Del Boy Chisora

It would be probably dishonest to pretend that “shenanigens” and the sense of danger wasn’t a part of the appeal of the sport of boxing, bad dangerous lad getting into a ring and beating seven bells out of one another is an intoxicating mix. And whilst we accept that there will be bad words, and bad blood before hand it is often we think all about selling tickets. One of the great things about boxing is that after all the words, all the deeds and after spending half an hour beating the crap out of one another boxers tend to have a big embrace at the end. The sight of two sportsmen sat next to one another giving a joint interview with the media is not uncommon. So what happened at the end of the fight, and then afterwards last night was all the more unsavoury.

Chisora had gone out of his way to wind up the Klitschkos, claiming (with some justification) he had been treated badly by them. And clearly Wlad  was way out of order going into Del Boy’s room and having a hoo ha over his gloves and strapping. All the same Chisora’s “spit” in Wlad’s face was too much, far too much. Spitting is a line that really we just don’t expect sportsmen to cross. So the ugly confrontation between Chisora and the Klutschkos at the end of the fight had a real edge, it was unpleasant.

I went to bed at this point (that’s the kind of all action winner I am, in bed by half eleven on a Saturday night. I know what you are thinking = “Winner”!) so was unaware of what was farce degenerating into something worse. On getting up I decided to “check teh interwebs” and saw the headline about the brawl and assumed it was just a load of stage managed ticket selling. But unfortunately it was worse… much worse. If Del Boy had come close to the line with his slap, if he had crossed it with his water spit then he went charging over it with the press conference.

This was an embarrassment to the sport, lord only knows what was going through Chisora’s head, but we know he is a nutter. Haye, for all his conflabs and stunts, is obviously a reasonably smart cookie and I don’t know why he allowed himself to get into this position. Of course once Chisora marched down there aint a boxer in the world who would high-tail it out of there all the same a calm head was needed and they were sadly lacking.

Let’s not forget there was an actual world heavyweight title fight happening and whilst Chisora might have disgraced himself in every way out of the ring, inside the ring he did anything but. He was brave, tough and he really had a go. Vitali might not admit it but he was in the toughest fight he has had since he fought Lennox. Vitali was blowing several times, and he took a fair few whacks. If Chisora had been a bit quicker, a bit stronger and had a little more sugar he would have had a damn good chance of bringing a belt home. But he wasn’t and he lost by a wide margin in what was a fair result from the judges. At the final bell though Chisora was on the verge of a redemption story given the performance he had put in which makes the subsequent actions all the more of a shame.

It is interesting to speculate what will happen next. Vitali is declining, I blogged in November 2010 that I thought Haye would be better off fighting Vitali and that seems all the more true to me now. I honestly believe that David Haye would have beaten Vitali last night, he is stronger, quicker and better than Chisora (by some distance frankly) and Vitali is in decline. I suspected last night that Del Boy would have pretty much retired Vitali. Boente (The Klitschkos manager) would, I thought, be mad to let Vitali get in the ring with Haye. And it seemed that Boente’s comments post fight (“No, No, No you had your chance and it is gone”) backed this up. Interestingly the Observer Journalist Kevin Mitchell seems to be suggesting that privately they accept they will have to fight because that is the only money fight left for Vitali. This makes sense I suppose, and I would still like to see it. But I shan’t hold my breath.

All in all, once again the sport of boxing is shamed. As a fan it is so disappointing to keep saying this. But the fights not getting made, ridiculous alphabet belts, conflabs like this are ruining the sport. With Fury ducking Price, Mayweather and Pacqiaou no getting it on I am a very depressed fight fan. Let’s hope Kell Brook and the Khan vs Petersen rematch can give us a little redemption, British boxing needs it….

Plymouth Argyle

And the topic is going to be one of my familiar tropes, football democracy. On Saturday I received my membership card for the Argyle Fans Trust. Around the same time as the news was breaking that the players and staff had once again not been paid by the club.

Whilst it had started to look like the club was moving in the right direction clearly the club is not yet saved and the potential new owners certainly look to be a little secretive if not out and out shady. Whomever the new owners of the club turn out to be I am increasingly of the opinion that the Fans Trust representing the voice of us supporters is going to be crucial for the future of Plymouth Argyle Football Club.

I am not, if really honest, the most most observant follower of the Church of Argyle. Whilst I am not an apostate I don’t go nearly enough, 2010-11 was probably the season in which I went the least in my adult life, but I do love my club and I want them to thrive and do better. I bet there are loads of people out there just like me.

Obviously for Argyle to do better the most important thing we can do is all go through the turnstile more often and get the crowds up (I for one have promised myself that I will go much more often next season). But I think a very close second has to be joining the Fans Trust.

Firstly by joining and paying fees we give the Trust the resources to best be able to put forward the views, needs and expectations of Argyle fans. Good will gets you only so far in this world and any organisation needs resources (both in terms of money and of course in terms of volunteering where people can) to be effective.

Secondly though is a question of legitimacy. The fans trust is a democratic body, but in order for them to speak with the loudest possible voice for the fans they need to have as many of us behind them as possible. In my day job I am a Trade Union official with the CWU. My office has strong union membership with the overwhelming majority of staff members and behind the Union. So I know from experience the more people are behind you the more your voice counts and the more you are listened too. The more fans who join the trust the stronger voice they will have in getting our interests as Argyle fans listened too.

