Fat holiday snap.

Ealier this year I visit the Doctor about (amongst other things, I am a massive hypochondriac) a vague feeling that I was starting to get a little fleshy. I had just seen some holiday snaps form when me and my brother went to see the olds in Portugal and frankly it was hard to pretend that I wasn’t well, frankly, a bloater. I am a vain, vain man who really likes few things more than gazing lovingly into my own eyes in the mirror so in truth I had rather been aware of this for a while, clearly retaining some cognitive dissonance that allowed me to recognise it was truth, but act as if it wasn’t, the pictures though somewhat snapped me out of it.

The Doc decided that I had not had any blood work done for about 10 years so sent me of for amongst other things a cholesterol test. I got the results a little over 6 months ago. When I went in for the results the Doc made what I had initially assumed to be small talk, he knows I am a Trade Union rep and often talks to me about political issues and struck up a conversation about the looming pensions dispute for public sector workers. He casually asked me if I paid into the Royal Mail pension scheme. I replied that I did, and the Doc looked at his screen and tapped away for a second….

He then looked at me and said (with to be fair a mischievous grin on his face, the Doc knows me well) “Really Ralph, unless you do something about this weight situation there really isn’t much point. You’d be better off enjoying your money now”. Or words to that effect.

“Oh!”

Yup, Oh! was about the some total of my reaction. As it turns out it wasn’t all that bad news the Doc realising that for an attention seeking melodramatic fellah like myself the best avenue was to go for a big showy entry. Turns out my Cholesterol was 5.9, when they advise you to be under 5. So nothing dangerous in my numbers; but combined with a bit of a history of bum tickers in my male genealogy, and the fact that despite being pretty short my weight had crept up to 14st 4 I was looking at a cocktail that probably wouldn’t be all that conducive to a long and healthy life. Also I was finding it increasingly hard to find trousers that would fit someone with my combination of fat belly and short legs.

So for once I couldn’t ignore all of this and set to trying to deal with the situation. And instead of just going on a stupid rash diet like I had done in the past I decided to actually, you know, change my living habits to a bit more of a healthy way of doing things. Being a pretty nifty cook I quickly found that rather than being a massive chore, trying to eat more healthily was fun. Experimenting with food, and trying out different things meant I was actually eating loads nicer food that I had been, well, at any time since I left home TBH.

And I decided I would be good, but not puritanical. My Saturday morning Bacon buttie was sacrosanct (Though I did accept the need to trim the fat and grill rather than fry). And I decided that if I ever got a massive, massive craving for something I was just going to have it and be good afterwards. So I have had a couple of takeaway pizzas and that. But mostly I have been sensible and disciplined in a way I wasn’t really sure I could.

Slim me with clearly defined Jaw bone and everyfink!

Today I went back to the Docs to get my after 6 month follow up results. And the good news is my Cholesterol is now down to 4.2, and as of today I weigh only 11st 7! (That is 161lbs to any American readers, 73 Kilos to those from the civilised world and Middleweight to fight fans!). I am wearing a medium T-Shirt and got some 32″  waist jeans. To say I am highly delighted is an understatement. And, I am now officially “not fat”. This works out to a BMI of 24.5, so I am just, just, within “normal” tolerances. Woo-hoo! And, if that wasn’t good news enough the Doc also mentioned my Liver and Kidney function was exceptionally good! This, as I understand it means I have a green light to drink as much as I bloody well like over Christmas! Hell yeah!

The Doc says he would still like me to get the Cholesterol down a little further, saying I should aim to be about 4 or just under, and that I should aim to lose another half stone or so (I wouldn’t mind being a Welterweight, watch out Floyd Mayweather Jnr here I come !) but I am nearly there. I don’t know of how much interest this blog will really be to anyone else but for me it felt good to get this down in writing. Additionally I am hoping that having so publicly crowed about this it will help motivate me to get back on the wagon if I slip up and go on a Partridge-esque Toblerone binge.

Right I’m off to raid the cupboard for some Riveta and Celery!

I had some fresh Tarragon left over from cooking (extremely nice) Haddock Provençal the other day and thus was seeking an appropriate nice use for it that fitted in with my low cholesterol diet.

The following is basically an amalgamation of about three or four different recipes and some suggestions off twitter. Should serve two.

This was awesome!

