For all the major talking points at the World Cup this summer, there was not a bigger one than the need for technology to assist the match officials. On one afternoon at the tournament (June 27th) there were two horrendous decisions which affected the course of the matches - and neither decision was a close one, the officials in question just made two terrible mistakes.
In England's encounter with Germany, a shot from Frank Lampard clearly bounced a yard or two behind Manuel Neuer's line with the score at 2-1 to the Germans, but the Uruguayan referee and linesmen didn't give a goal as the ball bounced up into Neuer's hands, and the game continued. Later that night, in the other second round encounter of the day, Mexico were seemingly hard done by Argentina's opening goal. A headed pass from Lionel Messi found Carlos Tevez a yard ahead of any Mexican player, including the goalkeeper, leaving the Manchester City striker free to head the ball into the empty net. Only the rules state there must be at least two players between the attacker and the goals - again, the decision wasn't even close.
For the first example, FIFA President Sepp Blatter was present in Cape Town to see the mistake by Jorge Larrionda, and the inquest into video technology started all over again. The arguments against the implementation are illogical, and show how archaic world football's governing body really is. To only a slight extent is there validity in the argument that video technology will slow down the pace of the game and take away the free-flowing nature of football. That is why we all love the game so much, but a decision can be made by people watching the videos can make a decision in a matter of seconds and relay the information to the referee in the event of a contentious incident, while the game can continue until it needs to be brought back (if that is the case). And when there's a contentious or downright awful decision, the officials are usually surrounded by angry players, managers, coaches or sometimes fans! This hardly makes football free-flowing, does it?
But the effect of the impact of the game is not the major problem for the powers-that-be. Blatter and his colleagues face a difficulty balancing act between keeping the traditions of the game and modernisation - and it is that middle ground that they are striving for. There is also the debate that the power shouldn't be taken away from the referees. This is true to an extent, but surely it's more important to get the decisions right to ensure the right result. In the game between Mexico and Argentina, the incident involving Tevez was instantly put up on the big screen in the stadium. This only adds to the controversial nature of video technology, and where the line should be drawn - if the incident is in the stadium for players, fans and managers alike to see, why not the referees and officials, the individuals who really count?
If there is to be video technology, it will be the Hawk-Eye system which has been so successful in cricket and tennis. Back in 2008, FIFA dismissed Hawk-Eye as not right for football. The argument seemed to be that they were looking for something that would get decisions right 100% of the time. That would be extremely unlikely, even with video assistance, and this just makes it look like the governing body is looking for an excuse. After all, match officials don't get decisions right 100% of the time, do they? Not even close! There will be mistakes - there have been some high profile close calls in cricket and tennis. A successful LBW appeal by Indian spinner Anil Kumble against Andrew Symonds appeared debatable to the naked eye, while there was a close call in the 2008 Wimbledon men's singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, a ball that appeared out was called in by 1mm. But the system does have a margin of error of 3.6mm, which is extraordinarily accurate, and has improved the decision making in both these games. The inventors of the device, Dr Paul Hawkins and David Sherry, certainly think it is the direction football should be heading in. The system was first used in cricket in a Test Match between England and Pakistan in 2001. With the speed some bowlers bowl at (well over 90 miles-per-hour), Hawk-eye has been crucial in assisting in close LBW and stumping calls, as well as catches. The same can be said of tennis (who first introduced it in 2005) with even the majority of female players serving over 100 mph in the modern game, and with such small margins involved. The rules of any sport are arbitrary - but others have modernised. While football claims to be the great standard bearers for sport, but with their reluctance to improve the game, football will remain stuck in the dark ages. We see so many different replays from so many different angles, so it seems folly not to use this to impart this ability to aid the referees.
There are, of course, reasons against any kind of technology. As much as we all wish the right decisions would be made, part of the allure is the debate into bad refereeing decisions - and technology would take this away. It is human nature to make mistakes, and players make mistakes on a regular basis, some costly (giving away a penalty, a misplaced pass) and some not so costly (a misplaced pass, a mistimed tackle in an area of the pitch that isn't likely to lead to a goal). By taking the responsibility for decision making away from the officials, then you are taking away the human element, and making the process robotic. And where do you draw the line - once goal-line technology has been introduced, do you use video technology to look at penalty incidents, offsides, fouls, corners and throw-ins? There are some hard question for FIFA officials, but that is what they are paid to do - make the big decisions for the good of the game, if that is at all possible. And hopefully get them right!
Goal-line technology, at the very least, seems inevitable - it has to be. After all, the dugouts, fans, stadiums and TV stations have the footage, so why make the referees lives harder than they already are? Surely the most important thing is to get the right result and ensure fair place - and in part, video technology would achieve this aim. The only question for debate is how far FIFA go. The other alternative which has been tried is placing an official on both goal-lines for contentious 'did the ball cross the line, didn't it' scenarios. This was tried in the Europa League for a period last season, with moderate success. This would make a fifth and sixth official, and where do you stop? There may be initial teething problems, but eventually they will make improve decision-making. FIFA needs to have a good understanding of how the technology works to get the best out of it - be it Hawkeye or another format - so it is important to introduce technology gradually. I think never rushed is the phrase that fits best, and hopefully FIFA will take heed of the examples of cricket, rugby and tennis to improve the integrity of the game.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Brits behaving badly abroad
In recent years, it has not just been British tourists who have not been displaying their best form on foreign soil. While the influx of foreign talent is ever increasing to these shores, improving the quality of our domestic games, the number of British players who have succeeded abroad remains few and far between. Many have tried, but few have lit up the respective leagues they've ended up in.
One of the most recent has been former Aston Villa and Manchester City winger-cum-striker Darius Vassell. The 22-capped former England international is probably best remembered for an overhead kick goal against Holland on his international debut in 2002, as well as the decisive penalty miss in the Euro 2004 quarter-final defeat to Portugal. But last summer, when it became apparent he was surplus to requirements at megabucks Manchester City, he decided to try his luck further afield, and signed for Turkish top division side Ankaragucu. Despite 3,000 fans turning up to celebrate his arrival, and scoring in his second game, he scored just three further goals during the remainder of the season, and left after his debut season with his tail between his legs.
His is not the first bizarre foreign arrival. Former Middlesbrough youth player Ronnie O'Brien signing a five-year contract at Serie A giants Juventus towards the end of the 1990s, Jay Bothroyd's stint at Perugia and Stan 'dogging' Collymore's dismal attempt to save his football career at Real Oviedo (signing a three year deal at the Spanish club before announcing his retirement from football after just three appearances, cuing legal action from Oviedo) all spring to mind.
If you look through any list of British footballers who have succeeded abroad, the majority of entries will have strutted their stuff in the last century. Take the Daily Mail's list - just two of their top ten British footballing ex-pats (David Beckham and Steve McManaman) are what could be classed as recent players, from the last ten years or so, with the other eight being made up of John Charles, Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Chris Waddle, David Platt, Graeme Souness, Trevor Francis and Paul Lambert. The last of those, former Scottish international Lambert, was a surprising Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund in 1997, but such modern success stories are so few and far between. Owen Hargreaves was another talented addition to the Bundesliga at Bayern Munich (although his career is on the verge of ruin due to injuries since signing for Manchester United) and aside from Beckham, no other players even around the England squad have made an impact abroad. The cases of Jonathon Woodgate and Michael Owen at Real Madrid are cases in point. They cost a combined £21 million - and played a combined 44 games. Owen scored goals sporadically, despite not always being a regular first-team player and departing after his first season.
And herein lies part of the problem - to an extent there is mistrust of British players abroad. While the physical and mental attributes are undoubtedly there, the same can not really be said of the technical abilities. Even those players who have moderate success abroad are most revered for their fighting 'British Bulldog' qualities. When McManaman helped Real Madrid win the Champions League in his debut season, despite scoring a fantastic goal in the final win over Valencia, the Spanish press praised the way he had transformed himself from a playmaker into a hard-working midfielder. That is the same role performed so adroitly by Lambert and Hargreaves, and even Lineker was transformed from a striker into a winger during his time at Barcelona. The same can even be said to an extent about David Beckham. While he is a set-piece wizard and a crossing master, he is never likely to beat his man with a trick or get the crowd up of their feet in that respect - he was a 'Galactico' more in brand than style on the pitch.
This may portray a deeper-lying problem with our national game. More time and emphasis needs to be placed on technical ability ahead of physical prowess - we need to be creating footballers not merely athletes, and this needs to start at academy level and continue it's way upwards - and this can all be linked into England's failure at the World Cup this summer. Maybe if more of our top footballers tested themselves abroad (such as Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard), in an 'alien' environment such as La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga, they would benefit from that broadening of experience and skills when they return to play for the national side.
Foreign teams seem to be generally reluctant to bring in British talent unless they have marketing potential (Beckham), are out-of-contract (McManaman), are a youth team player (Hargreaves) or are available for a vastly reduced transfer fee (Owen). The transfer fees and wages demanded are often exorbitant, as they are in the Premier League, and top foreign team feel they can get better talent for the same or less cost. Apart from last season, where no British team progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League, there has been at least one British club in the final since 2005. However, how many of those players who featured in those finals were British - Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher. The top British clubs flood themselves with foreign talent because they don't believe homegrown players are generally good enough, apart from a few notable exceptions. That is a view shared by our foreign counterparts. Even top Spanish players now ply their trade abroad to broaden their horizons.
If more British players tried their luck abroad, it would undoubtedly aid the national team. The likes of Rooney and Gerrard are constantly linked with moves abroad, with nothing coming of the speculation. But we have to make our players more enticing to foreign clubs, at a younger age (think Les Ferdinand at Besiktas but with more success), to start this process flowing. It's a cycle which needs to be addressed to improve both the strength of our national and domestic games - when the export figures close the gap on their import counterparts, we will start to reap the benefits across the board. As the likes of Sir Trevor Brooking have been saying for who knows how long, this process has to start at the academies, and work it's way up. And a good place to start would be a national academy for talented young players, in the mould of the former base at Lilleshall.
One of the most recent has been former Aston Villa and Manchester City winger-cum-striker Darius Vassell. The 22-capped former England international is probably best remembered for an overhead kick goal against Holland on his international debut in 2002, as well as the decisive penalty miss in the Euro 2004 quarter-final defeat to Portugal. But last summer, when it became apparent he was surplus to requirements at megabucks Manchester City, he decided to try his luck further afield, and signed for Turkish top division side Ankaragucu. Despite 3,000 fans turning up to celebrate his arrival, and scoring in his second game, he scored just three further goals during the remainder of the season, and left after his debut season with his tail between his legs.
His is not the first bizarre foreign arrival. Former Middlesbrough youth player Ronnie O'Brien signing a five-year contract at Serie A giants Juventus towards the end of the 1990s, Jay Bothroyd's stint at Perugia and Stan 'dogging' Collymore's dismal attempt to save his football career at Real Oviedo (signing a three year deal at the Spanish club before announcing his retirement from football after just three appearances, cuing legal action from Oviedo) all spring to mind.
If you look through any list of British footballers who have succeeded abroad, the majority of entries will have strutted their stuff in the last century. Take the Daily Mail's list - just two of their top ten British footballing ex-pats (David Beckham and Steve McManaman) are what could be classed as recent players, from the last ten years or so, with the other eight being made up of John Charles, Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Chris Waddle, David Platt, Graeme Souness, Trevor Francis and Paul Lambert. The last of those, former Scottish international Lambert, was a surprising Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund in 1997, but such modern success stories are so few and far between. Owen Hargreaves was another talented addition to the Bundesliga at Bayern Munich (although his career is on the verge of ruin due to injuries since signing for Manchester United) and aside from Beckham, no other players even around the England squad have made an impact abroad. The cases of Jonathon Woodgate and Michael Owen at Real Madrid are cases in point. They cost a combined £21 million - and played a combined 44 games. Owen scored goals sporadically, despite not always being a regular first-team player and departing after his first season.
And herein lies part of the problem - to an extent there is mistrust of British players abroad. While the physical and mental attributes are undoubtedly there, the same can not really be said of the technical abilities. Even those players who have moderate success abroad are most revered for their fighting 'British Bulldog' qualities. When McManaman helped Real Madrid win the Champions League in his debut season, despite scoring a fantastic goal in the final win over Valencia, the Spanish press praised the way he had transformed himself from a playmaker into a hard-working midfielder. That is the same role performed so adroitly by Lambert and Hargreaves, and even Lineker was transformed from a striker into a winger during his time at Barcelona. The same can even be said to an extent about David Beckham. While he is a set-piece wizard and a crossing master, he is never likely to beat his man with a trick or get the crowd up of their feet in that respect - he was a 'Galactico' more in brand than style on the pitch.
This may portray a deeper-lying problem with our national game. More time and emphasis needs to be placed on technical ability ahead of physical prowess - we need to be creating footballers not merely athletes, and this needs to start at academy level and continue it's way upwards - and this can all be linked into England's failure at the World Cup this summer. Maybe if more of our top footballers tested themselves abroad (such as Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard), in an 'alien' environment such as La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga, they would benefit from that broadening of experience and skills when they return to play for the national side.
Foreign teams seem to be generally reluctant to bring in British talent unless they have marketing potential (Beckham), are out-of-contract (McManaman), are a youth team player (Hargreaves) or are available for a vastly reduced transfer fee (Owen). The transfer fees and wages demanded are often exorbitant, as they are in the Premier League, and top foreign team feel they can get better talent for the same or less cost. Apart from last season, where no British team progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League, there has been at least one British club in the final since 2005. However, how many of those players who featured in those finals were British - Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher. The top British clubs flood themselves with foreign talent because they don't believe homegrown players are generally good enough, apart from a few notable exceptions. That is a view shared by our foreign counterparts. Even top Spanish players now ply their trade abroad to broaden their horizons.
If more British players tried their luck abroad, it would undoubtedly aid the national team. The likes of Rooney and Gerrard are constantly linked with moves abroad, with nothing coming of the speculation. But we have to make our players more enticing to foreign clubs, at a younger age (think Les Ferdinand at Besiktas but with more success), to start this process flowing. It's a cycle which needs to be addressed to improve both the strength of our national and domestic games - when the export figures close the gap on their import counterparts, we will start to reap the benefits across the board. As the likes of Sir Trevor Brooking have been saying for who knows how long, this process has to start at the academies, and work it's way up. And a good place to start would be a national academy for talented young players, in the mould of the former base at Lilleshall.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Smells like Team Spirit
Just when Formula One thought the 2010 season couldn't get anymore farcical or controversial, following team disagreements between Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, Brits Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at McClaren Mercedes, and Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing, the spectre of team orders reared it's ugly head again, and raised a whole new debate about the controversial and hard-to-govern rules concerning the outlawing of team orders. Ferrari have been fined $100,000 after coded messages saw Alonso overtake Massa to to win the German grand prix at Hoffenheim yesterday, to move to within 34 points of Hamilton at the top of the driver's championship. Above all, this is unlikely to foster a united team atmosphere in the divisive Ferrari paddock, but, in the grander scheme of things, it has divided opinion in the sport. A series of incidents around the turn of the century resulted in the Formula One governing body the FIA introducing this new law, the most famous being when Ferrari blatantly ordered Rubens Barrichello to allow teammate Michael Schumacher to overtake him and help the German win the championship, in Austria in 2002. There were two incidents in the late 1990s, when McClaren forced David Coulthard to move aside for Mika Hakkinen to pass him and win two world championships, while Jordan told Ralf Schumacher not to race Damon Hill for the race lead in Belgium in 1998.
The tipping point was the Schumacher senior-Barrichello episode, which forced the FIA to try and combat this lack of sporting competition. If Schumacher was the better driver on the day, he should not have needed Barrichello to move aside, and the same could be said of Alonso and Massa in Germany yesterday. The worst part of it all is that Ferrari thought they were above these regulations by trying to cloak their decision to make it look like it was a decision on behalf of Massa. The Brazilian was leading with 18 laps remaining, when his team engineer Rob Smedley said over the radio, 'Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understand?' Moments later, Alonso overtook his teammate and the rest of the race turned into a procession.
Former Jordan team boss Eddie Jordan was one of those who was disgusted by Ferrari's actions. Never one to be outspoken, the venerable Jordan said, 'every team has to have team orders now and they are just cloaked over with a guise. Ferrari thought they were above the regulations and yesterday they found out they weren't. It was a nonsense and the way they handled things was appalling.' Since the regulations came into place, there have been a number of attempts for teams to cover up attempts to give their drivers team orders. In Monaco in 2007, McClaren ordered Hamilton not to challenge Alonso for the race win; in Brazil of the same year, Ferrari (yes, them again) manipulated Massa's pit-stop to put Kimi Raikkonen into the lead and allowed the Finn to win the championship; the following year, Heikki Kovalainen let Hamilton through to win in Germany following an error in team tactics while Renault ordered Nelson Piquet junior to crash so a safety car period would ensue, which allowed Alonso to win the race in Singapore.
All of this should sit a little uneasy for someone who. Sport should be decided on the field (or track) of play, not on the sidelines or in the paddocks. That is why drug cheats and match-fixers are so abhorred in the world of professional sport. It gives a distorted look to the championship standings - if Alonso was faster than Massa, then surely he would have overtaken him anyway in the remaining 18 laps, and didn't need the assistance of his bosses. The same can be said for any driver who has driven a splendid race, only to be told they have to let their teammate win due to their respective standings in those prospective teams.
This is an issue which is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Although Ferrari have been fined, such a figure for such a rich team is small change, and the result of the race still stands, so the Italian team have achieved their objective. In that light, it is not surprising they have decided not to appeal the decision (although they still protest their innocence.) Although Massa claims it was his personal decision, I doubt any professional sportsman would willingly step aside to allow his teammate to win the particular contest, even if they were best of friends away from the field of play (which Massa and Alonso clearly aren't). McClaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh plans to hold private talks with Ferrari to discuss the incident, but he has already stated Hamilton and Alonso are free to race against each other irrespective of the particular situations.
