Christmas Cheers and New Year Woes?

As Christmas beckons RTG takes a look back on 2007 with our reasons for Christmas cheer (hurray!) and potential for New Year woes (boooo!). Rest assured, RTG will be back in the New Year, on 3rd January 2008, to continue our campaign to keep the woes at bay. Don’t forget to join us. For those of you who read this, have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hurray! The FA finally seem to have realised that the game needs a ‘root and branch’ review – all be it 30 years too late!
Boooo! Given the FA’s history and its incomprehensible administrative structure will it actually highlight the key issues? After all, it is very difficult to make constructive criticism and recommendations about the very organisation that is commissioning the review.

Hurray! Steve McClaren was finally put out of his (and our) inevitable misery and Fabio Capello was installed as the new England manager.
Boooo! It took us failing to qualify for Euro 2008 for the FA to finally realise what many supporters knew – he was the wrong man for the job from the start.

Hurray! The new Wembley finally opened its doors for business several years late and the first FA Cup final for six years was played there.
Boooo! It cost far too much to build, has diverted resources and objectives away from the development of the England team and still doesn’t offer genuine supporters any more opportunity getting hold of tickets for big matches.

Hurray! Graham Poll retired.
Boooo! Uriah Rennie didn’t.

Hurray! The first trial of goal line technology has begun in one of the lower leagues.
Boooo! Technology seems to have crept in undercover and untested anyway as some referees now appear to refer to the fourth official watching Sky before making important decisions.

Hurray! Premiership teams are now taking the Carling Cup more seriously.
Boooo! Looks like that it too, is now becoming the preserve of the Big Four also.

Hurray! The total domination of the Premiership by Chelsea over the previous two seasons was broken by Manchester United.
Boooo! Roman Abramovich’s petty cash will no doubt put Chelsea back into their own league – just like that nice Mr Kenyon said it would. But the likelihood of anyone outside of the Big Four winning anything remains even further away.

Hurray! The Stevens Inquiry finally produced some results with the recent high profile arrests. Most surprisingly they have gone for people who still have an influence in the game rather than those too old and pissed up to defend themselves.
Boooo! City of London Police is in charge of the investigation. Judging by the way they handled the Kieron Fallon and other fraud trials, don’t expect much of a result!

Hurray! The cynical manipulation by Leeds Chairman, Ken Bates, of the administration punishment (ie 10 point reduction applied when Leeds were already relegated) did not go unpunished as Leeds were deducted a further 15 points at the start of the current season.
Boooo! Wrexham did the same, apparently, but no sanctions were imposed for reasons unknown to RTG. Additionally worrying, there are still a number of clubs still on the verge of administration even in the richest football country in the world.

Hurray! Supporters were treated to more live games on TV than ever before.
Boooo! The ridiculous choice, timings and division of money sought to ensure that we, the supporters, were consequently fleeced once again.

Hurray! Posh and Becks flew out to LA with RTG's anticipation that their unhealthy influence on English football was finally over.
Boooo! They seem to be on our TVs, and in our press, more than bloody ever! The most anticipated media event following Capello’s appointment does not seem to be the prospect of the rebuilding of a flagging England side but more about whether Beckham gets his 100th cap or not. God help us! For the record also, Channel Five and ESPN, we are not the least bit bloody interested in Major League Soccer!

Grand Slam Sunday Just Reinforcing the Status of England's Elite

‘Grand Slam Sunday’, or was it, ‘Super Sabbath’, came and went. In the end, not so much Grand or Super anything really, more Damp Squib. Not because both games weren’t interesting. They were quite compelling, in fact, if you were a supporter of any of the teams involved, or, if you were a ‘cognoscenti’ of football tactics. Nothing much has been decided from the match results, although it has probably confirmed the outcome of the premiership – a three way fight between Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, with Liverpool bringing up the coat tails of the so called Big Four. The hype though for the matches was, to put it into the modern football vernacular, “massive”. Sky, as is their wont, started the build up weeks ago. No doubt Richard Keys, Sky’s Grand-Super Slam presenter, had his stock of long winded rhetorical questions prepared even before that. Even the BBC was mesmerised enough to switch the Match of the Day (Two!) highlights programme from ‘dead air’ BBC2 Sunday post 10pm slot, onto mainstream BBC1 to accommodate Super-Grand Sabbath.

As usual, the hype over-awed the events. Disturbingly, though, the mainstream Premiership and Football League programmes were almost completely overlooked. Is this what English football has amounted too? Ever more predictable in form and shape, are we to go the route of Scottish and other European national leagues, where nobody but the predictable two or three forever win the major honours? Like Scotland, the lack of competitiveness for major honours is being echoed throughout European Leagues. It is well over two decades since the either of the Glaswegian Big Two relinquished their title. After all, we have the predictable regular members of the European Champions League from Spanish, German, Italian and French leagues, supported by the usual crowd from Norway, Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans.

Supporters surely want a competitive league and the lack of this competition is being reflected in crowd attendances at matches outside of the Big Four. Five to ten years ago, it was practically impossible to buy a ticket on match day for a Premiership game. Now, apart from the Big Four, you can get a ticket on the day for most games. Indeed, gone are the days when Manchester United or Arsenal would draw a full stadium to Middlesbrough or Bolton, for instance. Current economic conditions will only serve to exacerbate the problems as people question more strongly the priorities of their spending: save for a rainy day or spend a couple of ton on taking my kids to a game when I know we won’t win, or, will be rolled over by a Big Four team?

But, what of the world wide support and viewing public? The world wide market is increasingly making its mark. TV, from outside of the UK, is changing football dynamics. Whether it's in the form of a Vietnamese beer commercial (unavailable in the UK) being put out on the Emirates advertising boards or the rumoured changing of kick off times to suit Asian markets. Payments for televising football on overseas rights are paltry compared to what are paid by Sky, Setanta and the BBC for their various television packages in the UK. Big matches have viewing figures of 5-8 million in the UK, maybe double digit millions for the FA cup final. Overseas the viewing figures run into hundred’s of millions if not billions. Logically, it must follow that as there are hundreds of millions of viewers ex-UK, that these are far more profitable for the broadcasters and advertisers than UK viewers – especially given the low amount that the Premiership receives for overseas rights. It must therefore also follow that, as those ex-UK markets get economically stronger, - and they will - broadcasters will want to maintain or increase those audience figures. How do they do that? Well, they just keep showing the so called popular Big Four and thus keep perpetuating and maintaining the elite in English football.

