Media Mob rules, okay!

Date: 10/10/1996

It was a game of many halves and more than a few pints, the biggest knobbly-knees competition in European history, and, in the end, the Commission was overwhelmed by the soccer pitch skills of assorted members of the Brussels press corps.

The outcome of last weekend's inter-cabinet charity football tournament may lead to rule changes in future, with certain elements calling for hacks to be declared off-side because of their non-cabinet status.

But of course if you don't have the hacks, you don't get the coverage, and what counts these days is column inches in the back of the net.

Our reporter on the touchline sent us this despatch: “It all turned into a metaphor for the symbiotic relationship between man and ball, Eurocrat and scribe. The atmosphere was as tense as the Breydel press room when the final went to a penalty shoot-out.

“Echoes, surely, of Euro 96 as Media Mob, one of two teams of journalists taking part, beat The Wolves, a team made up of members of Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies' cabinet.

“It was nail-biting stuff, with the Media Mob proving that reporting on EU affairs on a daily basis helps to develop nerves of steel. They won all of their last three matches in penalty shoot-outs, with several helping hands from their goalkeeper David Fox, now a Reuters reporter but once a member of the Zimbabwe national team.

“Stirring stuff indeed, and a triumph of fumbling feet over slippery pitches, of tasteless T-shirt logos over daft shorts...”