OK, this will be a very brief article. I have written often now about the Australian Football League and its lousy politicisation of a once enjoyable game. We used to be able to go to the footy and forget about politics and controversial social issues. Not too long ago we could enjoy a couple of carefree hours watching some sport.
But not any more: the AFL has lately been pushing one wretched PC political cause after another. It has pushed multiculturalism rounds and Islamic rounds and homosexual rounds, etc. Instead of just promoting a game, it has decided it will stand on the hot potato issues of the day.
Plenty of people are already fed up with this. I certainly am. And we have had another example of this just this weekend. At one match a banner was unfurled saying no to a mosque. This got the AFL all bent out of shape:
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan says he will not tolerate the game “being used to vilify” sections of the community after an anti-Muslim banner was unfurled during Friday night’s match between Richmond and Collingwood. McLachlan said the league would work with police and the Melbourne Cricket Club to identify those behind the sign, which said “Go Pies! Stop the mosques”. He said if those involved with the banner were club members they would be banned from attending games.
The AFL also issued a statement after the game: “The AFL condemns the behaviour in the strongest terms and such actions have no place in society and not in our game. Match day security removed the banner when they became aware of it and evicted the patrons responsible.”
Not to be outdone, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said that those people responsible should be banned from football for life: “I hope the police got their names and numbers, if they’ve got anything to do with our club they’ll be banned. Get these people and make an example of them. They should be banned for life.”
Good grief. Now it is one thing if the AFL wants no controversial political topics promoted at their games. But I just mentioned that it is up to its ears in pushing various radical causes. Thus we have gross hypocrisy going on here, as well as rabid leftist politics being rammed down our throats.
As an example of this hypocrisy, consider this banner which was allowed to go ahead last September with not a peep out the AFL. Given that so many refugees coming here are in fact Muslims, this is a very political and controversial issue. But it seems the AFL is just fine with it.
As long as it is a leftist cause, then it is full steam ahead. But dare to take a different point of view, and the AFL will crack down on you like you were a child molester. Hey AFL, I got news for you: either get out of the game of pushing radical leftist causes altogether, or spare us this blatant set of double standards.
Regardless of what you think of either banner, it’s gotta be one or the other: no political banners, or a range of political banners.
Update
Two more matters have been brought to my attention. Speaking of ongoing and shameless hypocrisy:
-This headline from August of last year:
‘A soccer loving Turkish-born Mussie’: Eddie McGuire description of Victoria’s Muslim sports minister… but he insists it’s NOT a racist remark
-And this little titbit from Emirates Airline:
As a Pies member you can now enjoy the best prices whenever you fly around the world with Emirates. As a Premier Partner of Collingwood, Emirates offer members and their immediate family (when flying with a member) an exclusive 10% online discount on all Emirates airfares from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth.
I banned AFL from my home years ago when it became the HFL – homosexual football league. I do not condone homosexuality in any form and will not support anyone or anything that does.
John Abbott
To stand in the outer and enjoy the efforts of your team and words of the opposition supporters was part of life
I am a very passionate AFL fan and but am very close to walking away from it. If my team wasn’t about to enter a new era of dominance I would walk away from the AFL altogether. When the Bulldogs start to condone homosexuality and all the rest of it, that will be it for me.
Thanks John Abbott. Me too. But not because you said it but because God said it – so we are on the same page. I heard recently of a group who pray prayers of adoration on a daily basis and for long hours with astonishing results – namely vocations to the ministry. Our bishop is going to India next week to, presumably, seek priests to come here and preach a gospel which will be listened to with difficulty. Has our bishop not heard of the Savior who prayed “I bless you Father Lord of heaven and of earth…? I hope he doesn’t run into the spirit of Mother Theresa over there in India. She might pull his ear for not having the courage to do his duty. He denied that he was going to the cricket and I didn’t ask him how the Catholic bishops campaign against same sex marriage was going as I see no evidence of it. I suspect that Mother Theresa thought cowardice to be a sin but then who decides what sin is? I believe Mother Theresa thought homosexual sex to be a sin too but I don’t think she will get a vote – at least not from a large section of Catholic priests and bishops. We choose not to have a TV so AFL is banned by default but I do miss the Rugby. God bless you John and thank you Bill for making this opportunity to communicate possible.
You make very valid comments and I completely agree.
I played football (Aussie Rules) for nine years and loved the game, but like John Abbott I do not watch it because of its leftist, political correct stand.
Spot on Bill.
If the AFL wants to promote social causes, then they should not be surprised if the fans also want their say.
My disillusionment with the AFL (and Collingwood) has dulled my passion for the game, and a club that was such a big part of my family.
I wasn’t aware that any real Christians followed the modern roman gladiator games any longer.
I wonder if the sign had of said “stop the (christian) churches” whether nothing would have been said?
Maybe local sports clubs can now enjoy a comeback as sports fans turn their TVs off in disgust and go back to cheering on their young people on their own community sports fields. That’s where it should be happening, people playing sports for their own health and well being, people supporting their own community clubs for the sake of community interaction instead off couch potatoes in front of a screen. If AFL and other clubs disappeared off the face of the earth, thankfully life would still go on and maybe be better for it?
Many blessings
Ursula Bennet
I banned AFL from my home years ago when it became the HFL – homosexual football league. I do not condone homosexuality in any form and will not support anyone or anything that does.
John Abbott
To stand in the outer and enjoy the efforts of your team and words of the opposition supporters was part of life
I am a very passionate AFL fan and but am very close to walking away from it. If my team wasn’t about to enter a new era of dominance I would walk away from the AFL altogether. When the Bulldogs start to condone homosexuality and all the rest of it, that will be it for me.
Thanks John Abbott. Me too. But not because you said it but because God said it – so we are on the same page. I heard recently of a group who pray prayers of adoration on a daily basis and for long hours with astonishing results – namely vocations to the ministry. Our bishop is going to India next week to, presumably, seek priests to come here and preach a gospel which will be listened to with difficulty. Has our bishop not heard of the Savior who prayed “I bless you Father Lord of heaven and of earth…? I hope he doesn’t run into the spirit of Mother Theresa over there in India. She might pull his ear for not having the courage to do his duty. He denied that he was going to the cricket and I didn’t ask him how the Catholic bishops campaign against same sex marriage was going as I see no evidence of it. I suspect that Mother Theresa thought cowardice to be a sin but then who decides what sin is? I believe Mother Theresa thought homosexual sex to be a sin too but I don’t think she will get a vote – at least not from a large section of Catholic priests and bishops. We choose not to have a TV so AFL is banned by default but I do miss the Rugby. God bless you John and thank you Bill for making this opportunity to communicate possible.
You make very valid comments and I completely agree.
I played football (Aussie Rules) for nine years and loved the game, but like John Abbott I do not watch it because of its leftist, political correct stand.
Spot on Bill.
If the AFL wants to promote social causes, then they should not be surprised if the fans also want their say.
My disillusionment with the AFL (and Collingwood) has dulled my passion for the game, and a club that was such a big part of my family.
I wasn’t aware that any real Christians followed the modern roman gladiator games any longer.
I wonder if the sign had of said “stop the (christian) churches” whether nothing would have been said?
Maybe local sports clubs can now enjoy a comeback as sports fans turn their TVs off in disgust and go back to cheering on their young people on their own community sports fields. That’s where it should be happening, people playing sports for their own health and well being, people supporting their own community clubs for the sake of community interaction instead off couch potatoes in front of a screen. If AFL and other clubs disappeared off the face of the earth, thankfully life would still go on and maybe be better for it?
Many blessings
Ursula Bennet