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Barry Gilheany ⚽ In my last TPQ column I mused about the possibility of a day of reckoning for FIFA.

This was written in the aftermath of a World Cup in which the football on offer was largely pleasing to the eye (except for the Final itself!) but in which the off-field shenanigans and the presentation of the game on it (hydration breaks etc) did not assuage the widespread suspicion within football of FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s longer term plans. 

Well, football’s defining moment; its crossroads; it’s raison d’etre and mission has arrived much sooner than any observer or commentator could have expected with Infantino’s proposal to sell the commercial rights of its tournaments, including the World Cup, to private investors. The backlash to this attempt “to sell the soul of football” in the words of UEFA has been immediate with UEFA deciding in a unanimous vote of its 55 member associations to boycott all FIFA tournaments, including next year’s Women’s World Cup and the 2030 men’s competition; a decision quickly followed by similar action from CONCACAF, the North and Central American and Caribbean Federation and the Asian Federation. Numerically, these add up to a sufficient voting majority within FIFA to sink the sale. It is to be hoped that a contra vote by the African Federation would deliver the coup de grace to the sale but since African countries are the traditional major beneficiaries of FIFA ‘s pork barrel largesse and would stand to gain again from the disbursements dressed up as “football developmental aid”; hope for their resistance might be futile, but maybe not. 

As it stands, the arithmetic of FIFA member opposition to the sale could also spell curtains for Infantino at next year’s FIFA Presidential election. The resignation of Carlos Cordeiro, a close senior adviser to Infantino, in protest at the sale of equity in the World Cup could well be a strong indicator that it may already be dead in the water. The proposed sale has also aroused fierce opposition from the European Union and the new UK Prime Minister and keen football supporter Andy Burnham who has opined that Infantino is not fit to lead FIFA.

In fact, in developments which may have already rendered this article yesterday’s digital fish-and-chips wrapping, the proposal has indeed been dropped with Infantino’s Presidency in growing peril as UEFA are heading up a concerted campaign to oust him from his perch. The Welsh Football Association has started the figurative ball rolling with a letter of no-confidence in him, with their English counterparts expected to formally follow suit as I write. Before the crisis of last week exploded, all of UEFA’s 55 members, apart from Germany, Romania and Norway, had written letters to support Infantino’s candidature next March, making the re-election of the career Swiss football bureaucrat a virtual fait accompli.[1] Now expect withdrawals of these endorsements en masse.

Despite the foundering of his FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, a number of countries in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) publicly backed Infantino over the weekend. Following the endorsement of Infantino by the uber financial powerhouse that is Qatar, the smaller Asian associations Sri Lanka and Kuwait offered their public support. However the AFC rarely votes in unanimity, and it is possible that some disgruntled associations will rally around the UEFA campaign to oust Infantino. Gathering quickly around a suitable candidate is likely to be crucial in persuading Infantino that his game is up. Both the Confederation of African Football and the South American confederation, Conmebol, are fully behind Infantino, leaving Asia and North America as critical backgrounds in UEFA members’ quest to seek new leadership at Fifa.[2][3]

In addition, Infantino is also facing a rebellion from members of the FIFA council who are attempting to force an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), which could be the springboard for a leadership challenge. The FIFA council is the world governing body’s main decision-making forum comprised of 28 representatives of the six confederations, eight vice-presidents and Infantino. Under FIFA rules, a motion from 50% or 19 of the 37 council members can trigger an EGM.[4]

So how did it all come to this? The outlines were as follows: football’s world governing body would collaborate with the US bank JP Morgan to set up FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to raise hundreds of millions by selling a stake in the commercial rights of the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup to investors, with promises of an increase in distribution of “over $10bn” (£7.5bn) then being redistributed back to FIFA’s 211 member associations. Alarm bells rang immediately with those football cognoscenti repelled by Infantino’s public bromance with Donald Trump, with the knowledge that Thrive Capital, an investment company founded by Joshua Kushner – brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner - was heading up the quest for investors. The ill-fated venture was valued at about $20bn by sources with knowledge of FIFA’s proposals, with Infantino coveting enviously and looking to fully monetise football post-World Cup bounce in popularity with FIFA’s revenues from it revealed by the Guardian to exceed $15bn.[5]

FIFA had also promised an increase in annual disbursements and predicted a total of $10bn in extra funding would eventually be shared around. FIFA also stated that a majority of its 211 members must express an interest in taking the extra funding if the external investment was to be allowed. The sheer blatant conditionality and naked financial bullying of the FIFA’s plan lay in the geopolitical reality that many nations already depend on FIFA for the running of their operations and, in a contemporary sporting assertion of the pronouncement by King Louis XIV that “L’Etat, C’ est moi”, Infantino’s ex cathedra statement this year that without the governing body “there would be no football in 150 countries in the world”.[6] Such is the autocratic and imperialist agenda behind what in Orwellian Infantospeak was “an attempt to democratise world football,:"[7] This week has seen the denouement of FIFA as a supranational body, the playing out of its transmogrification into, in the words of Guardian columnist Marina Hyde “a travelling parasitic nation state”.[8]