With such high stakes, teams will go to any lengths to achieve their aims if they think they can get away with it. The regulations need to be tighter. This has to be a pressing issue for the FIA, if similar incidents are going to be prevented from happening. As Whitmarsh said, with tongue very much in cheek, 'this was not a new approach from Ferrari, was it?' No it wasn't but hopefully it will soon be an old approach so the focus is on events on the track, not off it.
The tipping point was the Schumacher senior-Barrichello episode, which forced the FIA to try and combat this lack of sporting competition. If Schumacher was the better driver on the day, he should not have needed Barrichello to move aside, and the same could be said of Alonso and Massa in Germany yesterday. The worst part of it all is that Ferrari thought they were above these regulations by trying to cloak their decision to make it look like it was a decision on behalf of Massa. The Brazilian was leading with 18 laps remaining, when his team engineer Rob Smedley said over the radio, 'Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understand?' Moments later, Alonso overtook his teammate and the rest of the race turned into a procession.
Former Jordan team boss Eddie Jordan was one of those who was disgusted by Ferrari's actions. Never one to be outspoken, the venerable Jordan said, 'every team has to have team orders now and they are just cloaked over with a guise. Ferrari thought they were above the regulations and yesterday they found out they weren't. It was a nonsense and the way they handled things was appalling.' Since the regulations came into place, there have been a number of attempts for teams to cover up attempts to give their drivers team orders. In Monaco in 2007, McClaren ordered Hamilton not to challenge Alonso for the race win; in Brazil of the same year, Ferrari (yes, them again) manipulated Massa's pit-stop to put Kimi Raikkonen into the lead and allowed the Finn to win the championship; the following year, Heikki Kovalainen let Hamilton through to win in Germany following an error in team tactics while Renault ordered Nelson Piquet junior to crash so a safety car period would ensue, which allowed Alonso to win the race in Singapore.
All of this should sit a little uneasy for someone who. Sport should be decided on the field (or track) of play, not on the sidelines or in the paddocks. That is why drug cheats and match-fixers are so abhorred in the world of professional sport. It gives a distorted look to the championship standings - if Alonso was faster than Massa, then surely he would have overtaken him anyway in the remaining 18 laps, and didn't need the assistance of his bosses. The same can be said for any driver who has driven a splendid race, only to be told they have to let their teammate win due to their respective standings in those prospective teams.
This is an issue which is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Although Ferrari have been fined, such a figure for such a rich team is small change, and the result of the race still stands, so the Italian team have achieved their objective. In that light, it is not surprising they have decided not to appeal the decision (although they still protest their innocence.) Although Massa claims it was his personal decision, I doubt any professional sportsman would willingly step aside to allow his teammate to win the particular contest, even if they were best of friends away from the field of play (which Massa and Alonso clearly aren't). McClaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh plans to hold private talks with Ferrari to discuss the incident, but he has already stated Hamilton and Alonso are free to race against each other irrespective of the particular situations.
With such high stakes, teams will go to any lengths to achieve their aims if they think they can get away with it. The regulations need to be tighter. This has to be a pressing issue for the FIA, if similar incidents are going to be prevented from happening. As Whitmarsh said, with tongue very much in cheek, 'this was not a new approach from Ferrari, was it?' No it wasn't but hopefully it will soon be an old approach so the focus is on events on the track, not off it.
Pragmatism above flair
One of the biggest bits of business so far in the transfer window this summer has been the free transfer of Joe Cole to Liverpool, having been released by Chelsea at the end of the last season. But why was a player with a CV such as Cole, and with clear undoubted ability, was allowed to leave for nothing when he is still 28 and appeared for England in the World Cup this summer? He was effectively consigned to the football scrapheap by the powers that be at Stamford Bridge. It is quite probable that something happened behind the scenes at Chelsea to preempt his departure - Cole himself has admitted there was a breakdown in his relationship with the club over the past season, as negotiations over a new contract stalled. Although he has stated he has a great deal of admiration for manager Carlo Ancelotti, he was clear that there were 'political reasons' behind his departure, and he feels 'now is not the time to reveal them.'
But that still doesn't hide the fact that Cole, for all he has achieved, has not quite fulfilled the potential which was seen in him at such a young age. He has won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, two League Cup's and appeared in a Champions League final, as well as gaining 54 England cap's with 10 goals, the last two of which came in the World Cup last month. But that still doesn't seem enough. And here is an endemic problem with English football - a misplaced mistrust in 'flair' players, which has had a detrimental effect on English football and especially the national team. In my opinion, Joe Cole is the most talented English football player since Paul Gascoigne in the 1990s. And look how Gazza turned out!
Where players of the ability of Cole should be nurtured, they are treated with suspicion, and this leads to them not producing their best when it matters most. If he were German, Spanish or Dutch, Cole would have been cherished. In those countries, there is a far greater emphasis placed on technical ability rather than physical prowess, which is a problem in English football as a whole. Look at his Chelsea statistics - of his 282 Chelsea appearances, almost a third of those (92) have been as a substitute. He has started just 28 Premier League games in his admittedly last two injury plagued seasons, and in terms of minutes played, he has been on the pitch for just 10.613 minutes of the 23,940 Premier League minutes his former club have played since his arrival in 2003 - in other words, less than half, His best position should undoubtedly be 'in the hole' behind a lone striker or a front two, where he has freedom to roam, pull the strings and control the game. Think Mesut Ozil for Germany this summer. But so often for Chelsea he played the role of a hard-working winger in a front free, a role the brilliant but pragmatic Jose Mourinho first turned him towards. The situation has been very similar at international level, where he has often found himself stuck out on the left-wing, be it under Sven Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren or Fabio Capello. His stagnation was emphasised this summer - an England team completely devoid of invention or flair was deemed not appropriate for the ability of Cole, as he made just two substitute appearances totaling just 44 minutes, while Capello favoured the more prosaic talents of Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips and James Milner, none of whom have the ability of Cole. There has been talk this summer of Milner joining Manchester City for upwards of £25 million, which shows where the priority of English football clubs lies. And at Chelsea, he was increasingly behind the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou - all good players, but they don't have that 'X-factor' that's so rare in modern day football.
In England, players like Cole are regarded as something of a luxury - and the former West Ham starlet is not the first English player of this ilk to be regarded with suspicion. Despite winning 79 caps for England, John Barnes never totally convinced at international level, while the likes of Glenn Hoddle were considered an unreliable and enigmatic accident waiting to happen. Despite winning 53 international caps, the playmaker was never totally appreciated on these shores, but it was a completely different story abroad. His former manager at Monaco (Arsene Wenger, you may have heard of him) stated: 'he was a superb player. I couldn't understand why he was never appreciated in England - perhaps he was a star born in the wrong time.' Or, perhaps, it is more likely he was a star born in the wrong country.
It is depressing to think that the pinnacle of Gascoigne's international career came at the age of 23 in the World Cup in Italy in 1990. He had so much more to give, but the English press were more intent on bringing up the ghosts from his personal life, and as he descended on the downward spiral towards despair and depression, we were more than to jump on the bandwagon.
While Cole has not trodden the same path and wasted his talent in that sense, there is a feeling that he is in the last chance saloon at Anfield, if he is to get the most out of his God-given talent. His final defining act for Chelsea shows he has the ability to do it on the biggest stage - an outrageous flicked finish to give his side the lead at Manchester United in what was effectively the title decider at Old Trafford was Cole at his impish best, and he will thrive under the responsibility which will bestowed upon him by his new manager Roy Hodgson. He needs to be a focal point, not pushed out to the touchline. He has always had self-belief in his talent, which has been a problem for many of this managers' - he will take risks and try skills most wouldn't dream of, and this sometimes results in mistakes. But his first manager at West Ham, Harry Redknapp, asked him to train with the first team at the age of 14, a testament to both his ability and attitude. Let's hope Hodgson continues his penchant for attacking football he displayed so productively at Fulham. Cole's former Chelsea teammate Arjen Robben (similarly neglected by Mourinho) has even declared that the front three of Cole, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard is, 'as good as any in Europe, including Barcelona's. And everyone involved in football in this country (except perhaps those in the higher echelons at Stamford Bridge) will be hoping this helps Cole revive his career - Liverpool in the state they are seem the perfect match. Then maybe the great question which sums up Joe Cole's career won't be 'what if?
But that still doesn't hide the fact that Cole, for all he has achieved, has not quite fulfilled the potential which was seen in him at such a young age. He has won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, two League Cup's and appeared in a Champions League final, as well as gaining 54 England cap's with 10 goals, the last two of which came in the World Cup last month. But that still doesn't seem enough. And here is an endemic problem with English football - a misplaced mistrust in 'flair' players, which has had a detrimental effect on English football and especially the national team. In my opinion, Joe Cole is the most talented English football player since Paul Gascoigne in the 1990s. And look how Gazza turned out!
Where players of the ability of Cole should be nurtured, they are treated with suspicion, and this leads to them not producing their best when it matters most. If he were German, Spanish or Dutch, Cole would have been cherished. In those countries, there is a far greater emphasis placed on technical ability rather than physical prowess, which is a problem in English football as a whole. Look at his Chelsea statistics - of his 282 Chelsea appearances, almost a third of those (92) have been as a substitute. He has started just 28 Premier League games in his admittedly last two injury plagued seasons, and in terms of minutes played, he has been on the pitch for just 10.613 minutes of the 23,940 Premier League minutes his former club have played since his arrival in 2003 - in other words, less than half, His best position should undoubtedly be 'in the hole' behind a lone striker or a front two, where he has freedom to roam, pull the strings and control the game. Think Mesut Ozil for Germany this summer. But so often for Chelsea he played the role of a hard-working winger in a front free, a role the brilliant but pragmatic Jose Mourinho first turned him towards. The situation has been very similar at international level, where he has often found himself stuck out on the left-wing, be it under Sven Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren or Fabio Capello. His stagnation was emphasised this summer - an England team completely devoid of invention or flair was deemed not appropriate for the ability of Cole, as he made just two substitute appearances totaling just 44 minutes, while Capello favoured the more prosaic talents of Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips and James Milner, none of whom have the ability of Cole. There has been talk this summer of Milner joining Manchester City for upwards of £25 million, which shows where the priority of English football clubs lies. And at Chelsea, he was increasingly behind the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou - all good players, but they don't have that 'X-factor' that's so rare in modern day football.
In England, players like Cole are regarded as something of a luxury - and the former West Ham starlet is not the first English player of this ilk to be regarded with suspicion. Despite winning 79 caps for England, John Barnes never totally convinced at international level, while the likes of Glenn Hoddle were considered an unreliable and enigmatic accident waiting to happen. Despite winning 53 international caps, the playmaker was never totally appreciated on these shores, but it was a completely different story abroad. His former manager at Monaco (Arsene Wenger, you may have heard of him) stated: 'he was a superb player. I couldn't understand why he was never appreciated in England - perhaps he was a star born in the wrong time.' Or, perhaps, it is more likely he was a star born in the wrong country.
It is depressing to think that the pinnacle of Gascoigne's international career came at the age of 23 in the World Cup in Italy in 1990. He had so much more to give, but the English press were more intent on bringing up the ghosts from his personal life, and as he descended on the downward spiral towards despair and depression, we were more than to jump on the bandwagon.
While Cole has not trodden the same path and wasted his talent in that sense, there is a feeling that he is in the last chance saloon at Anfield, if he is to get the most out of his God-given talent. His final defining act for Chelsea shows he has the ability to do it on the biggest stage - an outrageous flicked finish to give his side the lead at Manchester United in what was effectively the title decider at Old Trafford was Cole at his impish best, and he will thrive under the responsibility which will bestowed upon him by his new manager Roy Hodgson. He needs to be a focal point, not pushed out to the touchline. He has always had self-belief in his talent, which has been a problem for many of this managers' - he will take risks and try skills most wouldn't dream of, and this sometimes results in mistakes. But his first manager at West Ham, Harry Redknapp, asked him to train with the first team at the age of 14, a testament to both his ability and attitude. Let's hope Hodgson continues his penchant for attacking football he displayed so productively at Fulham. Cole's former Chelsea teammate Arjen Robben (similarly neglected by Mourinho) has even declared that the front three of Cole, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard is, 'as good as any in Europe, including Barcelona's. And everyone involved in football in this country (except perhaps those in the higher echelons at Stamford Bridge) will be hoping this helps Cole revive his career - Liverpool in the state they are seem the perfect match. Then maybe the great question which sums up Joe Cole's career won't be 'what if?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Who owns your club?
This isn't an episode of Dragons' Den. This is a question which has been on the lips of many fans of many different clubs in England. Or more pertinently, what are the people in charge of their beloved clubs likes, and are they fit and proper people? Never before has this question been so prevalent in English football than in recent years, as barely a week goes by without one team or another getting into financial difficulty, and rumours of a potential foreign takeover at a Premier League or even Championship club circling around the press.
The most famous examples of these is obviously Manchester City. There have been plenty of column inches given to Manchester's second side in recent years, following the huge takeover in September 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment which fans of the blue half of Manchester will hope brings them out of the shadow of their more illustrious neighbours at Old Trafford. Within hours of taking over from former Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra, who had his assets frozen in his native Thailand, the Abu Dhabi Group brought Robinho to Eastlands on transfer deadline day for a British record transfer fee of £32.m from Real Madrid. And from that moment, we realised football as we knew it had changed - but whether this would be for the better is another matter entirely. In the last two summers at Manchester City, we have seen their very own version of fantasy football. Look at the facts - signings such as Shay Given, Wayne Bridge, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Kolo Toure, Carlos Tevez, Vincent Kompany, Nigel de Jong and Craig Bellamy have all arrived at Eastlands, the majority for vastly inflated transfee fees (and wages). This summer alone, David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Yaya Toure have arrived for a combined almost £60, with more new arrivals to be expected before the start of the new season. The younger Toure is apparently commanding wages of £200 million a week. Now what kind of precedent does this set? The former Barcelona defensive midfield player is not a bad player? But he is not worth those exorbitant wages, and when Manchester City make bids for world class players such as Kaka, who they've been linked with in the past, what kind of wages will they expect to receive, taking into account what Yaya Toure is earning? All of this has resulted in young British players such as Joe Hart, Stephen Ireland, Nedum Onouha and Michael Johnson being marginalised, which can not be good for the state of the national game. Their board showed very little patience with former manager Mark Hughes in their pursuit of success, and Roberto Mancini will know he will be on borrowed time should they not start the next season well. Mancini has stated in the last week how the club will not be held to ransom in the transfer market, in reference to the huge sums his former club Inter Milan are asking for the unproven Mario Balotelli, and Aston Villa expecting at least £25 million for James Milner. But this is the transfer market they created on that deadline day in September with Robinho's capture, and they've been inflating it ever since.
The foreign investment drive in British football can be traced back to 2003, with the arrival of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea - and every Premier League team has been looking for that blueprint ever since. No one knew at the time how important Chelsea's qualification for the Champions League on the final day of the 2002/03 season at the expense of Liverpool would be at the time, but later that summer, the Russian oligarch took the West London giants of chairman Ken Bates' hands for £140 million for what was the biggest sale of a British football club at the time. This started the great distortion of the European transfer market which has been continuing to some extent ever since. Although his first season in charge didn't quite bring the quick success the Russian craved (although a second place finish in the Premier League behind Arsenal's 'invincibles' and a semi-final appearance in the Champions League was hardly catastrophic), the first summer saw the likes of Adrian Mutu, Claude Makelele and Hernan Crespo purchased for huge sums, which the majority of European clubs couldn't compete with. And when a world class manager (Jose Mourinho in place of the likeable but mistake-ridden Claudio 'the tinkerman' Ranieri) instant success followed, and the trophies have flowed pretty consistently ever since. Only the Champions League has evaded the Stamford Bridge club, but with a final appearance and four semi-final clashes since Abramovich's takeover, it is surely only a matter of time. He has generally left the manager's to manage, and rarely gives interviews. There were obvious disagreements with Mourinho, which played a huge part in him leaving after slightly over three seasons in charge, but the preening Portuguese manager could start an argument in an empty room. He has always been committed to supporting his managers financially - but unfortunately, not all prospective foreign owners quite have the deep pockets they claim to have, and don't share the same intentions of the Russian.
Two examples of this can be found in the North-West, at two of Chelsea's traditionally biggest rivals in 'the big four.' Manchester United and Liverpool fans will certainly be ruing what they wished for in hoping for a similar cash injection which their London foes came across. You would be hard pressed to find two more hated men in English football than Tom Hicks and George Gillett. They came with such big promises about the new stadium and expenditure on the playing squad, and it appeared that after years of searching, outgoing owner David Moores had found suitable hands to pass on the legacy he had helped create. However, he could not have been more wrong in his choice of successors. The summer signing of Fernando Torres in 2007 for a club record transfer fee of £25 million gave hope to these promises being fulfilled, but that was an undoubted highpoint in the dealings of the two Americans. Robbie Keane joined as a potential strike partner for the Spaniard the following summer for £19.2 million (before embarrassingly being sold back to Tottenham Hotspur for just £12 million six months later), but, in general, Rafael Benitez, and his successor Roy Hodgson have not been backed in the transfer market. For example, last summer after Liverpool came agonisingly close to winning their first League title in 19 seasons, the net transfer outlay in the summer was a meagre £2 million, for error-ridden Greek defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Glen Johnson was signed for £17 million, which was effectively £10 million as struggling Portsmouth still owed Liverpool £7 million for their transfer the previous summer of Peter Crouch, and star playmaker Xabi Alonso was sold to Real Madrid for £30 million, to be replaced by injury-prone waif Alberto Aquilani for £20 million. The playing squad had been considerably weakened, and Torres was left with just the young and unproven David N'Gog as his back-up to lead the line. By this point, Hicks and Gillett were not on speaking terms, and were actively looking to sell the club. When I say actively, I mean they are looking for a sum greater than the £218.1 million they paid for the club three and a half years ago, with no takers as of yet. With just weeks to go until the start of the new season, Hodgson has added two quality Bosman free transfers to his ranks in Milan Jovanovic and Joe Cole, but he has yet to spend a penny. And factor in the continuing delays on the new stadium, you can understand the apprehension and anger of Liverpool fans the longer these two Americans are linked with their great club.