RTG believes that we need to open the market completely to television – given that RTG cannot see a way that we can move away from football commercialisation – but controlled and suitably shared by all in the Premiership and in English football – yes, including Burton! All matches available for viewing by all. The revenues would be so great, that inevitably, there will be huge arguments over the spoils. But they would dwarf anything that is available now. Yes, it might well be a recipe for disaster, but that is what we are heading for anyway. At least this gives a huge benefit for the UK balance of payments, rather than the faceless multinational corporations who are gorging themselves on football money. It might just save the soul of football. It might just bring about a more equitable environment. If billions can be made from one match – and just one billion dwarfs the total annual revenue of all Premiership clubs – then that money could just build a generation of sportsmen and women to match England’s potential.

Or, it could just go into a few players/managers/agents and the pockets of other hangers on. If we, the supporters who care about the game, do not get a say in how it is run, that's exactly where all the money will end up. RTG thinks we can have the voice. Join us.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• Fabio Capello confirmed the worst kept secret in football and took the England job. He had ac tually stated he really wanted the job. Which makes you wonder why the FA were so keen to sign him up and at such expense. There was no particular rush so perhaps Brian Barwick might have bided his time. Or was it the case that he just couldn't bear to look a fool again if he'd lost Capello. The Italy national manager earns £1.5M per year. Spain £350K per year and Billic at Croatia earns £47K per year. At £6M per year for Capello could RTG suggest that Brian Barwick is not the best negotiator in the world?
• Tom Hicks' son proposed to his girlfriend in the centre spot 24 hours before Liverpool's game with Manchester United as he gave her a tour of the stadium. Given the current state of Hicks and Gillet's financial plans for the new stadium, it is likely he'll be able to take her back for their 10th anniversary.
• David Beckham's recent modelling gig for Georgio Armani underwear raised a few eyebrows and indeed a few questions in Posh's direction as to whether he'd fortified himself down below with a pair of Galaxy football socks. Posh was quick to defend Davids saying the meat and two veg was all genuine. However, a fashion commentator was heard to remark, "he looks to me like he's all veg and no meat."

Hats off Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the Week - Marcus Bent. For his impressive hatrick in Wigan's 5-3 demolition of Blackburn. Special mention to Roque Santa Cruz for his hatrick in the same game. Sadly he finished on the losing side.

Villain of the Week - Asylum and Immigration Tribunal for deporting Watford's Al Bangura who fled Sierra Leone aged 15 and made it to Watford where Adie Boothroyd had high hopes for him. Talk about going for the low hanging fruit!

Hero of the Week - Fabio Capello. Well here's hoping!

Shock of the Week - Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3 Celtic 2. Given that ICT are now in the top flight it is not quite as big a shock as the 'super caly go balistic, Celtic are atrocious!' days of old, but a shock nonetheless. Even more so as they were two nil down.

Cliche of the Week - Anything with the word 'Fab', 'Fab-ulous', 'Fabio'. Think you get the drift!

Resources and Backing Now Needed for Capello to Succeed

The wait to find the next England manager, it seems, is over. For England supporters it was not a particularly long wait. For the journos freezing their nuts off outside Soho Square, it probably can’t end soon enough.

Yes, Fabio Capello is expected to be named as successor to Steve McClaren today. It is probably true to say that he was not the nation’s preferred choice but, in truth, that probably has more to do with the fact that people in England know more about Jose Mourinho, through the success he brought to Chelsea, than they do about Capello.

Being England Manager is much like being a politician. Wanting to do the job should, by definition, preclude you from getting it in the first place. Let’s face it, what person of sound mind and body would willingly choose to do it? But, Capello did in fact make his enthusiasm for the job known from the outset and those, like RTG, who demanded a man with a winning mentality, and a proven record of success, cannot claim he does not fit the bill. At RTG we were indeed very pro-Mourinho for the England job. But, after a period of quiet consideration of the two candidates (if indeed Mourinho ever really was a serious candidate), the more Capello looks like a better choice for the job. His record speaks for itself and he appears to pay little heed to reputation as could be seen in his treatment of the Galacticos when he took over at Real Madrid. One Galactico, in particular, came in for short shrift at first but, to be fair to Capello, he later conceeded that David Beckham's work rate and contribution merited his place in the team. And guess what? He coached them to their first title in four years.

It is important also not to forget that, successful though he is, Mourinho has shown a more unpleasant side to his nature in his mean-spirited, and sometimes disrespectful, treatment of other figures in the game. His accusations, concerning Frank Rijkaard’s supposed meetings with the referee at half time in the Barcelona game, were never proven to be true; and his comments regarding referee Anders Frisk whipped Chelsea fans into such a fury that he was forced to give up the game after he received death threats. England does not need a manager that considers manipulation of the media, to his and his side's ultimate gain, as important as coaching and developing the team. Dare we say it also that, perhaps (and this hurts), Brian Barwick deserves a certain degree of praise for not going after Mourinho hell for leather just because he was the people’s choice.

What is required now is a period of consolidation for England. Capello, if he is to be given the job, has until September 2008 before he has a competitive match. That means the FA should put at his disposal whatever resources are required to begin the building process. They have the time now to put a proper plan together in order that we can use his experience to build a genuine legacy for English football. He should also be allowed to choose his preferred backroom staff. Already rumours are rife that he will be forced into accepting a Stuart Pearce, Tony Adams or Alan Shearer as his right hand man in order that they can be groomed for the job. That’s what happened with McClaren and look where it got us.