I would love to one day see Argyle owned by the fans. It is the kind of thing people will often automatically dismiss as being pie in the sky. But it really isn’t, I in common with I’d imagine most real football fans, was delighted to see AFC Wimbledon promoted to the football league this season. What happened with the whole “franchise-gate” was an absolute disgrace and for a fan owned, democratically run, club to raise like a Phoenix from the Ashes back into league football so quickly was an amazing fairy tale.

And it really should provide confidence to those who dream of their club being owned by the fans. It can happen. And if it is to happen for Argyle then as many fans as possible have to join the trust. Football isn’t just business, our clubs are something more a vibrant part of our communities and places. Football generally, but Argyle specifically deserves better.

So this blog has been a pretty unapologetic puff piece for the Fans Trust. I hope that all my Argyle supporting readers will join. It only costs a tenner and you can now do it online and via PayPal.

http://www.argylefanstrust.com/join/

No excuses folks get to it!

Supporting a lower league side means that as a top flight neutral you can engage without fear of reprisals mercilessly joshing your compadre’s who have “second teams” (often first teams TBH) in the top flight. I have an unusually large number of Liverpool supporting pals, which is a little odd given the geographical distance between Plymouth and Liverpool. However I am sure they all have bona fida reasons for supporting Liverpool, their milkmans sisters cat once went to Merseyside or something and it has nothing to do with Liverpool being the dominant force when we were growing up (cough glory hunters, cough)….. but I digress. Liverpool have provided me with rich comic potential over the last few years and I have ever so enjoyed winding pals up. But in all that I have had the occasional genuine philosophical disagreement about football, one such row with my mate Moz has prompted me to blog.

Liverpool FC in Europe?

The question at hand is do Liverpool and Spurs really want to qualify for the Europa League next season, or more to the point should they? Moz (who has maintained for some time that he doesn’t want Liverpool to qualify for the Europa League) triumphantly emailed me last night with an appeal to dubious authority what he said was the killer argument, end of story  ‘Arry Redknapp didn’t want to qualify for the Europa league proving what a disaster it would be. Superficially that did seem like something of a show stopper I have to say.

Now I don’t, and never have, claimed that there isn’t a sporting reason to think that being outside of the Europa league (or any cup competition for that matter) might help a clubs league performance.  The more games you play the more tired you are. All clubs often suffer in terms of performance and results after big cup games at home or abroad. Given that British clubs don’t seem to value the Europa league as a tournament to win or do well in, then I expect if participation in it made no other difference whatsoever to clubs then they would probably all value giving it a miss.

However I don’t think it is really that simple at all. Because football may well be a sporting endeavour, but it is also business now. And the business side, crucially how much money clubs can spend, has a direct impact on the sporting side. It all comes down to money in the end. You see for both Liverpool and Spurs they are not just “any” team happy to propel themselves up the table a bit. If this was true then it would probably be spot on to say they might in all honesty want to give the Europa League a miss. No both Liverpool and Spurs see themselves as “big clubs”, who think they should be competing for trophies at the highest level and who want to play in the Champions League.

In the Premier League (well most football actually) there is a particularly strong correlation between wage spend and league success. Around 80% correlation in fact, in the Premier League you get what you pay for. So in order to get into the Champions League you are going to need to try and spend more, or at least nearly as much, as your rivals on wages. Now until pretty darned recently provided your club had an appropriate sugar daddy, or at least an accommodating bank then clubs could just find the money to bridge the gap and hope for the best, or at least gamble on getting the success to pay the bills.

But the financial fair play regulation introduced by UEFA have put the kibosh on that. Put really simply clubs have to break even they can only spend what they earn. The is some wriggle room, but they must lose no more than £40 million quid over a three season period, part of this caveat is that these losses cannot be made up of loans but have to be covered as effectively “gifts” of money given to the club by the proprietors. If clubs are unable to meet these stringent solvency rules they will be prevented from playing in Europe. Should that happen to a club with a budget predicated on getting money from Europe that would represent a massive double whammy.

Worse, it grants a massive “incumbency bonus” to any club that has qualified for the the Champions League from this season onward because of the expected 30-40 million pounds in TV and Prize money a decent run in the Champions league will net you. So for Spurs and Liverpool next season they will be trying to overhaul a team that the league suggests are better than them in terms of playing personnel, meaning they will need to strengthen relatively. On top of this they need to ensure their books balance, against a backdrop of the team they are competing against having an additional 30-40 million quid in their budget.

Now what this means in practice is that frankly every penny is going to count, if Spurs and Liverpool want to overhaul Manchester City and get back in the champions league they need to make as much money as they possibly can.  The Europa league is going to be a source of income and I guess the real question is “is it worth it?”. Now no doubt the Europa League is a poor, poor second to the Champions League in terms of what a club can expect to earn from it. Rather than the 30-40 million champtions league clubs routinely get,  a club who wins the Europa league will earn in TV and Prize money about 8-10 million quid. When you are having to balance the books an amount of money that will clearly have some impact on a clubs spending potential. But probably not in of itself the difference between whether or not a club can afford to mount a serious challenge for the top four.

