Galway athlete makes history at the European Gymnastics All-around finals

Super League farce proves football is no longer the beautiful game

by Aaron Deering

The European Super League fiasco has shown many football fans around the world that the game of football is no longer about sport or the fans, but instead is about the product and consumers.

According to Florentino Perez, one of the ESL’s founding members and Real Madrid President, the European Super League was supposed to ‘save football’. The idea is almost laughable. The ESL was nothing but a greedy attempt by 12 owners and Chairmen and Presidents to make more money. Cast your mind back to Leicester’s historic win of the Premier League title in 2016, and you’ll find that is when the idea of the ESL was really born. The traditional ‘Big Six’ saw another club challenging, and the owners did not like that one bit.

That is why the ESL was going to be a closed league in which no one gets relegated or promoted and the 12 founding members are always in it. The threats of West Ham, Leicester, and Everton to the top four this season had only compounded the idea to the traditional ‘Big Six’ clubs that something had to be done because the status quo had been threatened.

The American owners, especially the Glazers (Manchester United) and John W. Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (Liverpool) cannot understand the idea of relegation because it means there is no security financially and in order to stay in the top 4 and qualify for the Champions League you have to spend money something which means less dividends they can suck out of their clubs.

Perez cried about how between the 12 clubs they have lost €650 million last year and stand to lose up to €2.5 billion this year due to the Covid19 pandemic. These clubs generate millions every year regardless of the pandemic and the owners are all multi billionaires and yet they want us to feel sorry for them? What about all the people who have lost their jobs due the Covid-19 pandemic and no longer have any income but yet were expected to have sympathy for Perez and his cartel of cronies?

The penny has finally dropped for many Irish fans that follow the ‘Big Six’ that these owners do not care about them. Just look how John W.Henry and the Glazers were going to just dismiss the history of their clubs in the Champions League. The famous 1999 treble for Manchester United and the 2005 Istanbul comeback for Liverpool meant nothing to the Glazers or Henry. They were quite happy to completely destroy their own club’s history all just for money.

Maybe it is time for these fans to stop wasting their money on their English club’s merchandise and match day trips because all it does is fill the pockets of owners who do not care about the fans and it has no benefits to Irish football. I barely recognise the game I fell in love with as a child as it becomes more and more dominated by money rather than it being about the enjoyment of a beautiful game and sport but then Sligo Rovers offers me that glimmer of hope.

Many will feel I am telling these Irish Premier League fans to stop supporting their clubs and to instead follow a League of Ireland club, but I am not because the simple answer is you can do both. I support both Manchester United and Sligo Rovers. I am proud to support Rovers because it benefits Irish football but also because they are a fan owned club. Rovers can never be sold without the consent of the fans while Rovers’ ground the Showgrounds can never be sold as it owned by Sligo Rovers and it is fans.

I can still follow Manchester United during the year but once the League of Ireland season starts in March then Rovers takes dominance, and it is that way until the season ends in November. If there is one positive outcome of this whole ESL fiasco, it is that there is an opportunity for Irish football fans to support their local League of Ireland club which they will be able to recognise the features of the beautiful game, we all fell in love with rather than wasting their money and efforts on English clubs who owned by people that will never care about them and sees them only as consumers of a product rather than fans of the beautiful game.

Galway athlete makes history at the European Gymnastics All-around finals

Ethne Tierney

Galway gymnast Emma Slevin was a part of history in Basel, as she finished 19th in the European Championships all-around finals, making her the first female athlete to take part in a final for an Olympic qualifier event. 17-year-old Slevin, from Renmore Gymnastics Club in Galway, performed admirably on the continental stage to achieve an AllAround total of 49.833, seeing her break into the top 20 at the event.

Slevin had not competed in 18 months due to Covid-19. but she managed to get a final score of 50.432 in the previous round to see her through into the finals. Such a score saw the exciting young talent compete in the All-Around Final as one of Europe’s best late last month.

Speaking on the achievement of qualification for the finals Ciaran Gallagher, CEO of Gymnastics Ireland commented: “A superb day for women’s gymnastics in Ireland! Emma’s performance cements her position as one of the best All-Around gymnasts in Europe and again a history maker as our first senior AA women’s finalist.”

Slevin competed alongside first reserve for Tokyo 2021, Meg Ryan who competed in three of the four apparatuses in Women’s artistic gymnastics. The successful performance on these championships did not come easy to Slevin, who is still only a teenager.

Competition and progress are one of the main motivations for athletes. Slevin, however, has no major competition nationally, showing her determination and strong will to advance. During the pandemic training became a challenge with all the restrictions in place and the halt of any international competition.

A statement from Gymnastics Ireland extended congratulations to both Slevin and Ryan on their achievements in qualification.

“On behalf of everyone at Gymnastics Ireland huge congratulations to Emma & Meg, their coaches Sally Batley & Emma Hamill and our Performance & Technical Manager Sally Johnson.” they said.

We are in this together.

Ba mhaith linn ár mbuíochas ó chroí a rá libh uilig: ár gcustaiméirí dílis agus lucht tacaíochta ó am go chéile. Go raibh maith agaibh as bualadh isteach chun cupán caife cóirthrádála nó sailéad a phiocadh suas. Go raibh maith agaibh as tacú linn. Tá muid ag déileáil le athrú as cuimse, tá muid ag troid le fanacht slán agus ag déanamh iarracht roinnt den fhoireann a choineáil ag obair. Buíochas mór dár bhfoireann dhíograiseach atá ag déanamh iarracht muid a choinneáil slán. Tá sé ag tógáil níos mó ama ná a cheap muid, ach tá muid ag dul sa treo ceart le chéile. #fánsambaile #fánslán

Coiste Gno

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