On The Brink

FIFA World Cup, 1st Round, Group D: Sao Paulo; Uruguay 2, England 1

As you will have seen above, the bi-annual post mortem of why England just are not good enough to win the World Cup/European Championships has just begun.  While England have gone in with a good but inexperienced attacking line up, they have been fatally undermined by their bad defending.

It happened again tonight.  For most of the first half, they were comfortable without really dominating the match.  The key moment came with six minutes to go until half time (right).  A Uruguay attack worked its way down to England’s right and the PSG forward Edison Cavani crossed in to a free Luiz Suarez – free and completely unmarked – to head past Hart and into the bottom corner.  At that point it looked crucial because England’s (marginal) dominance was not being converted into pressure or chances.

If Uruguay could be almost forgiven for parking the bus in the second half, you’d be much mistaken as Uruguay.  Suarez nearly scored from a corner, while Cavani slid a ball wide of Hart.  Then England stepped up and exherted some pressure.  It didn’t look like England were going to manoeuvre themselves into getting a goal until with 15 minutes to go England equalised.

An England attack down the right saw Johnson cross and Rooney, unmarked, scored his first goal in a World Cup finals.  All England had to do was to hold on for a point and go for a big win against Costa Rica.  Except Luiz Suarez failed to read the script.

A goal kick was flicked on by Gerrard, challenging Cavani for the ball and the ball fell behind the hapless Jagielka into the gambling Suarez who from a tight angle smashed the ball into the net.  He might have been only 75-80% fit but Suarez game intelligence has bagged him two goals in this game, as he managed to escape his marker (Cahill) both times.  The second goal in particular was a poachers goal.

So what has gone wrong for England…  this time?  A ramrod refusal to learn lessons does not help, though this time I’m not sure how much blame you can give to Hodgeson.  Maybe England’s poor defence is down to his coaching though if you think about it the English Premier League is rather thin on the ground with world class defenders.  Indeed it’s rather lacking in world class English footballers full stop.  And with the announcement of the fixture list for next seasons English Premier League yesterday, it’s still very clear that the England national team is still a poor second to the EPL in terms of exposure and importance.  The fact that the European Championships and the World Cup are shown, not on Pay TV channels like BSkyB (or BT Sport), but on the terrestrial channels is possibly something of a conflict of interest for the Murdoch papers.

The original rationale of the English Premier League was to improve the England national team.  Of course, what we now realise was that this was rubbish.  At least the top Scottish teams when they set up the SPL in 1998 were openly greedy for the television money.  The English teams were after the television money and the English FA were also happy to go along as long as it politically harmed the English Football League.  With every tournament that goes by, the England national team more and more resembles the British public’s view on British Tennis players of 20 years ago – something must be done to bring through British Tennis Players even though we are only interested in British Tennis players for two weeks in June & July.  The English public are only really interested in the health of their national team at the finals of every International competition.

While it’s true that England recently won their first youth tournament (the European Under 19’s championships) – those players have a long way to go until they break through.  Of Scotland’s successes at youth level, a couple of players (Brian O’Neil & Paul Dickov) came through from the team that reached the World Cup final at under 16 level in 1989, while 8 years ago the Scotland side that lost in the final of the European under 19’s championships has seen Lee Wallace, Robert Snodgrass, Graeme Dorrans & Stephen Fletcher reach the full Scotland national team.  Lets not forget that while England now have their training facility at St Georges Park, their coaching development is still light years behind even the SFA’s coaching courses at Largs that have seen many Scottish managers graduate, as well as Bobby Robson’s former translator – you might have heard of Jose Mourinio…

Once again England have been shown to be not good enough.  For as long as an unreformed English Premier League continues to spend money on ready made foreign players to the detriment of English players, then the development of young English players will continue to be hindered.  The chairman of the English FA’s target of winning this trophy in 2022 looks more pie in the sky than ever.

The Poison Chalice...

That phrase normally means that the position is generally thought to be an impossible job.  A job guaranteed to end in failure.  Thirty years ago, the managers position at Manchester United was thought to be the biggest poison chalice in the country, when David Sexton was sacked they couldn’t get their first choice (Laurie McMenemy) but wound up with West Brom's Ron Atkinson instead.  In the light of the sacking of David Moyes, it may well be again.