But it isn’t just in terms of prize money, clubs make a huge amount of money form “match day revenue” what they take on the gate and what fans spend at the ground. According to “The Swiss Ramble” (a most excellent blog BTW) Liverpool make around £1.7 million per game in match revenue. A run to the final will involve around about 16 games so a team that wins the tournament will probably have an extra 8 home games. Even assuming that match day revenue for a Europa League game is less than average that is probably for a club like Liverpool an additional ten million or so quid.  Further Clubs will benefit commercially from performing in Europe. Commercial sponsors like to get exposure and clubs being internationally successful, and crucially appearing on free to air TV will give teams performing in the Europa league an uplift to their bottom line.

Next year's Europa League Sponsor

This is of course true, and too a much greater extent, for the Champions League clubs so the real difference in terms of income (and therefore under FFP ability to spend) is greater than the oft quoted 30-40 million. For the team that doesn’t get into the Europa league they could be looking at a difference in budget of quite possibly considerably north of £50 million all in just on the basis of European competition or not. The £20 million or so a big club could potentially expect to earn from winning the Europa league isn’t enough of course but it will help.

Fans always like to think about the “manifest destiny” of their clubs, the glamour, the history, the tradition. And whilst I am sure this does have some impact on footballers the truth is, if we are honest, that in descending order of importance players are motivated by:-

1. Money
2. Cash
3. Moolah
4. Wonger
5. Success on the pitch

I don’t doubt that there are exceptions, but we all know that in the main this is true. So for a club rebuilding and hoping to overhaul rivals they are going to need to spend big. Competing in Europe, even the Europa league helps. Firstly because of the money a club can afford to pay, secondly because agents like their players to play in europe as they are in the “shop window” increasing their earning potential (for both player and agent) in the future.  It is widely accepted that clubs not competing in Europe have to pay more in wages to attract players of similar quality to clubs not in Europe for precisely this reason.

I realise fans are far from rational or sensible when it comes to their club. But I think that if fans do engage their critical faculties here they will realise that the situation facing clubs is different now. Assuming UEFA actually do rigorously enforce the Financial Fair Play regulations (I guess that is in reality far from certain) then a club hoping to dine at the top table simply cannot afford not to be in the Europa league given half a chance. And let’s see for all ‘Arry’s bluster if the Europa league was really so bad he would surely be fielding his reserve team for the last few matches trying ever so hard to “secure” sixth place. I cant see that, anyone else?

The great thing about football, the reason why it is a global game, why sport the world plays is you never have to wait all that long to be reminded why you love it, and why it is “The Beautiful Game”. I remember being utterly disconsolate at the end of the 2002 World cup, after one of many broken hearts from following England at international tournaments.

A couple of months later I was staying with my Grandmother in Weymouth and decided to go and watch some non league football. I went up to the then Wessex Stadium to watch the Weymouth play Grantham Town in a non league game. Midway through the second half Weymouth got a free kick out wide in a remarkable similar position to that from which Ronaldinho scored his remarkable/lucky (delete depending on your personal prejudices ! ) goal. Amazingly the ball went into the goal in identical fashion (though there is little doubt that this one was entirely luck). As I stood there, in a uncovered stand, in the rain singing “It’s just like watching Brazil” with a couple of hundred Terras fans, cup of Bovril in hand I thought how much I loved football. Faith was restored, the game was indeed beautiful!

Skip forward to 2011 and I have been once again having my doubts, my team Plymouth Argyle stand on the brink of liquidation, Malcolm Glazer’s awful Manchester United seem to be on a relentless march to win major honours despite not being very good, FIFA’s reputation sank further into the mud with the murky World Cup host bidding fiasco and somehow both Blatter and the execrable Jack Warner are still the king pins of world football. It is fair to say football was lacking a little lustre for me once again.

Ok so maybe not this cup final!

But not any more, because I had yesterday one of the most joyous experiences I have ever had as a fan of football. The Seymour Arms, the team I was a founding member of, and a former manager of competed in their first ever Devon Cup semi final and I went along to watch. Going away on “on tour” with the Seymour was fun in of itself but getting to compete in a massive for us cup semi final was special.

We were drawn away to play Sidmouth Town FC from Eastern Devon. A couple of minibuses of players and fans made the trip up to watch the biggest day so far in the short history of our club. Arriving at Sidmouth’s digs made me pretty glad we had been drawn away (we play at a council pitch called Tothill Park which is in a pretty bad state). We were made to feel very welcome right from the get go.

The match itself was a close affair. Both teams were pretty evenly matched in terms of standard and it was clearly going to be a game in which the first goal made a massive difference. Thankfully Seymour midfielder Neil Wyatt was put into the box shortly before half time and fired us into the lead. This led to a pretty god damn nervy second half, I paced up and down and I am pretty sure there is a patch of bar earth next to Sidmouth’s pitch were I was stationed!

Sidmouth predictably came back into the game and started putting us under pressure, a number of good chance were very well saved by Seymour’s stand in keeper Chris Langmead. We withstood the pressure well but I was pretty darned nervous all the same. Then we got a breakthough club captain John Tremblett (who wasn’t enjoying one of his better games for the club) went through the middle and struck a long range shot straight at the keeper, it bounced on its way through and (i’m sure agonisingly for him) somehow trickled under the keeper into the net.

Football though is rarely so easy, and there was always going to be a twist in the match. Minutes after the Seymour spawned a glorious two on one against the Sidmouth keeper (Adam Lake tried unsuccessfully to round the keeper rather than pass) Sidmouth scored a good goal to make the score 2-1 with only minutes remaining. The tension became virtually unbearable, as Sidmouth through everything forward. But after 120 seconds that felt like about 18 months the ref blew the final whistle.