Further probing into the 25-page sales deck tilted “FIFA Forward Enterprise Member Materials” produced by the US bank JP Morgan uncovers a seabed of the ghastly language of financial bromides that marked calamities such as the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market that triggered the credit crunch and global financial collapse of 2008 and, in the world of football, financial Armageddon for major clubs such as Leeds United, Glasgow Rangers and Deportivo La Coruna and the near extinction of clubs across lower leagues such as Portsmouth, Wigan, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and the actual death of clubs such as Bordeaux and Bury FC. As well as the previously mentioned $20m ($15m) payment offered to all 211 FIFA member associations, the document projected that the four-year FIFA Forward payments would increase to $24m for each member by the 2035-39 cycle. It is made clear in the sales deck that such growth would come from “a growing tournament portfolio”, “third party sources of capital and debt financing”, and prioritising “high yield” partnerships and events.[9]

Such largesse would be recouped by virtual death of football by asphyxiation. For the JP MorganChase investor check prospect talks about more the doubling the number of global tournaments from 200 to 450, putting enormous strain on player workload or the game’s human capital which would the preferred argot for these income maximisers. The Club World Cup inaugurated last hear in the US last year as the dry-run for this year’s Infantino-Trump love fest was the first major parasitical innovation of this sort. Another would be Infantino vision of a biennial World Cup which he mused about five years ago. JP Morgan ventures further into football dystopia by floating the prospect of TV coverage of the biggest events such as the World Cup being sold to subscription channels or streamers, by referring to a plan to “expand and optimise media rights monetisation.” JP Morgan claims that FIFA is “undermonetised” but significantly uses comparators such as the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association (NBA) whose revenue figures are based on club or franchise earnings, rather than comparable governing bodies. FIFA’s stated annual revenue pf $3.6bn therefore compares unfavourably with the NFL’s compared revenue of $21.2bn, Major League Baseball’s $13.1bn and the NBA’s $12.5bn.[10].

Amongst the most glaring lacunae in the sales pitch are why FIFA, which has cash reserves of around $4bn and accumulated revenues of $15bn over the current four-year cycle, would need to take on debt; the absence of any reference to the identity of the investor group, projected returns or exit terns and, most disgracefully of all, not a single mention of women’s football.[11] In the words of one FIFA member, the figures were “a back of the envelope embarrassing undervaluation” and the literary style “banal AI- generated slop” . It was rife with American spellings and descriptors such as the reference to the World Cup as “the FIFA”. [12] It’s enthusiastic vision of “access to debt markets” is enough to send a chill down the spine of any European football fan such as those of Manchester United who have had to live with the legacy of the debt leveraged takeover of their club by the Glazer family in 2005.

It’s all about the money and jobs for the boys then. But then JP Morgan has form in such hubristic, half-cocked visions of the future for football. Five years ago, it ended up apologising to fans after its part in the plan to create a breakaway European Super League which imploded in the much the same time period as last week’s FIFA’s Forward Enterprise fiasco in the face of a firestorm of opposition of clubs outside the exclusive self-appointed elect, fans, national associations and politicians alike including Boris Johnston (remember him?). Back then, it said, “We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might affect them in the future” and promised that “we will learn from this”. Not for JP Morgan the chastening deterrents of eviction from office at the hands of the electorate or alarmed ruling parties that for politicians who break promises or who don’t learn from their mistakes.

But there is a wider lesson to be learnt outside of football from Gianni Infantino’s seemingly inexorable fall from grace. In the week which began with his self-pitying Instagram meltdown in which he posted:

To those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumours, I want to say that while you are sitting behind, we at FIFA are on the frontlines organising, working hard, and delivering the best show in the world.

And which ended in the ruination of his plan to deliver just the latter which could have led to “A World Cup with no football teams”[13]. He should reflect that he has forgotten one of the golden rules of modern life – it is fine not to post.[14] The problems which those with a constant online presence like Zac Polanski, leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, have encountered in offline life through inadvertent reposts and posts (to give him an early benefit of the doubt) offer salutary lessons to people in the public life and in the public eye. Serial shitposters such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the prominent exceptions that prove that rule.

References

[1] Nick Ames and Matt Hughes. Infantino in peril. UEFA members prepare to oppose his FIFA re-election. The Guardian 3 August 2026 p.44

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Matt Hughes and Paul MacInnes ‘Selling the soul of football’. FIFA faces backlash over $20bn proposal for World Cup rights. The Guardian 28 July 2026

[6] Paul MacInnes, Is World Cup for sale? The lowdown on FIFA’s plans and next stages. The Guardian 26 Juily 2026 p.41

[7] Ibid

[8] Marina Hyde, Who would dare ridicule creator of world peace Infantino? You? The Guardian Opinion 29 July 2026 p.3

[9] Matt Hughes, FIFA's sales pitch. More tournaments, more debt and higher ticket prices. The Guardian 31 July 2026 p.40

[10] Ibid

[11] Ibid

[12]Rob Draper. Game over? As he scraps has ‘shabby’ World Cup sell-off deal, Infantino’s job hangs by a thread. The Observer 2 August 2026 pp.6-7

[13] Marina Hyde, A World Cup with no football teams: it’s a bold move, Gianni. The Guardian Opinion 1 August 2026 p.3

[14] Hyde, Guardian 29 July 2026 op cit

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter. 

