Roy Keane this week was in the press following remarks made about BSkyB’s Premier League coverage, which will have resonated with a growing number of football fans for whom the gloss and glam of the Premier League era is starting to wear a little thin. The constant hyperbole of fairly standard footballing fare, and the (hitherto thought impossible) overdose of football were themes visited in ‘The Football Business’ by David Conn (a highly recommended read), and Keane is the latest to voice his concern at what he described as “People like Richard Keys trying to sell you something that’s not there”. And he has a point.

Sky, in their defence are a company, bound not to the traditions and well-being of English football, but to a ruthless overseer (James Murdoch, who took over the reigns from his more illustrious father) and a board of digit-dwelling shareholders. Sky always knew that suckers like you and me would keep on buying regardless of the price and regardless of the often fairly average displays. Rupert Murdoch himself described the demand for football in England as inelastic, so confident was he that the paying public were likely to pay whatever Sky demanded.

But the quality of the football on show is subjective, and Sky are happy to make a 0-0 draw at Craven Cottage sound like the 1970 World Cup final, with Paul Konchesky cast as Carlos Alberto, and Clint Dempsey sliding butter-like into the Jairzinho role which he was so obviously born to play. They have a product to sell, and they have a vested interest in convincing you that is is the best money can buy.

The BBC, thanks to the frequently maligned license fee is under far less pressure to dissuade you from forming your own, perhaps even negative conclusion to the football it covers. Sadly, the football it covers is all too short in supply.

Channel Five, perhaps the most overlooked of all of our broadcasters has a refreshing approach which seems to be a deliberate response to the fake drama invented by its digital competitor. With little fan-fare, Colin Murray, Stanley Victor Collymore and Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin present a reasoned, watchable overview of what is fairly standard, second-tier European football. It is a cold drink in the otherwise suffocating desert of football coverage on British television.

As money tightens in households up and down the country, and people are forced to mute the TV when Andy Gray waxes lyrical about a ten yard, sideways, Mamady Sidibe pass; maybe they’ll start to question with greater frequency the value of the opinion being offered by supposed experts of the game, who have clearly been polluted by fancy graphics and inflated wage packets.

The insipid punditry, designed to be as inoffensive as possible (lest one lose their invite to a golf game) is just another failure of the Murdoch mandated seven-day-a-week footballathon which continues to drive an ever widening stake between the elite of English football, and those who lie in its shadow.

This article was originally published at Terracist.com

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The South Africa 2010 Preliminary Draw has paired England with their recent conquerers Croatia in the qualifying round. Responding to the draw, The Sun quoted:

Michael Owen has kick-started preparations for 2010 World Cup qualification in earnest by insisting none of the Croatian team would get into the England side.

Hold on a second. Has little Mickey unearthed the problem at the core of the England national side? That players deserving and capable of taking their team to the European Championships, wouldn’t even get into the team? A team over-flowing with overpaid, over-hyped, over-rated prima-donnas who for the most part are picked on reputation alone. Then it is no wonder that Owen and Co. will be enjoying a spot of Floridian sunshine next summer when Slavan Bilic takes his excellent Croatia side to the European Championship finals. You are judged on results in this game Michael – the results (and ability on display at Wembley last week) suggest that Croatia are far better than you.

The England selection process seems to revolve around picking the twenty or so best players in the country (because Englishmen don’t play abroad!) and not in picking a set of players who can perform together as a team. The selection of Lampard and Gerrard is a prime and universally understood example. We know they can’t play together, they know it, and surely the England management know it, but rather than making a sensible decision and dropping one of them, the manager instead waited for injury to bail him out of making the sort of call he was employed to make.

The Croatian team were the worthy winners at Wembley – they had a cohesion and spirit sadly lacking from any recent England team (You probably have to go as far back as 2001 for such an English display). We got what we deserved from a string of lacklustre performances which belied the quality we are told by the media that England’s ‘Golden Generation’ possesses.

And lets just go back to that point about Englishmen playing abroad. The only recent example making it into the side was Owen Hargreaves, but he had now joined Manchester United, meaning that every member of the most recent squad plays in the Premier League (except the semi-retired David ‘Hollywood’ Beckham). Madness.