Sporting just a slight tinge of optimism for the future (likely misplaced), RTG closes making a request to the media. We’re probably pissing in the wind here but can they back off this time and leave this guy to do his job. They effectively picked the England manager last time and it turned out to be a disaster. Their relentless calls to bring back David Beckham just caused Steve McClaren to focus on all the wrong issues and they were the first to crucify him when all he did was try and fulfil their every wish. Capello has enough experience and know-how to pick an England team so leave him alone and let him make the decisions he is paid to do.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Eggert Magnusson took his pristine claret and blue scarf back to the club shop, sold his shares, stepped down as Chairman of West Ham and went back to pursuing his other business interests today. At this stage it is too early to tell exactly why (and we reserve our judgement) but perhaps he was not as big a 'hammers' fan as he first made out when he helped take over the club.
• A good week for British interests in the Champions League as five out of six clubs made it to the last 16. The odds were always against Rangers who had the dubious honour of being the sixth and last club left to try and qualify from the hardest group of any of the Brits. Mixed feelings must abound for Liverpool players as successful qualification leaves them with a high-profile away trip in Europe. Once again their homes will be left at the mercy of the gang that has now robbed six of the squad in the last 18 months. Still, better to have your gaff turned over while away to AC Milan or Barcelona in the Champions League than some Swiss or Belgian team you've never heard of in the UEFA Cup.
• Those of you out there complaining about inconvenient changes to kick off times, spare a thought for supporters of FC United. Having to watch the Unibond League team play after the heady heights of Old Trafford must be hard enough. But now supporters of the Manchester United spin off, FC, are finding themselves having to take action again even at these lowly levels. The board of FC United are staying true to their constitution by urging supporters to boycott their fixture against Curzon Ashton on December 29th due to the game being moved to 12:45pm to accommodate an internet broadcast deal. Both clubs have asked the league to reconsider since Curzon are expected to make £10,000 in gate receipts from the 1200 travelling FC supporters and the internet deal itself is only worth £400. The relentless march of the corporate takeover goes on!

Debatable PFA Demands too Narrow in View

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) celebrated its 100th anniversary recently and some of the more intelligent press took the opportunity to provide some interesting historical analysis. Most pointed out that the original union formed with very limited aims. No, no talk in 1907 of freedom of contracts, image rights and intellectual copyright: instead the initial goal was simply to increase the maximum wage from five to seven pounds a week. Its subsequent success can best be measured by the fact that 50 years later, the maximum wage stood at just twelve pounds a week. Fifty years on from that, well, there is no maximum wage. Talk now is of how the “freedom of contract” has shifted the balance of power within the game to individual players and is expressed in six-figure weekly wages, and multi-million pound image rights, sponsorships and endorsements. This has given modern players the riches that, as a free market dictates, they deserve in comparison to other sports performers.

During the week though, there were reports of “demands” made by the PFA Chief Executive, Gordon Taylor, calling for a quota system on English players. At first glance, and at face value, these demands would appear to be a retro-step in the quality and entertainment value of English football. It is also unlikely in itself, as has been argued on RTG’s pages before, to produce the quality players to make the national team successful.

However, on closer inspection, what Gordon Taylor was really asking for was a quota on including a certain number of “home grown” academy players not only in first team squads, as suggested by UEFA, but the first team itself – irrespective of the nationality of those academy players. The hope would be that, as around 85% of academy players are currently English, this would translate into a technically more accomplished and larger pool of players available to the national squad. But, would it? What is the reality behind the quota idea? Certainly in the short term, it would be a constraint imposed on English teams throughout the league – perhaps affecting European aspirations most of all. Longer term, would it not simply shift the competition amongst clubs for recruiting players to ever younger targets? The prospect of multi millionaire 10 year olds looms larger!

These points are all worthy of debate, but the main driving force of this week’s issues raised by the PFA was a report, commissioned by them, which detailed the tremendous increase of non English players in the premiership. Since the advent of the club academy system, around 10 years ago, 120 young English men have graduated to first team football. In the same period, 617 foreign players have arrived in the premiership. A sobering statistic indeed. The report’s most surprising fact of all was that since the premiership started the number of English players involved has actually increased from 128 to 246 last season. A fact presumably explained by the modern need for much larger squads. Sadly, RTG doesn’t know how many of those 246 are considered first teamers. We suspect far less as a percentage, and in actual numbers, than in the premiership’s inaugural season.

The quota system, whilst worthy of debate, offers a too simplistic and narrow solution to England’s present woes. There are enormous cultural and educational issues that are greater even than football, which have a hugely significant impact on the development of players in this country. Why are there many thousands, yes thousands, of Brazilians playing professionally throughout the world outside of Brazil? The answer is that for the vast majority of those thousands, football is a way out of the violence and despair of the poverty stricken favellas. As Harry Redknapp mused on the answer to a question posed by a reporter, asking why he appeared to favour managing foreigners as opposed to English talent, he explained, the relative expense of signing English players was a problem, but that the most important point was the perceived lack of commitment from English kids. “Kids would rather be stuck indoors in front of their computer screens, playing games and surfing the ‘net. You just don’t see kids kicking the ball about in a park these days”.

Reclaim the Game – The Weekend’s Events

• Congratulations to Ryan Giggs for joining the exclusive group of players who have scored 100 league goals at the top level. He joins another 10 of the all time Manchester United greats which includes Best, Law and Charlton. Perhaps his most unwitting success was to be popular outside of Man United’s supporter base. No mean feat in itself.
• With all this talk of recession and credit squeezes, and with the transfer window opening in 3 weeks, the newspapers seem unsure of their scope for bullshit transfer stories. Still let’s hope for their sake that the FA doesn’t come up with an appointment to the England manager’s job. What on earth would they be able to speculate about?

Hat's Off, Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the Week: Aiyegbeni Yakuba scoring his first hat-trick for Everton. Suddenly, people are beginning to wake up to the fact that he has been the most prolific striker in the premiership since his arrival on these shores. This excludes those that have departed the premiership (eg Henry van Nistelrooy), but still...

Hero of the Week: Ryan Giggs. As mentionned above.

Villain of the Week: Cristiano Ronaldo. Having elicited all the sympathy vote for his unjust booking and not winning a penalty last Monday night against Fulham, he spoils it all by doing the classic "there's a defender's leg, trip over it" to win one unjustly against Derby on Saturday. Curiously, he was defended by Andy Gray, who thought it was very "professional" and that he was "entitled" to go down. Nowadays, when Andy Gray says "professional", RTG hears "cheating".

Shock of the Week: Reading gaining their first win over a big four side (Liverpool). In this case, whilst the defeat of a much in-form Liverpool side was a surprise in itself, perhaps the biggest shock was that it was only their first win of this type. Reading's performances in their first two ever seasons in the top flight have been laudable as well as eye-catching.

Cliche of the Week: any simple, one sided argument that promises to right all that is wrong with English football. It just "aint" that simple.

Roll up. Roll up for the 100 Caps Wembley Showbiz Spectacular!