Caught Offside ⚽ The Selling Off Of The World Cup And The End Of FIFA As We Know It . . . Hopefully!

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Fifty One

 







A Morning Thought @ 3223

People And Nature ☭ Written by Simon Pirani. 


The government’s Local Power Plan will fail to boost community renewable energy projects if regulatory and market obstructions are not swept away, campaigners say.

An obsessively centralised system of regulation, and the energy corporations’ power, are blocking change, some activists argue.

Even modest proposals to support community energy projects with a long-term, fixed price for their electricity fall on deaf ears.

A site visit preparing an area-based retrofit scheme in south Manchester.
Carbon Co-op works as an intermediary party on the scheme

And while the government says it wants to make it easy for community projects to supply local customers directly, it has shied away from scrapping the multiple obstacles to them doing so.

A deeper-going shake-up, to facilitate local microgrids, is at least being talked about – but is even further away from implementation.

Community energy representatives say that, if projects are stuck in years-long queues for a connection to the electricity grid, the government can wave goodbye to its commitment to expand community energy renewable generation capacity nearly 20-fold, to 8 gigawatts by 2030.

The House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero (ESNZ) committee said last month [June] that the Local Power Plan “risks failing”. The MPs were “not convinced” the government would hit the 8GW by 2030 target.

It is best to assess the government’s actions in relation not only to its own targets, but to community energy’s potential both to combat social injustice and to make a substantial contribution to tackling climate change.

That potential could be realised most effectively by taking electricity networks into public, cooperative and municipal forms of ownership, and by prioritising decentralised renewables technologies and flexible throughput.

The Local Power Plan could be a battleground on which progress is made on both counts.

The gap between words and actions

The Local Power Plan, published in February, promises to “accelerate the build-out of clean power” in communities, through up to £1 billion of investment between now and 2030 in “grants, loans, advice, expert help and more”.

The government claims the funding – partly through a new state-owned company, GB Energy – will reduce electricity bills, “transform communities” and “create jobs”.

There are about 700 community energy projects in the UK with generation capacity of 440 megawatts (MW), or 0.44 gigawatts (GW). The government’s Clean Power Action Plan includes the target of 8GW of new renewable community electricity generation by 2030 – but no details about how to achieve it.

Community energy groups say this aim will be frustrated by the grid connection crisis, constraints on selling energy locally, the lack of a guaranteed price from the big market players, and other regulatory failures.

The biggest obstacle to new projects is the near-impossibility of getting a grid connection, without which electricity can not be generated. 379 MW of electricity generation capacity, that would almost double total output from community schemes, is “stalled by grid delays and outdated policy”, a coalition of 250 organisations complained in an open letter to the government.

The years-long queue for grid connections is a national scandal that also affects big commercially-operated renewables. The lack of transmission capacity, especially between Scotland and England, means that wind farms in Scotland are paid to stop working, while gas-fired power stations in England are ramped up, a damning report by Carbon Tracker showed.

It is a story of neoliberalism and underinvestment: in the decade 2014-2023, the deployment of solar and wind quadrupled, but investment in the transmission grid stayed flat, and after 2017 decreased.

In the financial year 2024-25, the National Energy System Operator (NESO), that runs the grid, paid £2.7 billion in balancing costs – mostly compensation for switching off wind farms. In 2024, Scotland’s largest wind farm, Seagreen, was paid £65 million to restrict output 71% of the time.

In December last year, NESO addressed a related scandal by reforming the grid connection queue to throw out speculative and “zombie” projects, for which companies requested a connection, but which might never go ahead.

A ship loading jackets for the Seagreen offshore windfarm at Nigg Energy Park.
Seagreen’s output was curtailed 71% of the time in 2024.
Photo by Glen Wallace / wikimedia

An infuriating irony of the reform was that for community energy projects in Scotland, it actually made matters worse. New regional grid capacity requirements were set, and all of Scotland’s capacity for wind, solar and battery projects was allocated, up to 2035.

“This means that new community-led projects, including some that volunteers have spent years working on, will be unable to get a connection”, Zoe Holliday, chief executive of Community Energy Scotland, said in an interview.

“The only opportunities now available will be in cases where projects that have received offers don’t go ahead.” Then, “the impact on communities should be recognised” in the decision-making process, she said.

Another barrier to community energy in Scotland is the expensive and time-consuming Transmission Impact Assessment (TIA) required for projects larger than 200 kilowatts (kW) capacity, or just 50 kW on most of the Scottish islands. In England and Wales, the threshold for this process was recently raised to 5MW: Community Energy Scotland and the energy research group Regen call for a similar revision north of the border.