The Moyes era is already being painted as the reign of someone out of their depth, who didn’t have a clue what they were doing.  More than a cursory look at events will see that Moyes failures can be traced to the failure to prepare properly during last summers transfer window.  Ferguson’s side from last season while good enough to win the English Championship was still in need of surgery.  They have been arguably missing a dominant midfielder since Keane, while they haven’t replaced Paul Scholes either.  That’s before we get to the poor form shown by Vidic & Ferdinand this season, while the replacements for those two (Jones, Evans & Smalling) haven’t exactly set the heather on fire.

That’s not to say that Moyes hasn’t made mistakes.  His biggest was getting rid of Ferguson’s backroom staff – keeping Meulenstein & Phelan would have made the transition period easier.  Yet there is a logic to Moyes actions here.  Does the new man want so many of his predecessor’s men still around, especially with the old man “upstairs”?

The Radio 5 Live football commentator Mike Ingham did make the point in asking what Moyes task was?  Was it a long term rebuilding job (one which Moyes has been good at while at Everton) and if so why has he been sawn off?  Their Chief Executive Ed Woodward did make the point that Moyes got the job because they were looking for someone for the long term and not “a gun for hire”, so what has changed?  If it was the old perennial of “losing the dressing room”, again it comes back to the less than smooth transition period, which resulted in no momentum from the summer.  Unsurprisingly, Roy Keane pulled no punches in fingering the players, Moyes coaching staff and the directors in not supporting Moyes.

So who next for the poison chalice then?  The bookies favourite is the current Netherlands manager Louis Van Gaal.  He has the experience, reshaping Ajax to the extent that they won the UEFA Cup (in 1992) and the European Cup (in 1995), reshaping the Barcelona team, laying the foundations that eventually led to Guardiola’s double European Cup winning sides.  Van Gaal also laid the foundations for Guardiola at Bayern Munich, leading them to the European Cup final in 2010 before making way for Jupp Heynkes.  He has the qualifications, but he is a “gun for hire”.

Others in the race include the Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp, the current Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti and his opponent across Madrid Diego Simeone.  Note that none of the names mentioned would be long term appointments or are any of the up and coming managers of the British game.  Has the perceived failure of Moyes meant that Manchester United have changed their policy and are now appointing “guns for hire”?

When Manchester United decided to sack Ron Atkinson in November 1986, they had a plan who they wanted as his replacement as they had already sounded out the Aberdeen Manager Alex Ferguson.  Today it is not apparent that there is a plan.  They may have sounded out people as far back as last month, but there does not look as if there is a clear succession plan.  Had Ferguson been sacked in 1990, the seeds had already been sown for Manchester United’s future success.  Moyes sacking deprives him of the opportunity to even plant the seeds.

The End Of An Era

The end of the English Premier League season has the real feeling of an end of an era.  Yes the Chelsea job is vacant again (though the strong rumors are of the second coming of Mourinio) and yes the Manchester City job is vacant again.  However, while Wenger is still in his position despite debate a few months ago about his position, the reason for this feeling is the retirements of Michael Owen, David Beckham and above all the departure from Manchester United of their manager Alex Ferguson.

Alex Ferguson joins St Mirren, October 1974

Of all the acres of print devoted to Danny Lennon’s most famous predecessor, surprisingly few words were devoted to his formative years in management.  The twelve years (four at Love Street and eight at Pittodrie) in Scottish Football.

Nowhere is this best illustrated than when Ferguson’s rebuilding work on United’s youth set up is mentioned.  His belief in bringing through your own players has been a hallmark of all of Ferguson’s work from the early days at Love Street.  It was here that Fergie originally set up his formula for the moulding of quality young players, a formula that has since been refined with the high point undoubtedly the 1992 FA Youth Cup winners that now read like a who’s who of Manchester United legends.  The Youth systems that Ferguson put into place had initial success in bringing through Fitzpatrick, Stark and McGarvey.  After Ferguson’s departure, the youth set up still produced players with potential such as Frank McAvennie, Paul Lambert (yes that one) and (ironic given Ferguson’s last opponents as Manchester United manager) Steve Clarke.

One criticism that been made of Ferguson was the siege mentality be brought in to Manchester United.  I think that this facet of his mental toughness was necessary if he was to have had the successes he has had, even more so at Aberdeen.  It is notable that since Ferguson’s last championship at Pittodrie, Hearts (in 1986, in 1998 and arguably in 2005) and Aberdeen themselves in 1991 have all lost championships in the closing weeks of the season.  All suffered from the mental pressure of going for the championship and imploded at key moments.  Ferguson knew that the best teams had to be mentally tough, particularly so if you are going to take on the Old Firm.

