A new, and I suspect recurring, feature: Football Fool of the Week.
The nominees:
The entire FAI (Football Association of Ireland), still feeling sorry for themselves following their one-one draw against France in the FIFA World Cup play-off match, asked FIFA to allow them to enter next years World Cup as an additional (33rd) team (more thoughts on this to follow). The idea is so laughable that even FIFA President Sepp Blatter couldn't resist a chuckle - this from a man who suggested womens football could be improved by the players wearing tighter shorts.
Real Madrid-biased journalist Tomás Roncero for complaining in AS newspaper that the referee in Sundays Barcelona v Real Madrid match allowed Zlatan Ibrahimovic's winning goal despite the player being, and I quote, "nearly offside":
'The game of football is rotten: so many players cheat, so many officials miss or bottle the big decisions. I often say that I love and hate football at the same time, it's just that I have so much history with the sport that I can't walk away.'
'No, I think he's only done what any pro footballer would have done: cheat'
'Part of the problem is that cheating has become institutionalised - managers cheat by putting officials under pressure ahead of big games, players cheat by diving and pretending to be injured, the authorities leave themselves open to suggestions of cheating by leaving it until the last minute to decide whether the seed the qualifying draw to favour the big countries.'
'And there's the hypocrisy: cheated players shaking hands and hugging with a cheating player: 'honour amongst thieves'. No doubt the media will go on about the injustice for days and then when cheating works in 'our' favour they will turn a blind eye. The game is rotten.'
These are some of my comments from a text conversation I had with a friend last night while we watched the FIFA World Cup Qualifier between France and Ireland. France secured their place in next years World Cup thanks to a controversial goal.
Sure enough, immediately after the game on the 24 hour sports news channel the staff were reaching the point of hysteria - it was a outrage that the referee didn't spot the incident (interesting to note that it was initially the officials who were condemned rather than the player involved), the authorities should order the game replayed ... etc etc.
No doubt this story will rumble on for a few days labouring the 'cheated once again by Johnny Foreigner' line (players/officials: delete as appropriate) until the broadcast media get bored and move onto their next 'sensational' story.
Ultimately the referee or linesman will be held responsible by the authorities, media and fans alike and pay the price accordingly: his character will be assaulted and he'll miss out on future appointments, perhaps retire from the game - it's happened before.
Interestingly, I understand that the last time this particular match referee appeared on the English-media radar it was when he awarded Liverpool a 'dubious' 95th minute penalty in a Champions League fixture at Anfield. Liverpool scored to claim a 1-1 draw with Atletico de Madrid.
I don't remember too many calls for the match to be replayed that night.
This past weekend, like so many others in the world of the FA Premier League, has been dominated by referees.
To my great disappointment, but I have to say not surprise, it was Sir Alex Ferguson who set the ball rolling on Saturday evening following his teams disappointing performance - and crucially result - at home against Sunderland.
According to Sir Alex's comments the match referee, Mr Alan Wiley, was not physically fit enough to referee a game of such high intensity and, as a result, missed crucial decisions throughout the game. Sir Alex also claimed that Mr Wiley booked players to give himself an opportunity to rest and catch his breath having apparently admitted as much to one of the Manchester players.
It's one thing in my opinion to criticise a match official for making mistakes - issuing a card when it wasn't deserved or awarding a dubious penalty for instance - but to claim the referee's fitness was inadequate is out of order and, I'd suggest, factually incorrect.
All officials must undertake, and pass, a series of tough fitness checks before the start of the season - and the season only started 6 weeks ago - before they are 'licenced' for the new season. Ironically Mr Wiley was the fourth official at the recent Manchester derby fixture and was seen enjoying a laugh and a joke with Sir Alex on the touchline when United scored their 95th minute winner.
It's fair to say that Mr Wiley's physique rather counts against him - he's not the tallest of men and is, to use a quaint term, somewhat 'barrel-chested'. That said, he will have passed the relevant fitness tests pre-season and doesn't deserve this smear on his reputation.
Perhaps Sir Alex might look a little closer to home to explain his disappointment with the result - his goalkeeper is currently displaying a severe lack of confidence, his forward line looked impotent and even the most reliable of his players failed to respond to the challenge, perhaps feeling the after-effects of a difficult European Champions League encounter in midweek.
