I should know better

The media have gushed on and on about George Best. I find it incomprehensible.

Now let`s get it straight - the beautiful game means nothing to me. If football disappeared from the earth tomorrow, I couldn`t care less - in fact it might take me some time to even notice. The notion that a bunch of lads kicking a ball about deserve worship is quite beyond me, and the fact that in Scotland football fires up sectarian hatred is indisputable and disgusting.

Yet here we are, drowning in a sea of adulation of someone who spent a short time kicking a ball and a long time drinking....one of the few people who have managed to drink two livers to death. His choice, you might quite legitimately say. His life.

But he is being touted as a genius - a word I wouldn`t use lightly - and a great example to youth today. And that`s where I get off. He kicked a ball accurately but as to his lifestyle I would hate to think anyone young would be urged to follow his example. He walked out of his profession early and devoted the remainder of his life to drink, specialising in drunk driving. I remember wondering how he managed to acquire a liver transplant so quickly - fame and money get you anything, I suppose -and whether someone deserving but forced to rely on the NHS had lost out to him.

I can`t discover that he did anything for young people, Irish sport at grassroots level, or Ireland at all for that matter. And this is the great shining example for youth?

Ireland is a fine country and has produced many great men who deserve our admiration.

This poor sad character wasn`t one of them.