So the local football federation could not bring itself to cancel Sunday’s football fixtures in the wake of the political assassination that happened a few days before.
But as a gesture of solidarity they had players unfurl a banner saying largely the right things.
The club of sports reporters came out in condemnation of this not because it was too timid but because it was too much of a show, shenanigans I suppose is the proper translation. The original says “ħafna xeni żejda”.
Then they proceed to flip out their command of English idioms with the old chestnuts of “charity begins at home” and “practice what you preach”.
Their gripe is that the MFA does not let them attend committee meetings. They may or may not have a point. I’m all for openness and all that and I guess just because football is not exactly a major priority in my life does not mean I should diminish the importance of public scrutiny of its running. After all if it’s long been known that there’s stinking corruption anywhere in this country, that is in football.
But please, sports journalists, show some decent sense of timing will you? Fight your battles on your own time not on the back of a colleague who has been denied rather more than an access card to a meeting. She’s been denied her life and the ability to be buried in one piece.
Have you no sense of proportion? Is everything and anything an opportunity?
Explain to the rest of us why you feel your rights as journalists are being suppressed by the MFA but please, while we’re mourning a colleague of yours for the way she was taken off, have the basic politeness of shutting the hell up.