Even if Sir Alex had valid concerns regarding Mr Wiley's fitness he should, in my opinion, have gone through the proper channels to inform the authorities of his views - and those proper channels don't include the after match interview on live television.
The broadcast media won't criticise Sir Alex for his comments: after all it's a good - easy (lazy) - story for them and, let's be honest, they are far too close to most club managers and players to say anything critical. Entertainment ahead of journalism and integrity is the order of the game it seems.
Over the years I have developed an enormous amount of respect for Sir Alex Ferguson - for his knowledge of the game and for his achievements within it - and I continue to respect him despite this outburst. That said, on this occasion I feel he's out of order and should face FA charges.
Whether he does - and the extent of any reaction from the authorities - remains to be seen.
Another busy week of work, table tennis and Asia's greatest export - the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet - has left precious little time for blogging but again, predictably, the world of football has been at the forefront of my thoughts.
I had initially planned to blog about the unexpected news that John Terry had been rewarded for his loyalty to Chelsea when turning down a summer move to Manchester City - managed by former Chelsea player Mark Hughes - with a new and improved contract. The new deal has seen his contract extended to 2014 and his wages increased to just over £150,000 per week. You'll remember that during the summer, as speculation continued that he would be changing clubs Terry declined to make any public commitment to Chelsea and he later announced that he never once considered handing in a transfer request.
At the time, commentators speculated that Terry's silence was all part of a plan to earn himself a new and improved contract - how foolish they must feel now.
Next summer, expect a repeat of this scenario, but replace Terry with Frank Lampard, Manchester City with Inter, Mark Hughes with Jose Mourinho. Once again, expect to be shown that money isn't everything as Lampard signs a new and improved contract with Chelsea.
Or did this already happen?
My attention then turned FIFA's decision to ban Chelsea from making any new signings for the next two transfer windows (so until January 2011) because of their behaviour when signing teenage forward Gaël Kakuta from French club Lens. I happened to have the television on when the news broke and I couldn't believe what I was hearing from the so-called studio experts: FIFA were apparently taking these measures because English clubs had become so dominant in European football; they were being punished because of previous disciplinary incidents in European matches; it was another sign - apparently - that the rest of the football world is anti-English.
I'd not heard such emotional, xenophobic, ignorant comments since ... let me think ... Chelsea's exit from the UEFA Champions League last season.
This morning, as news breaks of a second legal threat to Chelsea over allegations that they poached another young player from ASPTT Marseille, I can only hope that justice prevails and the West London clubs reputation as a well-run, friendly, family-focused club with a long and glorious footballing tradition is restored.
So, a week without posting hey? ... please accept my apologies.
I've returned to work this week after my enforced 'career break' - I can't tell you how happy I am to be back - and as I expected, it's been a busy week, and it'll continue to be busy for a while so my apologies in advance if posting is a little infrequent for a couple of weeks or so. Thanks.
Anyway, on to business. I've been disappointed by some of the comments I've heard and read recently from a football manager I admire and respect (and also from Rafa Benitez).
Firstly, Sir Alex Ferguson. As far as I'm concerned he's one of the great football men. Not just a great manager but also a man who knows and understands the 'culture' of football, understands how important it is to us ordinary folk, knows about the history and social significance of the game.
The recent Community Shield fixture between Manchester and Chelsea was overshadowed by a couple of incidents where players went to ground forcing the referee to consider whether the players in question were seriously injured. The referee stopped the game to allow treatment for Chelsea's Michael Ballack but didn't stop it later in the game for his own player Patrice Evra. In reality it appeared neither player was badly injured. To compound the problem, Chelsea scored within moments of the Evra incident.
After the game Sir Alex quite rightly bemoaned the lack of consistency from the match official and remarked - referring to Michael Ballack's exaggerated behaviour - that 'something needs to be done about these players' (not a direct quote but very, very similar).
Well, I agree totally. The obvious people to 'do something' are the managers themselves. In fact they are probably the only people who can affect this change. Every club - Sir Alex's included - has players who will exaggerate a fall or injury for the benefit of their team - to win a free kick, a penalty or get a player sent off.
Quite simply managers need to put their own house in order and make their players aware that this type of behaviour - and let's be honest it's cheating - is simply not acceptable.