Early on in his time Ferguson identified the key to winning silverware in Scottish Football – win in Glasgow.  As it turned out, that’s what his sides did.  His Aberdeen side won a key League game at Parkhead on the way to his first Championship in 1980, while his first three Scottish Cup wins came against the Old Firm.

Ferguson’s achievements have passed into folklore.  However his achievements here in Scotland were not just the foundations for his 26 years at Old Trafford.  They were historic on their own terms.  The peak years of Ferguson’s team (probably 1982-85) saw all manner of barriers come down.  There’s that win in the European Cup Winners cup that saw a quarter final win over Bayern Munch before the final win over Real Madrid on a rainy night thirty years ago in Gotherburg.  Arguably more than that though there’s the hat-trick of Scottish Cup wins – the fourth team to do this (after Queens Park, Vale of Leven & Rangers) and the first since the early sixties.  There’s also the first league and cup double by an non Old Firm team. 

Both of those landmarks came on 19 May 1984 with Aberdeen’s 2-1 cup final win over Celtic, a side they finished 7 points ahead of to secure Ferguson’s second championship.   As if to underline the quality of Scottish Football at that time, Aberdeen lost out on the last day of the season the previous season to a Dundee United side that went on to be cheated out of a place in the European Cup final by Roma.

While tomorrow we should remember his achievements, all of them, we should also remember those moments.  His initial calling card that was Fergies Furies (as the St Mirren side that won promotion to the Premier League were dubbed) dismantling of Dundee United in the Scottish Cup in 1977, his jig across the Easter Road pitch (with echoes of Willie Waddle’s own jig when Kilmarnock beat Hearts to the championship in 1965) when Aberdeen became Champions in 1980, the priceless television interview in the aftermath of Aberdeen’s Scottish Cup win in 1983.  Oh and Aberdeen’s general trophy kleptomania during those peak years.

A Love Letter To Football - "Jumpers For Goalposts"

1992 was something of a turning point for English Football.  Three years on from Hillsborough and two years on from Italia ’90, World In Motion and all that, there was the publication of Nick Hornby’s semi-autobiographical “Fever Pitch” and the spring saw the wholesale resignation of the First Division of the Football League, who were in the process of setting up the Premier League.  There was also the second season of the league format of the European “Champions” Cup (which came into play at the quarter final phase).  From the 1992/3 season though this was branded “The Champions League” – for many people their first experience of “Zadok the Priest” would have been as Rangers and Olimpique Marseilles walked on to the pitch on a wild November night at Ibrox.

Not everyone though thinks that the founding of the English Premier League and the re-marketing of the old European Cup was something to shout about.  Rob Smyth and Georgina Turner have penned a paean to the days when Football was a sport not tainted by money, and men were real men and not the faux gymnasts they seem to be today.  “Jumpers for Goalposts” sets out to find out why football is now a money juggernaught.  Oh and also has a not so sneaky go at football’s current sacred cow – the current Barcelona team.

The first target for the book is the super-annuated footballers themselves.  In among all of the anecdotes about footballers either wasting their money or enjoying nights out while pulling the “don’t you know who I am” trick, there is a loose point being made that the vast amounts of money somehow erodes the competitive edge that these “sportsmen” have.  However, if the vast amount of money doesn’t kill your “competitive edge”, the ensuing “celebrity lifestyle” will.  Interestingly though the few that have were the so called pioneers, David Beckham being the most famous (and coincidentally the best). Rather tellingly, the Manchester United sides that continued their trophy kleptomania from the 1990’s on to the 00’s were – Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo apart – absent from the gossip sheets, while all manner of stories appeared about other players – with even Chelsea players appearing at some stages.

With a book which is essentially a love letter to a by gone age of football, sooner or later the conduct of those players on the pitch comes up. Diving gets blasted (and it’s rightly pointed out that it has been part of the game here for years – Manchester City’s Francis Lee “was having problems staying upright back in the late Sixties”, while the former Rangers forward John McDonald’s nickname in the terraces was “Polaris”).  What is also heavily criticised in the book though is the petulant behaviour of players that has contaminated the game.  Or as it’s put in the book “It’s amusing that football is still regularly described as a man’s game when every other week the biggest talking points revolve around grown men behaving in a manner that would shame the most petulant of bairns”. 