Ingredients

3 Chicken Breasts

3 Large cloves Garlic

Lemon Juice

Tarragon

1 Onion

Dijon Mustard

Reduced fat Crème Fraiche

Black Pepper

Cherry Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Tagliatelle

In a roasting dish liberally pour some olive oil and some lemon juice. Place in the dish the chicken breasts and crush the garlic over them and add some chopped tarragon and black pepper so the chicken breasts are liberally covered on both sides. Half 10-15 Cherry Tomatoes and place around the chicken breast. Grill the chicken for about 7-8 minutes on each side until slightly golden and cooked all the way through.

For the sauce finely slice an onion (If like me you don’t know how to do this check out this awesome guide on the BBC) and lightly fry in a non stick pan. When cooked add a couple of heaped teaspoons of Dijon mustard, a dessert spoon of Crème Fraiche and a tablespoon of chopped Tarragon. Once heated mix with the cooked Tagliatelle.

Serve with the chicken and tomatoes on top of the Tagliatelle mixture, and pour the juice from the roasting dish over each portion.

What all the fuss is about!

So this Google Plus is the new black right? I may not be a devoted follower of fashion, but as a full on Neophile I cannae resist a new technology-ey thing! And seeing as all the cool kids are on Google Plus (all right none of the cool kids, but all the geeks, nerds and internet weirdos are!) I was desperate to give it a go.

Thanks to an internet pal Mr603 of Unmemorable Title, an SEO guru (Yay!) and a big Leeds United fan (boo!) who is ahead of the curve on such things I was able to finagle an early invite.

I really like the idea of Social Networking. I use Facebook a lot (despite the fact I despise it to the very photons it displays) and I really love Twitter. Both are massively successful and pervasive. So whilst I was massively keen to try Plus I had some healthy scepticism about whether or not there was some space for a brand new social network to thrive in.

I have to say I was on sign up instantly impressed. Before I even got to know about how to use Plus I just liked the look and feel of the place. It was quick and clean. In fact it looked a lot like Facebook minus all the tons and tons of irritating rubbish that FB has been piling on over the years.

As I started to use it, it became increasingly clear to me that Plus has some real advantages over both Twitter and Facebook and that whether or not there is space for it, this effort from Google has a real chance of muscling into the market.

Google Plus has a feature called “circles” this is where you organise your contacts into various different groups. You can have circles for Friends, Family, Work, Hobbies etc. This becomes really useful in terms of sharing because it allows you to be much more selective about who you share stuff with compared to the all or nothing approach on Facebook/Twitter.

There are lots of stories about people getting into trouble with work because of stuff posted on Facebook/Twitter etc, but because in the main everyone who are friends with/following you see’s everything you post it can be quite limiting. Most people’s have grandparents on Facebook now and let’s be honest most of us have stuff we wouldn’t want to share there. I know a lot of people who have two or more FB/Twitter accounts to separate work, pleasure and family. The Google Plus circles mean that actually you can do all of that within one social network and one account. This is a darned good thing if you ask me.

Also the circles mean you are able to follow people who are not contacts of yours but from whom you want information. Twitter style following in a Facebook style social network is another nifty feature. Clearly the Plus engineers and writers spent a lot of time looking at what was good about FB and Twitter and tried to amalgamate the two.

The “Sparks” feature is a way of finding content that might interest you. This is a pretty vanilla feature at the moment. It gives you a pretty anodyne, unisex, list of topics you might be interested in. You can customise this to your tastes (though annoyingly it thinks “Football” is called “Soccer”, and “American Football” is called “Football”. What sort of godless heathens programmed this thing? ). I suspect that as Plus grows, and Google get information about the things you “plus one” that the recommendations will become more forensic. If it turns out to be a Last.FM of internet content that this might one day end up being the killer app of Plus.

Some pretty cool technology stuff. Had a quick go on the “hang out” facility for the group video chat and I have to say it is very, *very* impressive. I shall look forward to seeing if it becomes a useful tool. Also the Android phone app is very impressive. Given that this is still in beta testing and the app is in its first iteration I am blown away. It is already much better than the official apps of both Facebook and Twitter if you ask me.

