I'm not complaining about the fact that the soccer team is almost entirely black nor that there is a white bias in the South African rugby team. My point is that generally, you play the sports your parents got you into so soccer is more of a black sport whereas whites tend to be over represented in rugby. This, in my opinion, is because when you're a kid your parents tend to bring you to games or get you in involved in sports they like - that's why in soccer, rugby and GAA clubs you often see generations of families.Dave Cahill wrote:There almost isn't a single accurate sentence in that post! Firstly, protestant participation to GAA is far in excess of their numbers in the general population in Ireland and has always been, both on and off the pitch. From Sam Maguire to Jack Boothman, protestants have been some of the most ardent and bigoted Gaels.Flash Gordon wrote:The comment about soccer is why this is racist. As you say, there are almost no white players on the international soccer team and the sports or olympic councils are doing absolutely nothing about that. For me, sporting participation tends to stem from things your parents were into. When I was a kid my dad brought me to soccer, athletics, rugby and cricket and those were the games we played in the garden and then in organised sport. He wasn't interested in GAA or horse racing and I'm not interested in these sports now.Stuka wrote:In South Africa the blacks and the coloured hate each other more then they hate the whites and they both hate economic immigrants more then anyone. All whipped up by the ANC. Its a horrible degenerite hole of a country. A cesspit of racial hatred and mistrust. I was there for the Lions tour. I would NEVER go back in a million years.
For the main part the blacks have zero interest in the game of Rugby. Footbal is the game they play. There are no whites playing in the Bafana squad but no one crys foul there.
This is a complete non story whipped up by the ANC.
Nobody in Ireland is going around trying to impose quotas on the GAA because there aren't enough protestants playing and rightly so. The only thing that matters is that everybody has equal access to sports should they chose to play. In South Africa, all you need is a shorts and a shirt (you don't even need boots!).
Secondly, the representation of white players on the National team in South Africa is pretty much in line with their prevalence in the professional game in the country and overseas as an entirety. Some selections a little more, some a little less. But its not a big deal because the big difference is that Soccer wasn't the game of choice of the racist the way Rugby was - so with all the brain dead okes chasing eggs and its populist nature as a sport, apartheid never really took hold in south african soccer - simply because aside from anything, enough whites weren't interested in the game to actually have something to be apart from, and as a professional sport the colour of ones money was far more important than the colour of ones skin. Complaining about the lack of whites in South Africa soccer is like complaining about the level of eskimo participation in road bowling.
Thirdly the current captain of Bafana Bafana is white!
I have no issue with the fact that most of the South African soccer team is black or that whites are over represented on the Springbok team. The fact that the government are calling out rugby but not soccer is racist in my view because its the same situation in reverse. As you know, the South African rugby authorities have actively encouraged and supported black people getting involved in rugby - that'll be the 41%, which is massive progress.
On Protestants/Catholics in sport in Ireland, according to figures released by the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure in the North, less than 1% attended a live GAA match over the course of 2013-14, live cricket and hockey events in Northern Ireland were almost exclusively attended by those from a Protestant community background. I haven't seen any figures on participation - i know protestants have and do play GAA - think Carson played hurling!! - but I would be amazed if the demographic in the Northern counties split more or less 50/50 across the religions (as they don't in rugby)
Again, that is absolutely not an issue because if a protestant wants to play GAA or if a Catholic wants to play hockey or cricket there are no structural barriers.