While the situation towards the pennines at Old Trafford might be better on the pitch, their is just as much dissatisfaction with their American owners, the infamous Glazer family. Ever since Malcolm Glazer and his family got involved in Manchester United with a share-buying drive, they have been persona non grata at Old Trafford. In October 2004, he had acquired almost 30% of the club's shares - upon reaching the 30% mark, he would have to launch a formal takeover bid. At the end of the 2004/05 season, he reached an agreement with one of the major shareholders, Irish tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier, with their 28.7% stake giving the Glazer's a controlling stake of just under 57% of the shares. Within a month they owned 98% of the shares, enough for a compulsory buyout of the remaining shareholders, giving Malcolm and his family full control of the club. The Manchester United fans saw warning signs from the outset - so much so that a group of disgruntled supporters created a breakaway club, FC United of Manchester, who were accepted into North West Counties league second division, six promotions away from the Football League. They play in green and yellow, a marked deviation from Manchester United's all red, and the new club secured three consecutive promotions in their first three seasons as an outfit. But on the pitch, there has been very little for Manchester United fans to complain about. Sir Alex Ferguson has built yet another dynasty, winning three consecutive championships himself between 2006/07 and 2008/09 to draw his team level with great rivals Liverpool on 18 league titles, as well as a second Champions League crown in 2007/08 and a losing appearance in the final the following season to Barcelona. In the transfer market, big money has continued to be spent, such as Dimitar Berbatov for £30 million, Owen Hargreaves for £17 million and Michael Carrick for £18.6 million. But there remains a certain unease amongst supporters about the way the club is being saddles with the Glazer's personal debt. In 2006, the Glazer's announced a refinancing package, which split the debt taken on by the family to finance the club, and approximately £256 million is secured against the assets of the club. The total amount will be £660 million, of which interest payments will be a huge £62 million a year. While the Americans may have thought they were pulling the wool over the eyes of the fans, the Manchester United Supporter's Trust has not been fooled, and there have been repeated protests ever since against the Glazer's. A spokesman said at the time: 'the amount to be repaid overall is huge. It is difficult to see how these sums can be reached without significant increases in ticket prices, which effectively means the fans will be paying someone to borrow money to own our club.' Very nicely put, and this placed Manchester United in a precarious financial position that they remain in to this day.
Perhaps if you are looking at the perfect foreign owner, you should look no further than Aston Villa's Randy Lerner, who is a dream for his manager Martin O'Neill. In 2006, American football team Cleveland Browns' owner Lerner purchased the club from Villa legend Doug Ellis, for a modest £62.2 million. And since then, he has done nothing but support his manager O'Neill, who also arrived in the summer of 2006. There has been significant investment in the team, and Aston Villa have improved year on year, and Lerner displayed his intentions from his first full transfer windows, with the January signings of Ashley Young, John Carew and Shaun Maloney. Two sixth place finishes have followed, unfortunately not quite enough to qualify for the Champions League, and last season Villa reached the League Cup final and the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Lerner has been a regular fixture at Villa Park, but never tries to steal the limelight,. However, the likes of Lerner are few and far between, as Liverpool have found with Hicks and Gillett and Arsenal with their own American Stan Kroenke.
But it isn't just a case of having the deepest pockets when it comes to owning or buying a majority stake in the club. If you're interested in a Premier League club, there is the Premier League's fit and proper person's test to pass. But, to some extent, that isn't worth the paper it's written on. There are various stipulations which could prevent someone from being able to invest in a Premier League club. These include: a person won't be able to act as a director if he is involved with another football club; he breaks the law; he has been connected to a club in the past which has suffered two or more unconnected events of unsolvency. But there must be ways around the test - after all, how did former Manchester City owner and Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra pass the test, who is corrupt as the day is long? Money talks, and the powers that be are than happy to turn a blind eye if it appears 'investment' is coming into the British game.
All of this paints a very depressing picture for the coming months and years. We are on the verge of the 19th Premier League season, but in many ways, it is only a matter of time before the Premier League 'bubble' bursts. Looking at the example of Portsmouth last season, some observers think it already has. And as is often the case, the ultimate high proved to be the Fratton Park's club downfall. The 2008 FA Cup win proved to be the beginning of the end. Manager Harry Redknapp left a month into the next season, and his replacement Tony Adams could not keep up results on the pitch. Key players like Jermain Defoe, Lassana Diarra, Peter Crouch, Sylvain Distin, Niko Kranjcar, Glen Johnson and Sulley Muntari departed, and there was another sale of the club last summer. The writing was on the wall. UAE businessman Sulaiman Al Fahim brought the club from the increasingly unpopular Russian Alexandre Gaydamak. Just three months later though, due to the extreme financial circumstances, the club changed hands again, almost akin to a game of monopoly! This time Ali AL Faraj took control of the club, but the pattern remained the same - key players leaving, and no injection of cash into the playing squad. The team was made up of a series of loan signings such as Aruna Dindane, Frederik Piquionne and Hassan Yebda, and was always going to struggle. The 2009/10 season was an unmitigated disaster. Coach Paul Hart didn't last long, and was replaced in November, and his replacement, Avram Grant, was one of the stars of the season who always cut a dignified presence in the most trying of circumstances. The club was placed under a transfer embargo by the Premier League, and at the beginning of December, it was announced that the players hadn't been paid for the second month in a row. An early Christmas present from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs was a winding-up order. Things were no less bleak in the new year - the club website was shut down, highlighting the financial problems, and in February, the players weren't paid on time for the fourth time in five months. Days later, Balram Chainrai became the club's fourth owner of the season - you couldn't make it up. The inevitable happened when the administrators came in on February 10. The club were adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, but their fate was effectively sealed by a nine point deduction from the Premier League for entering administration. They were relegated as early as April 10, and it was a far cry from winning the FA Cup and leading 2-0 against AC Milan in the UEFA Cup. All players with expiring contracts have not been renewed, and no players have been signed (with just Ibrahima Sonko arriving on loan from Stoke City). The playing squad numbers at 16, with no senior goalkeeper just two weeks before the new Championship season starts.
There are so many examples of teams over the last decade who have dropped out of the top flight, only to realise they haven't reached the depths of their despair, is vast: Sheffield Wednesday, Norwich City, Leeds United (who's story puts Portsmouth to shame in terms of drama), Charlton Athletic, Bradford City and Pompy's very own South coast neighbours Southampton. The morale of the story is - when teams reach for the stars (as the majority of the above did to some extent) they have to beware the consequences if they don't achieve their aims. Football club's are businesses, and the men in charge of them have to start realising that they need to be run like businesses. Barely a week goes by when a club isn't served a winding up petition by HMRC - it has been Sheffield Wednesday and Southend in the last week. But chairman and directors still feel they are above the law, and will find some wriggle room to escape somewhere. But the Premier League bubble is bursting - all it will take is a club to go bust and dissolve (completely, not just in terms of entering administration), for everyone else to sit up and take notice. And that day may not be too far in the future. Until that day comes though, it is likely more foreign investment will flock to the Premier League - but whether this will make the league stronger is another matter entirely.
The most famous examples of these is obviously Manchester City. There have been plenty of column inches given to Manchester's second side in recent years, following the huge takeover in September 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment which fans of the blue half of Manchester will hope brings them out of the shadow of their more illustrious neighbours at Old Trafford. Within hours of taking over from former Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra, who had his assets frozen in his native Thailand, the Abu Dhabi Group brought Robinho to Eastlands on transfer deadline day for a British record transfer fee of £32.m from Real Madrid. And from that moment, we realised football as we knew it had changed - but whether this would be for the better is another matter entirely. In the last two summers at Manchester City, we have seen their very own version of fantasy football. Look at the facts - signings such as Shay Given, Wayne Bridge, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Kolo Toure, Carlos Tevez, Vincent Kompany, Nigel de Jong and Craig Bellamy have all arrived at Eastlands, the majority for vastly inflated transfee fees (and wages). This summer alone, David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Yaya Toure have arrived for a combined almost £60, with more new arrivals to be expected before the start of the new season. The younger Toure is apparently commanding wages of £200 million a week. Now what kind of precedent does this set? The former Barcelona defensive midfield player is not a bad player? But he is not worth those exorbitant wages, and when Manchester City make bids for world class players such as Kaka, who they've been linked with in the past, what kind of wages will they expect to receive, taking into account what Yaya Toure is earning? All of this has resulted in young British players such as Joe Hart, Stephen Ireland, Nedum Onouha and Michael Johnson being marginalised, which can not be good for the state of the national game. Their board showed very little patience with former manager Mark Hughes in their pursuit of success, and Roberto Mancini will know he will be on borrowed time should they not start the next season well. Mancini has stated in the last week how the club will not be held to ransom in the transfer market, in reference to the huge sums his former club Inter Milan are asking for the unproven Mario Balotelli, and Aston Villa expecting at least £25 million for James Milner. But this is the transfer market they created on that deadline day in September with Robinho's capture, and they've been inflating it ever since.
The foreign investment drive in British football can be traced back to 2003, with the arrival of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea - and every Premier League team has been looking for that blueprint ever since. No one knew at the time how important Chelsea's qualification for the Champions League on the final day of the 2002/03 season at the expense of Liverpool would be at the time, but later that summer, the Russian oligarch took the West London giants of chairman Ken Bates' hands for £140 million for what was the biggest sale of a British football club at the time. This started the great distortion of the European transfer market which has been continuing to some extent ever since. Although his first season in charge didn't quite bring the quick success the Russian craved (although a second place finish in the Premier League behind Arsenal's 'invincibles' and a semi-final appearance in the Champions League was hardly catastrophic), the first summer saw the likes of Adrian Mutu, Claude Makelele and Hernan Crespo purchased for huge sums, which the majority of European clubs couldn't compete with. And when a world class manager (Jose Mourinho in place of the likeable but mistake-ridden Claudio 'the tinkerman' Ranieri) instant success followed, and the trophies have flowed pretty consistently ever since. Only the Champions League has evaded the Stamford Bridge club, but with a final appearance and four semi-final clashes since Abramovich's takeover, it is surely only a matter of time. He has generally left the manager's to manage, and rarely gives interviews. There were obvious disagreements with Mourinho, which played a huge part in him leaving after slightly over three seasons in charge, but the preening Portuguese manager could start an argument in an empty room. He has always been committed to supporting his managers financially - but unfortunately, not all prospective foreign owners quite have the deep pockets they claim to have, and don't share the same intentions of the Russian.
Two examples of this can be found in the North-West, at two of Chelsea's traditionally biggest rivals in 'the big four.' Manchester United and Liverpool fans will certainly be ruing what they wished for in hoping for a similar cash injection which their London foes came across. You would be hard pressed to find two more hated men in English football than Tom Hicks and George Gillett. They came with such big promises about the new stadium and expenditure on the playing squad, and it appeared that after years of searching, outgoing owner David Moores had found suitable hands to pass on the legacy he had helped create. However, he could not have been more wrong in his choice of successors. The summer signing of Fernando Torres in 2007 for a club record transfer fee of £25 million gave hope to these promises being fulfilled, but that was an undoubted highpoint in the dealings of the two Americans. Robbie Keane joined as a potential strike partner for the Spaniard the following summer for £19.2 million (before embarrassingly being sold back to Tottenham Hotspur for just £12 million six months later), but, in general, Rafael Benitez, and his successor Roy Hodgson have not been backed in the transfer market. For example, last summer after Liverpool came agonisingly close to winning their first League title in 19 seasons, the net transfer outlay in the summer was a meagre £2 million, for error-ridden Greek defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Glen Johnson was signed for £17 million, which was effectively £10 million as struggling Portsmouth still owed Liverpool £7 million for their transfer the previous summer of Peter Crouch, and star playmaker Xabi Alonso was sold to Real Madrid for £30 million, to be replaced by injury-prone waif Alberto Aquilani for £20 million. The playing squad had been considerably weakened, and Torres was left with just the young and unproven David N'Gog as his back-up to lead the line. By this point, Hicks and Gillett were not on speaking terms, and were actively looking to sell the club. When I say actively, I mean they are looking for a sum greater than the £218.1 million they paid for the club three and a half years ago, with no takers as of yet. With just weeks to go until the start of the new season, Hodgson has added two quality Bosman free transfers to his ranks in Milan Jovanovic and Joe Cole, but he has yet to spend a penny. And factor in the continuing delays on the new stadium, you can understand the apprehension and anger of Liverpool fans the longer these two Americans are linked with their great club.
While the situation towards the pennines at Old Trafford might be better on the pitch, their is just as much dissatisfaction with their American owners, the infamous Glazer family. Ever since Malcolm Glazer and his family got involved in Manchester United with a share-buying drive, they have been persona non grata at Old Trafford. In October 2004, he had acquired almost 30% of the club's shares - upon reaching the 30% mark, he would have to launch a formal takeover bid. At the end of the 2004/05 season, he reached an agreement with one of the major shareholders, Irish tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier, with their 28.7% stake giving the Glazer's a controlling stake of just under 57% of the shares. Within a month they owned 98% of the shares, enough for a compulsory buyout of the remaining shareholders, giving Malcolm and his family full control of the club. The Manchester United fans saw warning signs from the outset - so much so that a group of disgruntled supporters created a breakaway club, FC United of Manchester, who were accepted into North West Counties league second division, six promotions away from the Football League. They play in green and yellow, a marked deviation from Manchester United's all red, and the new club secured three consecutive promotions in their first three seasons as an outfit. But on the pitch, there has been very little for Manchester United fans to complain about. Sir Alex Ferguson has built yet another dynasty, winning three consecutive championships himself between 2006/07 and 2008/09 to draw his team level with great rivals Liverpool on 18 league titles, as well as a second Champions League crown in 2007/08 and a losing appearance in the final the following season to Barcelona. In the transfer market, big money has continued to be spent, such as Dimitar Berbatov for £30 million, Owen Hargreaves for £17 million and Michael Carrick for £18.6 million. But there remains a certain unease amongst supporters about the way the club is being saddles with the Glazer's personal debt. In 2006, the Glazer's announced a refinancing package, which split the debt taken on by the family to finance the club, and approximately £256 million is secured against the assets of the club. The total amount will be £660 million, of which interest payments will be a huge £62 million a year. While the Americans may have thought they were pulling the wool over the eyes of the fans, the Manchester United Supporter's Trust has not been fooled, and there have been repeated protests ever since against the Glazer's. A spokesman said at the time: 'the amount to be repaid overall is huge. It is difficult to see how these sums can be reached without significant increases in ticket prices, which effectively means the fans will be paying someone to borrow money to own our club.' Very nicely put, and this placed Manchester United in a precarious financial position that they remain in to this day.
Perhaps if you are looking at the perfect foreign owner, you should look no further than Aston Villa's Randy Lerner, who is a dream for his manager Martin O'Neill. In 2006, American football team Cleveland Browns' owner Lerner purchased the club from Villa legend Doug Ellis, for a modest £62.2 million. And since then, he has done nothing but support his manager O'Neill, who also arrived in the summer of 2006. There has been significant investment in the team, and Aston Villa have improved year on year, and Lerner displayed his intentions from his first full transfer windows, with the January signings of Ashley Young, John Carew and Shaun Maloney. Two sixth place finishes have followed, unfortunately not quite enough to qualify for the Champions League, and last season Villa reached the League Cup final and the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Lerner has been a regular fixture at Villa Park, but never tries to steal the limelight,. However, the likes of Lerner are few and far between, as Liverpool have found with Hicks and Gillett and Arsenal with their own American Stan Kroenke.
But it isn't just a case of having the deepest pockets when it comes to owning or buying a majority stake in the club. If you're interested in a Premier League club, there is the Premier League's fit and proper person's test to pass. But, to some extent, that isn't worth the paper it's written on. There are various stipulations which could prevent someone from being able to invest in a Premier League club. These include: a person won't be able to act as a director if he is involved with another football club; he breaks the law; he has been connected to a club in the past which has suffered two or more unconnected events of unsolvency. But there must be ways around the test - after all, how did former Manchester City owner and Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra pass the test, who is corrupt as the day is long? Money talks, and the powers that be are than happy to turn a blind eye if it appears 'investment' is coming into the British game.
All of this paints a very depressing picture for the coming months and years. We are on the verge of the 19th Premier League season, but in many ways, it is only a matter of time before the Premier League 'bubble' bursts. Looking at the example of Portsmouth last season, some observers think it already has. And as is often the case, the ultimate high proved to be the Fratton Park's club downfall. The 2008 FA Cup win proved to be the beginning of the end. Manager Harry Redknapp left a month into the next season, and his replacement Tony Adams could not keep up results on the pitch. Key players like Jermain Defoe, Lassana Diarra, Peter Crouch, Sylvain Distin, Niko Kranjcar, Glen Johnson and Sulley Muntari departed, and there was another sale of the club last summer. The writing was on the wall. UAE businessman Sulaiman Al Fahim brought the club from the increasingly unpopular Russian Alexandre Gaydamak. Just three months later though, due to the extreme financial circumstances, the club changed hands again, almost akin to a game of monopoly! This time Ali AL Faraj took control of the club, but the pattern remained the same - key players leaving, and no injection of cash into the playing squad. The team was made up of a series of loan signings such as Aruna Dindane, Frederik Piquionne and Hassan Yebda, and was always going to struggle. The 2009/10 season was an unmitigated disaster. Coach Paul Hart didn't last long, and was replaced in November, and his replacement, Avram Grant, was one of the stars of the season who always cut a dignified presence in the most trying of circumstances. The club was placed under a transfer embargo by the Premier League, and at the beginning of December, it was announced that the players hadn't been paid for the second month in a row. An early Christmas present from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs was a winding-up order. Things were no less bleak in the new year - the club website was shut down, highlighting the financial problems, and in February, the players weren't paid on time for the fourth time in five months. Days later, Balram Chainrai became the club's fourth owner of the season - you couldn't make it up. The inevitable happened when the administrators came in on February 10. The club were adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, but their fate was effectively sealed by a nine point deduction from the Premier League for entering administration. They were relegated as early as April 10, and it was a far cry from winning the FA Cup and leading 2-0 against AC Milan in the UEFA Cup. All players with expiring contracts have not been renewed, and no players have been signed (with just Ibrahima Sonko arriving on loan from Stoke City). The playing squad numbers at 16, with no senior goalkeeper just two weeks before the new Championship season starts.
