Kenny deserves huge credit for powerful gesture
STEPHEN KENNY could have shirked the story. As he explained why his team took a knee before kick-off against Hungary on Tuesday night, he talked about sending an ‘important message’. And he could have stopped there, but watching the footage of the interview, he paused, seeming to search for his words, before continuing.
‘The fact it was booed was incomprehensible, really. It must be damaging for Hungary, with the Euros in Hungary. It’s disappointing and it doesn’t reflect well on Hungary and the Hungarian support.’
There are many who insist Kenny’s views on this matter should not be entertained on the sports pages. In the year 2021, they continue to insist that sport and politics don’t mix.
That some of these people have prominent media positions of their own is flabbergasting, but the contention that sport should stay fixed on the back pages, and that those who play it and organise it should stay penned within the lines of a playing field like a flock of jumpy sheep, is risible.
It is a position that is childish and selfish, contingent on the fairytale that sport is a release from ‘ordinary’ life, that when someone attends an event, or tunes in on TV, they should be cushioned from everyday reality and entertained by players bubbled in a shrunken world where racism and politics don’t intrude – a fantasy land where the political ruptures that have upended old certainties throughout the western world over the past decade have no effect.
Someone in search of such a la-la land might be better off trying video games or one of the cartoon networks, because the world has changed and the days when sportsmen and women were expected to sit dumbly compliant within a prevailing narrative are long gone.
Kenny has been under unrelenting pressure since he became Ireland manager, and doubts about his future were only slightly dispelled by a stout showing against the Hungarians.
Given the scrutiny he is under, it would have been easy for him to ignore the wider discussion around players taking a knee before matches, one that has been sharpened by a voluble section of English supporters booing their own team in two warm-up matches for the Euros.
Instead, he facilitated his players making a powerful gesture – one that drew extensive boos from the Hungarian supporters, and later criticism from the country’s prime minister.
Viktor Orban is a sinister figure in European politics, with his attitude to democratic norms causing deep unease in the European Union.
It was no surprise that he defended the booing of the Irish players, declaring that fans ‘don’t always choose the most elegant way to do it but you have to understand the cause’.
He didn’t explain the cause, but one could make a stab at it. Taking the knee is meant as a gesture of solidarity, despite the painful attempts of some English politicians to link it to the extreme elements of the protest movement that had its roots in the death of George Floyd last year.
Therefore if booing a gesture of solidarity with black athletes is a ‘cause’, as Orban implies, that cause appears to be a racist one.
Taking the knee threatens to undermine England’s campaign at the Euros, which is a remarkable thought.
But it could: Marcus Rashford, a figure of increasing importance in English sport, captained his country for the first time in their friendly win against Romania six days ago. Yet he had to listen while boos and whistles echoed around before the game.
The argument that those doing the booing are making a political statement of their own is wholly unconvincing, but their voluble rejection not only of players taking the knee, but also the thoughtful explanation of why they do it offered by England manager Gareth Southgate, means that this will remain an issue of contention. So be it.
That is part of the price of a more mature world, in which sporting stars are recognised as people, not idols or diversions or ideals.
It is already clear that the stance taken by Ireland’s players in Hungary has unsettled some in this country, but the overwhelming reaction has been a positive one.
In encouraging his players, Stephen Kenny provided a compelling example of leadership. This is a man who, whatever the challenges facing him on the field, has shown a level of decency, compassion, intelligence and bravery off it that should stand in his credit.
He gets that sport and politics mix, that the world is messy, and that sometimes doing the right thing is the only thing that matters.