So then will Plus be a success. An interesting take on that here, obviously Facebook and Twitter are established in the sphere. I think Plus will be a success but I am not sure to what degree. I suspect that it will have really deep, really easy to use, integration into Chrome Browser, Android 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich) and all other Google products. If this is the case then I expect by a process of sort of internet use osmosis it will do pretty well because it will be easy to use in lots of different ways/places.

We shall see. For me, right now, it is a network I like and I am enjoying using.

Like pretty much everyone else I have been utterly astonished, horrified and disgusted by the recent “News of the world” hacking allegations. It beggars belief that something so crass and awful could have happened. In pursuit of a gutter press story giving false hope to the parents of a missing girl.

Being a politico, a blogger, a follower of the media and a subscriber to Private Eye I have been following this story with interest for quite some time, and been pretty disappointed that the story didn’t capture the popular imagination a little more.

Charles Foster Kane

I think though, that in targeting a murdered girl and doing what the NOTW did in this instance (plus the speculation that the worst is sill to come) I think that has passed. The story has now for me passed the “water cooler” test in work with people not interested in politics discussing the story at length.

However disgusting (and probably criminal) though the treatment of the Dowler family, and all the celebs/politicians hacked, has been this isn’t really the real story for me. The story, is of collusion, political and most worryingly from the police.

The MP Tom Watson has done a fantastic job of bravely campaigning to keep this issue alive (he was himself the victim of some scandalous treatment from the Murdoch press), and making sure that we know what is going on here is much deeper than our Tabloids getting some salacious stories about celebrities from their answer phones.

The point is that top level collusion in politics between the leadership of our main parties and the Murdoch press has become so engrained, so normal, that it barely warrants a mention. People kind of just assume that all politicians will do nothing but prostrate themselves before Murdoch and fight for his affection and support.

It is shameful, embarrassing and as we are seeing with the “Hulture” secretary Jeremy Hunt giving Murdoch what he wants over the BSkyB takeover, dangerously close to political corruption. I don’t think anyone expected Hunt to do anything other than wave the takeover through. After all the Tories “owed” Murdoch and News International after the election…. Basically Murdoch is able to bypass democracy, politics and buy what he wants with money and with influence because of his media empire. This is scandalous, but frankly “old news”.

Much more worrying is the suggestion, that seeming is increasingly likely to be true, that the Police have been involved in active collusion with News International in terms of trying to cover up the investigation into the phone hacking scandal. That journalists have been paying police sources for an age (as Rebekah Brooks admitted to parliament recently) is a well known phenomenon. Though I for one find it unsettling, worrying and just plain wrong, that the police would be prepared to give access to the criminal justice process in exchange for bungs.

But that the Metropolitan Police might have been trying to actively cover up the investigation into News International and the phone hacking is really, really worrying and new. This has shades of OmniCorp running the Police in Robocop and introducing a 4^th directive that the execs are above the law! The Met must have known about the Milly Dowler stuff because they had Glen Mulcaire’s records yet they didn’t act and tried time and time again to put the story to bed. The worry has to be that this is at the behest of corporate paymasters.

I think this is the “iceberg” below the surface of the story. And it is maybe looking like the truth is out. I hope so because this kind of development is worrying. And Police corruption, if true, is cancerous and very dangerous.

The whole situation is really worrying. I genuinely believe in the sort of Corinthian ideal of a free press being the “Fourth Estate” of a democratic society. Journalism is so important to us that it cannot be allowed to continue in the way the gutter press in the UK has. Distasteful stories are one thing, but active collusions with the police and politicians, and the distortion of our political and criminal justice systems cannot be tolerated.

I doubt the political will exists to take on the Murdoch press, but I do think the Press Complaints Commission is likely to go, as a sacrificial lamb to show “something” is being done. I have blogged in the past that I have concerns about the idea of state regulation of the media (though to be fair it works pretty well in Broadcasting) but clearly the voluntary code we operate on has been woefully inadequate in terms of dealing the excesses of the British tabloid media.

And as well as the PCC heads will roll, Rebekah Brooks is surely a dead man walking. And in any sane world there would likely to be people within the Metropolitan police in real hot water (though I wouldn’t bet on it). I wonder how far this will go? Perhaps I am a cynic but I don’t think for a second that David Cameron is going to allow a Public Enquiry (which obviously should happen) because big Rupert has him by the short and curlies! One thing is for sure there is a lot of mileage in this story yet.

