Its another big day for fans of numbered plastic balls, giant perspex fishbowls and over financed men in suits. Yep, today was the day of the UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals draw. The eight teams at this stage included what Sky Sports irritatingly referred to as the Premier League's 'Grand Slam', given that at the time Aston Villa had somewhat cheekily decided to break into the division's top four. Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal were all there and so there was significant chance that there would be at least one all English quarter final.
And that there is, for the fifth season running Chelsea and Liverpool will face each other in the Champions League. Arsenal meanwhile face Villareal, Manchester United meet Porto and the tie of the round if you can fight your way past Sky Sports' Premier League hyperbole, is undoubtedly Barcelona vs Bayern Munich. Even to those, like myself, who regularly allow this competition and its enveloping advertising and media circus, to pass them by it is a draw which presents and intriguing set of ties.
However, a scan around football messageboards suggests that all is not as it seems. Many fans, well Liverpool and Chelsea ones mainly, are claiming that the draw has been fixed to give United an easy tie and to also keep them away from Barcelona. The latter argument not really holding much ground given that the two sides met in last season's semi-finals, whilst suggestions of a fix are hard to comprehend. For a start, as weak as Porto may be perceived to be, in a tournament called the Champions League, United are the only English side to be drawn against actual league champions.
UEFA have distorted this tournament over the past fifteen years to ensure that is contested by the biggest teams, the most powerful and the most supported and significantly, the most marketable. To win a tournament such as this no team will get an easy ride to the final, and whilst Porto may be less of a challenge than Chelsea in the eyes of Liverpool fans, I would argue that in the last round Internazionale represented a bigger threat than a transitional Real Madrid side. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. That fans are now fed up of meeting the same sides each season introduces a satisfying irony in my view; think of the variation you could have had with the UEFA Cup.
Friday, March 20, 2009
David Who?
When David Beckham secured his extended stay with AC Milan earlier this month many people questioned whether Major League Soccer could survive without him. The answer is a simple and resounding yes. Those who question the future of MLS and regularly scoff at its standard are usually those who have more often than not never watched a game of the USA's premier soccer league. At a grassroot level the sport has been huge in the States for years, at a professional level it continues to grow and the departure of it's headline player is not going to change that.
The fourteenth MLS season began last night as the league's newest team (but one of US Soccer's most known names) Seattle Sounders hosted the New York Red Bulls. Over 32,500 fans headed to the Q-West Field in downtown Seattle and were rewarded with an impressive 3-0 victory to the Sounders. With over 22,000 season tickets Seattle have already proved a major addition to the MLS despite only playing one match so far, and they follow in a line of sensible expansions by the league.
Aside from Seattle, four other clubs have joined the league since 2005 and all four are amongst the most supported in the MLS. Admittedly an element of novelty of having a new soccer team in the city can help swell the attendances, but credit also has to go to those at the top for recognising potential markets for their sport in Salt Lake, Houston, and Toronto, not to mention the need for a team that gathers the support of the Mexican and Hispanic communities of California, in the form of Chivas USA. Projections for the season ahead suggest that average MLS attendances could move above those enjoyed by the NHL and NBA over the course of 2009, David Beckham's involvement or non-involvement won't skew those figures.
The fourteenth MLS season began last night as the league's newest team (but one of US Soccer's most known names) Seattle Sounders hosted the New York Red Bulls. Over 32,500 fans headed to the Q-West Field in downtown Seattle and were rewarded with an impressive 3-0 victory to the Sounders. With over 22,000 season tickets Seattle have already proved a major addition to the MLS despite only playing one match so far, and they follow in a line of sensible expansions by the league.
Aside from Seattle, four other clubs have joined the league since 2005 and all four are amongst the most supported in the MLS. Admittedly an element of novelty of having a new soccer team in the city can help swell the attendances, but credit also has to go to those at the top for recognising potential markets for their sport in Salt Lake, Houston, and Toronto, not to mention the need for a team that gathers the support of the Mexican and Hispanic communities of California, in the form of Chivas USA. Projections for the season ahead suggest that average MLS attendances could move above those enjoyed by the NHL and NBA over the course of 2009, David Beckham's involvement or non-involvement won't skew those figures.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Owls In a Spin
Sheffield Wednesday are having something of an up and down season in the Championship. Top of the table on opening day they conceded four to Wolves the following week and six to Reading over the next few weeks. They have done the double over Sheffield United for the first time since the Boer War, or something, but also lost to South Yorkshire's other three teams, including Rotherham United in the League Cup. Somewhat inevitably they remain lodged firmly in mid-table.
However, the Owls' new Chairman Lee Strafford has been learning to put a positive spin on things. Last month the club offered their shirt sponsorship to the city's Childrens Hospital, with the charity getting to place their logo on Wednesday's shirts for the next two seasons. As Strafford himself puts it; "We're proud to say loud and clear that Sheffield Wednesday wants to break the current football mould by getting away from the perception that football is just about money". All very amicable, but for Wednesday it really should be about the money; with the club currently in a reported debt of £25million can such potential income really be cast aside.
Whilst he may not be raking in every potential income stream, Strafford has been a little quicker to highlight the club's expenditure with an article on the club's official website yesterday claiming the Owls have the lowest wage bill in the division. Whilst there is no doubting that the club's wage bill will be below the recent parachute payment backed Premier League demotees it seems unlikely that Wednesday's squad will be earning less than their contemporaries at Barnsley, Blackpool, Doncaster and Plymouth.
