The Roma press box said bollocks to all journalistic ethics last night

Conan Doherty

Sometimes, the rules can simply go f**k themselves.

There are rare moments in football that transcend everything else you think you care about because, in them, you believe in magic again and you understand that happiness is such a simple thing.

The rest of it, your job and your money and your conformity might well be very important to sustain your life but they aren’t your life – at least they shouldn’t be. Christ, where is this going?

Anyway, there’s a code of conduct that comes with being a journalist. You’re supposed to be objective. Your reporting is supposed to be watertight. And, when you’re at a live event, you’re supposed to adhere to particular behaviours – at least uphold a bit of professionalism.

The FAI once had to send out an email to reporters to remind them that they are in a working capacity when they use their press passes and, therefore, they shouldn’t be asking players or other sporting personalities for selfies or autographs.

You’ll see it in press boxes at every game too, somebody will be given out to for roaring out of them. At the Italy game in Lille, an Italian journalist was the subject of scorn all around him because he kept kicking the steel table and cursing wildly as Italy failed to escape Shane Duffy’s clutches. Eventually, five people stood up and told him to behave, the rest were trying to work. Fair enough.

On Tuesday night though, as history was made, everything else was different.

Roma came from 4-1 down after the first leg at the Camp Nou to stun the footballing world and dump Barcelona out on their holes in the Italian captial.

UNBELIEVABLE https://t.co/YmUBMauVZQ

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 10, 2018

It was another one of those special Champions League nights that will on for some time and it wasn’t going to be passed up by a group of journalists pretending like they were neutral.

Almost every single member of the press at the Stadio Olimpico were on their feet celebrating madly at the full time whistle after the mission impossible was complete.

Some of them open-jawed, eyes wide, others embracing and the rest just losing their shit, jumping around the place and waving their arms in the air.

For a few moments at least, they weren’t journalists and they were adhering to the rules. They were just football people swept away on a tidal wave of pure emotion.