Football is a worldwide trade, and whilst it offers an attractive return for players in England, from a national perspective we miss out on learning about the game from the worlds masters. The Italians and the Spanish have opposing philosophies to the English one, and our under-representation in those leagues gives us an under-educated and ill-prepared squad when we (used to) arrive at major competitions. Those nations, on the other hand know all about the English game. Stephen Gerrard trains daily with Spaniards and Dutchmen. John Terry lines up for Chelsea games with players from all over the footballing world. This one-sided exchange of a footballing blueprint is undermining the English game, and is also limiting the opportunities for young players to develop to the required standard for top flight domestic, and international football.

It is time for the FA to appoint a MANAGER. Not a coach who is probably under pressure to pick the most commercially viable eleven at his disposal. We need a man who is able to read names on a team-sheet, and not salaries. A man who can cut through the smog of egos within English football and dare to pick players based on merit. What does Rob Green need to do to get an England game? How well do the boys in the England U21 side have to play in order to progress to the senior team? It is a sad time when the English national team are ranked just two laces above Scotland in FIFA’s (admittedly flawed) world rankings, and when fans across the nation a will look at the world cup group containing Ukraine and Croatia in fear.

Mclaren should not be the last person clearing out his Soho Square office right now, but is there any chance of the salary men of our blessed football association leaving the FA, for it to modernise and compete? The answer is alas, no.

This post was originally published at Thirty Six Degrees

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Stuart Frisby is currently in Japan and his account of professional football in Japan is an insightful look at football outside the focus of mainstream media.

Japanese football is a strange affair, as you sit on the backless seats of the Hakata-No-Mori stadium in Fukuoka Japan, glancing down to the ultras to the right, and to the junior ultras to the right of them, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were watching a tense Brazilian league game.

For Japan and it’s footballing landscape is a little like Legoland Windsor. Urawa Reds are the Manchester United influenced heavyweights, Sagan Tosu are an homage to Italian giants AC Milan and Gamba Osaka are a tribute act to Internationale in all but their footballing ability.

It seems that at the rebirth of professional football in Japan, creativity and tradition were in equally short supply, so club bosses simply picked from seemingly nowhere a club to imitate, and with it, a footballing philosophy to adopt. For this influence runs deeper than the colour of the home kit. The Tosu stadium in Saga prefecture, Kyushu looks like it has landed from a small Italian city – complete with it’s faded pink seats and steeply inclining terraces. Avispa Fukuoka – my local team and Sao Paolo clone are no different – the Brazilian heritage runs throughout the club – from the imports of ailing/failing Brazilian footballers, to the words of the chants enthusiastically belted out by the hardcore element of the home support.

But for Japanese fans, none of this matters. Like the rest of us they want to see a good game of football, have a sing song, and eat some dodgy stadium food. Only in Japan it’s more likely to be an anonymous pile of untreated meat, rather than a nasty pie filled with a pile of untreated meat as you might be used to back in blighty.

Since moving to Fukuoka a few weeks ago I’ve seen three games involving my adopted team. They’ve lost all three, scored only once, and had five players suspended following some very South American style outrage during the local derby a couple of weeks ago. Their once promising push for promotion back to the elite league of Japanese football – J League 1 – seems to be dead in the water, their six straight defeats putting paid even to the chance of appearing in a one off promotion/relegation play-off at the seasons end.

Instead, it appears that the team – managed by former FC Koln striker and Leverkusen assistant manager Pierre Littbarski – will have to wait until next season to push for that aim. There will need to be some clearing of dead wood before a real promotion push can be made too. Full-back Alvin Ceccoli, who has played for Australia more than once is a shocking player, and seems to be sailing by simply because he comes from a slightly more traditional ‘football nation’. Frontman Abraham Lincoln Martins (I kid you not) should also be shown the door. Think Peter Crouch in physique, Carlton Palmer in flair, and Ade Akinbiyi in shooting ability – that is Lincoln. Again, his Brazilian passport seems to be the only thing keeping him in the side! He is currently serving a five match ban for elbowing an opponent during the recent Kyushu derby, and then having a proper hissy fit after being sent off.