Brian Deane scores the first ever goal in the FA Premier League V Manchester United, 15 August 1992

It’s not just the players though at the receiving end. The Portuguese coaches Carlos Queiroz and Jose Mourinio receive criticism for their negative styles.  Alex Ferguson’s slight defensiveness (nay, “Sextonian” phase) in the early 00’s are credited to Queiroz, while Mourinio is castigated because his sides have a needless negative streak – though little mention was made of the cynicism of his Porto side that lifted the UEFA Cup the season before “England” discovered him.  Rafa Benitez also gets stick for the overly defensive nature of his sides, stretching back to his trophy laden times at Valencia. Scottish footballing journalists of a certain vintage would at this point be lamenting the reach of the “Largs Mafia” – Largs being the home of the Scottish Football Association’s highly regarded coaching school that has seen one of it’s founding members become Technical Director of UEFA and seen several “students” become high profile managers & coaches around the rest of Britain and Europe (including several coaches already mentioned in this piece).  The “beef” these journalists had with the “Largs Mafia” was that they were taught to produce defensive and highly organised sides dependent on structure and not independent skill ie not the “Scottish” way.  Sound familiar.

Most of the ire though is reserved for non footballing people, the governing bodies and the competing commercial interest groups.  Governing bodies are castigated for not listening to the fans and for listening too much to commercial interest groups.  Commercial interest groups are castigated depending on which group they belong.  Broadcasters (principally BSkyB) are criticised for how Football is handled – the constant deviation from the “traditional” Saturday 3pm kick off, the constant dumbing down of how football is broadcast and the level of punditry and the hyping of the most ordinary football stories over other larger Sports stories (which leads the authors to claim that the yellow “Sky Sports News” ticker used for breaking sports stories is “Possibly the most evil thing on this planet”).

The most scandalous story though relates to the part where the sports sponsors are under the microphone. In 2008, UEFA requested that a branch of the Swedish burger chain MAX close or heavily disguise its outlet at the Boras Arena – a proposed venue for the 2009 European U21 Championships.  They offered a compromise, UEFA refused that.  MAX then put it to their customers vote, who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the branch staying open.  UEFA then de-listed Boras as a proposed venue, the decision obviously nothing to do with the sponsorship money UEFA receives from a certain large American burger chain.  To rub salt in the wound, the Swedish FA blamed MAX for having “cheated Boras residents out of this football festival”.  The antcs of the organising committee of the South Africa 2010 World Cup pale beside that (and they pulled some corporate bullying moves themselves).

The government also receives some criticism, for setting up the Football Task Force (which was fronted by the former Tory MP David Mellor).  While the description of the Task Force was accurate, any investigation (in particular, the reading of Tom Bower’s excellent “Broken Dreams”) will have put a different spin on the crippling ineffectualness of the Football Task Force.  In particular, the part played by two Downing Street staffers, Andy Burnham and James Purnell (both subsequently elected as MP’s in the 2001 Westminster Elections) in nobbling the effectiveness of the Football Task Force.  The tale of how Tony Bank’s idea of a Football Taskforce was completely nobbled by the vested interests of the FA and the Premier League would have been worthy of bringing up in this book.

The problem with the book though is that it does seem overly romantic in places, and kind of misses the point in a couple of other places.  Where it missed the point was with choosing Cesar Luis Menotti as the coach of a “Soul of Football XI” in the introduction.  He seemed to be picked partly because he looked cool (not a phrase you can use with his successor as Argentina coach and ideological opposite, Dr Carlos Bilardo) and partly because of the “thrilling, futuristic, high speed football” Argentina played while winning the World Cup in 1978.  The thing about Menotti though was that his sides were not futuristic but were revivalists – reviving the Argentinian style of passing attacking football (which according to “Inverting The Pyramid” was originally called La Nuestra) which existed before the brutal, cynical styles espoused by Racing and Estudiantes in the mid to late 1960’s.

The other part where you felt that the book missed the point was in it’s criticisms of sports journalists “indulging” in churnalism.  Churnalism I think was first coined in the book “Flat Earth News” by Nick Davies and referred to a malaise affecting print journalism as a whole, and in particular the trend of “Showbiz” journalists to fill their columns with re-cycled PR Pieces.  In this respect Piers Morgan, Andy Coulson and Domonic Mohan are not the trailblazers that the English based press needed.  Yet this knack of fashioning stories from not very much has become a key skill for Sports writers, to the detriment of actually finding stories.  Too late for this book, but the way “Churnalism” has replaced actual journalism can be seen in the reporting of the crisis surrounding Rangers, with the Scottish press corps still prepared to print the thoughts of David Murray as gospel.