There are so many examples of teams over the last decade who have dropped out of the top flight, only to realise they haven't reached the depths of their despair, is vast: Sheffield Wednesday, Norwich City, Leeds United (who's story puts Portsmouth to shame in terms of drama), Charlton Athletic, Bradford City and Pompy's very own South coast neighbours Southampton. The morale of the story is - when teams reach for the stars (as the majority of the above did to some extent) they have to beware the consequences if they don't achieve their aims. Football club's are businesses, and the men in charge of them have to start realising that they need to be run like businesses. Barely a week goes by when a club isn't served a winding up petition by HMRC - it has been Sheffield Wednesday and Southend in the last week. But chairman and directors still feel they are above the law, and will find some wriggle room to escape somewhere. But the Premier League bubble is bursting - all it will take is a club to go bust and dissolve (completely, not just in terms of entering administration), for everyone else to sit up and take notice. And that day may not be too far in the future. Until that day comes though, it is likely more foreign investment will flock to the Premier League - but whether this will make the league stronger is another matter entirely.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Just when you think it can't get any worse - French World Cup squad suspended as farce continues
Just when you thought France's humiliation in South Africa this summer was complete, we find out it wasn't. With the unpopular Raymond Domenech replaced by World Cup winning defender Laurent Blanc, the French Football Federation were hoping for a French start. But such was Blanc's dissatisfaction with events this summer, that he has suspended all 23 players who were in the World Cup squad for his first game, a friendly against Norway in Oslo on August 11. Blanc said after his actions: 'we can't act as if nothing happened in South Africa. I followed the events with great sadness. I was disappointed with the sporting results and I was shocked by certain behaviours.'
It seems the farcical events this summer - the player strike following Nicolas Anelka's suspension from the squad following an argument with Domenech, followed by the disgraceful training ground bust-up between captain Patrice Evra and fitness coach Robert Duverne, which resulted in the resignation of FFF President Jean-Pierre Escalettes - will live far longer in the memory than anyone in France would care to remember.
Many of the France players (including Lyon duo Hugo Lloris and Jeremy Toulalan) have come out following the disgraceful events and admitted they went too far in striking. But that doesn't appear like it has been enough for Blanc to just move on. French legends and fellow World Cup winners Lilian Thuram and Marcel Desailly have suggested Evra should be permanently suspended from the team following his role in the insurrection. It is certainly the case that with better leadership from the Manchester United left-back, some of the scenes which the world was so shocked by could have been prevented and his behaviour was certainly not fitting of a captain. At the very least, he is likely to lose the captaincy, a la John Terry for England early this year. And he will be lucky if that is the extent of the sanctions against him.
Blanc seems like he wants to take a firmer grip on the national team than his predecessor Domenech, who struggled to exert any authority. Despite reaching the 2006 World Cup final, he was often a laughing stock for some of his decisions and comments (none more so than choosing players based on their star signs, and dropping then Arsenal winger Robert Pires because scorpio's were fundamentally untrustworthy) and failed to progress beyond the group stages of Euro 2008 and the World Cup in South Africa this summer, failing to win a match in either competition.
The FFF hope a man of Blanc's stature and expertise will lend a steadying hand to what is rapidly becoming a stinking ship. But there is a talent vacuum which needs to be filled. Thierry Henry has retired from the international scene prior to his move to MLS with New York Red Bulls, and a remaining forward line of Andre Gignac, Djibril Cisse, Sidney Govou and Anelka is hardly going to strike fear into the heart of the world's defences. Fracnk Ribery is undoubtedly a quality player, Lloris has proven himself to be a top class goalkeeper despite some bad mistakes in South Africa, and Yoann Gourcuff has the tools at his disposal to be a world class playmaker. But there has been limited success at youth levels and there's not exactly a gifted young generation coming through, such as there is in say Germany, so the future looks bleak.
We'll let Lloris have the last word: 'we must go back to basics - respect for the jersey of course, the team and the institution of France.' Unfortunately for Blanc, that will prove to be only the start of the healing process. It remains to be seen how many of the players who disgraced themselves in South Africa will be present for the first Euro 2012 qualifier against Belarus in September. And when you consider the team's key defender William Gallas, is still unattached three weeks before the start of the new season, having been released by Arsenal at the end of the last campaign, it will hardly fill French fans with much confidence.
It seems the farcical events this summer - the player strike following Nicolas Anelka's suspension from the squad following an argument with Domenech, followed by the disgraceful training ground bust-up between captain Patrice Evra and fitness coach Robert Duverne, which resulted in the resignation of FFF President Jean-Pierre Escalettes - will live far longer in the memory than anyone in France would care to remember.
Many of the France players (including Lyon duo Hugo Lloris and Jeremy Toulalan) have come out following the disgraceful events and admitted they went too far in striking. But that doesn't appear like it has been enough for Blanc to just move on. French legends and fellow World Cup winners Lilian Thuram and Marcel Desailly have suggested Evra should be permanently suspended from the team following his role in the insurrection. It is certainly the case that with better leadership from the Manchester United left-back, some of the scenes which the world was so shocked by could have been prevented and his behaviour was certainly not fitting of a captain. At the very least, he is likely to lose the captaincy, a la John Terry for England early this year. And he will be lucky if that is the extent of the sanctions against him.
Blanc seems like he wants to take a firmer grip on the national team than his predecessor Domenech, who struggled to exert any authority. Despite reaching the 2006 World Cup final, he was often a laughing stock for some of his decisions and comments (none more so than choosing players based on their star signs, and dropping then Arsenal winger Robert Pires because scorpio's were fundamentally untrustworthy) and failed to progress beyond the group stages of Euro 2008 and the World Cup in South Africa this summer, failing to win a match in either competition.
The FFF hope a man of Blanc's stature and expertise will lend a steadying hand to what is rapidly becoming a stinking ship. But there is a talent vacuum which needs to be filled. Thierry Henry has retired from the international scene prior to his move to MLS with New York Red Bulls, and a remaining forward line of Andre Gignac, Djibril Cisse, Sidney Govou and Anelka is hardly going to strike fear into the heart of the world's defences. Fracnk Ribery is undoubtedly a quality player, Lloris has proven himself to be a top class goalkeeper despite some bad mistakes in South Africa, and Yoann Gourcuff has the tools at his disposal to be a world class playmaker. But there has been limited success at youth levels and there's not exactly a gifted young generation coming through, such as there is in say Germany, so the future looks bleak.
We'll let Lloris have the last word: 'we must go back to basics - respect for the jersey of course, the team and the institution of France.' Unfortunately for Blanc, that will prove to be only the start of the healing process. It remains to be seen how many of the players who disgraced themselves in South Africa will be present for the first Euro 2012 qualifier against Belarus in September. And when you consider the team's key defender William Gallas, is still unattached three weeks before the start of the new season, having been released by Arsenal at the end of the last campaign, it will hardly fill French fans with much confidence.
Friday, July 23, 2010
The County Championship returns but the Twenty20 conundrum remains
Today I had the great privilege of sitting in the press box at the County Ground in Taunton to watch the exciting final day of the Liverpool Victoria County Championship Division One clash between Somerset and Kent. Unfortunately for the home side, some bold batting in the morning session and an ambitious declaration from former England opener and captain Marcus Trescothick, they were unable to force the win that would have put them right into title contention. This also raised another interesting question - how much has the explosion of Twenty20 impacted on the longer form of the game? And more pertinently, is this good or bad for the game?
This encounter was the first for both sides since the Twenty20 group phase - and allow that stage ended with a crushing win for Kent at Taunton, Somerset finished top of their pool, while Kent came seventh without threatening to qualify for the quarter-finals. Somerset are also top of their Clydebank 40 over group, while Kent lie third in theirs, and this form was reflected as Kent were relieved to escape the West country with a draw that still leaves them bottom of the top division, especially as captain and key batsman Robert Key is still out injured.
The match started positively for Kent, as they took seven Somerset wickets on a rain-affected opening day but the second day was extraordinary in comparison. A breezy 44 from Zander de Bruyn, and useful lower order contributions from Alfonso Thomas, Murali Kartik and Charl Willoughby took Somerset past the 200 mark. In reply, Kent started brightly thanks to Joe Denly (34) and Sam Northeast (24), but collapsed from 76-1 to 172 all out, thanks to a brilliant spell of spin from Kartik saw the Indian take 5-50, aided by Thomas (3-21) and Willoughby (2-46).
That left Somerset with a first innings lead of 33. Arul Suppiah, Trescothick and Jos Buttler gave Somerset a solid platform to leave them 128-2 at the end of day two, a lead of 161. And then, just as the home side were in the driving seat, the great British weather intervened yet again. Not a single ball was bowled in anger on the penultimate day, leaving a draw the most likely result. This is where the prevalence of the shortest form of the game came into play. Some expansive, and unorthodox, shots from Somerset's batsmen saw them make some quick runs before getting out to the sort of shots not usually associated with four day cricket. The chief culprits were Trescothick (80), Thomas (30), de Bruyn (43), James Hildreth (48) and Pete Trego (4). But this got Somerset into a position to win the match, and when they passed 300 for the innings, ans a lead of 334, Trescothick didn't hesitate in calling in Craig Kieswetter and Ben Phillips.
Although some of the purists of the game will have been aghast at some of the shots played, the men in the middle served their purpose - namely, quick runs which would give the bowlers something to aim at. 173 runs off 25 overs was not bad going for this format. In the end, Somerset left themselves with a little bit too much to do, and the target was not quite tantalising enough for Kent to really push for the win. The Spitfires finished 144 runs shy off the win, with three wickets remaining. Again Kent wasted a good start given to them by openers Denly and Northeast, as a opening stand of 67 soon became 166-6 as Kartik again got into the Kent upper and middle orders, leaving the veteran with match figures of 10-107, as he took five wickets in both innings.
This leaves Somerset trailing Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in the race for the title, and the Sabres now have a home quarter-final in the Twenty20 against Northants Steelbacks on Tuesday to look forward to as Andy Hurry's men look to qualify for finals day for the third time. They won in 2005, beating Lancashire Lightning in the final, but lost last year's final against Sussex Sharks. But an important question has to be asked - is this truncated format good for the game? It has certainly increased the enjoyment factor, and has brought more fans through the gates. And looking around the faces in a Twenty20 sell-out crowd, it is fair to say the ECB has succeeded in their aim to make to make cricket more accessible to younger generations. The majority of matches which take place in midweek 'kick-off' at 5,30 or 7.30, enabling people to finish work and head straight to the grounds, having collected the kids from schools. This has generated the family atmosphere the ECB has been striving for. From the live performances (the likes of Atomic Kitten, Liberty X, Sugababes and Girls Aloud have performed on finals days), prizes for fans catching the ball, the short turnaround between innings, fast and frenetic hitting and gimmicks like the occasional jacuzzi, the fans have flocked through the turnstiles, and they continue to do so seven years after it's inception.
And it's not just England which has experienced this boom. There is obviously the lucrative IPL (Indian Premier League), which has attracted star players from all over the world to enhance its reputation. The success of the new format in England has also seen domestic competitions form in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. And then there is obviously the big one - the Twenty20 World Cup, which gave England it's first title in any international cricketing competition in this summer's third edition of the event.
There are many more international Twenty20 options in the pipeline, which in essence is part of the problem. We are in danger of going into serious overkill amidst all the fun and razzmatazz. Some say we have already reached that point. This season's competition has seen each team play 16 matches in a period of just over a month, which would work out roughly a game every two days. If you include travelling distance and recovery time, this is simply too much. Part of this overkill is probably due to the fact that the ECB, along with every other cricket governing body, know this format is the best (and perhaps only) way to get mass exposure to the game.
But what impact does this have on the longer forms of the game? Twenty20 definitely improves its exponents in some ways which first-class cricket and even longer one-day cricket is not able to do, in terms of physical fitness, athleticism and adaptability. However, inevitably, on the flip side it teaches plenty of negatives - impatience, poor shot selection, the acquisition of bad habits and lapses in concentration, because the games are over in effectively a half day in test cricket terms. Take the example of Craig Kieswetter. The Somerset wicket-keeper was picked in the England one-day squad to play Bangladesh in February earlier this year soon after qualifying to play for England due to residency rules. A century and two failures later, and he was chosen as the glove-man for the Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies this summer. He was superb in the Caribbean - his match-winning 63 in the final against Australia saw him win the man-of-the-match award, and he scored 222 runs at a healthy average of 31.71 in the whole competition. But since returning, he has found no form whatsoever. He has been shocking in the one day international series against Bangladesh and Australia, with nothing even approaching 50, and he has been batting at six in the County Championship for Somerset. His coach and captain probably don't trust him higher up the order, as he hasn't shown the patience to dig in and play a long innings if needed, and has often got himself out with careless or reckless shots.
Kieswetter is one of the many examples of players who could almost be described as 'Twenty20 specialists,' and this trend looks likes continuing. The fear for many of the purists is this - younger players getting into the game will have more exposure to Twenty20 more than any other format, and therefore they'll think the only way to play will be to smack the ball for four or six, and won't teach young players the requisite technical skills. And it certainly won't encourage youngsters to become bowlers!
So what's the best way to enhance the standing of the game? In my opinion, test cricket should be returned to free-to-air television. The ECB should never have allowed Sky to snare live test match coverage from Channel 4, in the aftermath of one of the most exciting Test series in recent years when England sensationally won the Ashes in 2005 (four of the tests went down to the wire). But this doesn't seem likely to happen in the near future - a decision on whether future England home Ashes series will be shown on free-to-air TV has been deferred until 2013, according to Sports and Olympics minister Hugh Robertson. The more the players play Twenty20, the more these habits will be picked up. And with the likes of former Australia wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist (and I feel he would have been a superb exponent of this format had he been playing in this generation) advocating it should be an Olympic event to give the sport even greater exposure, it seems this monster is only going to get bigger in the coming years.
This encounter was the first for both sides since the Twenty20 group phase - and allow that stage ended with a crushing win for Kent at Taunton, Somerset finished top of their pool, while Kent came seventh without threatening to qualify for the quarter-finals. Somerset are also top of their Clydebank 40 over group, while Kent lie third in theirs, and this form was reflected as Kent were relieved to escape the West country with a draw that still leaves them bottom of the top division, especially as captain and key batsman Robert Key is still out injured.
The match started positively for Kent, as they took seven Somerset wickets on a rain-affected opening day but the second day was extraordinary in comparison. A breezy 44 from Zander de Bruyn, and useful lower order contributions from Alfonso Thomas, Murali Kartik and Charl Willoughby took Somerset past the 200 mark. In reply, Kent started brightly thanks to Joe Denly (34) and Sam Northeast (24), but collapsed from 76-1 to 172 all out, thanks to a brilliant spell of spin from Kartik saw the Indian take 5-50, aided by Thomas (3-21) and Willoughby (2-46).
That left Somerset with a first innings lead of 33. Arul Suppiah, Trescothick and Jos Buttler gave Somerset a solid platform to leave them 128-2 at the end of day two, a lead of 161. And then, just as the home side were in the driving seat, the great British weather intervened yet again. Not a single ball was bowled in anger on the penultimate day, leaving a draw the most likely result. This is where the prevalence of the shortest form of the game came into play. Some expansive, and unorthodox, shots from Somerset's batsmen saw them make some quick runs before getting out to the sort of shots not usually associated with four day cricket. The chief culprits were Trescothick (80), Thomas (30), de Bruyn (43), James Hildreth (48) and Pete Trego (4). But this got Somerset into a position to win the match, and when they passed 300 for the innings, ans a lead of 334, Trescothick didn't hesitate in calling in Craig Kieswetter and Ben Phillips.
Although some of the purists of the game will have been aghast at some of the shots played, the men in the middle served their purpose - namely, quick runs which would give the bowlers something to aim at. 173 runs off 25 overs was not bad going for this format. In the end, Somerset left themselves with a little bit too much to do, and the target was not quite tantalising enough for Kent to really push for the win. The Spitfires finished 144 runs shy off the win, with three wickets remaining. Again Kent wasted a good start given to them by openers Denly and Northeast, as a opening stand of 67 soon became 166-6 as Kartik again got into the Kent upper and middle orders, leaving the veteran with match figures of 10-107, as he took five wickets in both innings.
This leaves Somerset trailing Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in the race for the title, and the Sabres now have a home quarter-final in the Twenty20 against Northants Steelbacks on Tuesday to look forward to as Andy Hurry's men look to qualify for finals day for the third time. They won in 2005, beating Lancashire Lightning in the final, but lost last year's final against Sussex Sharks. But an important question has to be asked - is this truncated format good for the game? It has certainly increased the enjoyment factor, and has brought more fans through the gates. And looking around the faces in a Twenty20 sell-out crowd, it is fair to say the ECB has succeeded in their aim to make to make cricket more accessible to younger generations. The majority of matches which take place in midweek 'kick-off' at 5,30 or 7.30, enabling people to finish work and head straight to the grounds, having collected the kids from schools. This has generated the family atmosphere the ECB has been striving for. From the live performances (the likes of Atomic Kitten, Liberty X, Sugababes and Girls Aloud have performed on finals days), prizes for fans catching the ball, the short turnaround between innings, fast and frenetic hitting and gimmicks like the occasional jacuzzi, the fans have flocked through the turnstiles, and they continue to do so seven years after it's inception.
And it's not just England which has experienced this boom. There is obviously the lucrative IPL (Indian Premier League), which has attracted star players from all over the world to enhance its reputation. The success of the new format in England has also seen domestic competitions form in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. And then there is obviously the big one - the Twenty20 World Cup, which gave England it's first title in any international cricketing competition in this summer's third edition of the event.
