The importance of being good sports

By the time you read this, a decision is likely to have been made by the Government in relation to the National Stadium issue. If sense prevails, then the Landsdowne Road option will be given the go-ahead – holding out the prospect that we will soon have a stadium in the centre Dublin capable of hosting the vast majority of Ireland’s international rugby and soccer games.

Of course, even if the Cabinet does make the right decision and lays the Abbotstown behemoth finally to rest in the process, it is unlikely that the road to Lansdowne will be a smooth one. Where projects on this scale are concerned, the possibility of meltdown is ever-present. Who knows what the future holds? At the very least, soon is likely to mean two or three years.
In the meantime, there is the small matter of where the Irish team will play its games in the upcoming World Cup. There is no way that the new National Stadium, no matter where it is located, will be ready for this campaign. Nor is there any certainty that FIFA will allow the games to go ahead in Lansdowne, employing the kind of bucket seats that have been used in the past to turn the ground into an all-seater.
As it happens, in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, fortune has delivered what promises to be one of the most attractive fixtures in the history of Irish football, bringing the Republic of Ireland up against the 1996 World Champions and 1998 European Champions, France. They are one of the most glamorous and star-studded teams in football and a sell-out is guaranteed for the home game, as long as Ireland are still in with a shout of qualifying when we meet them here.

So where will we play them? And how can we hope to accommodate the biggest possible number of the couple of hundred thousand people who are likely to be willing to pay to see the French in action? There is, of course, an answer to this potentially pressing need. In two words: Croke Park.
It is one of the finest stadiums in Europe. It is an all-seater. It holds 80,000 people. It is in the centre of the capital city. And, by the way, a lot of taxpayers’ money went into the building of the stadium. Of course, it belongs to the GAA. And they are legally and constitutionally entitled to say no to any request from either the FAI or the Government to allow matches to happen there. But is the association sufficiently confident in its own role in Irish life, and is there sufficient generosity of spirit among its members, to give the green light to allowing a ‘foreign’ game like soccer to be played in Croker? That is the 250 million Euro question.
In an open letter to the elected leaders of the association, one of its former Presidents, Jack Boothman, articulated the case against the opening up of Croke Park by the GAA. Without simplifying it too crudely, it amounted to this: why allow sports that are rivals of the GAA’s in terms of attracting young people as players, and attracting paying audiences, into what is the association’s biggest asset?
The fact that considerable financial benefits would flow to the GAA is dismissed by Boothman, who points instead to the increased revenues that would be involved for the FAI and the IRFU. What he presents is call to batten down the hatches, to insist that ‘what we have, we hold’.

However the premise that the GAA is a sitting duck that can be picked off by the FAI and the IRFU, if the door is opened to them, reflects a disappointing absence of belief in what the games of hurling and GAA football have to offer. The success of the All-Ireland Championships in both codes in recent years has been extraordinary. In contrast, the League of Ireland is on its knees.
The big threat to Ireland’s indigenous codes, if there is one, comes from the English Premiership – and the GAA has lived with that and prospered irrespective of the challenge it represents, for over a decade now. Not even the success of the Ireland team under Jack Charlton seriously eroded the pre-eminent position of the GAA in Irish sporting life.
Besides, the truth is that the vast majority of people involved in the GAA have a real and enduring interest in soccer and in the cause of the Republic in particular. Almost certainly a national poll of members of the GAA, on the basis of one person one vote, would give the go-ahead to hold Irish international matches in Croke Park tomorrow. This is what really should decide the association’s position on the issue – the will of the people.
The prospect of seeing Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and John O’Shea lining out for Ireland in Croke Park is a thrilling one. The possibility that Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram might be numbered among the opposition is even moreso.
When the issue is debated at the annual congress of the GAA in April, that is the spirit that would ideally guide the delegates in coming to a decision. It is a matter of confidence and generosity. It is a matter of doing what is for the general good. It is a matter of doing the sporting thing.
My own feeling is that, in the long run, it would prove to be best for the GAA as well. But in that regard nothing is guaranteed either way. The fundamental question for the GAA is this: are they strong enough and decent enough to do what is right for the country? History will take care of the rest…