For the first time in our clubs history we had reached a cup final… a bloody cup final. And the Devon (supplementary) Cup final at that. I don’t think I have ever roared in such delight at the final whistle of a game it was a truly amazing feeling. This is why they call it the beautiful bloody game!

In truth, back in the summer of 2002 when myself and my friends Recardo McDowell and Tom Williams decided drunkedly on a boozy Friday night to set up a new Sunday League football team at the pub I didn’t really expect us to even get to the end of the season. For me the club still existing and reaching a county cup final nearly a decade from that night is nothing short of magical.

That football is a sport where one can derive as much, or often more entertainment from watching 11 of your amateur mates in a Sunday League cup game as you can from say watching the Wizards of Barcelona in the Champions league speaks volume for what a fabulous game we have.

So if oyu are fed up with the cheating, diving, moaning, murky finance, back handers, over paid prima-donnas of professional football then remember there is a wonderful world of great drama and awesome stories just on your doorstep and in your local park. Long live Sunday league.

And if you are interested the final will take place on the 17^th April, in Newton Abbot against the “Jolly Judge” of Torquay. Hoping to get as many fans, and ex Seymour Arms alumni as possible to attend. See you there!

The tussle between business of football and the fans!

And when the business side of things goes wrong, as it has recently for my club Plymouth Argyle then it can be heartbreaking for fans. I’m sure we all find it difficult to understand how our clubs can be run so ineptly; how such massive tax bills can be stockpiled, how fans can be treated like such rubbish.

And I think a big part of it is how we look at our clubs, their governance, and their status. Whenever it suits clubs and football generally they like to make a big point about how they are businesses and “that is the end of it”. But football likes to have it cake and eat it, with special pleading based on the “different status of football”. Illustrated say in this case around football TV rights distribution, or wanting different rules around free movement of workers in terms of young players.

But of course they are entirely right to engage in special pleading. Football (any sport really) is *not* just any other business. Sport really does have a special status, it is different.

Football effects us on an emotional level, I am *not* a customer, I am a fan. I have a sense belonging, like I am an active participant in what happens. I believe, as do all fans, that in a sense that we are Plymouth Argyle (even though I am apostate fan who doesn’t go nearly enough !) , and that the team on the pitch, the stadium, the construct of a club is an extension of the same thing.

People don’t react like to business’ in this way (well maybe the awful scary cult of the “Apple Mac”), and whilst business come up with bullshit “corporate social responsibility” plans and talk about being at the hearts of their communities this isn’t really true. But for football clubs it really is, clubs are rooted in geography, in places, in people and in history. They are different and need to be treated as such.

Now the reality is in terms of football being a business the genie really is out of the bottle. There is no real way of going back to some Corinthian ideal of football a sports clubs just for the competition with money unimportant. Even if it was what everybody wanted (and I reckon a fair few fans would disagree, we want to see the best possible players in action in England) it just isn’t going to happen.

So what we need, IMHO is to find a better accommodation between the sporting side of football and the business side, then some changes might happen that will make things better. Here are some of my suggestions about some changes to make football more sustainable and governed better.

1. Statutory recognition of properly constituted fans groups.

One of the biggest frustrations for fans is the feeling that they are ignored or brushed aside by the club. I think that where fans form properly constituted, democratic, transparent fans groups then football clubs should be required to recognise them. This would involve proper consultation, and access to information. Not enough in itself to make clubs responsive but it is a start.

2. Fan representation on football club boards.

I think it is absolutely essential, insofar as fan ownership of fans isn’t immediately possible (more on that later), for fans to be properly represented by voting members in football club board rooms.

I can imagine that there might in some quarters be opposition based on the responsibilities that board members have in terms of company law, commercial confidentiality etc. But frankly I can’t see it. It could work in a similar way to pension fund trustees elected by workers who have clear lines of responsibility in terms of what is legally required of them.

These board positions could be put to regular elections, made easier via the statutory recognition of fans groups which would allow a kind of formal accountability of the club board to the fans.

3. Fan ownership.

I blogged last year about how I felt that football needed socio style fan ownership of clubs. For me the idea that clubs should be owned in full, or in part by its fans is a no brainer. Given that clubs as massive as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have fan ownership on the one hand. And on the other small non league clubs like AFC Wimbledon, FC United and Ebbsfleet United are also successfully in fan ownership demonstrate there shouldn’t really be a barrier to fans owning their clubs.

Of course getting to a position where fans own clubs is the big hurdle, and I’d hate for it to take a “franchise FC” type situation to enable it to happen. With a club like Manchester United not even for sale for A billion and a half pounds how could ordinary fans hope to make the kind of money required to take their clubs into fan ownership?

Well the first thing to point out I suppose is that the reason a football club is worth whatever it is worth is because we, as fans, put that money in. At the turnstile, in the club shop, via our TV subscriptions. If the mechanism existed that facilitated fans becoming, maybe gradually, fan owned then in all probability over time the amounts of money become less of an issue.

I think the first step should be that either by football changing it’s rules, or by legislation, a fan ownership supporters trust should always have first refusal on any shares in a club that the owner is prepared to sell. This would have have the dual effect of giving an avenue to supporters trusts to buy clubs. But also hopefully reduce club value inflation and stop Gillette/Hicks-esque vultures and venture capitalists buying clubs in the hope of making easy money from selling the club on.