Update 1

Well it seems I was wrong on the Public Enquiry. Cameron accepted one at PMQs. Since we are on a roll how about a proper, robust, media plurality law that has “Public interest” at it’s core? One can always dream.

Update 2

Robert Peston is reporting that the BSkyB takeover is in trouble and might have to get put off. I can’t see it mind I’ll be astonished if by the end of the year the Tories have not given their mate Rupert the gift they promised before the election. The whole thing stinks.

Been experimenting quite a lot in the kitchen of late due to my low cholesterol diet. If I am entirely honest the results have been decided mixed, but last night we had one in the “win” column and I thought I’d publish it here (as much so I don’t forget how I did it as thinking my readers might be interested!).

So I wanted something spicy, and Sugar Snap Peas were on offer in Morrisons and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients

300g Diced Chicken (I used Quorn chicken style pieces as it happens)

2 Peppers (One red one yellow)

100g Sugar snap peas

8 Shallots

Garlic

Cumin

Corriander

Harissa Paste

Tomato Puree

Moroccan Spice Mix (Ras el hanout , or just some Schwartz Moroccan stuff)

150g Cous Cous

Cherry Tomatos

Spicy green leaf salad

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 Degrees Centigrade. Put about 15 cherry tomatoes on a baking tray  and roast for about half hour.

Half the shallots and break them apart, this doesn’t have to be done perfectly, then lightly fry in a small amount of groundnut oil with some garlic until starting to soften but not caramelise. Cut the peppers into squares and add to the mix and cook until they also start to soften. Then put this aside.  In the same pan cook your chicken/quorn pieces and when nearly done add two big teaspoons of Harissa, a squirt of tomato puree and a teaspoon of ground cumin. Then re add the shallots and peppers, get it all nicely mixed up.

Next put a heaped teaspoon of your Moroccan spice mix into the cous cous in a pyrex bowl. Cover in boiling water, stir very well (to mix the spices in with the cous cous) cover the bowl and leave for 5 minutes. In this time add the sugar snap peas (halved or in thirds depending on the size)  to the chicken mix, you want them to have warmed up but still be really crunchy.

Serve with a green leaf salad (I like spinach, rocket and water cress for this kind of thing) and a couple of the roasted tomatoes.

Serves 3-4

It went pretty well I thought. It was a little dry so if I do it again I might make some sort of a salsa, or have some kind of a yoghurt based dip but it was pretty good. And I also the chicken stuff will make nice wraps to take to work for packed lunch.

http://www.labourlist.org/there-is-nothing-wrong-with-discrimination

Yesterday I read with interest Ian Silvera’s LabourList post “How to get more women and ethnic minorities into politics: the sober way”.

Ian started by saying “Positive discrimination is oxymoronic”. And for me this is the essence of where both Ian’s article, and argument, goes wrong. Let’s be clear about this – there is nothing necessarily wrong with discrimination. That might seem an odd thing for a Labour activist to say but it is true.

Our society discriminates all the time, with good reason, and with the acceptance of pretty much everybody. When my local hospital wants to hire a new surgeon in their Neurology department they discriminate in favour of applicants trained and experienced in Neurosurgery. No matter how many times I apply, my training and experience as a local union rep in a call centre doesn’t ever get me an interview. And quite rightly too.

Similarly, when primary schools and nurseries are recruiting people to work on site with or near children they routinely discriminate against convicted and registered sex offenders. Does anyone really have a problem with that? Of course not, it is discrimination but it is entirely relevant and proportionate.

It is sloppy thinking to just say “discrimination” is wrong. What is wrong is to discriminate on irrelevant or unreasonable grounds. So whilst it is fine for Derriford Hospital to tell me I am utterly unqualified for the role of Neurosurgeon due to my total lack of qualifications and experience, it would not be fair, reasonable or legal for them to say that a qualified Asian surgeon couldn’t apply because they had an “all white” recruitment policy. That discrimination would be on irrelevant grounds (as surgeon’s ethnicity has nothing to do with their ability to do the job) and therefore unreasonable.

This is important and relevant to the argument around how we get a more representative PLP. The level of BME and female representation in the PLP is much better than it was, and we are streets ahead of the other mainstream parties. But I don’t 20% of MPs being women is something we should celebrate – it is an absolute scandal and utterly shameful. Our party is still not doing anything like nearly enough to get proper representation from women and minorities.