According to England skipper John (do you know how much I earn in a week?) Terry, Jose Mourinho is the ‘stand out’ candidate for the next England manager. For once, RTG finds it hard to disagree with JT on that. Sadly, however, this is in the same breath as stating he would be willing to sit out the Switzerland friendly in order for David Beckham to win his (in JT’s own words) “very well-deserved 100th cap”.

Much has been said recently regarding the England football team and its current woes. JT’s ‘sincere’ offer undermines his position as captain of a failing football team as he is trivialising the whole wretched situation that we as supporters have had to endure. What exactly is he stating? Beckham is going to play centre half? If so then we definitely haven’t even begun to learn anything from our recent debacle. Why is a captain talking up a player who won’t have played a competitive match for over three months, and only a handful in the last six or seven? The truth is that this situation is not going to happen. So why bother saying it?

Could it be that in an effort to fill Wembley for what is now a meaningless friendly on February 6th, next year, the FA have decided to turn the event into some sort of football celebrity love-in rather than focusing on rebuilding a flagging side? Let’s face it, the economics of filling Wembley with thousands of toilet-licking teenyboppers make much more sense than trying to half-fill it with miserable, disgruntled England supporters, still smarting from the lack of competitive matches to look forward to.

There have been four previous winners of 100 or more caps for England – Billy Wright, Peter Shilton, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton. As RTG has stated before, David Beckham was once a very fine player. Unfortunately, you can count only a handful of world class performances he has made for his country; most notably, in his total command of the world cup qualifier against Greece, where his last minute effort secured automatic qualification to Japan 2002. It is hard to imagine him, however, in the company of these four greats and perhaps it would be better for the game if he stayed on 99 caps.

Reclaim the Game – The Week’s Events

• Call RTG cynical (and we are), but we believe that John Terry wetting himself and urinating on the floor on the eve of the important Croatia match was not caused by excess drink and exuberance. No, this was a carefully calculated publicity stunt for his rumoured new sponsorship deal with Pampers. OK….not strictly true…..it was Huggies. OK enough!
• Is it RTG’s imagination or has Richard Keys got even more vacuous in his summation of matches on Sky? He appears to take no account of the full 90 minutes and seems to refer constantly to his stock of clichéd points gleaned from the media, no matter what happened out on the field. As hard as Peter Beardsley tried to talk about the game last night (and as hard as we tried to understand the mumbling Geordie), Keys just kept bringing him back to, “Oh Arsenal, they play lovely football don’t they?”…..”Allardyce is under a lot of pressure isn’t he, Peter?”….”Pressure off Allardyce now Peter?”. Thanks Mr Keys but we learnt nothing about football from one of the game's greats thanks to your inane, stage-managed presentation.
• Gretna have made a brave decision this week to agree to postpone their SPL match with Rangers at the weekend to help Rangers’ preparations for their upcoming qualification decider against Lyons. Admirable though it is to see a nation getting behind its club teams in Europe, this adds a distinctly unfair advantage and sets a worrying precedent should the habit be adopted more widely.

A Week to Wonder: What's Happening?

Football endured a tempestuous time this week including arrests on suspicion of corruption in the game, more bribery rumours/allegations and controversial issues which have been discussed and illustrated in previous posts by RTG. However you look at events this week, it is hard not to feel like the game is moving further away than ever from what supporters would call ‘reality’.

The England manager’s job appears to be turning into a PR fest, not helped by the FA’s appalling handling of the process last time around. As usual, the FA appear not to be doing anything. However, perhaps we are being unfair as RTG has no idea on the workings of the committees of the sub-committees and various points of order (Mr Chairman).

Candidates and their agents are professing not to be interested, then very interested, all within the space of 24 hours. Today’s papers have Jose Mourinho still saying, "come and get me" and "here’s my plan", while others claim he is waiting for a big club job and is using the England job as leverage in other discussions. However, due to the ponderous processes that the FA appears to operate under, it may be that, as the most ‘popular’ choice, Mourinho may well be bagged by someone else. After all, with the transfer window coming up, it would seem logical that a man of his ability would be snapped up by a leading European team. AC Milan for one!

One of the names being touted to succeed McClaren, Harry Redknapp was one of those arrested and released on bail this week. Presumably this is as an initial result of the recent Stevens inquiry and it is rumoured that more arrests will follow. This at least answers the question RTG posted some weeks ago as to what had actually happened here. How long will we wait for the next events to unfold regarding this matter? Possibly too long for Redknapp to ever be considered for the job (if indeed he ever was a serious candidate). The threat of more arrests may be impacting the selection process already.

The undue haste with which the FA despatched Steve McClaren’s P45 would seem to suggest that they had a ‘plan’ in place, wouldn’t it? It does not look like it, at the moment. What makes RTG worried is that, once again, we will end up with nothing more than a compromise candidate chosen by a combination of media pundits, ill-informed xenophobes and an FA under financial pressure. Don’t book your flights for South Africa 2010 just yet either.

Reclaim the Game – The Weekend’s Events

• More controversy involving referees at the weekend saw Phil Dowd (again) apparently refer to the fourth official – Uriah Rennie (well it would be wouldn’t it) – and presumably the TV feed, in sending off Robbie Keane. Aside from the hilarity of listening to Andy Gray trying to lip read what Mr Dowd was saying, it has, once again, clouded the issue of video evidence. Let’s hope the FA don’t punish an irate manager as he berates a fourth official into looking at the evidence of a dubious decision. The use of video evidence seems to have come in through the back door (remember Zidane’s sending off in the World Cup final). The only real reason this was especially highlighted yesterday was because the video evidence appeared to prove the officials got the decision wrong, or at least was still inconclusive. Which all just shows what RTG has long thought: the controversial decisions won’t go away just because technology is at hand; it will just shift into a more technical arena. But, the referees will not be in charge of the game.

• UEFA are investigating certain European matches (as yet undisclosed), thought to be Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifiers, for match fixing involving an Asian betting syndicate. Michel Platini is taking a hands-on approach and RTG awaits the outcome in his first major test as UEFA’s president. RTG was somewhat amused when parts of the media implied that some of Croatia’s Euro 2008 qualifiers were involved and that this might give a back door entry for England. This desperate wishful thinking might have more to do with pundit contracts being lost and drink-fuelled jollies to Austria and Switzerland having to be put on hold. No doubt the BBC will still find the budget to send Chris Hollins and Nicky Campbell to bake cakes, wear lederhosen and interview drunk fans in the street.