Rafa Benitez is a curious man. His managerial record speaks for itself - at Valencia he won the league twice and the UEFA Cup once, at Liverpool he's won the FA Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup, whilst earlier in his managerial career he achieved promotion with Extremadura and Tenerife - and yet he doesn't really appear to get a huge amount of respect from the wider football community.
Why? I suspect it's because he complains too much. Not just after matches - we've come to expect managers to criticise referees, opponents and the football authorities following disappointing results - but in between as well. Last season we had the infamous 'fact' press conference where, referring to his prepared notes, he complained about Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson, suggesting amongst other things that they were favoured by the football authorities.
This week Benitez has taken his striker Fernando Torres to task, suggesting he should stop complaining and focus on his game. No, Really.
He may well have a point - Torres did spent a lot of last weekends game appealing to the referee - but what sort of example is the manager setting his player. It seems to be a case of 'do as I say, not as I do'. I suspect that if Mr Benitez led by example, his player would soon follow.
Today is, for many, the start of the football season in England. Although Football League and 'non-league' clubs have been playing for a week or so today the Barclays Premier League clubs kick off their season. For the next 11 months (it's a World Cup year remember) it'll be live football on television and on the radio and internet 7 days a week.
Heaven.
Except, back in the day, football seemed better. Games would be confined to maybe 3 days a week: the traditional Saturday afternoon fixtures with occasional midweek games on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. There were no 'live' matches of course - back then we relied on crackly audio courtesy of Radio 2 medium wave. At 12 o'clock on a Saturday and 7 o'clock on a midweek match night Radio 2 would 'donate' their medium wave frequency for buildup and second half commentary from the big match of the day. I have fond memories of listening to a European Cup match featuring Liverpool away in Hungary against a team called Videoton: 'Video Town' as I was later to discover it exotically translated to. Fond memories indeed.
Live football was available to those of us with commitment and dedication: courtesy of Ceefax and Teletext. For 2 hours I'd sit glued to the television screen as the fixtures from my team's division - split across 4 'pages' usually - looped around. Each page would be displayed for about a minute before being replaced with the next. Just the scores you understand - no comments, no indication as to how the teams were playing, no stats showing shots on target, assists, corners ... just the scores.
Imagine the excitement, the sense that we were entering a new age of information, when Ceefax enhanced the service by displaying the names of players who had been sent off. Exciting times, I've got goosebumps just thinking about it.
I developed certain routines, traditions if you will, over the many years of watching Ceefax - for Ceefax was my preference over Teletext, which I always suspected was updated marginally slower - with the aim of improving my teams prospects.
I'd never allow myself to change the page to check out another division - who knew what might happen while I was looking away; I'd count out loud between the changing of the pages, believing that if I stopped, my team would suffer. For really important matches - usually relegation six-pointers - I'd attempt to hold my breath as the pages looped around only allowing myself to breath when my teams score was displayed.
It may have helped - who knows?
There was an 'in vision' option as part of the service which placed a small 'letterbox' at the bottom of the screen where goal flashes were displayed while you carried on watching your television programme. I dabbled with it but ultimately felt it showed a lack of commitment.
Nowadays, Saturday afternoons are still spent watching TV - only now we have reporters at every ground to update us as games develop, former players in the studio commenting on the days top matches, and a score ticker running across the screen informing us the very instant a goal is scored.
Football fans have never had it so good. Apparently.
Some day I'll blog about long summers spent 'watching' Test Match cricket via Ceefax - 8 hours a day for 5 days. Now that took a level of dedication that you rarely see in young people these days.
A couple of times in the last few months (here and here) I've blogged about the poor behaviour of the employees of an English football club owned by a wealthy benefactor.
Up until now Chelsea - a club formed when two businessmen wanted a professional football club to use their Stamford Bridge stadium, having already been turned down by Fulham - have been the subject of my dissatisfaction.
My attention now turns to Manchester City.
Back in January, following Manchester City's failure to sign the former World Player of the Year Kaka, the clubs chief executive Garry Cook accused Kaka's club Milan of 'bottling it'.
"The player was clearly for sale," Cook told BBC Radio Five Live. "We had entered into a confidentiality agreement weeks ago but, in my personal opinion, they [Milan] bottled it." [source]
What a distasteful comment to make - ".. they bottled it".
This week it has come to light that the Manchester City "forgot" to inform the Football Association of Wales that their captain Craig Bellamy was not fit to represent the nation in this weeks fixture against Montenegro [source]. Not that Bellamy is blameless in this episode in my opinion, as national team captain is it unreasonable to think that the player himself might have telephoned the manager John Toshack.