France, playing 4-2-3-1, V Spain (currently the best proponent of 4-2-3-1) in the Euro 2000 Quarter Final

Where it seems romantic for romantic’s sake is it’s criticism of the 4-2-3-1 formation.  If you were going to criticise a formation for not really having a place for flair players, then the one to pick on would be 3-5-2 – the one with 3 at the back and wing-backs instead of wingers and wide players (yet both England & Scotland enjoyed relative international success by adopting this formation – England reached semi-finals in Italia 90 and Euro 96, while Scotland got to Euro 96 and France 98 while using this formation).  Yet this book derides 4-2-3-1 as “insidious and deceitful… devious, a sneak and a phoney – not to be trusted”.  According to the book, it’s problem is that it is essentially a defensive formation, with four defenders and two defensive midfielders – making six defensive players in the team.  While it is true that it first emerged at the turn of the century, it could be argued that both the Manchester United teams from 1993-1997 and the early Wenger Arsenal sides morphed into this formation (Wenger’s double winning side of 98’ had a midfield of Petit and Viera with pushed on wingers Parlour and Overmars and Bergkamp dropping off behind his striking partner).  Its breakthrough tournament was Euro 2000, where it was employed by the French, Portuguese and Romanian national teams – all of which were not exactly defensive sides.  Euro 2000, in case you have forgotten, was the best football tournament since the 1970 World Cup.

The other jibe is that 4-2-3-1 was used by the Netherland’s, Spain and Germany – the first two sides reaching the last World cup final, a game described as “Anti Football” by Cruyff.  Yet these three sides are late adopters to this system.  Spain switched to it in the semi final of the last European Championships thanks to an injury to David Villa.  Both Germany and the Netherlands also switched to this system four years ago – Germany started Euro 2008 as a 4-4-2 team but switched in the knock out stages while the Netherlands started Euro 2008 with 4-2-3-1.  Interestingly both Germany and Spain have shown signs of evolving this system, with Germany switching to 4-2-1-3 when attacking during the last World Cup.  4-4-2 might be the “bloke next door who will look you in the eye and drink you under the table” – but already looks like a relic from a past age.  This is not to say that 4-4-2 might not come again – after all Italian sides have started playing 3-4-1-2 again this season.  Its place as the formation of choice has gone though, usurped by a formation that has room for wingers and playmakers.  Ironic given “Jumpers…” criticism of the collective over the individual.

While it is easy to be irritated by these criticisms, the book does make some valuable points about the future of the game.  Most of the best points come at the books conclusion, where the point is made that nothing would scare the football authorities more than an empty piggy bank. While this is true, getting the authorities to do something before we are all too skint to go to the game will be a hard trick to pull off.  In spite of being an open love letter to a more innocent past, “Jumpers For Goalposts” does chronicle the crossroads that football is fast approaching, and the choices that it faces if it is to avoid the fate of other sports that have become less relivant, like for example Boxing.

A Swift Kick In The Co-Efficients

On the surface, this week’s results in Europe might look to be the same old same old poor results for Scottish teams.  Yet with the exception of the Hearts result, things are not all lost.

Hearts were always going to have a difficult task against Tottenham, who have been there or thereabouts in Europe and in the “Champions League” places.  They had to play well, which is precisely what they didn’t do.  Spurs were only too happy to take their gifts, which have pretty much put them into the first round proper.  Part of me thinks that this result was always likely especially given the aftermath of the sacking of Jim Jeffries two games in.  It’s not that Sergio is a bad manager, it’s too early in his time at Tynecastle to make that kind of judgement.  It’s just that in his 4th match in charge, a game of this magnitude has come too quickly in his tenor.

For both half’s of the Old Firm, they may have had bad results but are not out of things yet.  Celtic’s draw at home to Sion is not a great result. However there is the added bonus of not having conceded an away goal.  A score draw will be enough to see Celtic through.  On the other hand, Rangers loss is leavened by the away goal they scored in Maribor.  Rangers should be good enough to put the tie away at Ibrox, with a 1-0 win good enough to see them through.

All of our sides suffered poor results that will affect the Scottish co-efficient, the ranking system that determines the amount of teams eligible to play in European competitions.  However once again, it’s the Old Firm in the best position to reverse some of the damage inflicted by the other teams.

