Of Gaelic Football and UEFA's #EqualGame campaign [Sport]

A Nigerian born and former England women’s football team player Eniola Aluko, has been commended by her club Chelsea for “speaking of her experiences” after she accused England boss Mark Sampson of “bullying and discrimination”.

The Chelsea Ladies striker told BBC recently that Mr. Sampson made a “racist comment” about her family in Nigeria being infected with the Ebola virus. Victor Muisyo has more details on that row in this episode.

On that same note, football is for everyone! On Wednesday in Monaco the European football body UEFA rolled out #EqualGame, a new social responsibility campaign that will positively promote inclusion, diversity and accessibility in football throughout Europe.

We have a report on that.

Odd balls

Finally like it is usually the usual, we reserve this last part to pick up something new in the whacky weird world of sport. Today, we’ll introduce you to a strange sport you probably never knew existed. It’s called Gaelic Football.

Gaelic football is one is one of the few remaining strictly amateur sports in the world, with players, coaches, and managers prohibited from receiving any form of payment.

It is the most popular sport in Ireland and the Irish people simply refer to it as just football. This game is played between two teams of 15 players. The objective of the sport is to score by kicking or punching the ball into the other team’s goals (3 points) or between two upright posts above the goals and over a crossbar 2.5 metres above the ground (1 point). It’s like a cocktail of Rugby and Soccer.

In this game, two types of scores are possible: points and goals. A point is awarded for kicking or hand-passing the ball over the crossbar, signalled by the umpire raising a white flag. A goal is awarded for kicking the ball under the crossbar into the net, signalled by the umpire raising a green flag. Positions in Gaelic football are similar to that in other football codes, and comprise one goalkeeper, six backs, two midfielders, and six forwards, with a variable number of substitutes.

We live, we learn!

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