Either way the club's website went on to redraft the Championship table, affording points per estimated million pounds spent on wages, and wouldn't you know it Wednesday came out on top; numero uno. "I cannot claim these figures are 100 per cent accurate,"admitted Strafford, "but we know the kind of financial bracket most of our fellow clubs are working within so hopefully this gives you an indication of where we stand at the moment - overachieving on the pitch!" In short, as we all know 85% of statistics are made up on the spot and 76% of made-up figures are usually twisted favourably
However, the Owls' new Chairman Lee Strafford has been learning to put a positive spin on things. Last month the club offered their shirt sponsorship to the city's Childrens Hospital, with the charity getting to place their logo on Wednesday's shirts for the next two seasons. As Strafford himself puts it; "We're proud to say loud and clear that Sheffield Wednesday wants to break the current football mould by getting away from the perception that football is just about money". All very amicable, but for Wednesday it really should be about the money; with the club currently in a reported debt of £25million can such potential income really be cast aside.
Whilst he may not be raking in every potential income stream, Strafford has been a little quicker to highlight the club's expenditure with an article on the club's official website yesterday claiming the Owls have the lowest wage bill in the division. Whilst there is no doubting that the club's wage bill will be below the recent parachute payment backed Premier League demotees it seems unlikely that Wednesday's squad will be earning less than their contemporaries at Barnsley, Blackpool, Doncaster and Plymouth.
Either way the club's website went on to redraft the Championship table, affording points per estimated million pounds spent on wages, and wouldn't you know it Wednesday came out on top; numero uno. "I cannot claim these figures are 100 per cent accurate,"admitted Strafford, "but we know the kind of financial bracket most of our fellow clubs are working within so hopefully this gives you an indication of where we stand at the moment - overachieving on the pitch!" In short, as we all know 85% of statistics are made up on the spot and 76% of made-up figures are usually twisted favourably
Monday, March 2, 2009
Moore Not Merrier
In his book Fever Pitch Nick Hornby suggests that "the natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment, no matter what the score". This is certainly true of a bloke who sits near me at Doncaster Rovers matches. The things our team do in posession always fail to meet his approval, he's unhappy if the ball goes forward and similarly displeased if the ball goes backwards, whilst anything in between is considered to be "fannying around with it". And it gets worse when the opposition have the ball with any semblance of an attack treated like the oncoming apocalypse by our resident voice of doom. Of course this sort of outlook is not simply restricted to football.
Over the last couple of years, I've discovered that the bloke who sits down the row from me in Doncaster is moonlighting as Brian Moore in the BBC's coverage of international rugby union. Moore of course, as he himself likes to point out, is an educated man. A qualified solicitor he has appeared on Question Time and also pens a wine column for the press. However, place Moore in a rugby stadia and hand him a microphone and he suddenly becomes that bloke in the pub who everyone avoids; the bloke propping up the bar bellowing at the screen.
Moore's overtly patriotic presence in the commentary box is made more obtrusive by two key contributing factors. The first factor is a succession of lacklustre performances by the England team, which have no doubt bore frustration from many other England rugby fans. The second factor is Moore's proximity to the melodic tones of co-commentator Eddie Butler. The voice of calm and reason sedating and antagonising the self-styled pit-bull in equal measure.
The juxtaposition of the two former players' commentary styles often provides the sort of televisual binaries that would only normally appear in an episode of Wife Swap. One great past example saw Moore describe a player as needing 'big kahunas', with Butler simply replying "I didn't know you spoke Portuguese Brian". The two provided another great moment in Ireland's win over England at the weekend as Moore failed to grasp Butler's rhetoric when he said of Danny Care's sin-binning; "You can't protest against that." Moore took the general as the personal to reply; "I'm not protesting against that, its stupid".
Moore of course has previous petulant form in the commentary box, most notably from England's match in Italy last year. As England struggled to run with possession and instead reverted to kicking it forward Moore eventually lost what little control he had to exclaim "They've kicked it away again!" Before yelling "For God's sake" as an incisive follow-up. Butler meanwhile continued commentating but for a sly chuckle. Moore irritates the hell out of me, and I would hate to sit next to him on the bus, never mind in a rugby stadium, but I have to admit, in partnering him with Eddie Butler the BBC have pulled off a masterstroke.
Over the last couple of years, I've discovered that the bloke who sits down the row from me in Doncaster is moonlighting as Brian Moore in the BBC's coverage of international rugby union. Moore of course, as he himself likes to point out, is an educated man. A qualified solicitor he has appeared on Question Time and also pens a wine column for the press. However, place Moore in a rugby stadia and hand him a microphone and he suddenly becomes that bloke in the pub who everyone avoids; the bloke propping up the bar bellowing at the screen.
Moore's overtly patriotic presence in the commentary box is made more obtrusive by two key contributing factors. The first factor is a succession of lacklustre performances by the England team, which have no doubt bore frustration from many other England rugby fans. The second factor is Moore's proximity to the melodic tones of co-commentator Eddie Butler. The voice of calm and reason sedating and antagonising the self-styled pit-bull in equal measure.
The juxtaposition of the two former players' commentary styles often provides the sort of televisual binaries that would only normally appear in an episode of Wife Swap. One great past example saw Moore describe a player as needing 'big kahunas', with Butler simply replying "I didn't know you spoke Portuguese Brian". The two provided another great moment in Ireland's win over England at the weekend as Moore failed to grasp Butler's rhetoric when he said of Danny Care's sin-binning; "You can't protest against that." Moore took the general as the personal to reply; "I'm not protesting against that, its stupid".
Moore of course has previous petulant form in the commentary box, most notably from England's match in Italy last year. As England struggled to run with possession and instead reverted to kicking it forward Moore eventually lost what little control he had to exclaim "They've kicked it away again!" Before yelling "For God's sake" as an incisive follow-up. Butler meanwhile continued commentating but for a sly chuckle. Moore irritates the hell out of me, and I would hate to sit next to him on the bus, never mind in a rugby stadium, but I have to admit, in partnering him with Eddie Butler the BBC have pulled off a masterstroke.
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