Re-Cycling The Old Arguments

So with depressing regularity the spectre of the Old Firm leaving Scottish Football appears, quickly followed by the embarrassing result in the European arena which normally puts talk of a divorce in Scottish football to bed. This time the talk hasn’t really gone away, but has been buried by bad news so to speak, replaced by that other staple of Scottish Football journalists – why is Scottish Football so rubbish.

Firstly to the divorce some commentators feel is necessary to further the Scottish game. Should the Old Firm splt from Scottish Football, make no mistake that this would be as much of a disaster as a UK team participating in the 2012 London Olympics.

Sepp Blatter has already won 2 elections on the back of giving more power to the smaller confederations, which is why we have the Confederations Cup and the fledgling Club Championship. The main prize for Blatter’s backers would be the break-up of the International Council which guarantees either a member of the FA, the SFA, the FAW or the Northern Irish FA a seat at the top table, and the amalgamation of the members into the one organisation and one country. Somehow the debt that FIFA owes to the International Council does not count in the eyes of Blatter acolytes. Which is why the late David Will amongst others were campaigning against a single UK team at the Olympics, it was believed that this would bring about a UK team for all UEFA and FIFA competitions.

But if the Old Firm leave, that would make the league more competitive is the other argument for the departure of the gruesome twosome. That might be true, but the standard of play would still be rubbish. Also who would broadcast a league shorn of its current main attractions. Its shockingly bad just now, with BSkyB & ESPN scheduling games for lunchtimes and Monday nights. What kick-off times will supporters expect post Old Firm.

Rangers and Celtic’s desire to break out of the SPL risks opening this issue up again. Much as I am not keen on listening to the nice songs about genocide and terrorism which comes from the mouths of Old Firm fans, they are still Scottish teams and need to stay here.

Diving In

Five days after the event, the Eduardo dive is still something of a talking point. Depending on which side of the border you sit on, there is a slightly different angle to this story.

In England the story is being perpetuated as “evil foreigners bringing their cheating ways to our precious game” or something like that, with the book being urged to be thrown at Eduardo. I happen to think that the book should be thrown at Eduardo and anyone else who cheats, however this attitude is at least 10 years too late. The clampdown really should have started in 1990 when Argentina cheated their way to a World Cup final and were stopped by West Germany, no strangers to the dark arts themselves.

Not that it’s only foreigners who cheat. Here in Scotland, some of the coverage has been a tad unsympathetic towards Celtic as fans of other teams remember Celtic players (and Old Firm players generally)who dived. Older fans will remember John McDonald of Rangers who was rather quick to go down. More recently Nakamura fell over and got a free kick at Love Street. So with Wednesday still fresh in the memory, was today really a good day then for McGeady to dive against Hibernian? Over to you Gorden Smith...

Setanta: The Last Rite's

It seems that Setanta has been on death row for weeks now, and this is the third re-write of this particular posting, but today the lights finally went out on a company which had only really entered the public consciousness when they won the right to televise the SPL in 2004.

Friday saw the announcement that they had defaulted on their £30 million payment to the Premier League, which lead to the cancellation of the current contract to show 46 league games, and the contract to show 23 league games which was due to start the following term. This news was followed by the announcement that prospective backers were pulling out of a financing package. That was followed on Monday by the news that the SPL would be pulling out of their contract and seeking a new television partner. To add insult to injury, the English Premiership wasted no time in announcing that ESPN would be taking over the remainder of Setanta’s contracts.

TwoHundredPercent has been blogging on the impact that the sinking of Setanta would have on the former Conference, and in many respects the impact there would be much worse than the impact felt in the EssPeeEll (© Bill Leckie 1999). Scottish Football hasn’t really been flush with cash since the first implosion of TV rights fees in 2002, which led to Motherwell going into administration and Clydebank and Airdrieonians going to the wall (only for a reborn Airdrie United taking Clydebank’s place in the League, ironically Gretna were admitted to the Scottish League at this point too). There was a feeling that Scottish Football had left those days behind when the new contract with Setanta was announced just weeks ago, a contract supposedly worth £125 million starting in 2010, and one which according to the Sunday Herald the Old Firm & Aberdeen were against signing. It now looks as if the SPL will go with the option favoured by those three teams, and take the Murdoch shilling once more, even if the offer is substantially less than the original offer.