Ian went on to make the point “If you give special privileges to one group in society, then you discriminate against another.” That appears to be superficially true and hard to argue against. But as I have already said there is nothing inherently wrong with discrimination per se. So the question is, in some seats is it relevant and reasonable to discriminate in favour of women and minorities in parliamentary seat selection?

At a time of declining voter engagement, and general disillusionment with politics it is more than ever important for us to take steps to ensure our legislature feels representative of the people they represent. Parliament is still drawn from an incredibly narrow pool. What we are doing at the moment isn’t enough, we need to do more. And if the Labour Party does not take a lead on this, no mainstream party will.

I am a straight, white, able bodied male. And the reality is that people like me as a group are not discriminated against in terms of political involvement. All women shortlists may mean that individual men, in individual seats are unable to stand. But this is not the same as some sort of institutional discrimination against men. The truth is most of the PLP are straight white men. As a group we remain over represented, massively in parliament.

All women shortlists are a proportionate and reasonable response to a big structural problem in political representation. Discrimination? For sure. Is it a flawed mechanism with big problems of its own? Absolutely. In politics we rarely have the luxury of choosing between the right path and the wrong path, good and evil. Sometimes we have to choose between difficult options both of which might seem in some ways unpalatable. All women shortlists and under-representation in parliament is one of those areas, but the benefit of having them more than outweighs the cost.

I’m not against the idea of the Future Candidates Program (in fact I think it is a great idea). But for me a lack of skill, preparation and training isn’t the reason why we don’t have a fully balanced and representative parliament. However uncomfortable it might be for some of us to admit, there are a large number of institutional, political and cultural biases in our party toward white men. It is these institutional barriers that must be overcome.

And the only thing we have so far come up with that works well is All Women Shortlists. They have been undeniably effective (though much work is still to be done). Until such a time as we can come up with a better alternative, and one which the evidence suggests is likely to be more effective then we have to stick with it. And if that means that as an individual I and people like who look like me wont be able to stand in my particular seat (Plymouth Sutton and Devonport – a key marginal) then so be it. Socialism is about the collective good. A representative balanced parliament is a collective good and one that I for one will fight for.

In my RSS feed James Ramsden’s new post about a Mackerel, Oyster and Wasabi roll (and Jeez does it sound good!) sprung up and it got me thinking. Oily fish is one of the things I should try and eat more of according to the low cholesterol crib sheet my Doc gave me. So I decided to come up with a new Mackerel recipe that would be nice for dinner and that would also be good to take to work for packed lunch the next day.

So this is what I came up with, it is loosely based on an Anchovy and Bean salad my kid brother makes (which is also ace, I’ll post the recipe some day). I must say I am pretty pleased, whilst I am a decent enough cook I don’t really have the inventive chef gene/meme (my little Brother and Father share it) so don’t normally come up with that much original stuff I find really nice. I tend to more tinker with other’s recipes.

The mackerel salad.

Ingredients.

250g wild rice

200g packet smoked mackerel ¹

400g Can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

6 shallots

4 nice ripe tomatoes

1 yellow pepper

Packet of Rocket lettuce²

Juice 1 ½ lemons

3 big cloves of garlic

Large handful fresh basil

Salt

Pepper

Red wine vinegar

Method

Preheat the oven to 150. Get a large baking tray and lightly cover in olive oil.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters, halve the shallots, and cut the pepper into squares. Lay these out on the baking tray and cover liberally with black pepper and a little salt. Then roast in the oven for about 35-40 minutes until nicely cooked and beginning to caramelise. You might want to turn them over once or twice whilst cooking.

Once this is done put let the roasted veg start to cool and put the wild rice on. It take a little longer than long grain or basmati to cook about 20 minutes I find. Once it is done rinse and drain and leave in the pan you want it to cool down a little but not be cold.

Roughly chop the garlic and the basil. Start to lightly fry the garlic and once it has started to brown just a little add the basil and the rocket, some salt, the juice of your lemons and about a liberal splash of red wine vinegar.

Once this is cooked and starting to get a bit malleable mix with the wild rice. Add the beans and the mackerel and stir it up well. Serve this mixture onto plates and put the roasted vegetables on top to look pretty!

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?