I've always had a soft spot for Manchester City - perhaps it's because they've always been the underdog in the city of Manchester, perhaps it's because the size of their attendances has always left me thinking they deserve more (some?) success.
For all their expensive signings it's important to do things properly off the pitch or risk becoming the new Chelsea: the team everyone 'loves to hate'.
Some may feel that being the team everyone 'loves to hate' is a price worth paying for success.
The top, top clubs manage to achieve their success whilst being respected and admired - truly something to aspire to.
This year UEFA have changed the qualifying system for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League and I really like what they've done.
Imagine you are a player, an official or a supporter of a team that plays in one of Europe's, with respect, smaller (certainly less wealthy) leagues - Hungary, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria for example.
Over the course of a long - 9 or 10 month - season you overcome your domestic rivals to win your own league and, with that honour, a place in the UEFA Champions League.
In the past such teams then would be seeded to be drawn against the likes of Atletico de Madrid or Arsenal in a play-off for the lucrative group stage: in other words a team that had finished third or fourth in one of the top, wealthy, leagues. Invariably the larger, richer club from the larger, richer league would view this fixture as something as an unwelcome nuisance as their prepared for the start of their domestic league and, equally invariably, they would prove victorious in the play-off.
This year, UEFA divided the Champions into one qualifying route, and the Non-Champions another, completely separate, qualifying route towards entry into the group stage.
As a result of this morning draw we have an excellent chance of seeing some new sides in the competition - Sheriff of Moldova, Ventspils of Latvia, Debrecen of Hungary for instance.
Not only does this have to be fairer for the clubs concerned, it's got to be good for the competition itself. The UEFA Champions League is starting to be just a little predictable: the same teams playing one another - season after season - familiarity breeding contempt.
Ironically these new clubs will, I suspect, struggle at first in the group stage - this isn't a short term change. It'll possibly take 3, 4 or 5 seasons for clubs from these smaller leagues to benefit as their experience grows, and revenues expand.
This system, which as I say I'm in favour of, does mean that a number of the third or fourth place teams from the top leagues - England, Spain, Italy - will miss out. I don't have a problem with this, why should these teams be rewarded for not winning their league?
To illustrate this the runners-up from Scotland - Glasgow Celtic - have been drawn against the team that finished fourth in the English league - Arsenal - with the winner taking a place in the group stage.
I'm quite sure it's just a matter of time before someone from the English or Scottish media claims the system is unfair. I can hear it now as, for instance, Debrecen prepare to play Manchester United, the so-called experts in the TV studio complain 'it's a nonsense that they [Debrecen] are in the competition when the mighty Arsenal/Celtic are not'. Expect a repeat of the xenophobia we witnessed following last seasons Champions League Semi Final second leg at Stamford Bridge. Expect Michael Platini, president of UEFA, to again be branded the enemy of English football.
That's okay, it may take these media types a few seasons of this new system to stop looking inwards all the time and to stop insulting the intelligence of their readers, listenners and viewers at every opportunity.
This video from last nights Real Madrid v Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito 'Peace Cup' ('preseason friendly') match for me perfectly sums up Cristiano Ronaldo.
A sublime piece of skill followed by an exaggerated tumble in the box to trick the referee into awarding Real Madrid a penalty and booking the Quito defender.
Nobody doubts Ronaldo's talent - it's there for all to see: he will never be fully respected, however, until he stops diving. He'd curbed his enthusiasm for such behaviour under the supervision of Sir Alex Ferguson but, sadly, it looks like he's returning to his old ways.
Over at his Ænimic Digest blog the mysterious author Mozeley recently spoke at length about what he sees as a possible 'turning of the tide' as the balance of strength - on and off the pitch - switches from the English to the Spanish league.
As we know only too well, Real Madrid have made a number of high profile, and expensive, signings this summer, whilst Barcelona beat Manchester in the European Champions League Final at the end of May and throughout the season played a style of football that was universally accepted as the finest in Europe.
Whilst I think performance on the field is a cyclical thing - it was just 4 years ago I believe that we had an all-Italian Champions League final - I do think we are seeing a shift in the financial strength of the top two leagues in the world: Spain and England.
