Rid soccer of tabloid culture
Life and certainly soccer is hardly so simple. What is simple and obvious is the influence of English tabloid culture on how we are starting to behave as so-called fans of our national team. Such a culture (if it can be called that) has wrought havoc on English teams and managers for decades front page gossip about the intimate details of their manager's love-life appeared just before their game last week: that's how much tabloid media care for their team's chances.
We may rightly question the downright stubbornness of Keane in refusing to play under McCarthy, and McCarthy in steadfastly refusing to select John O'Shea, Andy O'Brien and Clinton Morrison for the first team, but resorting to useless simplification of a complex situation in which two passionate individuals genuinely believe they are right, and booing our own national team, is not what Irish soccer fans are about.
Jack Charlton's underperforming team had to rely on a late goal by Scotland against Bulgaria to qualify for Euro '88. Our patience with his stubbornness and dubious team selections and tactics were ultimately rewarded by a golden era for Irish soccer.
Mick McCarthy has brought us from 54th to 14th in the FIFA world rankings and gave us a courageous World Cup experience to savour.
He, at least, has shown loyalty to his players and team. Let's show our patience and integrity by doing the same.
Seamus Lynch,
Seaview Park,
Portrane,
Co Dublin