How this could be built upon i’m not too sure if I am honest. I think in the long run the football authorities would need to put in place some mechanism which would make it easier for fans groups to raise money to buy their club. Possibly using the financial power of English Football as a whole to help borrowing for fan buyouts.

When you look at how well organised supporters groups can be. For me a leading light is the “Spirit of Shankly” Liverpool supporters union. They have demonstrated how a fans group can effectively organise to impact on the running of their club and make significant improvements. I wish them well in their attempts to take their club into fan ownership. Obviously for me, as an Argyle supporter I have high hopes for the newly established Argyle Supporters Trust.

4. Closer scrutiny of club finances.

The directors bleeding our clubs dry.

As wave after wave of stories get published about the extent of Argyle’s debt to the taxman, and with multiple winding up order facing the club (we now seem to be facing bigger battles in the court room than on the pitch) I cannot help but think the one thing.

“How could this have been allowed to happen?”

I expect that fans of Leeds, Portsmouth, Palace, York City, Cardiff, Sheffield Wednesday…etc etc etc ad infinitum have all thought the same thing. Maybe it is just because I am an ordinary Joe wage slave who pays my Tax by PAYE, but the idea that these clubs can wrack up these ginormous tax bills without anyone doing anything about it until the club is on deaths door just seems utterly crazy to me. I think the football authorities need to take a much tougher, and much more proactive role on football finance for our professional clubs.

I think a month prior to each transfer window all clubs should have to submit their finances to the FA. Additionally “wounded parties” such as the HMRC, or the PFA would be able to lodge evidence of any money they say they are due. If the FA believe a club is in serious breach of it’s financial responsibilities then a transfer ban for that window should be implemented and the club should be required to lodge their plans of how to deal with the unpaid bills.

If in subsequent transfer windows the clubs have not followed their financial plan, or had at the same time accrued additional unpaid, and un-repayable debts then the FA ought to increase penalties including the possibility of point deductions. This may sound harsh, but for well run responsible clubs it will have little impact. And for clubs like mine it may well have saved us from getting into awful positions, that threaten the very existance of football clubs.

UEFA’s “Financial Fair Play” regulations are predicated on the basis of saving Europe’s elite clubs from themselves. For me as a fan of a football league club I see the pressing need to do that further down the football pile.

5. Time for a rethink on directors of Football?

Received wisdom in English football is that the structure of European football clubs with the “Director of Football/Sporting Director” providing long term vision with a “First Team Coach” handling day to day management of the first team, does not work. That our clubs and way of doing things is unique and the manager has to have absolute control.

It is a view that I used to subscribe to myself to be honest but I have increasingly come to question it. Where a manager is in place for a long period of time and is able to have a strategic long term view for the football club in the Fergie/Wenger or even David Moyes way then there is an argument for the old fashioned English way of doing things.

But the reality for most of our football clubs is the average tenure of managers is getting shorter and shorter with obscene amount of changes in the managerial department at our clubs. If the average manager is only going to be in post for 12-18 months then they don’t have any ability to put in place a long term vision for a club. Because they are not going to be there that long.

And why would they? If they are judged in the here and now by results over a very short period of time why the hell would they care about careful youth development, buying players for the medium and long term and having a club philosophy? I wouldn’t, I do what was necessary in the short; because I’d know there was no chance of getting the benefit of the doubt if things take a temporary turn for the worse.

If we want clubs to be sensibly run in terms of playing staff, to develop youth, to have a philosophy about playing and development then perhaps Directors of Football are the way forward and what we have been doing in England is knuckle dragging?

There is no magic wand and none of these changes are going to be able to happen without some sort of miraculous change at the FA, or via government intervention. I was pleased that at the last election Labour pledged in their manifesto

“32. Registered Supporters Trusts enabled to buy stakes in their club

bringing mutualism to the heart of football.”

Hopefully there can be a consensus in our political system that football is special, different, unique and it’s governance needs to change to stack the deck in the favour of the supporters of football teams.

Lastly for supporters of Argyle the second meeting of the new supporters trust is taking place this saturday form 10:30AM to 12:30PM at the lower guildhall. I hope that fans who agree with this can try to get involved.

For me the player of the year.

That omission being Wesley Sneijder of Inter Milan and Holland. The player who I felt should not only be nominated but also should have won the award. Inter Milan were *the* team of the last campaign. A tremendous season in which they won a treble (Champions League, domestic League and Cup), and Sneijder was the heart beat, the creative genius of the team.

At the world cup the Netherlands reached the final, once again Sneijder was the creative fulcrum of the team, even in the final they were so close to winning (still not sure how Arjen Robben managed to fluff his lines), and only ended up losing the game one nil in extra time. So for both club and country Sneijder drove his team to incredible achievements.

Whilst I don’t want to denigrate the achievements of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi all three play for a team that is more stuffed with talent than either Inter or Holland. It is easier to hit the high notes in a better team. For me (and I realise this is a subjective judgement) there is something special about a player who isn’t just one cog in an excellent machine (though I do enjoy that and more on Barcelona later !), but rather due to their individual brilliance and team play they elevate all of their team mates. It was this fantastic ability that, for me, makes Diego Maradona the best player that has ever been.