Theoretically, Scottish football should be in a better position to weather any possible drop in revenues. However there are rumours that there could be 3 SPL clubs in trouble should Setanta go belly up. Kilmarnock are said to be heavily in debt, Falkirk were said to be in a bad position should they have gone down, while it is not clear who the other team could be. Outside of the Old Firm, who has big debts which are “serviceable” thanks to continued participation in european competition, the only teams closest to financial safety are Hibernian (thanks to the sales of promising players), newly promoted St Johnstone and St Mirren (thanks to tax dodgers Tesco). Everyone else will feel the squeeze, which would be exasperated by the poor economic situation.

Many of the “business correspondents” will point to Setanta having a business model which was doomed to failure, especially in poor economic times. This is one of the reasons why pay per view won’t really take off in the same way that it does in the USA. However, one of the key reasons must be the elephant in the room in the shape of BSkyB. Anyone entering the market for broadcasting sport in the UK must have deep pockets, and it is no coincidence that the collapse of Setanta, and earlier on this decade ITV Digital, came after both paid huge money for sports rights (ITV digital shelled out about £330 million for Football league rights, while Setanta paid part of the £425 million for FA Cup and England’s home games) in an attempt to challenge BSkyB’s dominance of the sports market.

Of course, with all the comparison’s with the English Football League’s ill fated broadcast marriage with ITV Digital flying about, with forecasts of a similar meltdown in store for the SPL, there is one similarity. Both the English Football League and the SPL felt that they had to go with small, untried sports broadcasters due to the monopoly which exists within pay-tv sportscasters, shown in the “poor” offer’s submitted for both sets of rights.

The Smell Of Money

With depressing regularity, once again Scottish Football will be feeling the pinch with the news about Setanta’s attempt to re-negotiate it’s new deal for exclusive live coverage of the SPL… followed closely by the next episode in the will they won’t they saga about the Old Firm moving to the English Premiership.

Firstly, Setanta appear to have come to the conclusion that like the rest of the country, it has slightly overreached itself. Not the most surprising piece of news, considering it has been trying to re-negotiate its contract with the English FA over the rights to England games and the FA Cup. It does however seem as if that Scottish football is in constant financial trouble, it was only last week that Clyde managed to negotiate it’s arrears with North Lanarkshire Council. This does not help the situation, but at least there is no hyper inflation of players value's like there is in England.

It is this hyper inflation which has exasperated the differences between the SPL and the EP, and it is fear of this bubble bursting a la the mortgage market in this country which has led to Phil Gartside, the Bolton Wanderers chairman making suggestions about re-organising the EP.

His proposals include a second tier for the Premiership, with a slimmed down 18 team top league. More worryingly his proposals also include inviting the Old Firm to join the league in the “lower” tier. It cannot be understated how much damage to the unique culture of British football would be caused if this proposal were to happen. This would essentially mean the beginning of the end of the English, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh national sides competing at UEFA and FIFA events.

It would be tempting for the Old Firm to join, they would get a cut of the television riches, which would mean better players. This ignores the fact that the Old Firm have been here before, and squandered their riches on duff foreign footballers, which contributed to the squeezing of Scottish talent from about 1993 to the first implosion of TV revenues in 2002.

However, I hope that they won’t go. Some of their fans have given this a luke warm response, perhaps they understand that this would be as big a threat, if not a bigger threat to the Scotland national team as a UK team in the 2012 Olympics, perhaps they realise that despite what the Desmond’s and the Murray’s think, money isn’t everything, or perhaps they see that the real winners won’t be the ordinary football fan.

Englsh Football V Europe Again...

The European Cup returns to action this week with the start of the knockout phase. With both of the Old Firm taking their usual seat on the sidelines at this point, the action is left to English football’s leading lights. The draw has given us some interesting ties.

Tomorrow both Arsenal and Manchester United are in action against Italian sides. Arsenal are at home to Roma, a tough tie for Arsenal. I would not be surprised to see them exit the competition at this point. Manchester United face the champions of Italy, Inter Milan. 12 months ago, Inter were out thought by Liverpool. This year, they come into the knockout stages in a commanding position in Serie A, having beaten city rivals AC Milan a week or so ago. Of course Inter are now being coached by one Jose Mouriniho. His main target is European glory, something which has evaded Inter in this competition since 1965. This tie is perhaps the closes to call, but again I would not be surprised to see Inter triumph. On top of Mouriniho having previous here, knocking United out at this stage 5 years ago while with Porto, the defending champions have failed to make it past this stage for the past 4 years, Porto, Liverpool, Barcelona and AC Milan have all fallen at this stage.