• Speaking of all things Euro 2008, the draw was held yesterday for the group stages of the tournament. It seems like it is of a better standard, and harder to win than the World Cup, so why spoil the potential of the tournament by allowing the draw to put three of the best teams in the same group. No disrespect to Romania intended. The draw was made a farce by the need to accommodate the two hosts as number one seeds. Clearly a stupid situation and why we should only have a single host for tournaments. It might be argued that this is the only way some countries will get to host such an event but, with only two venues above 32,000 capacity, these two should not have been awarded it in the first place. Look, if Mexico, a third world country, can successfully host a world cup with large venues, then rich nations like these should be able to make more of an investment in what is the second largest international tournament in the world.

• Aaaahh, the romance of the third round of the Famous FA Eon Cup™. The draw was held yesterday amid the usual anticipation of ‘David v Goliath’ and ‘a money-spinning tie’ for the minnows. Amazingly, Manchester Utd drew Aston Villa in the third round for the fourth time in seven years. What seems to have been missed is that, had United not pulled out of the 2000 competition, it would have been five in eight as the so-called ‘lucky losers’, Darlington (who replaced United in the draw) drew guess who? Statistically this seems highly improbable as well as a real bummer for Villa fans.
  
  Hats Off, Take a Bow! (or not).

Player of the week: Fernando Torres - playing sublimely and so surreal like, that you might just believe that Liverpool will break their 18 year taboo of winning the English league.

Villain of the week: all those that believe in video evidence - No! It's not going to work. It won't until we get 'feel around' - or is it 'sense around'?

Heroes of the week: FC Stuttgart Team and Supporters. Everybody in the UK paid scorn on their lap of honour when they picked up their only points in the Champions League. They gave it as a thankyou to their fans who had supported them (a full stadium, when they were already out of the competition). Treated cynically by the British press, yet a heart felt gesture.

Shock of the week: the Arrests! Without judging already, RTG really didn't believe any action would be taken from the Stevens Inquiry. Let's hope, however, that guilty parties are taken down and for those not found out, that this is a warning.

Cliche of the week: "I am interested, I am not interested" - in the England job, of course.

Platini's Aims Laudable but Need Concrete Proposals

In a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper, Michel Platini talked about his concerns, expressed in a letter to all heads of EU government, regarding the “rampant commercialism that assails it” [football]. Interestingly enough, our own ‘gorgeous’ Gordon Brown was the only head not to reply. What a surprise! With all the talk and wringing of hands over recent sporting failings, how interesting that several commentators have identified that the UK government’s lack of interest in football, and sport in general, is reflected by the UK being one of the few leading nations in the world that does not have a sports minister in the main cabinet. Indeed, Australia’s failing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where they won only one gold medal, and finished well down the medal table, resulted in a permanent cabinet position being set up. At Athens in 2004 they won 17 gold medals and finished fourth in the medal table.

Despite no comment from Gordon Brown, Richard Scudamore, Premier League Chief Executive, commented in the Financial Times (note, not a paper with a great sporting tradition) that Platini’s ideas, “do not rise much above the view of people in the corner of the pub.” Actually, Richard, your comments reveal exactly what you think of us – your paying “guests” that you so patronisingly referred to us as. We’re all those supporters in the corner of the pub and we pay your exorbitant wages.

Platini replied through the Guardian by saying, “I prefer to speak with the fans in the pubs.” Great. This is a very encouraging sign. He does appear to be saying all the right things and RTG wholeheartedly supports his sentiments. He has, since his election as President of UEFA, originated some interesting and controversial proposals – not all of which RTG has agreed with (see earlier posts re Champions League qualification for FA Cup winners). But, his letter to the heads of government did not appear to make any concrete proposals. And how easy would it be to fight the money men in actually getting through any proposals, anyway, when his organisation, and FIFA, are rife with rumours of financial impropriety?

Let’s stress again, RTG believes (as Platini seems to) that sport has to strike a workable balance between the financial side of matters and its role in civilisation as a cultural and recreational activity. This is not going to be an easy fight for Platini but RTG believes that we, supporters of football, should give him our backing. That’s why this blog exists and why we need you to lend your support by signing the guestbook.

Reclaim the Game – The Week’s Events

• The ambivalence of both Richard Scudamore and the UK government, as mentioned above, is unlikely to help England’s cause in winning the 2018 World Cup bid. It beggars belief how the FA and Premier League continue to walk around with their feet permanently in their mouths.
• Next week sees the launch of the new 24/7 Setanta Sports News Channel. Great. Now we can look forward to Kelly Dalglish (ex of Sky and still of Kenny) delivering yet more WAG stories and over-sensationalised, trite items on an already dangerously over-exposed sport. Now, we’ll have the pleasure of Sky and Setanta being able to bid for the privilege of showing the England plane taking off for the World Cup (if they get there).
• The World Cup 2010 organisers have announced lower priced tickets to matches for residents of South Africa in order to encourage the full cross-section of the South African population to be able to attend. Applaudable if it is being taken up by genuine South African football supporters. What RTG suspects will happen is a rampant black market where the corporates get all the tickets they want and national supporters’ associations get hardly any. Think about the mark-up they will be able to make from tickets purchased at £9.65 each (the proposed price). Sadly, RTG can not really offer any solution at this point.
• When Tom Hicks and George Gillett first took over Liverpool, RTG expressed our dismay at how most Liverpool fans (in the hope that it was a chance to be more competitive) welcomed them in with open arms. The recent spat between the owners and Rafa Benitez is a wake up call to the reality for Liverpool supporters. What a pity that neither Hicks nor Gillett were in the country to see the supporters’ march before their crucial game against Porto last night. RTG supports those who took part.

FA's Incompetence Makes England Supporters World Cup Weary

“We want to basically make sure we get the right person. We want to be patient, if that’s the right way to go about it. It’s a big job ahead of us. We have a real genuine responsibility to deliver on it this time…”

The words of FA Chief Executive, Brian Barwick, before adding that finding the new England manager was, “a hare and tortoise thing”. (What?).

Apart from being fairly incomprehensible as a statement, RTG just doesn’t believe that the FA has the right people or structure to select the right person. And in case he doesn’t realise it, it was his duty to deliver it last time as well. And look what we got: a manager who was effectively a ‘dead man walking’ from the day of his appointment.