There are many more international Twenty20 options in the pipeline, which in essence is part of the problem. We are in danger of going into serious overkill amidst all the fun and razzmatazz. Some say we have already reached that point. This season's competition has seen each team play 16 matches in a period of just over a month, which would work out roughly a game every two days. If you include travelling distance and recovery time, this is simply too much. Part of this overkill is probably due to the fact that the ECB, along with every other cricket governing body, know this format is the best (and perhaps only) way to get mass exposure to the game.
But what impact does this have on the longer forms of the game? Twenty20 definitely improves its exponents in some ways which first-class cricket and even longer one-day cricket is not able to do, in terms of physical fitness, athleticism and adaptability. However, inevitably, on the flip side it teaches plenty of negatives - impatience, poor shot selection, the acquisition of bad habits and lapses in concentration, because the games are over in effectively a half day in test cricket terms. Take the example of Craig Kieswetter. The Somerset wicket-keeper was picked in the England one-day squad to play Bangladesh in February earlier this year soon after qualifying to play for England due to residency rules. A century and two failures later, and he was chosen as the glove-man for the Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies this summer. He was superb in the Caribbean - his match-winning 63 in the final against Australia saw him win the man-of-the-match award, and he scored 222 runs at a healthy average of 31.71 in the whole competition. But since returning, he has found no form whatsoever. He has been shocking in the one day international series against Bangladesh and Australia, with nothing even approaching 50, and he has been batting at six in the County Championship for Somerset. His coach and captain probably don't trust him higher up the order, as he hasn't shown the patience to dig in and play a long innings if needed, and has often got himself out with careless or reckless shots.
Kieswetter is one of the many examples of players who could almost be described as 'Twenty20 specialists,' and this trend looks likes continuing. The fear for many of the purists is this - younger players getting into the game will have more exposure to Twenty20 more than any other format, and therefore they'll think the only way to play will be to smack the ball for four or six, and won't teach young players the requisite technical skills. And it certainly won't encourage youngsters to become bowlers!
So what's the best way to enhance the standing of the game? In my opinion, test cricket should be returned to free-to-air television. The ECB should never have allowed Sky to snare live test match coverage from Channel 4, in the aftermath of one of the most exciting Test series in recent years when England sensationally won the Ashes in 2005 (four of the tests went down to the wire). But this doesn't seem likely to happen in the near future - a decision on whether future England home Ashes series will be shown on free-to-air TV has been deferred until 2013, according to Sports and Olympics minister Hugh Robertson. The more the players play Twenty20, the more these habits will be picked up. And with the likes of former Australia wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist (and I feel he would have been a superb exponent of this format had he been playing in this generation) advocating it should be an Olympic event to give the sport even greater exposure, it seems this monster is only going to get bigger in the coming years.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
New coalition government aims for sporting excellence
As with every change of government, there are changes in policy and direction in every department. This is no more true than with the rare occurrence of a coalition government, with two different parties pulling in different directions. Just as with banking, business, policing and defence the same is true in the department of culture, Olympics, media and sport is likely to see some changes in the coming months and years.
The new minister for this department of state, Jeremy Hunt (MP for South-West Surrey) has courted his fair share of controversy in the past, none more so than when he made the controversial claim that the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April 1989 was due to hooliganism. He was forced to retract the comment and make an apology to Liverpool fans and the families of those who lost their lives. As far as sport and the Olympics are concerned, this is a crucial time for the government and it is imperative the right decisions are made. In two years, Britain will host the Olympics for the first time in 64 years, as the greatest sporting spectacle on earth comes to London. When you also consider the Commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014, the 2013 Rugby League World Cup in Britain, the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup in England and the small matter of the bid for the 2018 World Cup in football, it's fair to say this is a crucial time for the department!
There is the usual blighting of previous policies and decisions by the previous government - 'we will stop wasteful spending by National Lottery distributors by banning lobbying activities and restricting administrative costs to 5% of total income' - but, all in all, the mission statement seems a strong one. The prescient point is that as well as the present, the government needs to concentrate the future - ensuring the Olympics in London create a lasting legacy in terms of infrastructure and stadiums, transport, hospitality, atmosphere and a bright future for sport in this country. It is all well and good hosting a splendid Olympics in London, but much of that will be lost if the government doesn't capitalise on the opportunities presented.
The huge investments in accommodation, transport and financing from different companies and businesses will leave London, and Britain in general, in a healthier state than before the bid was successful in 2005. Although the majority of events will take place in London (many of these in the new Olympic Park in Stretford in East London as part of the regeneration of the area, as well as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Palace), there will also be events in Weymouth, Tring (who's most famous, or infamous, resident is Graham Poll) and Coventry, where the football will be held. The former Labour government published their legacy plans in 2007, and it remains to be seen how a change of government will effect these. As these plans were made by the head of the bid, Lord Sebastian Coe, there is likely to be some continuity. The five promises are: make Britain a leading sporting nation, transform the heart of East London, inspire a generation of young people to take part in local volunteering, cultural and physical activity, make the Olympic Park a blueprint for sustainable living, demonstrate that the UK is a creative, inclusive and welcoming place to live in and visit and for businesses.
So, to summise: make us good a sport, improve tourism, get kids interest in sport, regenerate the place of London which will be at the centre of the games and improve the environment. So not too much to ask for then! Whenever there is a vast sporting event such as this, there is always talk about the 'legacy' that will be left, but on and off the field of play. There has to be considering the vast volumes of resources which will be poured into the planning. Although this government didn't implement this plan, Mr Hunt and his department will have the crucial tasks of guiding the legacy and ensuring a focus and attention to detail, to avoid ambiguous policies which could waste this fantastic opportunity. The biggest area to focus on will be youth sport, and school sport. Legacy Trust UK, a charitable organisation charged with ensuring a good legacy from the Olympics, has been given a one-off, £40m funding investment - partly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. £6m of this has been earmarked for the UK School Games. The kids are our future after all, and this is a clear follow on from Jamie Oliver's school dinners drive!
But as strange as it might sound, there are other areas for Mr Hunt and his department to concentrate on in terms of sport besides the Olympics. An issue which has troubled football fans in the past decade has been the ownership of football clubs. Despite their success under the Russian oligarch Roman Abrahmovich, I'm sure many Chelsea fans look back to the 'good old days' when Ken Bates brought the club for £1, and the views of Liverpool fans on George Gillet and Tom Hicks, and Manchester United supporters in the Glazers, are common knowledge. The only foreign owner who can claim to be universally popular with the club's fans, is Aston Villa's Randy Lerner. In my opinion, the Premier League's fit and proper person's test is flimsy at best. The fact that former Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra passed the test is testament to that. The fact is, there is barely a week which goes by when an English club isn't linked with a foreign takeover, and it is not good for football. With that, it can only be a good thing that one of the coalition's policies is 'to encourage the reform of football governance to support the co-operative ownership of clubs by supporters.' The case of Ebbsfleet United (who were brought by a website fans formed, who clubbed together to raise the cash, making those who invested the owners) springs to mind, though the Conference club have shown this doesn't always work well in practice. But it is a step in the right direction in attempting to give the power back to the people, and those who really care about their clubs.
If that policy is concentrating on sport at the highest level, the new government also knows the importance of grass roots sport, and most importantly, youth sport. The more youngsters who can get outside (or inside depending on the activity) playing sport, competing and having fun, the more likely we are to create a future generation of champions. The likes of Tom Daly are simply too few and far between. Look at the facts: England have only won one international football competition (the 1966 World Cup at home); in cricket, the England team who won the 20Twenty World Cup earlier this summer were the first to win any international competition in the sport; the England rugby union team's 2003 World Cup was the solitary success; but at the last Olympics in Beijing, the United Kingdom came fourth in the medal table, behind just the massive countries hosts China, United States of America and Russia. So there is definitely something to build on, and the government has to use the examples of past heroes like Sir Chris Hoy and Dame Kelly Holmes to inspire future generations. To that end, the department 'will use cash in dormant betting accounts to improve local sports facilities and support local sports clubs,' and ,'we will support the creation of an annual Olympic-style schools sport event to encourage competitive sport in school, and we will seek to protect playing fields.' These are healthy promises, but it remains to be seen whether the government follows through on these. Facilities and funding aren't the funding - the attitude and aptitude are. The key are coaches and getting kids enthusiastic from a young age. Grass roots sports are where it all begins - the likes of Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Lionel Messi didn't suddenly become world beaters, it takes hard work and dedication and honing of talent. Hopefully these policies are just the start.
In the next couple of years, it will be hard for the government to not focus on the Olympics when it comes to sport. This is a great opportunity to energise the sporting atmosphere in this country, but it would be unwise to neglect other areas. The Olympics will come and go, but sport will need to evolve and improve to make sure the lasting legacy which is in vogue at present is realised.
The new minister for this department of state, Jeremy Hunt (MP for South-West Surrey) has courted his fair share of controversy in the past, none more so than when he made the controversial claim that the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April 1989 was due to hooliganism. He was forced to retract the comment and make an apology to Liverpool fans and the families of those who lost their lives. As far as sport and the Olympics are concerned, this is a crucial time for the government and it is imperative the right decisions are made. In two years, Britain will host the Olympics for the first time in 64 years, as the greatest sporting spectacle on earth comes to London. When you also consider the Commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014, the 2013 Rugby League World Cup in Britain, the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup in England and the small matter of the bid for the 2018 World Cup in football, it's fair to say this is a crucial time for the department!
There is the usual blighting of previous policies and decisions by the previous government - 'we will stop wasteful spending by National Lottery distributors by banning lobbying activities and restricting administrative costs to 5% of total income' - but, all in all, the mission statement seems a strong one. The prescient point is that as well as the present, the government needs to concentrate the future - ensuring the Olympics in London create a lasting legacy in terms of infrastructure and stadiums, transport, hospitality, atmosphere and a bright future for sport in this country. It is all well and good hosting a splendid Olympics in London, but much of that will be lost if the government doesn't capitalise on the opportunities presented.
The huge investments in accommodation, transport and financing from different companies and businesses will leave London, and Britain in general, in a healthier state than before the bid was successful in 2005. Although the majority of events will take place in London (many of these in the new Olympic Park in Stretford in East London as part of the regeneration of the area, as well as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Palace), there will also be events in Weymouth, Tring (who's most famous, or infamous, resident is Graham Poll) and Coventry, where the football will be held. The former Labour government published their legacy plans in 2007, and it remains to be seen how a change of government will effect these. As these plans were made by the head of the bid, Lord Sebastian Coe, there is likely to be some continuity. The five promises are: make Britain a leading sporting nation, transform the heart of East London, inspire a generation of young people to take part in local volunteering, cultural and physical activity, make the Olympic Park a blueprint for sustainable living, demonstrate that the UK is a creative, inclusive and welcoming place to live in and visit and for businesses.
So, to summise: make us good a sport, improve tourism, get kids interest in sport, regenerate the place of London which will be at the centre of the games and improve the environment. So not too much to ask for then! Whenever there is a vast sporting event such as this, there is always talk about the 'legacy' that will be left, but on and off the field of play. There has to be considering the vast volumes of resources which will be poured into the planning. Although this government didn't implement this plan, Mr Hunt and his department will have the crucial tasks of guiding the legacy and ensuring a focus and attention to detail, to avoid ambiguous policies which could waste this fantastic opportunity. The biggest area to focus on will be youth sport, and school sport. Legacy Trust UK, a charitable organisation charged with ensuring a good legacy from the Olympics, has been given a one-off, £40m funding investment - partly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. £6m of this has been earmarked for the UK School Games. The kids are our future after all, and this is a clear follow on from Jamie Oliver's school dinners drive!
But as strange as it might sound, there are other areas for Mr Hunt and his department to concentrate on in terms of sport besides the Olympics. An issue which has troubled football fans in the past decade has been the ownership of football clubs. Despite their success under the Russian oligarch Roman Abrahmovich, I'm sure many Chelsea fans look back to the 'good old days' when Ken Bates brought the club for £1, and the views of Liverpool fans on George Gillet and Tom Hicks, and Manchester United supporters in the Glazers, are common knowledge. The only foreign owner who can claim to be universally popular with the club's fans, is Aston Villa's Randy Lerner. In my opinion, the Premier League's fit and proper person's test is flimsy at best. The fact that former Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra passed the test is testament to that. The fact is, there is barely a week which goes by when an English club isn't linked with a foreign takeover, and it is not good for football. With that, it can only be a good thing that one of the coalition's policies is 'to encourage the reform of football governance to support the co-operative ownership of clubs by supporters.' The case of Ebbsfleet United (who were brought by a website fans formed, who clubbed together to raise the cash, making those who invested the owners) springs to mind, though the Conference club have shown this doesn't always work well in practice. But it is a step in the right direction in attempting to give the power back to the people, and those who really care about their clubs.
If that policy is concentrating on sport at the highest level, the new government also knows the importance of grass roots sport, and most importantly, youth sport. The more youngsters who can get outside (or inside depending on the activity) playing sport, competing and having fun, the more likely we are to create a future generation of champions. The likes of Tom Daly are simply too few and far between. Look at the facts: England have only won one international football competition (the 1966 World Cup at home); in cricket, the England team who won the 20Twenty World Cup earlier this summer were the first to win any international competition in the sport; the England rugby union team's 2003 World Cup was the solitary success; but at the last Olympics in Beijing, the United Kingdom came fourth in the medal table, behind just the massive countries hosts China, United States of America and Russia. So there is definitely something to build on, and the government has to use the examples of past heroes like Sir Chris Hoy and Dame Kelly Holmes to inspire future generations. To that end, the department 'will use cash in dormant betting accounts to improve local sports facilities and support local sports clubs,' and ,'we will support the creation of an annual Olympic-style schools sport event to encourage competitive sport in school, and we will seek to protect playing fields.' These are healthy promises, but it remains to be seen whether the government follows through on these. Facilities and funding aren't the funding - the attitude and aptitude are. The key are coaches and getting kids enthusiastic from a young age. Grass roots sports are where it all begins - the likes of Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Lionel Messi didn't suddenly become world beaters, it takes hard work and dedication and honing of talent. Hopefully these policies are just the start.
In the next couple of years, it will be hard for the government to not focus on the Olympics when it comes to sport. This is a great opportunity to energise the sporting atmosphere in this country, but it would be unwise to neglect other areas. The Olympics will come and go, but sport will need to evolve and improve to make sure the lasting legacy which is in vogue at present is realised.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sportsmen behaving badly
Just when you thought French football couldn't be embarrassed anymore, it appears Les Bleus can. After a humiliating summer, both on and off the pitch, two of their supposedly 'star players' have been arrested for soliciting sex with under-age prostitutes. Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery, and Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid striker, are at the centre of an on-going investigation into an alleged under-age prostitution ring in France. The prostitute who has made the allegations, Zahia Dehar, was under 18 when she alleges she had paid sex with Ribery and Benzema last year. In France, it is illegal to pay for sex with someone under the age of 18, even though the age of consent is 15.
Both players, who's combined transfers from Marseille and Lyon to foreign clubs garnered £55 million respectively, have denied any wrongdoing through their lawyers. And this means, there will probably be some technicality which will get them off the charges, because this always seems to happen when sportsmen get their hands dirty. Now far be it from me to suggest Ribery and Benzema are guilty without having stood any sort of trial, but sportsmen (and footballers in particular) have previous in this area.
When there is match-fixing or performance enhancing drugs involved, the footballing and sporting authorities are quick to clamp down on the offenders. But when there are scandals away from the field of play, now that's another matter altogether.
One of the most famous examples of this, is obviously the incident involving Jonathon Woodgate and Lee Bowyer a decade ago. Let's paint the picture. Leeds United were the up-and-coming team of the era, with a host of talented young players, who were on the brink of leading the Yorkshire club to the Champions League for the first time. But with such a young squad, there were drawbacks. In January 2000, 21-year-old student Sarfraz Najeib was beaten unconscious outside a nightclub in Leeds. He was bitten on the face, and suffered a broken nose, leg and cheekbone as he was put into a coma. Both Bowyer and Woodgate were arrested in connection with the attack, along with their friends Paul Clifford and Neale Caveney.
It was one of the most high-profile legal cases in recent times. And this was one of the reasons why the outcome pleased no-one, except for the players and Leeds United. The first case had to be dropped due to a controversial article in a Sunday newspaper compromised the court proceedings. The Sunday Mirror printed an interview with Mr Najeib's father as the jury considered their verdict during the first trial, calling the judge to call a halt to proceedings over fears the trial could be prejudiced. In some people's eyes, there was only ever going to be one verdict after such a delay. Bowyer was cleared of all charges, while Woodgate was ordered to do 100 hours community service after being found guilty of affray, as was Mr Clifford. Only Mr Caveney was found guilty of grievous bodily harm, and sentenced to six years in jail. Mr Najeib and his family were understandably devastated with the verdict, but this example is symptomatic of how professional sportsmen at the highest level seem to be untouchable.
Mr Najeib has struggled to get over the physical and mental scars of the attack. Bowyer and Woodgate? They've both been capped by England since the attack, and are both still Premiership footballers. Some justice! This is a problem indicative of sport, but football in general. It is not like any other business. Such wrongdoing would not be acceptable in most lines of work, but this simply doesn't apply to football. Take the example of Lee Hughes - the former West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City striker killed a man while over the limit behind the wheel of a car, and fled the scene rather than reporting the incident. He spent a measly three years behind bars, and when he was released, he had already signed a contract to resume his playing career at Oldham Athletic.
Bowyer, Woodgate and Hughes aren't the only footballers to have dealings with the wrong side of the law. Back in 2003, a series of Premiership footballers were questioned over allegations they gang-raped a 17-year-old student in a room in the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Carlton Cole, then on loan at Charlton Athletic from Chelsea, and Titus Bramble, then at Newcastle United, were among those named, but unsurprisingly, the case went away without a great deal of furore. Kieron Dyer issued a statement denying any involvement in the incident, despite staying at the same hotel on the night the alleged rape took place. It took two months for the names of Bramble and Cole to be published in connection with the allegations, as there were fears any possible prosecution would be jeopardised if the press got involved. That same year, Leeds United's Jody Morris was arrested for an alleged sex attack on a 20-year-old woman near Leeds and Newcastle's Olivier Bernard was arrested for supposedly raping a 16-year-old girl in Northumbria.
