Kieran Shannon: Time the Government stopped treating sport as a political football

We’d be much better re-examining — and reimagining — our sporting infrastructure and how limited it currently is to adequately stage our own sportspeople, let alone host a World Cup

Instead of devising and stressing the necessary protocols that would allow children’s sport to open up now — ‘Drop them off, then buzz off’ if that’s what it took — the Government last week was once more in thrall to a Big Idea, the Big Event: this time, a soccer World Cup.

While it would seem the only plausible reason stopping the Government from allowing kids back playing — or at least training — outdoors is the prospect and fear of parents yapping at the gate, unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any stopping politicians talking and thinking about sport in their old usual way.

Instead of devising and stressing the necessary protocols that would allow children’s sport to open up now — ‘Drop them off, then buzz off’ if that’s what it took — the Government last week was once more in thrall to a Big Idea, the Big Event: this time, a soccer World Cup.