Years ago I worked with a chap who's stock phrase when talking about the English Premier League was 'the bubble is going to burst'. Fifteen years later the bubble hasn't burst but I am starting to see some strain.
Only last week Jermain Pennant - an at best average Premier League player in my opinion - signed a 3 year deal with Spanish side Real Zaragoza which is reportedly worth the equivalent of £80,000 a week.
The deal was made possible thanks to Spanish tax laws that mean that the top bracket of tax in that country is a 'mere' 23% - comparing very favourably to the 50% rate in England.
The Spanish have been helped to reduce this upper tax bracket by what has informally become known as the "Beckham law". In an attempt to encourage overseas businesses to place their leading executives in Spain, the government introduced legislation to cut taxes in the top bracket for the first five years.
So, with 'average' English players able to command such high wages can we expect to see more English players moving to Spain? Yes and no is my prediction!
English players - as do English people in general - have traditionally been reluctant to work abroad. Even before the days of huge wages in English football it was always easier, safer, to settle for a lower wage than move to a foreign country, learn a new language (heaven forbid everyone in the host country doesn't speak English!) and a new lifestyle and culture. Bottom line: we English like our comfort zone and that zone doesn't include a foreign language, foreign food or, for that matter, foreign people.
So, the top, top players - the Steven Gerrards, 'Mr Chelsea', Rooney - will take what they've got, bank their high wages and fees for endorsements etc, live like royalty and still get to watch The X-Factor on a Saturday night.
It'll be the next tier of English professional footballer - the Pennants - that will be most likely to be attracted by a move to the lower and mid-ranking Spanish teams. They won't go alone - I suspect we'll see Zaragoza pick up another English player to keep Pennant company - and I don't think they'll stay long - I predict Pennant will have left Spain in a year, having not learnt the language, not done terribly well on the field and claiming that he 'didn't settle'.
The best foreign players will, of course, head for Spain rather than England. For less - even the same - take-home pay why would you choose Aston Villa over Deportivo?
Is the [financial] tide turning? Will the bubble burst? I hope so.
With the football season fast approaching Oasis guitarist and Manchester City fan Noel Gallagher was asked for his thoughts about two of his clubs transfer targets - John Terry and Emmanuel Adebayor:
'I don't like John Terry and I never have', he said 'he's got funny eyes and he's a cry baby. He's also a cockney and he'd absolutely be coming just for the money.'
Gallagher continued "I have always had a great dislike for Adebayor. I don't like all that silly dancing by the corner flag."
Honest opinion - brilliant. If only we could have as much plain speaking and honesty from some of the tv pundits who talk so much, and say so little.
Physically fit, extremely wealthy, idolized by millions: footballers appear, at first sight, to have everything, and then they speak:
"I wanted to come to Spain and I had offers from important teams in Europe, but joined Real Zaragoza"
In his first interview since signing for Real Zaragoza, his eighth club, 26 year old Jermaine Pennant has, I suspect, not made a great impression on the supporters of his new team.
This evening sees an England football team in the final of a major tournament for the first time since ... well, let's just say it's been too long.
The match in question is the final of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship from Sweden and will see England play against old friends Germany.
As I've said before I'm trying to take a bit of a break from football during these summer months, in the hope that when the new season comes around in August/September I'll be filled with enthusiasm, but I've made a point of keeping up with this important tournament.
In this country we tend to be very focused on what's going on at the very top of our own game - Premier League, Internationals, Champions League - at the expense of the wider football scene.
I've been impressed with England's performances throughout the tournament and I've been even more impressed with how team manager Stuart Pearce has presented himself during the matches and afterwards, when being interviewed.
For those of us of a certain age Stuart Pearce will always have a place in our hearts. As a player he was, in many ways, the stereotypical touch tackling English defender. Nicknamed 'psycho' during his playing days he represented six different clubs and made nearly 750 senior appearances. At international level he was first capped by England in 1987 in a game against Brazil and went on to represent his country, with pride and honour, a total of 78 times.
As a manager Pearce was employed by Nottingham Forest in a caretaker capacity during the 96-97 season and spent 3 years managing Manchester City before taking charge of the England Under 21 team in 2007.
For many, Stuart Pearce will be remembered for two incidents involving penalties.
One, the penalty shoot-out that followed the semi-final of the 1990 FIFA World Cup against West Germany. After the match had finished 1-1 Pearce was one of two England players to unfortunately miss their penalties and he left the pitch in tears as England were defeated.