A hotel in Manchester was at the centre of a scandal four years later, as Manchester United's Christmas party at Great John Street Hotel got out of hand in 2007. Young defender Jonny Evans was arrested on suspicion of raping a 26-year-old woman, but all charges were later dropped.
None of these charges were followed through to conviction, much the same as in the astonishing case of the Leicester City players on a mid-season tour at the Spanish golf resort of La Manga. Six players were arrested in total - Paul Dickov, Matt Elliot, Keith Gillespie, Lilian Nalis, James Scowcroft and Frank Sinclair, with Dickov, Gillespie and Sinclair being charged with rape but walking scott-free even though there was plenty of evidence against them.
This is not a problem isolated to football, however. One of the highest profile cases of sportsmen behaving badly must be that of LA Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant, one of the highest-paid sportsmen in the world. In 2003 (not a good year for sportmen) Bryant, the best paid player in the NBA, was accused of a serious sexual assault at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Colorado. What made the case even more messy? He was supposedly happily married to Vanessa Bryant. The 19-year-old accuser Katelyn Faber.
Inevitably, the case was settled out of court before going to trial. Bryant admitted to an extra-marital affair with Faber, he denied the accusations of sexual assault. The case was dropped before it went to trial because Faber informed she was unwilling to testify, after prosecutors had spent more than $200 million preparing the case. The deal of the out-of-court settlement were kept under wraps, but it's fair to say she will not have been left out of pocket by the whole affair. As for Bryant, he is still married to Vanessa to this day, was named the NBA's most valuable player in 2008 and the finals most valuable player in 2009 and 2010, and a year after the allegations, signed a $135 million, seven year contract.
Sportspeople rarely get punished - they have a way of wriggling out of predicaments. Sport, and football in particular, is never a closed community. Even when the stars get punished for what they have done, they are not ostracised from the community - they are too valuable as assets, so all past misdemeanours can be overlooked. Be it drugs (Paul Merson), alcohol (Tony Adams) or a serious crime (Hughes), nothing is irredeemable. There is something strange about the mentality of sport - Everton's Tim Cahill performed a bizarre handcuffed celebration in support of his brother who had been sentenced to six years in jail for his part in an assault which left a man blinded. And here's the crux - while sportsmen continue to think they are above the law, they will continue acting as if they are above the law. There is no way to know at this stage if Ribery and Benzema are guilty - but they are unlikely to be found guilty either way in the current climate.
Both players, who's combined transfers from Marseille and Lyon to foreign clubs garnered £55 million respectively, have denied any wrongdoing through their lawyers. And this means, there will probably be some technicality which will get them off the charges, because this always seems to happen when sportsmen get their hands dirty. Now far be it from me to suggest Ribery and Benzema are guilty without having stood any sort of trial, but sportsmen (and footballers in particular) have previous in this area.
When there is match-fixing or performance enhancing drugs involved, the footballing and sporting authorities are quick to clamp down on the offenders. But when there are scandals away from the field of play, now that's another matter altogether.
One of the most famous examples of this, is obviously the incident involving Jonathon Woodgate and Lee Bowyer a decade ago. Let's paint the picture. Leeds United were the up-and-coming team of the era, with a host of talented young players, who were on the brink of leading the Yorkshire club to the Champions League for the first time. But with such a young squad, there were drawbacks. In January 2000, 21-year-old student Sarfraz Najeib was beaten unconscious outside a nightclub in Leeds. He was bitten on the face, and suffered a broken nose, leg and cheekbone as he was put into a coma. Both Bowyer and Woodgate were arrested in connection with the attack, along with their friends Paul Clifford and Neale Caveney.
It was one of the most high-profile legal cases in recent times. And this was one of the reasons why the outcome pleased no-one, except for the players and Leeds United. The first case had to be dropped due to a controversial article in a Sunday newspaper compromised the court proceedings. The Sunday Mirror printed an interview with Mr Najeib's father as the jury considered their verdict during the first trial, calling the judge to call a halt to proceedings over fears the trial could be prejudiced. In some people's eyes, there was only ever going to be one verdict after such a delay. Bowyer was cleared of all charges, while Woodgate was ordered to do 100 hours community service after being found guilty of affray, as was Mr Clifford. Only Mr Caveney was found guilty of grievous bodily harm, and sentenced to six years in jail. Mr Najeib and his family were understandably devastated with the verdict, but this example is symptomatic of how professional sportsmen at the highest level seem to be untouchable.
Mr Najeib has struggled to get over the physical and mental scars of the attack. Bowyer and Woodgate? They've both been capped by England since the attack, and are both still Premiership footballers. Some justice! This is a problem indicative of sport, but football in general. It is not like any other business. Such wrongdoing would not be acceptable in most lines of work, but this simply doesn't apply to football. Take the example of Lee Hughes - the former West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City striker killed a man while over the limit behind the wheel of a car, and fled the scene rather than reporting the incident. He spent a measly three years behind bars, and when he was released, he had already signed a contract to resume his playing career at Oldham Athletic.
Bowyer, Woodgate and Hughes aren't the only footballers to have dealings with the wrong side of the law. Back in 2003, a series of Premiership footballers were questioned over allegations they gang-raped a 17-year-old student in a room in the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Carlton Cole, then on loan at Charlton Athletic from Chelsea, and Titus Bramble, then at Newcastle United, were among those named, but unsurprisingly, the case went away without a great deal of furore. Kieron Dyer issued a statement denying any involvement in the incident, despite staying at the same hotel on the night the alleged rape took place. It took two months for the names of Bramble and Cole to be published in connection with the allegations, as there were fears any possible prosecution would be jeopardised if the press got involved. That same year, Leeds United's Jody Morris was arrested for an alleged sex attack on a 20-year-old woman near Leeds and Newcastle's Olivier Bernard was arrested for supposedly raping a 16-year-old girl in Northumbria.
A hotel in Manchester was at the centre of a scandal four years later, as Manchester United's Christmas party at Great John Street Hotel got out of hand in 2007. Young defender Jonny Evans was arrested on suspicion of raping a 26-year-old woman, but all charges were later dropped.
None of these charges were followed through to conviction, much the same as in the astonishing case of the Leicester City players on a mid-season tour at the Spanish golf resort of La Manga. Six players were arrested in total - Paul Dickov, Matt Elliot, Keith Gillespie, Lilian Nalis, James Scowcroft and Frank Sinclair, with Dickov, Gillespie and Sinclair being charged with rape but walking scott-free even though there was plenty of evidence against them.
This is not a problem isolated to football, however. One of the highest profile cases of sportsmen behaving badly must be that of LA Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant, one of the highest-paid sportsmen in the world. In 2003 (not a good year for sportmen) Bryant, the best paid player in the NBA, was accused of a serious sexual assault at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Colorado. What made the case even more messy? He was supposedly happily married to Vanessa Bryant. The 19-year-old accuser Katelyn Faber.
Inevitably, the case was settled out of court before going to trial. Bryant admitted to an extra-marital affair with Faber, he denied the accusations of sexual assault. The case was dropped before it went to trial because Faber informed she was unwilling to testify, after prosecutors had spent more than $200 million preparing the case. The deal of the out-of-court settlement were kept under wraps, but it's fair to say she will not have been left out of pocket by the whole affair. As for Bryant, he is still married to Vanessa to this day, was named the NBA's most valuable player in 2008 and the finals most valuable player in 2009 and 2010, and a year after the allegations, signed a $135 million, seven year contract.
Sportspeople rarely get punished - they have a way of wriggling out of predicaments. Sport, and football in particular, is never a closed community. Even when the stars get punished for what they have done, they are not ostracised from the community - they are too valuable as assets, so all past misdemeanours can be overlooked. Be it drugs (Paul Merson), alcohol (Tony Adams) or a serious crime (Hughes), nothing is irredeemable. There is something strange about the mentality of sport - Everton's Tim Cahill performed a bizarre handcuffed celebration in support of his brother who had been sentenced to six years in jail for his part in an assault which left a man blinded. And here's the crux - while sportsmen continue to think they are above the law, they will continue acting as if they are above the law. There is no way to know at this stage if Ribery and Benzema are guilty - but they are unlikely to be found guilty either way in the current climate.
Twickenham scupltures give stadium dramatic edge
When I start my new course at St Mary's University College, I will be just a stone's throw away from the great Twickenham rugby stadium. Granted, it would have to be quite some throw, but you get the idea. As you come up to the approach to the stadium, it is quite impressive. It is almost reminiscent to the Millenium Stadium and Wembley Stadium in size, but obviously without the water features of the former!
The newest additions to the stadium are some impressive bronze sculptures adorning one of the walls surrounding Twickenham stadium. Pop artist Gerald Laing is the man behind them. with five players in line-out formation in glorious bronze. They will leave their human-equivalents in the shadows, standing 27ft tall on the South Side of the stadium.
The aim is to leave a lasting legacy, with the statues representing the five supposed core-mantras of the sport of rugby union - teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship. The statue had an eventful journey to the stadium - after being moulded in clay before being scanned onto a computer and cast in bronze, it was transported from Laing's studio in a lorry and trailer, and was stopped three times by the police!
The ball is tantalisingly out of reach of the catcher at the top of the line-out, so there is a certain amount of ambiguity over whether he has caught the ball. You need to see it to gauge the true scale of the sculpture. England team manager and former World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson, standing tall at 6ft7in, only came up to the waists of the players at the grand unveiling.
Pop artist Laing, who confessed to not being a rugby fan, was nonetheless delighted the Rugby Football Union agreed to commission the sculptures: 'I thank the RFU for having the courage and conviction to commission the work. The line-out is a particularly dramatic part of the most dramatic of games, and I hope this is reflected in the sculptures.
It will certainly give a dramatic start to what most fans will be an eventful day out!
The newest additions to the stadium are some impressive bronze sculptures adorning one of the walls surrounding Twickenham stadium. Pop artist Gerald Laing is the man behind them. with five players in line-out formation in glorious bronze. They will leave their human-equivalents in the shadows, standing 27ft tall on the South Side of the stadium.
The aim is to leave a lasting legacy, with the statues representing the five supposed core-mantras of the sport of rugby union - teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship. The statue had an eventful journey to the stadium - after being moulded in clay before being scanned onto a computer and cast in bronze, it was transported from Laing's studio in a lorry and trailer, and was stopped three times by the police!
The ball is tantalisingly out of reach of the catcher at the top of the line-out, so there is a certain amount of ambiguity over whether he has caught the ball. You need to see it to gauge the true scale of the sculpture. England team manager and former World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson, standing tall at 6ft7in, only came up to the waists of the players at the grand unveiling.
Pop artist Laing, who confessed to not being a rugby fan, was nonetheless delighted the Rugby Football Union agreed to commission the sculptures: 'I thank the RFU for having the courage and conviction to commission the work. The line-out is a particularly dramatic part of the most dramatic of games, and I hope this is reflected in the sculptures.
It will certainly give a dramatic start to what most fans will be an eventful day out!
Jean-Marc Bosman - the forgotten man of football
Joe Cole's proposed transfer to Liverpool on a free transfer(or a Bosman free as they are more commonly known)will be one of the most high profile of such transfers this summer. The 56 capped England international, released by Chelsea following a seven year spell at Stamford Bridge which featured three league titles, two FA Cup's and a Champions League final appearance, Cole is on the brink of signing a four year contract at Anfield.
This coup from new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson represents a cracking piece of business, and shows the intent of the club following a desperately disappointing season which saw the club finish seventh and exit at the group phase of the Champions League, this move will go a long way to reassure Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres at Anfield next season. Moreover, having sold the 30-year-old Yossi Benayoun for £6 million, and replaced him with the arguably more talented Cole for nothing, who is two years his junior, is a financially sound move.
But the main purpose of this blog is to delve deeper into the life of the free agents, of which there are hundreds and thousands every summer transfer window. Not all of them will find it easy to get a new club, like Cole's former teammate, Germany captain Michael Ballack, did this summer (the midfield player rejoined former club Bayer Leverkusen.
But how did the Bosman ruling come into effect, and how does it benefit the clubs and the players? The ruling is named, perhaps not surprisingly, after Jean-Marc Bosman, the forgotten man of football. His case goes back 20 years, to the summer of 1990. He would best be described as a journeyman midfield player, and after his contract expired at Belgian Juliper League club RFC Liege. Bosman wanted to move to French club Dunkerque to get more first team football, but Dunkerque didn't offer enough of a transfer fee to Liege, so the Belgian club rejected the offer. This left Bosman in limbo to a certain degree - his wages were reduced as he was no longer a first team player, and he contested his club's decision in the courts. His case - he sued for restraint of trade in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He took on the Belgian Football Association, RFC Liege and UEFA, and won on all counts.
Even though Bosman won, making it possible for free agents to move to any club when their contract expired, all the legal ramifications (which didn't finish until December 1995) meant Bosman's career was as good as ended. Today, he is broke and bitter about the whole incident. For all he has done for football, it is easily forgotten the troubles he went to for the ruling to pass through the courts.
Since the Bosman ruling was passed, UEFA have implemented a series of policies to try and counteract the effects. For example, there was a restriction on the number of foreign players in squads for European club competitions (no more than three) to try and prevent foreign players letting their contracts run down, and joining any club for no transfer fee. Five years ago, all of the 52 UEFA federations voted unanimously to increase the number of locally trained players, and therefore increase the number of locally trained players who must be included in each matchday sqaud, theoretically decreasing player movement between clubs.
And that brings us up to the modern day. Every summer, there is a huge list of players who are available for free transfers, which clubs all over the world can trawl through. All players released by British clubs, from Cole and Ballack right through to Danny Adams and Chris Adamson (who are top of the list on the Professional Footballers Association's ingeniously named website www.givemefootball.com) are there to view.
This is one of the busiest times of the year for the PFAs extraordinarily well-paid Chief Executive Gordon Taylor, but he is adept at finding clubs for many of his 'clients,' as all professional footballer's are. Although not all out-of-contract footballers find it as easy as Cole and Ballack to find a new club, it is undoubtedly true that the players are in a stronger position due to Bosman. High profile examples of players letting their contracts run down include Steve McManaman, who let his contract expire and secured a lucrative deal at Real Madrid in 1999. His former teammate Michael Owen intended to pull off a similar trick in 2004, but with a year left on his contract, the then-nee Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez allowed him to leave for a vastly reduced sum of £8m, far below his market value.
This is the key point from the ruling - players are in a much stronger position to either negotiate an improved contract or find a new club. This is more true at the pinnacle of the game rather than in the lower leagues, where the majority of players are given short contracts and find their way onto givemefootball.com. Just scrolling down the As on the list, you find former Premiership players Ade Akinbiyi, Fabio Aurelio and Jeremie Aliadiere. Each player has statistics next to their name and profile picture, such as age, weight, height and nationality, and one click can transfer you to a detailed breakdown of their career history. Almost like Championship manager, (or Facebook for footballers!)
If you like what you see, you can make a bid. It's likely that many players will be giving trials, pay-as-you-play deals, or month-to-month contracts (akin to loan deals but with no club to return to). Such is the lot of the modern day footballer - all you tend to hear about is the amount of money wasted by the top players which the tabloids and gossip magazines report.
Bosman has definitely given the power to the players (even though he has been unable to reap the benefits himself), in a similar way Jimmy Hill did when the maximum wage for players was abolished. But there is an illusion that all footballers' are living a life of luxury. Not many players will have Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal chasing after them as Cole has, with a lucrative contract waiting at the end. Many will not know when there next contract is coming from, with families to feed and mortgages to pay. Some younger players will drop out of the game, with no clue as to what their next move will be. But without Bosman, they might be stuck at a club where they are not playing and have no way of rectifying the situation. And after all, as nice as the money is, what do players like to do more than anything - play football.
This coup from new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson represents a cracking piece of business, and shows the intent of the club following a desperately disappointing season which saw the club finish seventh and exit at the group phase of the Champions League, this move will go a long way to reassure Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres at Anfield next season. Moreover, having sold the 30-year-old Yossi Benayoun for £6 million, and replaced him with the arguably more talented Cole for nothing, who is two years his junior, is a financially sound move.
But the main purpose of this blog is to delve deeper into the life of the free agents, of which there are hundreds and thousands every summer transfer window. Not all of them will find it easy to get a new club, like Cole's former teammate, Germany captain Michael Ballack, did this summer (the midfield player rejoined former club Bayer Leverkusen.
But how did the Bosman ruling come into effect, and how does it benefit the clubs and the players? The ruling is named, perhaps not surprisingly, after Jean-Marc Bosman, the forgotten man of football. His case goes back 20 years, to the summer of 1990. He would best be described as a journeyman midfield player, and after his contract expired at Belgian Juliper League club RFC Liege. Bosman wanted to move to French club Dunkerque to get more first team football, but Dunkerque didn't offer enough of a transfer fee to Liege, so the Belgian club rejected the offer. This left Bosman in limbo to a certain degree - his wages were reduced as he was no longer a first team player, and he contested his club's decision in the courts. His case - he sued for restraint of trade in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He took on the Belgian Football Association, RFC Liege and UEFA, and won on all counts.
Even though Bosman won, making it possible for free agents to move to any club when their contract expired, all the legal ramifications (which didn't finish until December 1995) meant Bosman's career was as good as ended. Today, he is broke and bitter about the whole incident. For all he has done for football, it is easily forgotten the troubles he went to for the ruling to pass through the courts.
Since the Bosman ruling was passed, UEFA have implemented a series of policies to try and counteract the effects. For example, there was a restriction on the number of foreign players in squads for European club competitions (no more than three) to try and prevent foreign players letting their contracts run down, and joining any club for no transfer fee. Five years ago, all of the 52 UEFA federations voted unanimously to increase the number of locally trained players, and therefore increase the number of locally trained players who must be included in each matchday sqaud, theoretically decreasing player movement between clubs.
