These are times when sport has become unashamedly commercial. When we hear of a soccer player in England being fined £60,000 for behaving like a thug or members of the International Olympic Council accepting bribes for their votes it is difficult for ordinary sports fans to take it all in.

These thoughts came home to me the other day when Jimmy Rhatigan from Kilkenny sent me a copy of his reminiscences in regard to Kilkenny City, aptly named Mud Sweat and Jeers.

Rhatigan is never short of an interesting yarn or two. That is why we should all be grateful to him for putting together his thoughts on being involved in the gestation, creation and nurturing of what is now Kilkenny City Association Football Club and a member of the Football Association of Ireland and the National Football League. Thankfully the book was put together before the absolutely scandalous decision by the FAI not to allow a postponement of Kilkenny's replay against Finn Harps in the FAI Cup quarter final.

Rhatigan was one of the prime movers in the setting up of a club called EMFA in Kilkenny City about a quarter of a century ago. While this was an amalgamation of junior teams from the housing estates named after Robert Emmett and Fatima in Kilkenny city it didn't take long for a local wag to say that the initials stood for Every Man A Football Artist.

That amalgamation developed into what is now Kilkenny City FC and Rhatigan's charming book traces that development.

There is a deep poignancy in his description of waiting for their Dublin contingent outside Portlaoise Prison one Sunday morning as they were on their way to play Limerick to be beaten by the only score of the match: "Heartbreak, more heartbreak. But the mighty midgets who were not to win a game in 27 outings had fulfilled another fixture."

At one stage he was manager, secretary, pitch-marker, fund-raiser and a few other things in his spare time, if he had any. But for all his quirky and often humorous approach Rhatigan is a practical man: "At Kilkenny we bought our grounds without a single penny from the County Council, Corporation, FAI or Government. We bought and built with the backing of the people, the sports people of Kilkenny and further afield. Why should we have got money from statutory bodies? What right had we? None in my opinion."

What a refreshing view that is and how much sport of all kinds would be better for more Jimmy Rhatigans.

Mud Sweat and Jeers by Jimmy Rhatigan, Kilkenny People, £9.99.