I am not for a minute saying Wesley Sneijder is at a Maradona level, but I do think the way he drove his respective teams to great heights, and made them more than the sum of their parts echoed Maradona. And further that as his club side won everything in a domestic treble, and he came within a rats whisker of winning the world cup then personally I’d say that makes him the player of the year by a nose. But even if he wasn’t the best it is certainly a travesty that he is not in the top three…

All three of those actually in the shortlist of course play for Barcelona. In a lot of the places where I read about football, listen to podcasts, and talk in person there has been some debate as to just how good this Barca team is, and whether or not they are the best side ever.

Quite a claim I reckon; and difficult for me to make any objective statement on. I have only ever seen TV highlights of the Alfredo Di Stéfano Madrid side of the 50s, and the Hungarian team of the same era. Ditto for the pre Munich United side, the Dutch side of the 70s, the Brazil 1970 team and most of the great Liverpool club sides, and I am sure there are many other “great” sides from before my time that I have not mentioned here.

Of sides I have actually seen play in real time, I reckon the best have been the Milan side of the late 80s early 90s, the treble wining United team, the West Germany side 88-92 and this Barcelona side (Spain too I guess but for simplicity I’ll keep it to just Barca !).

These were all good sides, and I realise I might being doing the “neophiliac” of plumbing for the most recent really good team I have seen. But for my money the current Barca team is better than any of those. Both the grounds of talent, and how entertaining they are. This side is simply stunningly, mesmerizingly good to watch.

I have often argued with my mate Kye about what is what you want from watching professional football on telly. His view is that he likes honest committed pros going in hard and one nil results. For me though if I want to see a load of useless cloggers booting the ball up in the air and running around aimlessly I can go to the local park and see that for free whenever I want (alternatively watch England on the telly!).

What I want to see when watching footy on the box is artistry and skill. People doing exceptional things, doing them well and doing them often. I think one of the newest and most irritating clichés in football at the moment is people saying:-

“If Messi/Barcelona had done that everyone would rave about it.”

Really, just a club...

Now here is the thing, the reason people rave about them doing it is they do it every week, you cant put it down to fluke or good fortune because they consistently do it over and over again. When Maynor Figueroa scored that goal from 60 yards it was great. But we all know it was more due to luck than design. Conversely when a Messi/LeTissier/Cantona/Bergkamp does it, we know they almost certainly meant it and can and will do it again. It is this consistency of brilliance of a couple of year period that makes this Barca team for me the best side I have ever seen.

That though isn’t to say I am an admirer of theirs without qualification. For all I love the way they play, think that La Masia academy ought to be a blueprint for how all teams develop young players and love the idea of democratic fan ownership of teams; there are also a lot of things to dislike about Barca.

First up (and probably the biggest thing for me) is the just insufferable smugness that seeps throughout Barca. The whole “Més que un club ” (More than a club) shtick just really irritates me. And their pious holier than thou stuff really falls down when you look at some of there on field antics. For all the wonderful football there is a massive amount of diving and ref haranguing by Barcelona.

And whilst it was great that they paid UNICEF to advertise the charity on their shirts; perhaps a more meaningful gesture would have been around wearing only sportswear not made in sweatshops. And in taking the 30 pieces of silver Qatar as a shirt sponsor they have surely undermined their credibility as a team with a halo.

All the same I love to watch Barca, and I guess they will benefit from the fact that next to Real Madrid they will always be the lesser of two evils! And the three Barca players have robbed Sneijder in the Ballon d’Or if you ask me.

And when I do think about him I am in future going to try and think about him in much the same was as I do about the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix sequels. Namely I shall pretend his career as a pro boxer did not exist in order to not tarnish a fond memory of an early thing that was markedly superior to what came later.

Because remember Sydney, Harrison instantly became a sporting hero for a reason. He won heavyweight gold for Britain at the Olympics. He was an exciting, charming and endearing fellow who pretty much everyone I knew warmed to him at the time. However difficult I hope that in time fight fans can find a way to acknowledge this.

But let’s be clear everything that came afterward was a joke and a slap in the face to those who supported him after the Olympics. As far as I can see Audley produced only one real moment of distinction in his pro career when he beat Danny Williams in spectacular fashion. Everything else was a let down.

So for me the fact that he lost, and lost badly to David Haye really isn’t too much of a surprise. But even for Audley the manner of his performance was shocking. To only land one punch in the entire fight was a disgrace. Even by his low standards he let himself down. I reckon he will regret it for the rest of his life.

David Haye

For Haye it is a case of job done, that is all. The absolute minimum requirement for him in the fight was to spectacularly and explosively get a knock out and end Audley’s career. Job done, but there is little kudos for Haye in doing exactly what was expected. Time for him to bank his bumper payday and get down to the business of fighting the Klitschkos.

Clearly there are some business reasons for why this fight might not happen, issues around money seem to have scuppered the bout so far. Kevin Mitchell in the Guardian argues that Haye must accept a 50/50 split of world wide revenue. Previously the issue of UK pay per view revenue has been a sticking point. I agree what needs to happen is a straight down the middle fight in terms of money. In terms of venue obviously I would like it to happen in the UK preferably, or at least in Europe in terms of being able to watch the fight at a reasonable hour. I do think perhaps holding the fight at a neutral venue in the states, Madison Square Garden (as Vitali has suggested) might well be a sensible compromise.