Along with the grid connection queue, community energy projects have to battle market regulation that favours large-scale electricity generation from gas-fired power stations.

Guaranteed prices for electricity exported to the grid are essential to make projects “financially secure long term”, and to attract investment and borrow funds from banks, Zoe Holliday of Community Energy Scotland said. Until 2019, small-scale renewables – including community projects – were supported by the Feed-in Tariff (FiT), a subsidy that was scrapped by the Tory government.

There are “multiple mechanisms that would work” today, Holliday argues: a floor price (i.e. a minimum that small renewables generators would be paid, supported by state guarantee if necessary); something similar to Ireland’s Small Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, which includes a community tariff; or a simplified Contract for Difference (a financial derivative used by the government to protect commercial renewables projects from price swings volatile markets).

Community Energy England calls for a Community Energy Export Guarantee, with a minimum price guaranteed for 15-20 years. The MPs on the ESNZ committee backed that proposal, pointing to the lack of a secure pricing mechanism is “one of the biggest barriers” to the growth of community energy.

Community energy is also being stifled by market rules that all but force projects to sell via the wholesale market, advocates say. The “big six” corporations that control 90% of electricity sales are in no hurry to change the system.

Big suppliers buy electricity from community energy projects and sell it back to local people, often at two or three times the price. An energy club, that negotiates a “match price”, paid by households directly to a local generator when it is working, can cut out the middleman, and Energy Local, a non-profit, supports dozens of these.

Jeff Hardy of Sustainable Energy Futures, who leads an energy transition research team at Imperial College, London, said in an interview:

At present, being a small supplier is a dangerous place to be. You need to be able to do supply, and to do flexibility.

Steve Shaw of Power for People, which lobbies for legislation to enable community energy projects to sell electricity directly to local customers, said:

In practice, to make it economic and practical to get a supply licence, you need to operate on a national scale, and have more than 250,000 customers. This has to change.

The MPs on the ESNZ committee agreed: the cost of setting up as a supplier, and getting a licence, is “prohibitive for small community projects”, and licence exemption rules are not fit for purpose, they argued.

Regulators are working on a rule change that supports the formation of local electricity markets, called “complex sites” (Elexon’s P441 modification). But the ESNZ committee has told the government it should go further, though, “to accommodate all types of local supply and require the participation of local suppliers”.

The tweaking of local trading rules might sound arcane – but without it, the potential of decentralised networks, an essential technical complement to small-scale renewables, will never be tapped.

A report commissioned in 2023 by the government’s own innovation agency, Innovate UK, on the potential of decentralised energy resources was scathing, declaring it “difficult, if not impossible, to trade and settle energy locally in local energy markets”. This constrains not only small-scale renewable generation, but also flexibility, i.e. the efficiencies achieved by adjusting electricity use to reduce the load on networks at busy times.

The rules for licencing energy suppliers, and the industry’s self-governance of codes and standards, “stifles decentralised energy from realising its potential”, the report stated. The rules set by Ofgem, the industry regulator, for licencing are “complex, prescriptive, rigid – and were not designed with a highly decentralised energy system in mind”.

Government has a responsibility to champion inclusive ownership models – and this is missing from the Local Power Plan – Alan Simpson, the former Labour MP and long-time community energy campaigner, said in an interview. “Many community energy organisations are investor co-ops, rather than co-ops in the traditional sense, and the danger of losing the community aspect is always present.

To become a real force for uniting communities, co-ops should be open to people who are not in a position to invest, but are in a position to benefit from sharing energy resources.

Solar panels installed by Glasgow Community Energy at Ashton secondary school in Easterhouse

The weakness of local government structures, and a complex web of planning rules, further frustrate community energy, the House of Commons ESNZ committee heard from multiple witnesses.

The Energy Savings Trust told the MPs that there has been no long-term strategy to support community energy since 2014; many local authorities “do not have sufficient resources or knowledge” to give effective backing; and the competitive bidding processes through which they have to access funding are a “postcode lottery”.

Planning rules need to be revised and guidance be given by something better than GB Energy’s proposed advice service, the MPs concluded.

Alan Simpson, the former Labour MP, put the issue in political context in his evidence: the core problem with the Local Power Plan is that it has “few statutory powers to override existing constraints”.

He pointed to the Mozes community energy co-op in Nottingham, that spent several years applying for permissions to develop a local energy grid. “Detailed schemes were submitted, with university and energy technology partners, but blocked by the Distribution Network Operator, Ofgem or existing energy suppliers.

Current approaches are largely tokenistic and designed to be non-disruptive of the existing UK energy cartel.

Since it lacks teeth, what is the Local Power Plan likely to achieve, without additional pressure from civil society? Some campaigners fear that, given the finite budget and finite time-scale, cash support for shared ownership schemes – under which community organisations take shares in commercial renewable projects – is likely to be prioritised.

The danger looms of a gigantic failure to enhance social change and climate action.

