Silly Little Country

Ghanaian forced to backtrack

As stated before, I have been cheering for Ghana at the World Cup, and was delighted at their recent victory, and thought one player's waving an Israeli flag to be a remarkably delightful act out of the at times sickeningly nationalistic character of the event.
But the world being what is ...
Once again it is Abiola Lapite who best expresses the outrage I personally feel at what has followed.

See, this nonsense is precisely the sort of thing I find most repulsive in the sporting arena.

...

Now, who on Earth would be offended by such a generous gesture, chauvinistic Ghanaians looking to hog the glory to themselves? Read on and find out ...

If you thought it was the Ghanaians who were up in arms about one of their own waving another country's flag, you guessed wrong; in fact, I'd be highly surprised if anyone could have picked the wrong answer to this particular challenge:

...

In case you thought FIFA officials remembered that one of the supposed objectives of tournaments like this was to bring the world together, here are some words of advice to the contrary:

"Football's governing body FIFA said they had taken note of the flag-waving and that although there was nothing in the rules to prevent it, they hoped not to see a repetition."

Yeah, we wouldn't want displays of cross-national fellow-feeling to become routine or anything, or it might start interfering with international hooligan rivalries ...

One of the true howlers in the post is a quotation from a news article:

Sports analyst Hassan el-Mestekawi said in the paper that many Ghanaian players attend football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who "discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent's children" with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs.

Omigod. What typical Israeli evil. Trying to help talented African footballers become stars. Even 'sports analysts' have to view the world through the conspiracy theory glasses.

Go to the linked post. Follow as well to read the post linked to there from the Egyptian Sandmonkey.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:47 AM