Compiled by MARY HANNIGAN

Gadafy no fan of 'the sweet science'

IN LIGHT of events in Libya, there was many a reference this week to Muammar Gadafy’s Green Book, a collection of his governing principles and thoughts on a range of subjects, and many an image of the tome lying on the ground, shredded by those who resented having to study it over the years.

Among the topics dealt with in the book are government, education and women (“It is an undisputed fact that both man and woman are human beings,” he wrote), but right at the back there’s a chapter dedicated to sport.

While his view that “sporting clubs are rapacious social instruments” might, if he was referring to, say, professional football clubs, be one that is shared by the majority, his thoughts on sports spectators were a little more controversial.

If he was talking about couch potatoes he might have had a point, but he was referring to the faithful who turn up to watch their sporting heroes: “The thousands who crowd stadiums to view, applaud and laugh are foolish people who have failed to carry out the activity themselves.

“They line up lethargically in the stands . . . fooled by monopolistic instruments which endeavour to stupefy them and divert them to indulging in laughter and applause instead.”

You can’t imagine those views did much to boost attendances at Libyan sporting events.

But what he’d make of those who turn up to watch boxing and wrestling bouts, you’d shudder to think.

“Boxing and wrestling are evidence that mankind has not rid itself of all savage behaviour. Inevitably it will come to an end when humanity ascends the ladder of civilization.

“The more the people become civilized and sophisticated, the more they are able to ward off both the performance and the encouragement of these practices.”

In fairness to him, it’s a common enough view.

Cruise ships kick up a stink

EIGHT THOUSAND rugby fans will make four cruise ships their home in Auckland for the weekend of the World Cup final, the numbers presenting a bit of a logistical challenge for the owners of the liners.

The New Zealand Herald was particularly curious about what would happen the “20 tonnes of sewage” that would be produced by the passengers over the weekend, noting that “international guidelines direct that sewage be dumped 20 miles from the coast”.

McKay Shipping managing director Craig Harris reassured the paper that the waste would be “held on board” for the duration of the ships’ stay, rather than, say, being dumped in the harbour, although we learnt that “some of the ships have facilities to convert sewage into drinking-quality water”. Lovely.

The Herald then provided a handy guide to how much sewage the average rugby fan will process each day (1kg), and then calculated what each cruise ship would produce depending on the number of passengers and crew. With “1432 passengers, 615 crew, four days, 8188 kg” the Volendam triumphed.

Flushed with success, you might say.

A real hair-raising helmet horror story

LOOK away now if you’re squeamish. Gravette High School (Arkansas) running back Darrick Strzelecki was training with his football team when he felt something move inside his helmet. “I kept hitting it, and it just kept bothering me,” he said, but he reckoned it was just tangled hair or sweat.

During a break in training, though, he removed the helmet and spotted . . . a snake. Twelve inches long. “It looked like a rubber snake, I thought somebody had pulled a practical joke on me,” he said. “When I grabbed it by the tail, that’s when it jerked, and I dropped the helmet.”

Assistant coach Seth McKinzie helped Strzelecki by telling him he didn’t think the snake was venomous, but, bafflingly, it took the young fella five minutes to put the snake-less helmet back on.

“When you have it crawling on your head, it freaks you out,” he said. “It creeped me out. Even through the rest of practice, it felt like the snake was still crawling on me.”

His team-mates weren’t very sympathetic. When training resumed they hissed at him and, said AP, “wiggled their fingers inside the ear hole of his helmet”.

Brave Summitt set for a crucial battle

THERE HAVE been few more successful coaches in American college sport than Pat Summitt, the 59-year-old native of Tennessee building a startling record of success since she gave up playing basketball and moved in to coaching almost 40 years ago.

In 1984 she became the first American to win Olympic basketball medals as a player and a coach when she led the team to gold in Los Angeles, having won silver as a player eight years before in Montreal.

It’s her record as coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols team, though, that has made her a legend in American sport, winning more games than any other coach in college basketball history, either men’s or women’s.

Through the years her teams have won eight NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) titles, six SEC (Southeastern Conference) championships and have reached the ‘Final Four’ 18 times.

In an interview a few years back Summitt gave a fair idea as to why she has been so successful: “I hate losing. I despise it. It eats at me. I get physically sick,” she said.

Now, though, she faces the toughest battle of her life having announced this week that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She sensed for months that something was wrong, her memory increasingly failing her. It was when it let her down during a game, though, “when she drew a blank on what offensive set to call”, that she sought help.

She was, naturally, stunned by the diagnosis, but, reported the Washington Post, when her neurologist at the Mayo Clinic advised her to retire from coaching immediately, her reply gave an indication that there was no decline in her famed fighting spirit. She replied, “Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with?”

“There’s not going to be any pity party and I’ll make sure of that,” she said, dismissing assumptions that she would quit coaching. She’s carrying on, and will just see how things develop.

“I feel better just knowing what I’m dealing with,” she said. “And as far as I’m concerned it’s not going to keep me from living my life, not going to keep me from coaching.”

Kim Cantrell, “your normal diehard Tennessee fan”, responded to the news by inviting her 300 friends on Facebook to wear orange (the team’s colour) on Friday in a gesture of support for the coach. Thirty thousand signed up. “She’s been a major legendary icon,” said Cantrell. “I mean, she’s full of class, she’s selfless and more ethical than any coach – and look what she’s done for basketball.”

Her determination to carry on coaching came as no great surprise to Mark Bradley, writing in the Atlanta Journal. He recalled the story from 1990 when Summitt, nine months pregnant, was flying by private plane to Pennsylvania on a scouting mission.

On the flight home to Tennessee she went in to labour, the pilot offering to land in Richmond. “I am not,” she said, “having this baby in Virginia.” Virginia, after all, was home to the Cavaliers, “Tennessee’s bitter rival”. The pilot kept flying, Tyler – who sat with his mother this week when she gave interviews about her diagnosis – escaped being born in enemy territory.

“She’s always better when she knows what she’s fighting against,” he said. “Once she came to terms with it, she treated it like every other challenge she ever had. She is going to do everything she possibly can to keep her mind right and stay the coach.”

Sensitive Lehmann shows his litigious side

WHEN former Germany and Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann moved in to television punditry there was always a fair chance that there’d rarely be a dull moment. During his playing career he was no stranger to trouble, and was often especially harsh on fellow goalkeepers.

“My relationship with Lehmann is the same as ever – we don’t really have one,” said his Arsenal understudy Manuel Almunia once.

“He is still a nutcase,” said another Arsenal ‘keeper, Wojciech Szczesny, when the German returned to the club last season.

A year ago Lehmann’s relationship with another goalkeeper, Werder Bremen’s Tim Wiese, also hit a rocky patch when he somewhat sharply blamed him for one of Spurs’ goals while on TV duty for their Champions League meeting.

Wiese suggested that Lehmann should “go on the Muppet Show”. “That man should be on a couch. Maybe someone would be able to help him there. Commit him – best to an asylum.”

Lehmann saw red and sought €20,000 in compensation for having his “personal rights violated”.

Well, this week a regional court in Munich dismissed the lawsuit, arguing that while Wiese’s comments were “not worthy of repetition” what he said was “not a clear defamatory criticism”. He was entitled to freedom of expression and had not violated Lehmann’s personal rights.

Lehmann might make full use of his own rights when he’s next on punditry duty for a game involving Wiese. This one could run and run.