Realising the potential of microgrids

A striking feature of the Local Power Plan is its lack of ambition for microgrids – proven technologies that cut carbon emissions and rationalise electricity use, and that community energy organisations would be well-placed to manage.

Microgrids are semi-autonomous from electricity networks, and share electricity produced locally. In the US, microgrid capacity, strongly supported by government, was expected to reach 10GW last year. Microgrids are mushrooming around industrial parks in China and are widely used in the global south to supply geographically distant communities.

US microgrid development is largely corporate-led, partly in response to soaring electricity demand from data centres. But it does not have to be. June Sekera of Boston University last year published a blueprint for community-run local power networks, envisaged as “a ‘back-to-the-future’ model – a return to decentralised, locally-controlled, non-corporate generation and supply of electricity: self-generation for self consumption”.

In the UK, things are slower. The Local Power Plan includes only a vague, timeless commitment that GB Energy “will explore, with stakeholders and expertise, the future potential of generating and sharing power locally” – even though the plan’s evidence annex lists ways in which microgrids can benefit the electricity grid.

Small-scale electricity generation “has the potential to defer network reinforcement, by lessening the growth in power flows that drive constraints on network assets”, the annex states. By making full use of flexibility, battery storage and rooftop solar, Smart Local Energy Systems (i.e. microgrids) could save £1.7 billion a year.

The combination of decentralising networks and flexibility “delivers multi-billion-pound annual systems savings”, the annex continues.

Were community-owned and -managed microgrids to develop at any scale, they would pose a massive headache to the big energy corporations, who make money by buying electricity and selling it to consumers.

Such microgrids would give communities greater control over the economics of electricity generation and use, and manifold opportunities to cut costs for households. They could also open up potential for energy efficiency, which has been “systematically underfunded” and tends to be implemented patchily by suppliers because it “jars with their business model to sell more commodities”, as the Innovate UK report argued; “it is hard to get paid for not demanding energy, even though it carries system benefits”.

Ultimately, community-managed microgrids could help to challenge the decades-old neoliberal assumption that electricity is best supplied as a commodity, instead of being provided as an essential service. Against this, radical engineering researchers have long ago shown how networks could treat electricity as a commons.

Tackling social injustice and global heating together

For all of us who seek to unite the struggles for social justice and climate action, community energy projects are a great inspiration. Where I live, South East London Community Energy has for years supported low-income households against fuel poverty and campaigned against energy system injustices. Volunteers up and down the country do the same.

What would it take to build on such action, to generate and use renewable electricity outside of the control of the big corporates and the markets they serve? Far more than is offered in the Local Power Plan, that’s for sure.

First, we need to try to find ways to restore the principle of electricity provision as a service that meets a need, not as a commodity. In my view, local supply rights that community energy advocates are demanding could be a step towards this. Then national market regulation needs to be prised out of the big corporates’ hands.

Second, the battle for public, community and collective forms of ownership is vital. The importance of inclusive co-operatives, open to all no matter their ability to contribute, can not be overestimated.

Third, we need to find ways for communities to access, and use, the technologies that allow decentralised renewables to realise their potential. Semi-autonomous microgrids with renewable generation and batteries are widespread: we need them here in the UK, free of corporate control.

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The Local Power Plan Risks Blocking Community Energy Potential

Heartlands Tribune ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs.

From Cradley Heath to Liverpool: The History of Unions Betraying Female Workers

UNISON, ASLEF, USDAW and the Musicians’ Union are boycotting Labour’s Women’s Conference because its formal proceedings are reserved for women.

The Oldest Story in the Labour Movement Has a New Chapter, and It Stinks…

In 1874, a bookbinder named Emma Paterson founded the Women’s Trade Union League because the unions of her day would not organise women. This is not a new story. It is, if anything, the oldest story in modern history, and not only in the labour movement. Men shut the door. Women build their own room.

Those rooms worked. Mary Macarthur built the National Federation of Women Workers for the women the established unions would not take, and in 1910 the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath struck to force employers to honour a minimum wage the law had already granted them. They won. The movement absorbed their victory into its mythology and has been proud of it ever since. That is the pattern, and it repeats: women organise separately because the general movement has neglected them, they win something nobody else was fighting for, and afterwards the movement discovers it had always believed in equal pay. 

Continue @ Heartlands.

The Empty Delegation 🪶 How Four Trade Unions Sold Out Their Female Members

Dr John Coulter ✍ There is an unattributable saying that preacher’s kids can be the worst behaved in any group of young people. 

I don’t know where this perception came from, but growing up as a Presbyterian minister’s son in the heart of the north east Ulster Bible Belt certainly had it challenges.

While some of those bad experiences were simply because some ‘buck eejit’ wanted to show off by picking on the minister’s son, others were self-inflicted. And one of those challenges was surviving the annual Boys’ Brigade summer camp.

It was the summer of 1975 and BB camp that year was in the sunny English seaside town of Southport, now unfortunately best known for the race riots.