On Wednesday, the England V Italy vibe continues when Claudio Ranieri takes his Juventus side to Chelsea. Before the removal of Scolari, Juventus looked like they might win this one. However with the abeit temporary appointment of Guus Hiddink, Chelsea will pull together and win.

This leaves us with the tie which pits 9 times winners Real Madrid against 5 timers Liverpool. Their only European meeting was in the final 28 years ago, with Liverpool winning 1-0 in Paris. Reading interviews of some of the now coaches, who took part in the match (Camachio and Del Bosque) it still rankles. When the draw was made, Liverpool were clear favourites. Real Madrid were in disarray, while Liverpool were riding high at the top of the Premiership. Now Real have gone under a run under their new coach Ramos (sacked in October from Tottenham) and are making La Liga not as much of a foregone conclusion it was weeks ago. Liverpool have lost form, and were deposed from the top of the Premiership a couple of weeks ago. Their 1-1 home draw to Manchester City at the weekend may have marked the end of the championship chase, they are now 7 points behind Manchester United. This is an intriguing tie, and one which may go a long way to deciding silverware other than the European Cup come May.

Sporting Pick's of 2008: Part 2, May 21st – European Cup Final : Chelsea 1 Manchester United 1 (Manchester United win 6-5 on penalties)

“Manchester United won the Champions League by beating Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after a dramatic 1-1 draw.
Cristiano Ronaldo headed United in front after 26 minutes but Frank Lampard equalised before the interval. Lampard and Didier Drogba hit the woodwork before the striker saw red in extra time for slapping Nemanja Vidic.
Ronaldo missed his penalty, but John Terry hit the post with a kick that would have won it for Chelsea and Edwin van der Sar saved from Nicolas Anelka. It sparked wild celebrations for Sir Alex Ferguson and his players in the Moscow rain as United won Europe's elite trophy for the third time, a triumph made more poignant as it came 50 years on from the Munich air crash.”

In a season which ended with an international tournament, it is a sign of the times perhaps that this years European Championships doesn’t merit one of my picks. Truth be told, Euro 2008 was a dull tournament, which marked the continued homogenisation of International Football. The majority of sides played a variation of 4-5-1, with the 2 finalists playing it for differing reasons. Spain came to 4-5-1 due to the enforced absence of David Villa as the tournament went on. Even Germany, who only under Rudi Voller 6 years ago turned to the dark side of 4-4-2, tried it for one of their pool matches, and found the form which took them almost all the way.

In sharp contrast, this years European Cup Final is here simply because it represents the High point of the English Premiership in its 16 year history. Whether that is a good thing or not, hmmm I think I know how you feel. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not petty jealousy. However despite all the guff generated in the name of the so called “Golden Generation”, England has gone (for some) alarmingly backwards in the lifetime of the Premiership. This correlation can be made with the drop in English players playing in the Premiership. This is particularly galling when you consider that the reason for the original blueprint which led to the formation of the Premier League, under the umberella of the FA, was the advancement of the English national team. At least Lex, Roger and the other leaders who initially set up the SPL were being semi honest when they said that they were looking for more of the TV revenue pie to go to their club’s.

However, for two English sides, there were remarkably few English players. Chelsea have been the embodiment of buying finished article foreign players since Hoddle brought in Gullit, Vialli and Di Mateo in the mid 1990’s. While you can’t really argue with those purchases, the continuation of this policy has undoubtedly undermined any youth policy which Chelsea has. Their captain, John Terry, being the only player to have come through the ranks properly in 16 years. Bizarrely, while Manchester United have a reputation for bringing through the ranks young British talent, only Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher and John O’Shea represented that tradition (Gary Neville would have certainly played had he been fit). Though Rooney, Ronaldo, Nani & Anderson were brought in, while still very young, having been promising youngsters elsewhere.

The match itself was an OK match, to describe it as an advert for the English Premiership, as some commentators and callers to BBC 5live’s 606 programme did, would be stretching it… a lot. Manchester United should have been home and hosed before Chelsea equalised before Half Time. Chelsea then dominated the remainder of the game, and Extra Time, without threatening to take the game away from United. Drogba’s sending off was a turning point, and not just for the inevitable penalty kick competition. Drogba surely would have taken one of the first 5 penalties, and as the competition transpired, could have taken the decisive kick. Instead, it fell to Terry’s slip (above) to decide the contest.

As has been said before, this game was picked, not because it was a great game, but because it (and not the England national team winning an international tournament) is the pinnacle of the achievements of the Premiership. How sad is that.