The one bright spark in the side is creative midfielder Kohei Miyazaki, a man not even considered a first team regular until recently, he has a touch of class about his game. He reads the attacking game well, can pick out a pass and is a decent tackler. He has played in J League 1, and is a player who could probably play at a higher level in Europe. The 24 year old is yet to represent Japan, but whilst playing in a poor team he is showing some deftness with the ball at his feet, don’t be surprised if he moves to a J1 side before Avispa become one.

So that is the current state of things here in Fukuoka, The local side not doing too well, but we’re all hoping they will spring back to winning ways in their game against Ehime FC. If they don’t, the pressure way well begin to mount for the manager and his assistant (former Spurs player Ian Crook).

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Ed’s note: For those of you not familiar with the story, read this (2004) and this (2007).

When Lee Hughes left a Coventry pub in November 2003, having allegedly consumed large quantities of alcohol and cocaine – he got behind the wheel of his £100,000 Mercedes, he made a decision akin to pulling a trigger.

The West Bromwich Albion and former Coventry City striker was then involved in a sickening traffic incident, where his vehicle – traveling on the wrong side of a dark Meriden road – hit that of my uncle, Albert Frisby – killing one passenger, and seriously injuring my uncle and one other.

The footballer, leaving the occupants of the other vehicle for dead, fled the scene of the accident, and was not seen for thirty six hours, before he subsequently handed himself in to the Coventry police, having conveniently cleansed his body of the toxicants which would have added a significant period to his imprisonment had they been detected at the scene.

This August Hughes will be released after serving only three years of his paltry six year sentence. He is now courting an offer from Oldham football club, which would see him return to the professional game next season, to start rebuilding his career in the game.

There has been much said about the approach of Oldham Athletic, and the questionable ethics of the people behind this decision, but the upshot of it is that our national game, watched weekly by millions us of, will next season take back to it’s ranks a man who committed a cowardly and deadly crime. He killed and injured innocent people, and then showed his complete lack of compassion by leaving them to die.

Legally of course, the FA could not stop Lee Hughes from returning to the sport, there are all sorts of employment laws which would be broken should his return to work be blocked. And who can blame Oldham? For a League One club, Hughes is an exciting proposition, a player they will sign for free, and pay an average wage could score the goals which take Oldham a step closer to promotion to the Championship.

It is a risk free signing, and should it pay off, could be – financially at least – very rewarding. The fickle nature of football suggests that if Hughes scores a few goals, the Oldham fans will soon be chanting his name from the terraces of Boundary Park.

The shame in this lies again at doorstep of Mr Hughes. When he is released, he should do the decent thing and shy away from the public spotlight, ply his chosen trade abroad should he so wish. The vision of Hughes trotting out at boundary park will bring anger and grief back to those people most affected by his idiocy.

The family of the deceased Mr Graham, and his wife who has also since died. My uncle, who must everyday live with the consequences of what happened, he will live the rest of his life in almost constant pain, and will never walk unaided again. His wife who had to give up work to tend to her husband, and his children who have been so affected by their fathers deteriorating health, and independence.

There are many facets to this story which raise important and unanswered questions.

Why was the sentence so short?

Why, after only serving 3 years is he even being considered for parole? His behavioral record in prison does not make him an obvious candidate for early release.

Why was he allowed to leave a pub full of people who knew he was not fit to drive, and get behind his wheel?

Hughes – people will say – has served his time. The price you pay for killing one person, and seriously injuring at least one other is apparently now 3 years. The British Justice system should be ashamed, because long after this despicable coward is released from prison, there will still be people suffering because of what he did in November 2003.

Here’s to hoping that football fans take longer to forget what this man did that the Board of Oldham Athletic seem to have done, and that they remind him at every opportunity of his failings as a human being.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

A plan to change the face of international football, and provide opportunities and funds for football at lower levels. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and your suggestions and improvements in the comments please. I thought this up during the second half of the England-Brazil game tonight, which summed up everything poor about these type of games, and served to highlight the opportunity we have to make real improvements.