For many of the lads from the north Antrim hills, the ’75 camp was their first time away from home, but it provided ample opportunities to gain the required evidence for our Stage One BB badge in camping.

In the mid-Seventies, Southport to us resembled Portrush’s famous Barry’s Amusements times ten! That provided us with endless hours of fun and certainly drained our pocket money!

Until we saw a poster highlighting a wrestling event at Southport’s Floral Hall. Top of the bill for Wednesday 23rd July was none other than Giant Haystacks, the 31-stone Mountain Man who was nearly seven foot tall.

Giant Haystacks was someone we had only seen on television on Saturday afternoons before the football results came on. Here was a chance to see the man himself in action, so we persuaded our BB officers to get us tickets - in the front row.

Giant Haystacks’ real name was Martin Austin Ruane, and his father came from Co Mayo. The popular wrestler was to sadly die in November 1998 aged only 52. He was also best known for tag team wrestling with his equally large partner Big Daddy.

For those not of my generation, Giant Haystacks dressed as if he was auditioning for a part in the horror movie series The Hills Have Eyes, or Wrong Turn. While we were there that night to see Giant Haystacks in action, it was naturally his opponent we were cheering on - the Canadian wrestler Johnny War Eagle.

So picture the scene. A front row full of north Antrim BB lads yelling abuse (obviously with the officers present we had to watch our language!) at Giant Haystacks as he waddled his massive body around the wrestling ring throwing Johnny War Eagle around the place.

Every time Giant Haystacks reached our corner of the ring, the abuse would increase - and all conveniently ignored by the Mountain Man. Indeed, our initial perception was that Giant Haystacks was actually lapping up and even enjoying the abusive attention from our BB contingent.

That was until one of our lads - egged on by me as the minister’s son to go closer to the ring - stood up from his seat, went within a few feet of the ring and yelled these immortal words in a broad north Antrim accent at Giant Haystacks - “Haystacks, you’re nothing but a big poof!”

By 2026 standards, such abuse would be clearly considered as a homophobic hate crime carrying a hefty fine and even a jail term, but in 1975 such abuse would not warrant arrest or a conviction. However, the damage was done.

Clearly, even in the mid Seventies, calling Giant Haystacks’ sexual orientation into question was not a remark to make. Whether it was the remark itself, or because of Giant Haystacks’ Irish background and he recognised a north Antrim accent, the big man did not like what was said.

His reaction was instantaneous. He stepped out of the wrestling ring and made towards us leaving an obviously bemused Johnny War Eagle wondering what was happening.

We wee teenage BB boys suddenly realised the ‘big poof’ slur had been one piece of abuse too far. We started to clamber over the chairs to get away from Giant Haystacks as he waded through the rows to get his hands on these cheeky north Antrim brats.

We were in full retreat! It didn’t matter who was in the rows behind us, we needed to get away - and fast. After we all jumped over several rows of chairs and spectators, Giant Haystacks felt he had made his point, and he turned and headed back to the wrestling ring.

We watched the rest of his bout from the back of the hall. None of us had the courage to resume our front row seats given the reaction from Giant Haystacks, much to the amusement of our accompanying officers.

After the evening’s event, we went autograph hunting, but diplomatically avoided Giant Haystacks, who thankfully was nowhere to be seen. Johnny War Eagle insisted on signing our event programmes, giving us a ‘thumbs up’ as we left the Floral Hall.

Back home in the north Antrim hills, the incident was ‘spun’ about the evening we confronted Giant Haystacks head on during his wrestling bout. For some reason, the abuse comment and the hasty retreat were diplomatically omitted from our ‘take’ on the events of that late July 1975 Wednesday evening in sunny Southport.

One lesson was learned when we got home - the slur ‘big poof’ was never to be uttered at anyone again.

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Dr Coulter has been a journalist since 1978 and is currently a political commentator with GB News.

Going Head To Head With Giant Haystacks!

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Fifty

 

A Morning Thought @ 3222

Daithi Hopkins ⚽ I should start with a bit of a disclaimer. I'm no sports writer or GAA tactician. 

After a couple of creamy pints of Guinness I occasionally suffer from what can only be described as post-pint Dunning–Kruger syndrome, convincing myself I could give Joe Brolly and Pat Spillane a run for their money. Like many of my articles, my mind has a habit of wandering through history, folklore, politics, music and family before eventually finding its way back to some kind of ending.

Some sporting occasions are remembered for the score. Others for a last-minute point or save. Then there are the rare days that become much bigger than the game itself. Mayo's 2026 All-Ireland victory
was one of those days.

The Sam Maguire Cup is named after Sam Maguire, an Irish republican from Dunmanway, County
Cork, whose life was cut short by tuberculosis while still young. Coincidentally, my own great
grandfather also died from tuberculosis at a similar age. Thankfully, within a generation, Ireland had
begun to overcome one of its deadliest diseases, thanks in no small part to Dr Noel Browne and
mass tuberculosis treatment. His autobiography, Against the Tide, remains one of my favourite
political memoirs. As I noted in a recent piece for The Pensive Quill on the play We Have Him Back,
Noel Browne spent his early life in Hollymount—the very same parish Frank Stagg came from. My
mind has a habit of wandering down these little side roads, and somehow the links nearly always
find each other in the end.

