Search icon

Sport

18th Dec 2014

Pic: Fox Sports in the US don’t appear to know the difference between Gaelic Football and soccer

That’s the Chinese President alright lads, but that’s not soccer he’s playing.

Conor Heneghan

That’s the Chinese President alright lads, but that’s not soccer he’s playing.

Although the GAA has significantly increased its presence around the world in recent years, there are still parts of the world that have yet to be taken in by the charms of our native games.

Outside of Ireland and the UK, the GAA is probably best represented in the USA, but despite the association’s popularity Stateside, major media organisation FOX still appear to be struggling to grasp the differences between soccer and Gaelic Football.

The Fox website posted a story about the intentions of Chinese President Xi Jinping, apparently a huge soccer fan himself, to make soccer a compulsory part of the school curriculum in order to improve the performances of the Chinese team on the international stage in future.

The picture accompanying the story, however, as you might notice, dates back to Xi Jinping’s visit to Croke Park as part of a trip to Ireland two years ago and that’s not soccer he’s playing.

In fairness to Fox, it could well have been the case that there were few pictures of Jinping kicking an actual soccer ball doing the rounds and a size five O’Neill’s isn’t that far removed from the type of ball used in the beautiful game around the world.

The FOX report also details that China’s record of zero goals in one World Cup tournament appearance was one of the reasons for Jinping’s concern.

While introducing a football programme into schools might well remedy that, surely he also knows the old GAA adage that if he takes his points, the goals will come?

Hat-tip to Colm ‘Doc’ McGleenan for sending this one our way