If you followed the English national team in their friendly games over the last ten years, you’ll no doubt agree that these fixtures are typically poor affairs, lacking the quality of competitive games – they rarely produce anything you could consider as entertainment, and bewilder fans who expect to see world beaters, and end up watching panel-beaters. I suspect this sentiment is not unique to England fans, I think it’s high time that the game took a serious look at how it handles non-competitive international fixtures. My plan aims not only to improve the quality of football on show, but to address the widening gap between the top flight of English football and the lower leagues, and to provide funding for development at a grass-roots level. So heres my plan.

Most international friendlies come in pairs of fixtures, and apply to teams across most of the international football associations. So, there are a wealth of top class international sides looking to fill two fixtures. In my scheme, a four team tournament is formed, with semi-final and final phases, along with a play-off for third place. This gives all of the involved sides the same number of games.

The competition naming and broadcast rights would be sold to a media outlet, for the purpose of this example I’m going to use Virgin Media as the company chosen to sponsor the event. The tournament will be held in a European city with two world class stadia, like London, where the obvious choices would be the recently completed Wembley Stadium, and the Emirates – home of Arsenal FC. Matchday 1 would see each team face an opponent drawn at random, with the home team playing their game in the larger of the two venues. The winners would go onto face each other, and the losers likewise on matchday 2 – with the final being held in the larger venue.

The second element of the scheme is money, and this is where that sponsorship arrangement comes into play. Footballers are highly paid professionals, who command a global audience. As such, and because there seems to be a lack of motivation surrounding friendly fixtures, the players on the overall winning side will receive large financial rewards for their involvement in the event. Some figures follow to provide an example of how this would work:

1. All players will be payed their standard appearance fee by their home FA.
2. The sponsor will make available £50million in prize money for the winning side.
3. All of the players involved in more than 20% of the victors two games will receive a £1million pound purse, with fringe players rewarded in smaller sums. This will total around £20million of the prize fund.
4. The remaining money will be awarded to the FA of the winning nation, with the proviso that it be spent on football development either at grass roots, or youth level.

This will provide an invaluable resource in this area of the game, where improvements can be made to facilities with this money. The media outlet might be concerned at the cost of this, but they will be awarded sole rights to covering the game, and the ownership of the coverage to then sell on to any interested foreign media, which is certain to include at least broadcasters in the competing nations, and depending on the calibre of the involved sides, a healthy number of other media outlets. This will give the media sponsor the ability to recoup, and even make a profit on their sponsorship fees, which when added the the marketing opportunities the competition would provide, makes this a good proposition for potential sponsors.

In order to change and improve the standard of football played in these fixtures, a number of other factors must change. Each team should include 5 players from their 21 man squad who either (A) Represented their nations Under 21 side in the majority of it’s most recent fixtures or (B) Play their club football outside of the top flight in the domestic game (i.e. The championship, L1, L2 in England). This will provide opportunities of progression for promising youngsters, or players who have perhaps missed out in previous squads due to them playing for a lesser team. This will hopefully break the closed shop which seems to exist in international selections, with the players usually being picked from a small pool which typically play for the big clubs in the top domestic league.

Red and Yellow cards will only apply for games within the tournament, meaning that a player sent off in the final will not be banned for subsequent international or club games. Too often in friendlies referees take too lenient an approach, or players are overly cautious of making full blooded tackles. Referees will be instructed to take a more typical approach to discipline, and players will play without the risk of missing important club games.

Another blight on the recent record of friendly games is the use of substitutes, which takes away any flow from the game. In this competition sides would be limited to making 3 changes from a bench consisting of 7 substitutes.

This scheme aims to produce four games of international quality football, all held in one city, providing not only great entertainment, but the possibility of additional venue through tourism during the event. The beneficiaries are not only the four nations involved, who will benefit from playing real games, but will start to blood young players at the highest level.

Football development will be given a much needed boost, and the incentive for winning these games will run through all involved parties, with financial benefits at every level. This would bring an end to the disappointing friendlies which are played at present, and whilst it would not be applicable for replacing every friendly fixture, it would take away the need to play such games so regularly, and replace them with a great spectacle.

This article originally appeared on 36-degrees.co.uk

From Soccerlens.com - Football News