He was never anybody’s first choice but he did satisfy one criterion for the xenophobic media in being English. Once it started to go wrong, they turned on him also which made him focus too much attention on managing his media persona rather than the team. His spin-engineered press conferences were, at best, dreary and told us very little. He sought to compound that error by appointing Terry Venables as his number two as a defensive cloak – an appointment, by the way, that served to create more confusion, more strife and more disruption. When is English football going to realise that El Tel, whatever successes he has enjoyed in his past, is not a good person to have around? God help the Irish if they appoint him as their manager.

But, and a very important but it is too: is there really any point in appointing any new manager if the FA is not to be first restructured and reorganised to reflect some defined objectives for the running of English football? In recent times, the lack of objectives has seen us can the Burton FA’s School of Excellence in favour of financing the New Wembley stadium. What else has this got us? Having to play American Football on the pitch less than a month before the most important game to be played there yet.

If there is no serious rethink and action on changing the way that football is run in England, then there really was no point in sacking Steve Mclaren and it would have been a darn sight cheaper for the bean counters at the FA. Yes, a new manager may instil a short-term boost of enthusiasm, especially for those players who’ve come to expect their England place is guaranteed. We will also have the usual media honeymoon period and perhaps even a few good results. But this will just be papering over the cracks yet again.

Given the apparent fiscal objectives of the FA, RTG expects that the ideal solution for 2010 World Cup qualification would be to finish second in the group thus necessitating the need for another ‘earner’ in a play-off at Wembley. Was it only us, though, who felt decidedly ambivalent toward the World Cup draw yesterday, as it sought only to reinforce our disappointment at not having a competitive match to play until September 2008. Yes. 10 months!

But, the World Cup draw did bring home a particular issue that RTG has felt strongly about for some time – namely getting rid of the geographic element and having world cup qualification groups drawn based solely on rankings. England must travel nine hours and three and a half thousand miles to play Kazakhstan. If we can go there then we could travel to most of Africa, the Caribbean, North America, parts of Central America and as far East as Bangladesh. It would also remove the situation where some regions are playing disproportionate numbers of games e.g. CONMEBOL who play 18 matches to remove five of ten teams and for Brazil and Argentina to always qualify. CONCACAF is similar in that USA and Mexico always qualify. Of the top 32 teams in the Fifa World Rankings, Europe occupies 23 places yet receives just 13 of the 32 slots for the World Cup finals.

World Groups are a win win situation for all involved. Players play less matches, clubs lose fewer players for international duty and we get the best 32 teams in the world competing in a competition whose quality has been declining in recent times. Plus, the world can coordinate its diary in order to plan suitable times when matches can be played as conveniently as possible for clubs, players and countries.

Sounds a bit too sensible that doesn’t it!

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• The big smiles and happy faces of the Croatian players at the singing of their national anthem was taken by several pundits as an example of their burning pride and ambition as a contrast to England's limp approach. Apparently not. The cause of the hilarity was that singer, Tony Henry had actually mispronounced the opening line of the anthem. Instead of "You know my dear how we love your mountains”, he appears to have sung, "My dear, my penis is a mountain”. However, at least England may have some representation in Austria/Switzerland because Croatia want Mr Henry to be their official mascot at the tournament.
• Media Madness for potential England Manager observed over the weekend: Alan Shearer. Tony Adams. Steve Coppell. Terry Venables. Slaven Bilic. Gerrard Houllier. Harry Redknapp. Stuart Pearce. There are bound to be others but we'd like to throw the hats of Brian Clough and the kid that won the Fifa 2006 computer game tournament in to the ring.
• A prime example of why England suffers at international level could be seen on Match of the Day on Saturday night. Mark Lawrenson and Alan Shearer rightly criticised the current FA structure and development of players (now). But then proceeded to illustrate the short-sightedness of the whole football industry by extolling the virtues of Bolton's over physical approach by describing it as "work rate, desire and honesty". These are always seen as the overriding virtues of English players and until we move away from this narrow view of the world, we will achieve nothing.
• SOS! Talksport's (and others') campaign to reinstate the Home Internationals to, "Save our Summer" should be given the short shrift that it deserves. There are enough pointless tournaments and matches in the close season already. Its unfortunate that none of us will be there but players (and spectators) could use a break so let's take the opportunity to give them one.
  

Hats Off, Take a Bow! (or not).

Player of the Week – Tim Cahill. Bossed the game in a 7-1 drubbing of Sunderland and a wonderful performance that was always waiting to happen.

Heroes of the Week – Staines Town. A big up for the Staines Massive in their defeat of Stockport County in the FA Cup. We just wanted to say the word massive but honourable mentions to Forest Green for thrashing Rotherham 3-0 at Millmoor and Hereford United for beating 'higher flying' Leeds United at Elland Road.

Villain of the Week – Idiot pundits who keep making stupid and ill considered suggestions as to the next England manager's identity. The most frustrating thing about England is those people who claim to have an expert knowledge, and indeed you would think they should, but suffer from the whole England football problem of lack of education - in its formal sense.

Cliche of the Week – Up to the Ladies to show the men how to do it. Having beaten Spain, 1-0, the England Women's team now top their Euro qualification group. Great effort and hats off to them but RTG couldn't really give a damn given current circumstances. Sorry but that's the way we feel.

Shock of the Week - We knew the media were stupid but Alan Shearer? Come on!

Not Back to Square One. Back to the Drawing Board.

Now you didn’t book that flight did you?

Austria and Switzerland Euro 2008 will undoubtedly be a poorer tournament for the lack of English supporters who usually outnumber most other countries by a considerable margin. The bar owners in those countries will most surely be cancelling their orders for their new Mercedes and wiping away a little tear. Perhaps the street cleaners may allow themselves a little smile.

So at RTG we are left once again pondering the whys and the wherefores and where we go from here. The usual bullshit will be spouted and frankly we’re too depressed to even bother getting annoyed about it. Safe to say already we’ve heard, “Oh David Beckham should have been on from the start”[Desperate]. “What if John Terry had been fit?” [Pointless]. “Stupid Rio for getting himself suspended”. [Scapegoat]. You can fill in the rest of the “if only” crap should you so wish. [Injuries][Pitch][Yadda…Yadda…Yadda].