I also think, contrary to the popular received wisdom, that Vitali is probably the better fight for Haye. Sure he is more durable, and has a much better chin. But he is slower, and for my money at least it is noticeable how much less mobile in the ring he has been over the last couple of fights. Haye will be very mobile and he hits hard and fast (just ask Audley), and to be fair the charge that the Klitschkos “don’t like it up ‘em” is not unwarranted. I think Haye has every chance of getting a convincing points victory if he can avoid getting knocked out. Gun to the head, I would probably pick Vitali but I think it is close to a 50/50 fight.

The funny thing is that the same night that Harrison dished up a performance that was a disgrace to boxing, a few hours later in Dallas Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito were engaged in an astonishing, wonderful thrilling 12 rounder that displayed everything that was great about boxing.

The fight was fast, furious, powerful, brutal but with a huge amount of skill. Margarito looked massive compared to Manny (just like Clotty did back along), and whilst he was moving up to Light Middleweight Margarito is a natural and quite big welterweight. Pacquiao remember won his first title at FLYWEIGHHT. It reminded me of on one of the early “Fight Night” video games on the original Playstation pitting Naseem Hamed against Lennox Lewis.

If you knew nothing about the boxers and just saw them as they lined up before the fight started you would have been expecting a brutal mismatch. And you would in once sense have been right it was, but not the way you might expect given their respective size and frames. Manny dominated and battered Margarito and put on a masterclass of boxing. Not to say Margarito did not put in a good showing. A few times in the middle rounds he managed to pin Manny against the ropes and I did wonder what might happen. But in the end it was a comprehensive, dominant, special victory for Pacquiao who becomes a genuine six weight world champion.

I think it is virtually impossible to talk about Pacquiao and not talk also about Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Last time I talked about boxing on this blog, in the wake of Pacquiao’s emphatic victory I stated that I felt Manny would win the fight. Since then Mayweather put on an emphatic masterclass of his own against Shane Mosely.

Manny Pacquaio

Now it is an interesting situation visa vie legacies and the like. For me Pacquiao is in a strong position. Given what he has done, and frankly the fact that he has already lost in his career I don’t think he has got a lot to lose whatever happen. If FMJ keeps ducking him and the fight never happens I think Pacquiao is already secured in the hall of fame/all time great list. Similarly taking the fight with Mayweather and losing probably won’t effect his status.

For FMJ the equation is a little different I think. I cant help think if he either loses the fight, or is seen to be ducking it (and lets be clear all the drugs testing nonsense and so on is Floyd ducking the fight), then his reputation is tarnished. Particularly if he ducks it.

Further it would be a disgrace to the sport of boxing, greater by many orders of magnitude than any low Audley Harrison could ever achieve, if this fight did take place. It is a fight that would capture the imagination of the whole world, and huge numbers of casual or non fight fans. I am occasionally prone to bouts of over excitement, hyperbole and exaggeration, however I think that a Pacquiao vs Mayweather fight will be the biggest boxing match since The Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.

So who will win then? I have to say I do find it hard to pick; Mayweather is a genius wonderful defence and awesome boxing technique. Even if you are not always entertained and thrilled when watching Mayweather (he isn’t exactly a LaMotta-esque all action brawler!) then you always know why they refer to boxing as “The Sweet Science”.

But I keep thinking back to the Mayweather/De La Hoya bout. In the early rounds De La Hoya had Mayweather in trouble, dominated him, and had Oscar been able to keep up that pace I have no doubt he would have won. For my money Manny is better now than De La Hoya was in 2007 (or frankly at any point during his career), he is quicker, has better accuracy, seems to have awesome power even at Light Middleweight (just look at Margarito’s face after the bout). But most of all he isn’t going to run out of gas half way through.

I just cannot envisage anyone beating Pacquiao on points at the moment, he comes forward in a style judges will always love, throws tonnes of leather and does so hard and accurately. Even if Mayweather is landing the better shots I can’t help thinking Pacquiao will nick the rounds. So for my money FMJ will have to stop Pacquiao… He is certainly there to hit, defence being by a country mile the weakest part of his arsenal. Margarito certainly found the target pretty frequently. If anyone in world boxing can stop Pacquiao then it is Mayweather.

But now, like in March I pick Manny Pacquiao to win. This time I don’t need a gun to my head as I am reasonably confident. He is too quick, too powerful and too accurate. Not sure FMJ will ever have been put under anything like the pressure he will be. So Manny on points.

What a contrast between Pacquiao and Harrison, both with natural gifts one is a shining light to the sport, and one a disgrace. Shame really….

Lastly this blog was prompted by my mate Mark Tinson who is celebrating his 30th Birthday this weekend (even though his birthday was actually some time ago) so I’d like to shout out a Happy Birthday (Also to John and Jamie for whom it is a joint 30th do)!

I spent a lot of time on the blower to various pals of mine that evening talking about this and wondering why it happened. In the back of my mind there was an article I had read in the Guardian earlier in the month about coaching. So I dug the article out and had another read (you can find it here). It makes really, really shocking reading.

Need a bit more of this.

To condense in England there are only 2769 coaches holding either the UEFA a,b or pro coaching badges. This compares with Spain 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790. I guess when you look at it like it isn’t surprising we are not producing technically gifted players who can retain the ball under pressure.

Howard Wilkinson was much maligned as the FA technical director, but in reality he was spot on wanting to create an academy at Burton, which he hoped to model on the French Clairefontaine and it was monumental folly for the FA to put off the academy in favour of an expensive white elephant in Wembley, more on that later.