Two, six years later, during the EURO 96 quarter-final penalty shoot-out against Spain at Wembley Stadium in London, Pearce again took a penalty and this time was successful. His emotional celebration in front of a joyous Wembley crowd became one of English football's most celebrated images. The expression on Pearce's face was one of uncontrollable joy mixed with an equal measure of relief. I remember watching the match live on TV at the time and being close to tears myself when he turned to the crowd, punched the air, shouted 'come on! and celebrated his successful penalty. It felt like a wrong had at long, long last been righted.
Whatever the result of tonight's game my first thoughts will be for Stuart Pearce - an English man we can be proud of.
So, in what must surely be one of the longest, most drawn-out, not to mention boring, transfer sagas in history Cristiano Ronaldo ('He'/'Him') has finally transfered from Manchester United to Real Madrid ('Them').
Almost all of the Manchester United supporters I have spoken to have reacted with a resounding 'good' usually followed by 'he's not the player he was last season'. At first I dismissed these comments as being the natural reaction when someone leaves you: 'the relationship was going nowhere', 'I wasn't happy', 'we were only together because it was convenient' etc but the more I think of it I genuinely think Manchester will come back stronger next season for 'His' leaving.
Firstly, and most obviously, Sir Alex will have £80m to spend - potentially meaning 3 top, top quality players: Ribery? Villa? Silva? Tevez even? The list is endless. And there'd still be change left over to put towards covering some of the clubs debt!
Then there's the effect on the team in light of 'His' absence. It's difficult to criticise Sir Alex given his track record but Manchester United have been looking like a team with several square pegs in round holes recently and I have a suspicion it was a situation engineered to accommodate 'Him'. Perhaps now Rooney might be an opportunity in his prefered (better suited?) role? Maybe Berbatov will be given the opportunity to show what a good player he really is? If Tevez is retained he could now take on greater responsibility rather than the 'bit part' he's had for the past 18 months or so. And so on.
Furthermore, I'm not convinced that 'He' is the type of player Manchester United need - not any more at least. I've felt that over the past season it's been a case of Ronaldo + 10 others - at least in 'His' eyes and that's been reflected in some of the disjointed performances - not results - I've seen. Look at the Champions League final for instance - United started well, as did 'He' - but when 'His' team went behind 'He' stopped functioning as part of the team and looked intent on winning the game single handedly: ignoring team mates and trying to beat two or three players, shooting from distance when a team mate was better placed ...
I don't think Manchester United can offer him what he wants anymore so it's a good time to move on. A good time for the player and a good time for the club.
Real Madrid will be a wonderful new home for 'Him'. Remember, this is a club in which the players have more power than the manager. A club where, it's reported, if a player didn't want to train a quick call to the President would see the manager over-ruled. A club where 2 daily sports papers will indulge his every act of disrespect, petulance and immaturity as well as the flashes of brilliance.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid - a perfect match.
Here I am, living proof of what I was saying (grumbling?) in my last post - the domestic football season is over (in most of Europe at least) and I'm still writing about football.
My defence is that I'm still filled with joy and excitement at Football Club Barcelona's UEFA Champions League victory last week so I hope you'll forgive me as nights like that don't come along very often (or ever for the vast majority of clubs).
I was reading a story that Barca coach Pep Guardiola had compiled and then played a video montage of some of the highlights from the past season to his squad, set against a backdrop of magnificent Roman architecture and accompanied by a soundtrack and clips from the Oscar winning film Gladiator.
Guardiola enlisted the professional support of Catalan broadcaster TV3 and also stipulated that 1) every squad member should be featured in the video and 2) he (Guardiola) should not.
For me, little details like this are the difference between a good coach and a great coach.
Saturday's FA Cup Final marked the end of the [English] domestic football season. Although my preference was for an Everton win I don't begrudge Chelsea their small consolation.
I watched the game with my brother-in-law (himself a Chelsea supporter) and despite his obvious joy the match and the day as a whole seemed a bit of an anti-climax, as so many FA Cup Finals seem to have been in recent years. Back in the day (I'm told I say this a lot!) Cup Final day seemed so much more of an 'event'. We didn't have many live club matches on the TV then of course - it was just the FA Cup, the European Cup, the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners Cup: and in the case of the European finals that was dependent on a British club being involved. Three or four matches over a 9-month season.