Now we have a chance to put something right. England has the richest league in the World. It has the best players from around the World. Arguably it is the most exciting in the World if somewhat lacking in true competition. The English supporters are surely the keenest in the World and the resources available to the FA are second to none. In England we also have a massive desire to do well which is why we get so upset when we fail to reach our potential.

The time for talking about “passion” and picking managers and players based on how hard they can stick their fist in the air is over. Now is the time for a radical rethink about how we develop players and to build for a long-term future. It is time to start using our brains at all levels of the game. Sadly this approach has never been in abundance in English football. It was clear last night that when things started to go wrong we had neither the intelligence nor ability to work out how to put it right. This is especially true after Crouch’s equaliser when the only surprise was that it took 12 minutes for Croatia to go back in front.

Being optimistic, we have all the ingredients in this country to put things right. Being pessimistic, and given that we have had these ingredients for years, we are still searching desperately to find the recipe for success. However, the spectre of Brian Barwick flying around Europe trying to cajole people into the “impossible job” does not inspire confidence. Let’s at least hope that he improves his neck wear! Time and time again, over the last 40 years, it has been shown that the FA is not structured or organised for success. Until this is done, expect many more days like today in the next 40 years.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• A step in the right direction? Possibly. Wayne Rooney is studying for GCSE's in English and Maths. It will not only make him comfortably one of the most educated English players but with such a large bank balance it has a modicum of common sense about it.
• In order to help pay for the New Wembley, the FA staged an NFL football game. How ironic that one of the most damaged areas of the pitch played a crucial part in Croatia's first goal. It was announced just a few days beforehand that the FA were going to re-lay the pitch at a cost of £100K next month. A month too late perhaps.
• How delighted RTG was this week to be granted the opportunity on Sky Sports to watch highlights from the North London Golf Classic - featuring both memorable and highly forgettable former Arsenal and Spurs players pitched against each other on the fairways. This is yet more ridiculous over exposure of football, and all that goes on around it. RTG has always believed in a dedicated football channel run by the FA for supporters so Sky subscribers don't have to subsidise this type of crap.

Media Works in Our Favour. Just This Once.

Israel, contrary to popular belief (including cynical RTG previous postings), played out of their skins to rescue England on Saturday. But thank God for the cynicism of a nation and its media. No-one could see how an Israel team, that had nothing to play for, would be victorious over a Russian team that shared many footballing, cultural and, above all, financial links with them. However, the pressure exerted by the English media, forced the Israeli coach to call a press conference prior to the match to deny ‘undue pressure’ had been applied from ‘outside’.

In a complete reversal of circumstances, following the result, the head of the Russian FA, Vitaly Mutko, cried foul. He has all but accused the English media of influencing the result of the game by energising an Israeli performance which had removed his team’s destiny out of their own hands. Additionally, it appeared to cause the Russian team to, in the words of one of their players, “shit in their pants”.

Did the English media play their part? Only the players involved can really tell. The point is that it seems normal these days to have to play a PR offensive in various media channels prior to any important match. Over many years, Sir Alex Ferguson has used various pronouncements on potentially lenient or easily led referees or xenophobic stereotypes, to head off possible obstacles to his own interests. This now seems to be a widely acceptable practice exercised by the majority of managers and coaches.

As England supporters, for once, the media has undoubtedly helped us out. Its record over the years has been the complete reverse. It has been the hirer and firer of England management over the last 35 years. And look where it has got us! For that matter, where has it got the English Premiership? Have their been any great debates about the most significant event to occur in the last five years – i.e. the arrival of billions of pounds in the form of Roman Abramovich and the securing of two Premiership titles? No. The media chose to focus on the fact that it would make the Premiership competition better by adding Chelsea to the competitive mix (i.e. to challenge Arsenal and Manchester United’s dominance of the league). Astonishingly, no downside could be appreciated, or anticipated. In fact, they chose to be positively sycophantic toward Chelsea and Abramovich. There were even pundits and commentators who expounded that blatant cheating was, in their terms, ‘excellent professionalism’. Hang your head in shame Andy Gray.

Lost in the midst of the Italian scandals of undue influence being exercised by referees in favour of the top teams in Serie A, was the manipulation of viewers of Italy’s most popular football analysis programme to those big teams. That is, controversial decisions made against the top teams were highlighted as being ‘unfair’ while controversial decisions made for those teams were glossed over and presented in a favourable light. RTG finds it hard to believe that these same sorts of influences are not being perpetrated by the media in this country.

The media in England have complained steadfastly over the last few years over lack of access to players and their remoteness. Yet, the fact is that, in its efforts to look after its own interests and not ‘bite the hand that feeds it’, the media has actually become just as remote itself. Laudable and debatable initiatives are raised but quietly and conveniently swept aside and forgotten. The Observer published a series of articles under the banner of ‘The Game that Ate Itself’ and FourFourTwo magazine published a special feature on ‘100 Ways to Save Football’. All very interesting but what has actually been achieved as a result? Nothing! Above all, what has been heard of the Stevens Report recently? What action has been taken? Nothing.

That’s why we’re doing this. There needs to be a body of people who are prepared to act. For the few of you who are reading this, we ask you to pass on the url to your fellow supporters and ask you to register with us now.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• As predicted in this very blog, Scotland go back to being also-rans and having to support whoever is playing England as their brave attempt to qualify from a tough group fell just short of the mark once again. A lot of talk about 'passion' and 'Scottish fans being like a twelfth man' came to nothing against the World Champions on Saturday. Ultimately, if you concentrate on good results against France and forget that you have to beat teams like Georgia, no amount of 'passion' makes a blind bit of difference. Better luck next time lads. You'll probably need it.
• Hard-hitting Times journalist and Sports Writer of the Year,2005, Martin Samuels, seems to have hit upon something that the rest of the English football-watching public missed. Speaking on the Sunday Supplement this weekend, he attributed England's problems to (and we quote) "our juniors having to play on a full-sized pitch". With no apparent explanation further than that. And there was RTG thinking it was maybe down to poor coaching, an apathetic and self-centred FA, years of neglect and unintelligent English players. Give that man a job in the FA someone!
• Moves are afoot to follow Sheffield Wednesday's example and ban the band from England games. We give this our wholehearted support. Not only are they an irritating and distracting dirge in the background of England games, they also contribute nothing to the atmosphere or encouraging England fans to sing and shout. In fact, they probably have the opposite effect. Whoever thought this was a good idea, are probably the same people who think a good England manager is one who clenches his fists a lot, runs around his technical area whistling and who makes waving hand gestures at his players that they neither see nor understand.
• England have been thrown a lifeline. Two things we should remember about this. Firstly, this does not mean that performances against Russia, Croatia and Macedonia have gone away. They still happened and they were still bad. Secondly, Steve Mclaren is not suddenly a good manager. We're not there yet but, if we get there, (and in the absence of any likely appointment of Jose Mourinho) he's probably as good as anyone available for the job. Hopefully that hasn't depressed you too much.