But an academy system for the elite players simply isn’t enough. Clearly there is a structural problem in the English game from the bottom up that prevents us from creating technically gifted footballers. It is a coaching problem. Look at the Balkan nations, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia et al. There is nothing in the DNA of people born along the Adriatic coast that allows them to be more proficient at trapping a football. Rather there is a cultural, and systematic approach to football that develops technically gifted footballers. There is no reason why this could not be created here.

There are issues around how sniffy we are about expertise, in the UK football culture people who have been there, done that, in a playing sense are somehow considered well qualified to do other roles in football. This is demonstrated by the way so many top managerial appointments go to illustrious former Pros, often with no qualification. Even how we chose people to be pundits on TV. In reality though this is rarely successful, and most of these former Pros who walk straight into managerial positions at tops clubs sink, think Southgate, Ince, Shearer….

So there needs to be a cultural shift, to properly appreciate and value proper coaching. Clubs can have a big role in this, I don’t understand why all Pros and certainly all trainees are not doing refereeing and coaching qualifications as part of their jobs.

Our august organisation.

But it surely needs to be led by the Football Association. English football fans, and the media are often given to ridiculous bouts of hyperbole and unrealistic expectations about the standard of our footballers, about our national teams prospects in international competition and the relative standard of the Premier League. However there is one respect in which English football is a genuine world leader and this is in respect of money and riches.

Our game is awash with money and there is no reason why if the will existed to we could not address those awful statistics about numbers of qualified coaches. Unfortunately our FA is a shambles, it has failed to adapt to the times and has the turning circle of the Exxon Valdez. Nearly five years on the findings of the Burns Report have failed to have been implemented, despite the scandal that led to Lord Triesman’s departure his card had already been marked due his attempts to reform the FA. It is a disgrace that the best part of a billion pounds has been invested in the wasteful White Elephant that is Wembley whilst Burton remains unbuilt.

So you know what I am starting to think that an embarrassing and calamitous exit from the World Cup might not be the worst thing that has ever happened to English football. If our so called “golden generation” were to fail once again, nowhere near the winning post, then it surely must force us to have some introspection about what is fundamentally wrong with our game structurally. Maybe, just maybe, the FA would be forced to work with their willing partners in the PFA and the LMA to genuinely address the problems with coaching in English Football.

I don’t want to sound anti England. I am a massive, passionate fan of England, it wounds me watching performances like that on Friday and I desperately want England to succeed. But there is something wrong, and rotten in our game that needs to change. Maybe only hideous failure can make this happen.

Whilst this has been simmering under the surface for years it really seems to be coming to the fore, firstly with Conference side Chester City being wound up and expelled from the Conference to the soap opera that has been Portsmouth FC in the Premier League.

That well known clubs may cease to exist is a real and palpable threat, Portsmouth have at times been days away from this fate. Cardiff City, who are in serious contention to gain promotion to the Premier League may well be wound up this summer over unpaid tax. Similarly Southend United has narrowly avoided a winding up order from HMRC by settling a £400,000 tax bill at the last moment.

Even some of our biggest marquee names, Manchester United and Liverpool are struggling with massive amounts of debt, the future not looking nearly as rosy as many football fans would hope and dream.

Football clubs are inevitably part of the fabric of a community, sport isn’t now, nor ever will it be, a normal business in the same way that shops on the high street are. And on the current evidence of the problems within Football in the UK at the moment, the model of running our clubs as if they were just any other business isn’t working either.

The answer has to be some sort of Fan Ownership of clubs. The “Socio” model, as used by two of the worlds greatest clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, seems to spring to mind.  Mardid and Barca are owned by the club members or “socios”. These members elect the President of the club (The “colourful” Florentino Pérez at Real for example!) who acts kinda like a chief executive and the fans have a say in the running of the club via the Presidential election system.

For me this seems like a much better model of ownership of football clubs, and it recognises their special status as more than just an ordinary business. The fact that Real and Barca are owned and run in this way should give lie to any suggestion that such a model would stop our top clubs competing at the highest level.

As a Trade Unionist one of the things that interests me about this model is the idea of collectivism it enshrines. The “Spirit of Shankly” campaign group set up campaign around the ownership of Liverpool FC and to campaign against the American Owners describe themselves as the “Liverpool Supporters Union”, at the top of their banner they quote Shankly talking about Socialism!

Despite never having been mad keen on the old Wimbledon side I must say I have been really happy at the success of AFC Wimbledon a side set up by fans to combat the scandal of the Franchising out of their club to Milton Keynes. The club is still owned by the fans and doing pretty well having been started from scratch less than 10 years ago.

The reality though is that in practice for this kind of thing to happen some. Big picture changes will need to take place,the Labour plan to allow fans to but a share in their clubs, is a start but IMHO it does not go nearly far enough.

Rather than just making it a possibility we should look to institute changes to make it genuinely easier for fans to forcibly take ownership of their clubs. Mechanisms to make it easier for fans unions to raise capital. Measures to penalise owners who are using their football club ownership as a Casino style gamble to make money (A la the Glazers, Gillette and Hicks, Gaydamark).

Cooperatives are one of the great successes of the progressive movement and for my 2 Cents it is high time they found a place in “The Beautiful Game”. I salute Barcelona “More than a Club”, The Spirit of Shankly, AFC Wimbledon, FC United and all those trying to bring football clubs back to the community and to fans.