We're also a nation of storytellers.

Every parish has its legends. Every family has stories. Sometimes fact and folklore sit comfortably
side by side.

Which brings us to the Mayo curse.

According to legend, after Mayo won the All-Ireland in 1951, a priest cursed the county after the team
allegedly disturbed a funeral near Foxford, declaring they would not win another title until every
member of that team had passed away.

Whether it actually happened or not is almost beside the point. Every heartbreaking defeat—eleven
lost finals, two drawn finals and countless near-miss semi-finals—just seemed to breathe new life
into the story. Eventually every member of that 1951 team had passed away. May they rest in eternal
peace.

Whether there ever was a curse is for every reader to decide. There was certainly a story, and it
followed Mayo back into Croke Park once again, seventy-five years in the making.

I happened to be at Forest Fest and wandered into Ryan's Bar in Portlaoise with a friend to watch the
final. A creamy pint of Guinness sat in front of me as the teams came out. For a brief moment I
fancied myself as Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh—not because he analysed football better than anyone
else, but because he could weave history, folklore, geography and humour into a game without ever
losing sight of the match.

The mood before throw-in was interesting. A few Laois locals had backed Kerry months earlier when
the odds were more generous. Most of the pub, though, were quietly hoping Mayo would finally end
the apparent poxy curse.

If I'm honest, I would have been happy enough if Mayo just avoided a hiding. Instead, they were
brilliant.

From the throw-in they played with belief, weathered Kerry's purple patches and never looked overawed. By half-time only a point separated the sides (Kerry 1-08, Mayo 0-10), but there was already a feeling around the pub that this Mayo team actually believed.

Players like Ryan O'Donoghue and Kobe McDonald led from the front. Belmullet always has a way of
creeping into these moments. Growing up around family steeped in Belmullet GAA, with family links
to Crossmolina Deel Rovers as well, football was never just seventy minutes on a Sunday. Watching
Ryan O'Donoghue become one of the faces of Mayo's greatest day carried that extra bit of meaning.

There was another lovely twist too. Seeing Kobe McDonald lift Sam Maguire when his father, Ciarán,
is remembered as one of Mayo's greatest footballers never to win an All-Ireland felt like football
quietly finishing a story another generation had started.

When the final whistle went, I was delighted. Mayo had won 1-20 to Kerry 1-17. The final minutes
were absolutely thrilling for anyone lucky enough to witness them.

Within minutes I was on the phone to my mother, who was outside O'D's in Belmullet. She was close
to tears. Videos started coming through of my youngish nephews and cousins celebrating like buck
eejits. My Facebook filled up with delighted family and friends and, in a lovely touch, plenty of
congratulations from Kerry supporters as well.

If you ever want to understand what football means beyond trophies, track down the Mid West Radio
commentary after the final whistle—it's easy enough to find. You're hearing generations of hope,
heartbreak and relief all at once.

The soundtrack almost wrote itself. The Green and Red of Mayo was everywhere. Long ago it
stopped being merely a song.

I've always smiled at the irony that one of the greatest songs about Mayo came from a Galway band.
But it's another Saw Doctors song that always sticks with me: To Win Just Once. It never even mentions the county, but it captures that stubborn hope that someday your turn will come.

Later that evening at Forest Fest, Qween played Queen's We Are the Champions, dedicating it to
Mayo. Whether they planned it or not, it felt spot on.

Maybe that's why this victory felt different.
It wasn't just another All-Ireland.
It was history meeting folklore.
It was music meeting memory.
It was family meeting football.
Long after I am gone, the team of '26 will live on.
History should always be precise. It deserves that respect.
Storytelling gives history permission to breathe.
And on one remarkable Sunday in July 2026, Mayo finally added a full circle to a remarkable story.

⏩Daithi Hopkins is a republican socialist activist.

More Than a Match ⚽ Reflections On Mayo's 2026 All-Ireland Victory

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 20-July-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ The disappearance of political prisoner Andrei Trofimov.
⬤ International Solidarity Convoy to Ukraine announced.
⬤ Teenage saboteurs in Russia.
⬤ Homelessness in Ukraine.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Occupiers attacked a house in Kharkiv: One dead and 12 injured, including children (ZN, UA, July 26th)

The Face of Resistance: The Story of Political Prisoner Ametkhan Abdulvapov (Crimea Platform, July 24th)

ECHR Rules Deprivation of Land Property Rights in Occupied Crimea Unlawful (Crimea Platform, July 24th)

Chersonese in Russian-occupied Crimea added to UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 24th)

Two young Ukrainians sentenced to 15 & 20 years for fictitious ‘international terrorism’ near Russian-occupied Melitopol (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 24th)