And that brings us up to the modern day. Every summer, there is a huge list of players who are available for free transfers, which clubs all over the world can trawl through. All players released by British clubs, from Cole and Ballack right through to Danny Adams and Chris Adamson (who are top of the list on the Professional Footballers Association's ingeniously named website www.givemefootball.com) are there to view.
This is one of the busiest times of the year for the PFAs extraordinarily well-paid Chief Executive Gordon Taylor, but he is adept at finding clubs for many of his 'clients,' as all professional footballer's are. Although not all out-of-contract footballers find it as easy as Cole and Ballack to find a new club, it is undoubtedly true that the players are in a stronger position due to Bosman. High profile examples of players letting their contracts run down include Steve McManaman, who let his contract expire and secured a lucrative deal at Real Madrid in 1999. His former teammate Michael Owen intended to pull off a similar trick in 2004, but with a year left on his contract, the then-nee Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez allowed him to leave for a vastly reduced sum of £8m, far below his market value.
This is the key point from the ruling - players are in a much stronger position to either negotiate an improved contract or find a new club. This is more true at the pinnacle of the game rather than in the lower leagues, where the majority of players are given short contracts and find their way onto givemefootball.com. Just scrolling down the As on the list, you find former Premiership players Ade Akinbiyi, Fabio Aurelio and Jeremie Aliadiere. Each player has statistics next to their name and profile picture, such as age, weight, height and nationality, and one click can transfer you to a detailed breakdown of their career history. Almost like Championship manager, (or Facebook for footballers!)
If you like what you see, you can make a bid. It's likely that many players will be giving trials, pay-as-you-play deals, or month-to-month contracts (akin to loan deals but with no club to return to). Such is the lot of the modern day footballer - all you tend to hear about is the amount of money wasted by the top players which the tabloids and gossip magazines report.
Bosman has definitely given the power to the players (even though he has been unable to reap the benefits himself), in a similar way Jimmy Hill did when the maximum wage for players was abolished. But there is an illusion that all footballers' are living a life of luxury. Not many players will have Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal chasing after them as Cole has, with a lucrative contract waiting at the end. Many will not know when there next contract is coming from, with families to feed and mortgages to pay. Some younger players will drop out of the game, with no clue as to what their next move will be. But without Bosman, they might be stuck at a club where they are not playing and have no way of rectifying the situation. And after all, as nice as the money is, what do players like to do more than anything - play football.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Caster enjoys sweet return to the track
Having just accepted the offer of a place on an MA Sports Journalism course at St Mary's University College in Twickenham, there is one aspect which I am greeting with a great deal of anticipation. The South African Olympic Team are using the university's sporting facilities as their base for the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London. This will give me, along with the other students, the chance to rub shoulders with one of the most controversial sportspeople in recent years - for all your Tim Montgomery's, Marion Jones', Justin Gatlin's and Floyd Landis', the furore surrounding South Africa's 800m runner Caster Semenya takes some beating. The teenager won the World Championship title in Berlin last summer. But that was just the start of the story.
Semenya didn't just win the title - she shattered her personal best and national records throughout the year. She won the 1500m and 800m title's at last year's African Junior Championships. That in itself wasn't a surprise. In the 800m (where she would achieve notoriety in Berlin) she improved her personal best by seven seconds in less than nine months, and four seconds in that race alone. A big chunk over such a short distance.
The following month in Berlin, however, she shot into the world's headlines by cutting another second off her personal best to win the world title, and in doing so running the fastest time off the year in the 800m. But as I said, that was only the start of the story. Semenya's rapid development over the year raised the issue of performance enhancing drugs. But questions soon began to surround her gender, clouding her success and achievement.
What followed were a serious gender tests to ascertain if there was something amiss. It is fair to say the IAAF could have handled the case with more sensitivity. He various criticism's which have been leveled at athletic's governing body - racism, and an affront on Semenya's human rights and civil liberties, from such luminaries as Michael Johnson. The IAAF's response refuted these accusations, stating instead the reason behind the test 'was not suspected cheating, but to investigate whether Semenya had a 'rare genetic condition' which gave her an unfair competitive advantage.' To say that's an ambiguous explanation is an understatement, but although the results of the tests will remain private for 'privacy reasons', Semenya's return to competitive athletics earlier this month suggests there can only have been one outcome from the gender tests.
All of this has resulted in Semenya becoming a household name (for some of the right, and some of the wrong reasons), as well as becoming a national hero back home in South Africa. She has enjoyed widespread support from politicians, activists and civic rights leaders, and she gave an interview to South African magazine YOU, where she said, 'God made me the way I am and I accept myself.'
But the same can't be said of the country's sporting federation, Athletics South Africa. To some extent, she was hung out to dry. There had been concerns over her gender before the championships even began, and ASA's president Leonard Chuene rejected a plea from team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the championships due to the need to keep her medical history confidential. If reports are to be believed, the gender tests which were carried out went far beyond intrusive - they bordered on abuse. After quitting his post after admitting he wished he had done more to personally protect Semenya, South Africa's head coach Wilfred Daniels revealed 'a series of grotesque tests were forced upon Caster.' These apparently included a two-hour examination of her sex organs, hitched in stirrups as the doctors' took photographs. This left her distraught, and her personal coach Michael Seme was surprised she didn't commit suicide such was the invasive nature of the tests.
To sum up this messy tale - ASA recognised a talented athlete, but had doubts about her legitimacy to compete. They let her enter the competition anyway, and won a rare athletics gold medal. Then when the inevitable questions started to be asked, she was left to fend for herself.
For me personally, it would be fascinating to meet the athlete who has had so many articles written about her. She made what was supposed to be a low key return after 11 months in limbo in Lappeenranta in Finland on July 15th. Or that was the plan, but Semenya knew the world's media was watching as she was surrounded by flashing cameras and reporters. But she went about her business as usual, and while her winning time of 2.04 was nine seconds off her winning time in Berlin, it was an admirable achievement for someone who's been through so much in the last year. But rather than get caught up in the controversy, she declared she 'was not bitter about anything that happened,' and how she was, 'happy to be back competing.' Her immediate aim will be trying to claim the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Delhi in October.
Her attitude is refreshing amidst all the fanfare surrounding her - she never stops smiling, despite continuing suggestions from the world's journalists about 'gender verification being needed' and suspicions of 'intersex', while many confessed that 'the event ahead sat uneasy with their conscience.' There was an element of gawping at a freak show in Finland, and that, unfortunately, is what Semenya may have to look forward to for the rest of her career. These questions may never go away, but all she can do is keep smiling, keep on competing and keep on winning. And you wouldn't bet against her to do just that.
Semenya didn't just win the title - she shattered her personal best and national records throughout the year. She won the 1500m and 800m title's at last year's African Junior Championships. That in itself wasn't a surprise. In the 800m (where she would achieve notoriety in Berlin) she improved her personal best by seven seconds in less than nine months, and four seconds in that race alone. A big chunk over such a short distance.
The following month in Berlin, however, she shot into the world's headlines by cutting another second off her personal best to win the world title, and in doing so running the fastest time off the year in the 800m. But as I said, that was only the start of the story. Semenya's rapid development over the year raised the issue of performance enhancing drugs. But questions soon began to surround her gender, clouding her success and achievement.
What followed were a serious gender tests to ascertain if there was something amiss. It is fair to say the IAAF could have handled the case with more sensitivity. He various criticism's which have been leveled at athletic's governing body - racism, and an affront on Semenya's human rights and civil liberties, from such luminaries as Michael Johnson. The IAAF's response refuted these accusations, stating instead the reason behind the test 'was not suspected cheating, but to investigate whether Semenya had a 'rare genetic condition' which gave her an unfair competitive advantage.' To say that's an ambiguous explanation is an understatement, but although the results of the tests will remain private for 'privacy reasons', Semenya's return to competitive athletics earlier this month suggests there can only have been one outcome from the gender tests.
All of this has resulted in Semenya becoming a household name (for some of the right, and some of the wrong reasons), as well as becoming a national hero back home in South Africa. She has enjoyed widespread support from politicians, activists and civic rights leaders, and she gave an interview to South African magazine YOU, where she said, 'God made me the way I am and I accept myself.'
But the same can't be said of the country's sporting federation, Athletics South Africa. To some extent, she was hung out to dry. There had been concerns over her gender before the championships even began, and ASA's president Leonard Chuene rejected a plea from team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the championships due to the need to keep her medical history confidential. If reports are to be believed, the gender tests which were carried out went far beyond intrusive - they bordered on abuse. After quitting his post after admitting he wished he had done more to personally protect Semenya, South Africa's head coach Wilfred Daniels revealed 'a series of grotesque tests were forced upon Caster.' These apparently included a two-hour examination of her sex organs, hitched in stirrups as the doctors' took photographs. This left her distraught, and her personal coach Michael Seme was surprised she didn't commit suicide such was the invasive nature of the tests.
To sum up this messy tale - ASA recognised a talented athlete, but had doubts about her legitimacy to compete. They let her enter the competition anyway, and won a rare athletics gold medal. Then when the inevitable questions started to be asked, she was left to fend for herself.
For me personally, it would be fascinating to meet the athlete who has had so many articles written about her. She made what was supposed to be a low key return after 11 months in limbo in Lappeenranta in Finland on July 15th. Or that was the plan, but Semenya knew the world's media was watching as she was surrounded by flashing cameras and reporters. But she went about her business as usual, and while her winning time of 2.04 was nine seconds off her winning time in Berlin, it was an admirable achievement for someone who's been through so much in the last year. But rather than get caught up in the controversy, she declared she 'was not bitter about anything that happened,' and how she was, 'happy to be back competing.' Her immediate aim will be trying to claim the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Delhi in October.
Her attitude is refreshing amidst all the fanfare surrounding her - she never stops smiling, despite continuing suggestions from the world's journalists about 'gender verification being needed' and suspicions of 'intersex', while many confessed that 'the event ahead sat uneasy with their conscience.' There was an element of gawping at a freak show in Finland, and that, unfortunately, is what Semenya may have to look forward to for the rest of her career. These questions may never go away, but all she can do is keep smiling, keep on competing and keep on winning. And you wouldn't bet against her to do just that.
From the Wally with the Brolly to the Prince of Orange - how to turn around a career in less than three years
When Steve McClaren was given his marching orders following England's dismal qualifying performance for Euro 2008, you would have gotten long odds on the former Middlesbrough manager becoming a champion of a major European league less than three years later. And especially with a team which had never won their national title before. But in May, that is exactly what McClaren did, and in doing so, he has made himself sought after in European people. This might have been especially pleasing given England's struggles in South Africa, and Fabio Capello's predecessor could sit back and relax as he looked forward to a new job with a big club in the top flight of England's conquerors - Wolfsburg in Germany.
But how did this situation come about for McClaren? It certainly seemed a long way off back on that dismal night in November 2007, as two clangers from goalkeeper Scott Carson saw England lose a game at home to Croatia they only had to draw to qualify for the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland the following year. They was a great deal of skepticism about his appointment as England coach before the 2006 World Cup (after Sven Goran Eriksson had announced he was going to step down after the tournament in Germany), despite him seeming the perfect candidate. For starters, he's English (although Brazilian Luis Felipe Scolari was approached before McClaren), he'd served a good apprenticeship (as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson, and as a coach under Eriksson from 2000 until 2002, and 2002 up to when he became coach), and he took Middlesbrough to unprecedented success at the Riverside.
Despite a promising start on the pitch, with three wins in the first three games, cracks started to appear. Two appointments were greatly scrutinised - that of former England coach Terry Venables as his assistant, and PR guru Max Clifford to aid his public image. He made big decisions like dropping experienced trio Sol Campbell, David James and former captain David Beckham, but he never really seemed to have control of the national set-up. The first setbacks on the pitch came in October 2006, with a dismal goalless draw at Wembley against Macedonia followed by a defeat away at early pacesetters Croatia - which featured a ludicrous own goal from Gary Neville, after the ball bounced up and over goalkeeper Paul Robinson's foot following a backpass from the right-back.
Another goalless draw followed in the new year, this time away to Israel - and with a similar scoreline at half-time against the ultimate international minnows, Andorra, England were booed of at the interval. They recovered to win, but McClaren refused to speak in the post-match press conference. I doubt Mr Clifford would have thought that a good idea! A win at home to Russia, followed by a defeat away to Guus Hiddink's side (which featured another ridiculous individual error, this time Wayne Rooney's needless concession of a penalty), seemed to put England's qualification hopes in real danger. Beckham had been recalled to the side (in a move similar to the one his England successor Capello made at Real Madrid), but it was a surprise Israeli win at home to Russia which put England's Euro 2008 hopes back in their own hands.
If anyone can screw up a good position though, it's England. The match had humiliation written all over it before the referee even blew his whistle - if only because of McClaren's ill-advised decision to be accompanied by an umbrella to combat the pouring rain at Wembley. As the match progressed, and as England struggled, the umbrella stayed up and there was little sign of tactical acumen on the touchline as he stood there passively. A disastrous first quarter of an hour saw Croatia saw twice following two mistakes from Carson. England rallied in the second half though, as a Frank Lampard penalty and Peter Crouch following put them on the brink of qualification. But just as the tide seemed to have turned, Mladen Petric beat Carson from long range, and that coupled with Russia's win in Andorra, saw England fail to qualify for a major championship for the first time since the 1994 World Cup in USA. The England coach at the time, Graham Taylor, became known as a 'Turnip' by the tabloids for that failure. And Fleet Street had a similarly effective field-day in light of this catastrophe. McClaren became 'The Wally with the Brolly.'
The following day, McClaren was given his marching orders, along with his assistant Terry Venables. The statistics did not make for pretty reading. His tenure of 18 games spanning 16 months was the shortest of any manager ever, as was his win percentage (just 50%). His reputation in England was ruined, so he took the only course of action available to him - move abroad, following in the footsteps of the last English coach to win a major European league, Sir Bobby Robson.
The great man (who has now sadly passed) would have been delighted he no longer holds that accolade, as he knows how the England job can intrude on your personal life and damage your standing in the game - even if you are successful in the national post, as he was. Despite taking England to a World Cup quarter-final and semi-final, Robson was often vilified by the press. He submitted his resignation twice, after failing to qualify for Euro 84 and losing all three games at Euro 88, but this was twice rejected. Then there were press rumours that player power was behind the decision to change formation at the 1990 World Cup. The FA had already told Robson they would not be renewing his contract before the tournament in Italy, so following England's best ever performance aside from winning the tournament on home soil (it remains so to this day) the affable Geordie rejected the U-turn from his employers.
Instead he headed to Holland - sound familiar! He won successive league titles at PSV Eindhoven, a feat he repeated at FC Porto in 1995 and 1996. Following the latter success at Porto, he became the new Barcelona manager, and although the La Liga title eluded him, he won the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners' Cup, and helped mould the career of a young Jose Mourinho, before he returned to England with Newcastle United in 1999 after nine years on the continent.
It was probably with this in mind that McClaren had no hesitation in accepting an offer from FC Twente Enschede in June 2008, as he tried to rebuild his reputation away from the glare of the British press. The club is a provincial outfit, who are used to punching above their weight and living in the shadows of big fish like Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. It was an inauspicious start in Holland - before his first competitive match in charge against Arsenal in the Champions League third qualifying round, he adopted a comedy Dutch accent in broken English for the Dutch media. An example: '"To experiensh big gamesh, Championsh League... Arshenal... The Emiratesh... will be fantashtic for the playersh, not just for now but for the future ash well. I shay I think we are not just... what you call?... underdogsh but mashive underdogsh." They lost the match, and ended up dropping into the UEFA Cup, but it was one of few setbacks in his first season at the helm. His team finished second in the league (their highest ever finish and qualifying for the Champions League again in the progress), reached the Dutch Cup final before losing on penalties to Heerenveen after a 2-2 draw, and most impressively, survived the UEFA Cup group stages with wins against Racing Santander and FC Schalke, to stay in Europe past the New Year for the first time ever. It is fair to say he had silenced many of the doubters.
But that is nothing compared to what would follow in his second season. As is often the case with Dutch football (and a smaller club like Twente especially) key players departed in the summer, in this case being Eljero Elia to Hamburg and Marko Arnautovic to Inter Milan. But McClaren showed that, while he may not always be the main man when it comes to tactics, he knows his way around the transfer market. New signings Bryan Ruiz (a £4.2 million record buy from Belgian club Gent) and Miroslav Stoch (on loan from Chelsea), scored 34 goals between them to make the transition seamless. They started the season well, and never looked back. There was again moderate success in Europe, qualifying for the first knockout round of the newly named Europa League, but it was in the league where McClaren and Twente wrote their names into football history. They were the pacesetters throughout the season following a lightning quick start to the season. They were consistent from start to finish, losing just two games all season and winning all but one of their home games. This was despite ferocious pressure from the Amsterdam giants, who won 16 of their final 17 games, but failed to overhaul Twente despite a huge goal difference of plus 86 (double Twente's plus 40).
This marked an extraordinary rehabilitation for McClaren - the laughter had stopped and the praise started. There was still a thinly veiled reference to the lack of an umbrella amidst the teeming rain during the title winning match away to NAC Breda by a British tabloid, but after what he's achieved, McClaren is unlikely to lose much sleep. There was a moving tribute to Sir Bobby Robson, who passed away just under a year ago following another bout of cancer: 'the relationship I had with Bobby was very special. He was a major influence on my decision to come to Twente.' On the magnitude of his achievement, it was not lost on the Englishman: winning the Carling Cup with Middlesbrough was special, but this is right up there with anything I have achieved in the game. To win a championship in a foreign country with foreign coaches, I think it's made me stronger.'