Coverage on Cup Final day would begin at 9am - live from the team hotels, travelling by coach to the stadium with the teams (the route would invariably follow a main road near my home and I would venture out and excitedly wave to the players as they went by), following the players making their way to the dressing rooms, analysis of the game ahead. I even enjoyed the ubiquitous 'celebrity supporter' focus that, showing my age here, always seemed to involve Jimmy Tarbuck!
The following day would see BBC Grandstand featuring coverage of the open-top bus parade from the winning team with interviews from the manager and one or two of the players, and that would be it for football for three solid months. Really. Not a mention of football on the TV (this was before 24-hour sports news television of course), nothing on the radio, just cricket and athletics (and ice-skating!) in the newspapers. There were no summer England matches, no live pre-season friendly matches in early July, no live Charity Shield in early August.
Back then my summers were spent on long cycle rides, climbing trees, fishing, swimming in the river and chasing butterflies ... happy days.
Somehow the game of football - and my love for it - seemed better for the summer break.
Tomorrow sees the English FA Cup final being staged at the 'new' Wembley Stadium - I'm not sure for how long we have to call it the 'new' Wembley but call it that we must it seems.
The capacity at the stadium is around the 90,000 mark - so plenty of tickets, you would think, for all of the regular supporters from the finalists Chelsea and Everton, who each have an average home attendances of around 40,000.
Wrong. Each club has received an allocation of just 25,000 tickets with the remainder going to Club Wembley 10-year season-ticket holders and 'people involved in the grassroots game and the football family'.
The way cup final tickets are allocated has always troubled me - surely the day should be about the 2 clubs involved, their supporters, not corporate sponsors or committee members/volunteers from clubs and county FA's with little or no direct connection to the finalists. The argument that's previously been put forward is that it's an opportunity to say thanks to the people that donate their own time and efforts to make the game what it is.
Fine, I don't have a problem with this argument but I don't feel it should be at the expensive of the supporter who goes week in week out. The 'football family' members can be thanked so many other ways - a dinner at the county or national FA or a letter of thanks from the FA for instance. If it must be an invitation to a Wembley game how about spreading the invitations across the FA Cup Final, the League Cup Final and the Community Shield?
The FA Cup Final is rightly regarded as a unique sporting event and, as such, I can't help but feel that more than 56% of the attendance should be made up from supporters of the two teams.
What a season it's been for Football Club Barcelona. With the league title and domestic cup already secured last night they deservedly beat Manchester United by 2 goals to nil to lift the European Champions League trophy in Rome.
Aside from the opening 8 or 9 minutes Barca dominated the game and thoroughly deserved the win: even Manchester's manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that. Ahead of the game most of the English media allowed themselves to get a bit carried away - I heard various 'experts' claim it would be an easy win for Manchester, Barca couldn't defend, Manchester had too many attacking options, Spanish teams can't compete physically with English clubs etc etc. I suspect these views were formed on the basis of 1) watching Barca struggle to get past Chelsea in the semi and 2) watching Liverpool hammer Real Madrid earlier in the competition. How wrong they were.
I watched the game on Sky Sports (rather than the alternative ITV) and - all in all - I thought the coverage was excellent.
I've spoken before about how certain individuals in the broadcast team (presenter and pundits, commentator and analyst) annoy me and I'm sticking with my opinion, but even these guys couldn't (didn't) claim that it was anything other than a deserved victory.
I have no problem with favouritism or bias for the English team from an English broadcaster - it's to be expected that the coverage will be tailored to suit the vast majority of the audience - what I do have a problem with is when my intelligence is insulted by the 'experts' when they claim, for instance, that their team had been harshly treated by the match officials (see my previous comments regarding the semi final!).
On this occasion I felt that the commentary team got the balance just about right although one of the studio pundits nearly lost it when he suggested that Pique should have been sent off for a foul on Ronaldo: point of fact - it wasn't even a foul.
I'm now looking forward watching the DVD of the game with a Catalan commentary to redress the balance of bias.
The Savage Rabbit blog is an outlet for my random thoughts and opinions on the things that are important to me - particularly (although not exclusively) football, film, televison and music - as well as my random thoughts about life in general.
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Ten days ago Chelsea captain John Terry was reported to have said:
