit to air their personal dislike for each other in front of thousand of fans in a heated environment. Where am I going with this? Well, in the last few weeks there have been two allegations made against on of Limerick’s most famous rugby clubs. Shannon RFC are currently investigating an incident where an AIL and international referee was verbally abused after a senior game. Following on from that event, a 25,000 euro fine was demanded from the IRFU. In the week just passed, an alleged incident took place in an under 15’s game where by a player was struck by a coach. An under 15 boy was allegedly struck by a grown man. This event, if proven to be true, as we all know is unacceptable. My point is though that role models in professional sport both here and abroad are not setting an example to our young or our old sporting fans. The lack of true discipline in our professional modern games is filtering down to the underage of this country. The penalties handed out to Dupuy and Tevez and the rest are to blame for the lack of respect for the “systems” that rule our games. The facts are there for all to see. Suspensions do not act as a deterrent to foul play. All of our games we love, need tough love. It appears to be the only way to clean our games up.