So where now for McClaren? There is no secret behind the rebuilding of his reputation. Hard work and time out of the glare of the intrusive British press have done wonders for McClaren's psyche. While the pressure's of the international stage might have proved too much for McClaren, he once again proved himself adept on the club management stage. After a period of acclimatisation, surrounding himself with a coaching team versed in the different nuances in tactics, style of playing and coaching in Dutch football, McClaren took a more hands-on approach, and found a new home. Less than two weeks after he lifted the Eredivisie trophy, he agreed a move to the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. Following his achievements in Holland, there will be a greater focus on his latest career move. He has a brilliant opportunity to make a name for himself at Wolfsburg, who have a talented playing squad in one of the top four European leagues. An early priority will be hanging on to star player such as Bosnians Edin Dzeko and Zvjedan Misimovic, Brazilian striker Grafite (check out a YouTube clip of an outrageous goal in their title winning season of 2008/09 for evidence of his quality), and captain Josue, who also made the Bazilian World Cup squad. But signings such as German international Arne Friedrich and talented young Danish defender Simon Kjaer show evidence of their ambitions. Having won the Bundesliga the season before, a disappointing season followed with an eight place finish an exits from the group stage of the Champions League and the Europa League quarter-finals to Fulham, qualifications for Europe is a must. But McClaren will follow his tried and tested policy - take stock early in the season to become acclimatised to his new surroundings before taking a more hands-on role.
There is a glint in his eye which was seldom seen during his time in charge of the national team, and he believes more English coaches should experience managing abroad to broaden their depth of experience. He sites the example of Roy Hodgson as one young British managers should heed: 'I don't think British managers can compete for the top jobs at the moment. They don't have the experience of winning titles and competing in the Champions League. Roy Hodgson is a perfect example of someone who has gone here, there and everywhere to all sorts of clubs, and come back with foreign experience to add to English know-how, and established himself as a top manager.' This is presumably something McClaren himself wants to emulate, as Hodgson has just been appointed the new Liverpool manager - one of the top jobs McClaren is inevitably referring to, and a benchmark for him to aim for. But for now he has a new league and a new challenge to look forward to.
It shouldn't take being a national pariah for our young coaches to take this step - but McClaren will be delighted he made the gamble, and it has been quite some turnaround. If McClaren wants to fit in, rather than adopt a comedy German accent, he'd be better served purchasing a Volswagen - Wolfsburg is the home of VW after all!
But how did this situation come about for McClaren? It certainly seemed a long way off back on that dismal night in November 2007, as two clangers from goalkeeper Scott Carson saw England lose a game at home to Croatia they only had to draw to qualify for the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland the following year. They was a great deal of skepticism about his appointment as England coach before the 2006 World Cup (after Sven Goran Eriksson had announced he was going to step down after the tournament in Germany), despite him seeming the perfect candidate. For starters, he's English (although Brazilian Luis Felipe Scolari was approached before McClaren), he'd served a good apprenticeship (as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson, and as a coach under Eriksson from 2000 until 2002, and 2002 up to when he became coach), and he took Middlesbrough to unprecedented success at the Riverside.
Despite a promising start on the pitch, with three wins in the first three games, cracks started to appear. Two appointments were greatly scrutinised - that of former England coach Terry Venables as his assistant, and PR guru Max Clifford to aid his public image. He made big decisions like dropping experienced trio Sol Campbell, David James and former captain David Beckham, but he never really seemed to have control of the national set-up. The first setbacks on the pitch came in October 2006, with a dismal goalless draw at Wembley against Macedonia followed by a defeat away at early pacesetters Croatia - which featured a ludicrous own goal from Gary Neville, after the ball bounced up and over goalkeeper Paul Robinson's foot following a backpass from the right-back.
Another goalless draw followed in the new year, this time away to Israel - and with a similar scoreline at half-time against the ultimate international minnows, Andorra, England were booed of at the interval. They recovered to win, but McClaren refused to speak in the post-match press conference. I doubt Mr Clifford would have thought that a good idea! A win at home to Russia, followed by a defeat away to Guus Hiddink's side (which featured another ridiculous individual error, this time Wayne Rooney's needless concession of a penalty), seemed to put England's qualification hopes in real danger. Beckham had been recalled to the side (in a move similar to the one his England successor Capello made at Real Madrid), but it was a surprise Israeli win at home to Russia which put England's Euro 2008 hopes back in their own hands.
If anyone can screw up a good position though, it's England. The match had humiliation written all over it before the referee even blew his whistle - if only because of McClaren's ill-advised decision to be accompanied by an umbrella to combat the pouring rain at Wembley. As the match progressed, and as England struggled, the umbrella stayed up and there was little sign of tactical acumen on the touchline as he stood there passively. A disastrous first quarter of an hour saw Croatia saw twice following two mistakes from Carson. England rallied in the second half though, as a Frank Lampard penalty and Peter Crouch following put them on the brink of qualification. But just as the tide seemed to have turned, Mladen Petric beat Carson from long range, and that coupled with Russia's win in Andorra, saw England fail to qualify for a major championship for the first time since the 1994 World Cup in USA. The England coach at the time, Graham Taylor, became known as a 'Turnip' by the tabloids for that failure. And Fleet Street had a similarly effective field-day in light of this catastrophe. McClaren became 'The Wally with the Brolly.'
The following day, McClaren was given his marching orders, along with his assistant Terry Venables. The statistics did not make for pretty reading. His tenure of 18 games spanning 16 months was the shortest of any manager ever, as was his win percentage (just 50%). His reputation in England was ruined, so he took the only course of action available to him - move abroad, following in the footsteps of the last English coach to win a major European league, Sir Bobby Robson.
The great man (who has now sadly passed) would have been delighted he no longer holds that accolade, as he knows how the England job can intrude on your personal life and damage your standing in the game - even if you are successful in the national post, as he was. Despite taking England to a World Cup quarter-final and semi-final, Robson was often vilified by the press. He submitted his resignation twice, after failing to qualify for Euro 84 and losing all three games at Euro 88, but this was twice rejected. Then there were press rumours that player power was behind the decision to change formation at the 1990 World Cup. The FA had already told Robson they would not be renewing his contract before the tournament in Italy, so following England's best ever performance aside from winning the tournament on home soil (it remains so to this day) the affable Geordie rejected the U-turn from his employers.
Instead he headed to Holland - sound familiar! He won successive league titles at PSV Eindhoven, a feat he repeated at FC Porto in 1995 and 1996. Following the latter success at Porto, he became the new Barcelona manager, and although the La Liga title eluded him, he won the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners' Cup, and helped mould the career of a young Jose Mourinho, before he returned to England with Newcastle United in 1999 after nine years on the continent.
It was probably with this in mind that McClaren had no hesitation in accepting an offer from FC Twente Enschede in June 2008, as he tried to rebuild his reputation away from the glare of the British press. The club is a provincial outfit, who are used to punching above their weight and living in the shadows of big fish like Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. It was an inauspicious start in Holland - before his first competitive match in charge against Arsenal in the Champions League third qualifying round, he adopted a comedy Dutch accent in broken English for the Dutch media. An example: '"To experiensh big gamesh, Championsh League... Arshenal... The Emiratesh... will be fantashtic for the playersh, not just for now but for the future ash well. I shay I think we are not just... what you call?... underdogsh but mashive underdogsh." They lost the match, and ended up dropping into the UEFA Cup, but it was one of few setbacks in his first season at the helm. His team finished second in the league (their highest ever finish and qualifying for the Champions League again in the progress), reached the Dutch Cup final before losing on penalties to Heerenveen after a 2-2 draw, and most impressively, survived the UEFA Cup group stages with wins against Racing Santander and FC Schalke, to stay in Europe past the New Year for the first time ever. It is fair to say he had silenced many of the doubters.
But that is nothing compared to what would follow in his second season. As is often the case with Dutch football (and a smaller club like Twente especially) key players departed in the summer, in this case being Eljero Elia to Hamburg and Marko Arnautovic to Inter Milan. But McClaren showed that, while he may not always be the main man when it comes to tactics, he knows his way around the transfer market. New signings Bryan Ruiz (a £4.2 million record buy from Belgian club Gent) and Miroslav Stoch (on loan from Chelsea), scored 34 goals between them to make the transition seamless. They started the season well, and never looked back. There was again moderate success in Europe, qualifying for the first knockout round of the newly named Europa League, but it was in the league where McClaren and Twente wrote their names into football history. They were the pacesetters throughout the season following a lightning quick start to the season. They were consistent from start to finish, losing just two games all season and winning all but one of their home games. This was despite ferocious pressure from the Amsterdam giants, who won 16 of their final 17 games, but failed to overhaul Twente despite a huge goal difference of plus 86 (double Twente's plus 40).
This marked an extraordinary rehabilitation for McClaren - the laughter had stopped and the praise started. There was still a thinly veiled reference to the lack of an umbrella amidst the teeming rain during the title winning match away to NAC Breda by a British tabloid, but after what he's achieved, McClaren is unlikely to lose much sleep. There was a moving tribute to Sir Bobby Robson, who passed away just under a year ago following another bout of cancer: 'the relationship I had with Bobby was very special. He was a major influence on my decision to come to Twente.' On the magnitude of his achievement, it was not lost on the Englishman: winning the Carling Cup with Middlesbrough was special, but this is right up there with anything I have achieved in the game. To win a championship in a foreign country with foreign coaches, I think it's made me stronger.'
So where now for McClaren? There is no secret behind the rebuilding of his reputation. Hard work and time out of the glare of the intrusive British press have done wonders for McClaren's psyche. While the pressure's of the international stage might have proved too much for McClaren, he once again proved himself adept on the club management stage. After a period of acclimatisation, surrounding himself with a coaching team versed in the different nuances in tactics, style of playing and coaching in Dutch football, McClaren took a more hands-on approach, and found a new home. Less than two weeks after he lifted the Eredivisie trophy, he agreed a move to the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. Following his achievements in Holland, there will be a greater focus on his latest career move. He has a brilliant opportunity to make a name for himself at Wolfsburg, who have a talented playing squad in one of the top four European leagues. An early priority will be hanging on to star player such as Bosnians Edin Dzeko and Zvjedan Misimovic, Brazilian striker Grafite (check out a YouTube clip of an outrageous goal in their title winning season of 2008/09 for evidence of his quality), and captain Josue, who also made the Bazilian World Cup squad. But signings such as German international Arne Friedrich and talented young Danish defender Simon Kjaer show evidence of their ambitions. Having won the Bundesliga the season before, a disappointing season followed with an eight place finish an exits from the group stage of the Champions League and the Europa League quarter-finals to Fulham, qualifications for Europe is a must. But McClaren will follow his tried and tested policy - take stock early in the season to become acclimatised to his new surroundings before taking a more hands-on role.
There is a glint in his eye which was seldom seen during his time in charge of the national team, and he believes more English coaches should experience managing abroad to broaden their depth of experience. He sites the example of Roy Hodgson as one young British managers should heed: 'I don't think British managers can compete for the top jobs at the moment. They don't have the experience of winning titles and competing in the Champions League. Roy Hodgson is a perfect example of someone who has gone here, there and everywhere to all sorts of clubs, and come back with foreign experience to add to English know-how, and established himself as a top manager.' This is presumably something McClaren himself wants to emulate, as Hodgson has just been appointed the new Liverpool manager - one of the top jobs McClaren is inevitably referring to, and a benchmark for him to aim for. But for now he has a new league and a new challenge to look forward to.
It shouldn't take being a national pariah for our young coaches to take this step - but McClaren will be delighted he made the gamble, and it has been quite some turnaround. If McClaren wants to fit in, rather than adopt a comedy German accent, he'd be better served purchasing a Volswagen - Wolfsburg is the home of VW after all!
Friday, July 16, 2010
2010 World Cup's African legacy
The festival is over. The vuvuzelas have been packed up. Stadiums from Bloemfontein to Pretoria, Cape Town to Johannesburg have closed their doors to the world's fans and stars and the local newspapers have started to return to their roles as doom and gloom merchants. But as the dust settles on Africa's first hosting of the World Cup, what does the future hold for South Africa, and what will be the legacy of the 2010 World Cup?
There was always going to be this debate following such an historic (and expensive) event, and now important questions must be asked about the future of South Africa. It has been clear over the last month what this tournament has meant to a largely impoverished country - national (and continent-wide) pride have swelled. This is an abstract concept to measure, but it is undoubtedly true that the South African people finally had something to cheer about. Although South Africa were the first ever host nation to fail to qualify from the group stage. But they lit up the tournament, none more so than Siphiwe Tshabalala, who scored a stunning opening goal of the tournament to make himself the first star of the World Cup. There was also a win against 2006 finalists France, and although this was not enough for them to qualify for the second round, they could still be immensely proud of their achievements. If anyone thought the hosts' exit would signal the end of the great atmosphere, they were mistaken. The fans still turned up in their droves, mingling with supporters of those countries still involved, and it was a joyous sight to behold. One fan commented: 'it's much easier to say I'm South African than it has been in the past.' This is a sense of national pride which the government would do well to foster.
What is probably an even greater achievement, however, is the South African, and pan-African, unity, which has swept across the country in the past month. In the lead up to the World Cup, there were numerous programmes and warnings devoted to guarding against crime in a supposedly 'crime-ridden' country. But fans from all over the world have experienced nothing of the sort, and have been (wrongly) shocked by the kindness of the locals. When the hosts exited the tournament, the whole of Africa threw the weight of their support behind Ghana, the only African nation to progress beyond the group stage. In their quarter-final against Uruguay, when they were a single penalty kick away from making football history and becoming the first African nation to make the World Cup semi-finals, the whole continent was willing the ball into the goal.
All of this shows the emotional maturity of South Africa. But an important question has still been asked by non-sports broadcasters - could the government not have spent the money on something which would have addressed the problems faced by the country in the immediate short-term? That sense of a 'feel-good' factor has to be turned into something more tangible, which is what the affable and charismatic South African President Jacob Zuma wants to achieve. What is the use of just sitting back on the memories of 2010 World Cup, with a bunch of new, expensive stadiums from which the money could have gone into housing, education, or addressing the abject poverty in much of the country? Zuma is aware of this quandary. He is positive the South African authorities will use the experiences gained from the World Cup to turn around the state the country - given real, definite deadlines, they have come up trumps against all the odds, when there was talk of South Africa not being ready in time. This applies to infrastructure, building stadiums, police organisation, and most importantly, social cohesion. Black townships have mixed with their white townships more than anytime in recent years, and the 'feel-good' factor created during the Nelson Mandela era, with the rugby union team winning the 1995 World Cup and the football team winning the 1996 African Nations Cup (both at home) seems to be returning.
But reality may set in sooner rather than later. South Africa is a relatively developed democracy by African standards. But that is nothing to boast about. There is high unemployment (although Britain doesn't have much to brag about in this area), a crippling housing shortage, a school system in crisis and one of the world's biggest wealth gaps. So, in essence, you are as likely to see someone hideously rich as someone in abject poverty, and it is the latter which the South African government has to concentrate on improving the lives of. The key word here is momentum. The momentum generated by the World Cup has to be continued in the right direction, because the South African authorities will never have a better opportunity to make real improvements. There may not be belief and expectation that lives are going to change for the better. But there is hope, and that is what Zuma and his colleagues have to steer their ship towards in the coming months and years.
There was always going to be this debate following such an historic (and expensive) event, and now important questions must be asked about the future of South Africa. It has been clear over the last month what this tournament has meant to a largely impoverished country - national (and continent-wide) pride have swelled. This is an abstract concept to measure, but it is undoubtedly true that the South African people finally had something to cheer about. Although South Africa were the first ever host nation to fail to qualify from the group stage. But they lit up the tournament, none more so than Siphiwe Tshabalala, who scored a stunning opening goal of the tournament to make himself the first star of the World Cup. There was also a win against 2006 finalists France, and although this was not enough for them to qualify for the second round, they could still be immensely proud of their achievements. If anyone thought the hosts' exit would signal the end of the great atmosphere, they were mistaken. The fans still turned up in their droves, mingling with supporters of those countries still involved, and it was a joyous sight to behold. One fan commented: 'it's much easier to say I'm South African than it has been in the past.' This is a sense of national pride which the government would do well to foster.
What is probably an even greater achievement, however, is the South African, and pan-African, unity, which has swept across the country in the past month. In the lead up to the World Cup, there were numerous programmes and warnings devoted to guarding against crime in a supposedly 'crime-ridden' country. But fans from all over the world have experienced nothing of the sort, and have been (wrongly) shocked by the kindness of the locals. When the hosts exited the tournament, the whole of Africa threw the weight of their support behind Ghana, the only African nation to progress beyond the group stage. In their quarter-final against Uruguay, when they were a single penalty kick away from making football history and becoming the first African nation to make the World Cup semi-finals, the whole continent was willing the ball into the goal.
All of this shows the emotional maturity of South Africa. But an important question has still been asked by non-sports broadcasters - could the government not have spent the money on something which would have addressed the problems faced by the country in the immediate short-term? That sense of a 'feel-good' factor has to be turned into something more tangible, which is what the affable and charismatic South African President Jacob Zuma wants to achieve. What is the use of just sitting back on the memories of 2010 World Cup, with a bunch of new, expensive stadiums from which the money could have gone into housing, education, or addressing the abject poverty in much of the country? Zuma is aware of this quandary. He is positive the South African authorities will use the experiences gained from the World Cup to turn around the state the country - given real, definite deadlines, they have come up trumps against all the odds, when there was talk of South Africa not being ready in time. This applies to infrastructure, building stadiums, police organisation, and most importantly, social cohesion. Black townships have mixed with their white townships more than anytime in recent years, and the 'feel-good' factor created during the Nelson Mandela era, with the rugby union team winning the 1995 World Cup and the football team winning the 1996 African Nations Cup (both at home) seems to be returning.
But reality may set in sooner rather than later. South Africa is a relatively developed democracy by African standards. But that is nothing to boast about. There is high unemployment (although Britain doesn't have much to brag about in this area), a crippling housing shortage, a school system in crisis and one of the world's biggest wealth gaps. So, in essence, you are as likely to see someone hideously rich as someone in abject poverty, and it is the latter which the South African government has to concentrate on improving the lives of. The key word here is momentum. The momentum generated by the World Cup has to be continued in the right direction, because the South African authorities will never have a better opportunity to make real improvements. There may not be belief and expectation that lives are going to change for the better. But there is hope, and that is what Zuma and his colleagues have to steer their ship towards in the coming months and years.
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