Satellite images reveal Crimea's deepening energy crisis and risk of full-scale humanitarian disaster as Ukrainian strikes hit the peninsula’s power grid (Meduza, July 23rd)

Russia sentences 59-year-old Maryna Kovalenko whose son is defending Ukraine to 13 years for 'treason' (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 23rd)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, July 22nd)

A civilian prisoner from Mariupol is in critical condition (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 22nd)

Vital Crimean Solidarity human rights movement forced to terminate activities after Russia labels it a ‘foreign agent’ (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 21st)

Mass ‘treason / spying trials’ and huge sentences for supporting Ukraine under Russian occupation (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 21st)

News from Ukraine

Shopping centre on fire in Kryvyi Rih after “Shaheed” attack (ZN, UA, July 26th)

Fires and destruction in three districts of Kyiv: State emergency service showed the consequences of the enemy attack on the capital (ZN, UA, July 26th)

The Streets Are Asking Questions the Leaders Cannot Answer in Ukraine (International Viewpoint, July 24th)

Russia’s escalating port attacks choke Ukraine's grain exports as industry nears crisis (Kyiv Independent, July 24th)

Fedorov turns down Zelensky's offers, seeks return only as defense minister (Kyiv Independent, July 23rd)

Ukraine: “The real question is what kind of state Ukraine is becoming” (ESSF, July 23rd)

Why Ukraine's military shake-up is really a fight over how to win the war (Meduza, July 22nd)

Ukraine conflict has deepening effect on civilians (UNHCR, July 21st)

Progress of the war

How does a general who resigned over the deaths of 12 soldiers return a year later to lead Ukraine’s army? Meet Mykhailo Drapatyi the new commander-in-chief (Meduza, July 22nd)

“He saw a document — 19,500 losses from the Airborne Forces”: Confessions of a Russian headquarters sergeant who fled the front (The Insider, July 21st)

Ukrainian regiment claims capture of 64 Russian soldiers in Zaporizhzhia oblast (Kyiv Independent, July 20th)

How drones came to decide the war in Ukraine, and why no army has found the weapon that stops them (Meduza, July 20th)

War-related news from Russia

Russia to extend gasoline export ban until end of year (ZN, UA, July 26th)

Off-season: How the war has devastated tourism in Russia (The Insider, July 25th)

Oil superpower queues up for petrol from India. Will it help Russia? (Ukrainska Pravda, July 25th)

How Ukraine’s strikes on Wildberries warehouses put Russians in a real jam (Kyiv Independent, July 25th)

Sitting on two chairs: How Russian universities support war, but remain in world rankings and maintain international ties (ZN, UA, July 25th)

Berries out of the fire. Ukrainian drone campaign repeatedly hits Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer (Mediazona, July 24th)

How close is Russia to a fuel collapse? Economist explains (ZN, UA, July 24th)

Russia passes `civil death’ legislation to freeze exiled critics' money, block their passports, and cut off consular aid (Meduza, July 23rd)

Teenage saboteurs. 240 minors were accused of sabotage in Russia since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine (Mediazona, July 21st)

In The Fuel Crisis Gripping Russia's Hinterlands, Worries For Tractors, Winter Hay, And Cows (Radio Free Europe, July 20th)

Melitopol mother of three sentenced to 18 years because of successful Ukrainian strike against Russian invaders (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 20th)

Russia stages a ‘dance performance’ with sickening lies about its downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 20th)

No contact with political prisoner Andrei Trofimov since April (Memorial, July 14th)

Comment and analysis

The Rules of the Street: Informal hierarchies and mutual aid among homeless people (Commons, July 23rd)

One year after the attack on NABU and SAPO: ZMINA presents study on systemic pressure on anti-corruption actors (Zmina, July 21st)

Struggling to Hold the Heights: The Evolution of Far-Right in the Russian Federation, 2025–2026 (Red Threads, July 21st)

Buryatia shows what happens when Russia runs out of volunteers (Kyiv Independent, July 21st)

From launchpad to strategic rear: How Belarus evolved into a critical enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine (The Insider, July 21st)

Research of human rights abuses

Alena Lunova took part in a meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children (Zmina, July 17th)

Ukrainian Civilian Detainees Held By Russia (IPHR, July 8th)

International solidarity

International Solidarity Convoy to Ukraine announced for November (Labour Hub, July 25th)

`Strengthening solidarity with Ukraine’ – Motion to Green Party autumn conference 2026 (USC, July 24th)

Free the detained Zaporizhzhia nuclear workers! Motion to TUC Congress 2026 (USC, July 24th)

Also not to be missed

“Soldiers in the trenches don't think about politics. I see death in their eyes” (Eastern Frontier Initiative, July 24th)

Kazakhstan’s Tokayev tells Putin it is time to “freeze” Russia’s war against Ukraine (Ukrainska Pravda, July 25th)

Politics, Work, and Care in Women’s Exile (Posle, July 22nd)

Victims of wars and mass atrocities in Ukraine and across the globe need the International Criminal Court. Unite and stand for justice (Zmina, July 17th)

🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 206

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