Hat's Off, Take a Bow (or not!)

Player of the Week - David Healy. Broke Davor Suker's record for number of goals scored in a European Championship qualifying campaign with a tally of 13 so far. Admittedly he has had 12 games in which to achieve it which Davor most likely did not. Interestingly, he can't get near goal-starved Fulham's starting eleven.

Villain of the Week - All those people (RTG included) who predicted Israel would lay down and roll over for Russia. Shame on us all! But thank God we answered our country's call when it mattered.

Hero of the Week - Omer Golan. Nice one old son. At least for the time being got us out of a tight spot.

Cliche of the Week - 'Golan Scales New Heights.' Or something similar.

Shock of the Week - The effort and sheer determination put in by Israel to prove that they were going to go for it.

MyFootballClub - The Way Forward or Organised Chaos?

RTG is watching with great interest to see how the proposed takeover of Blue Square Premier club Ebbsfleet United progresses. For anyone out there who does not know, this is the internet-driven trust fund, MyFootballClub.com, where already 20,000 subscribers from around the globe have paid £35 each into a trust fund with the specific aim of purchasing a football club. Ebbsfleet has become the chosen target and negotiations are well in hand with directors and coaching staff. Just so you know, it is proposed that subscribers get to vote on issues such as team selection, transfers, formations and ground improvements – that is the entire operation of the club.

The current manager, Liam Daish, initially sceptical about the idea, seems to be embracing it now that he has a rumoured £250,000 to spend on players. Don’t be fooled by this amount. This is a fortune at that level where players earning four to five hundred pounds per week are said to be well paid. RTG supports this idea wholeheartedly because, as a test case, it will be interesting to see how it pans out. However, can it really work?

Take the case of Mr Daish as an example. What manager in his right mind is going to spend days training with his squad just to have some lardy, wannabe, desk johnny tell him who is in and who is out for Saturday, and what formation he has to play? Expect to see spurious injuries abounding in advance of team voting day! Taking the example up a level or two, look at Manchester United in 1989/90. If it had been left to Manchester United supporters, Alex Ferguson would almost certainly have been sacked, making you wonder where they would be now nine Premiership titles, one European Cup and Five FA Cups later. As recently as last season, many Arsenal fans were getting increasingly frustrated with Arsene Wenger as results didn’t go their way. That could have started a snowball effect of supporter discontent in advance of what has become a very promising season. A season which, in fact, may not have been allowed to happen. In addition, how would you prevent infiltration from rival supporters who would certainly not act in the best interests of the club – and yes, there are people out there who would do it.

Broadly, RTG is very much in favour of clubs being owned by supporters. Currently, there are something like 100 football trusts set up in England. Only four actually own a club – Brentford, Bournemouth, Chesterfield and Stockport. However these were established mainly to save the clubs from bankruptcy, and to remain within their locale. It should be noted that whilst they laudably achieved their original aims, they are all currently struggling clubs. At the other end of the scale, taking Barcelona and Real Madrid as examples, we can see that supporter-owned clubs at the highest level can be done very successfully. However, it should be noted that the cultural backdrop to these clubs is very different. Barcelona’s membership grew as a direct result of the Catalan independence movement and they are seen as, in their words, ‘More than a Club’. Though, given the examples above, it is interesting to note that there is a supporters’ lobby in favour of sacking Frank Rijkaard and bringing in Jose Mourinho. Real Madrid were seen very much as the sporting figure-head of General Franco’s fascist government so membership could be said to have had ‘its privileges’. Periodically they have elections to vote in the President/CEO, and these have amounted to ‘beauty’ contests where all sorts of promises are made and subsequently broken. Though, interestingly, one of the slickest election campaigns run by Lionel Perez, brought in the disastrous ‘Galacticos’ policy which saw Real Madrid go through their leanest trophy winning period since pre-Franco times.

Take the modern Premiership. Unless you have a wealthy, sincere, benefactor, you can’t really compete. There aren’t that many of them around and we don’t really want our national game dependent on them. So supporter-owned clubs are definitely a positive step forward. However, how they should be run needs to be debated and then formalised so as not to become the fiefdoms of individuals, or groups of individuals, which both Barcelona and Real Madrid (amongst many others) have suffered from. It should be a step toward greater transparency of how the national game is run in the interests of the sport, and not in the interests of shareholders.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• The English press has jumped on Michel Platini's apparently negative remarks about England's 2018 World Cup bid saying he is supposedly against us. What he actually said was that there were several European bids being made and he would judge each of them on merit. So let's not get hysterical. But at RTG we're getting a little concerned at the idea of the English having to be sycophantic to a Frenchman over the next few years. It just doesn't sit well!
• Talking of Platini. He is finding his reforms of the Champions League are much harder to implement and, in fact, are now so watered down as to have made virtually no difference apart from fourth place now has to play two qualification rounds rather than one.
• The Coventry versus West Brom fixture on Monday night saw the referee clearly consulting with the fourth official (who happened to be looking at the Sky coverage) in the sending off of Coventry's Michael Mifsud. The referee obviously didn't see the incident which was a blatant sending off offence, so the only conclusion to draw is that he was actually dismissed as a result of video evidence. Have they introduced it through the back door without us knowing? Without a clear policy this is just going to lead to more confusion, more angst and more disagreement in football.

Santa Or Setanta? TV Money Will Ultimately Decide

Have Manchester United taken a small nip from the hand that feeds it? Setanta wanted to move United’s home fixture against Everton to eight o’clock on Christmas Eve in order to make use of a prime viewing slot. By refusing to ‘play ball’ United have struck a minor blow for the ground-visiting supporter. For all we know Everton may have chosen to refuse also but, by all accounts, Sir Alex gave Setanta such short shrift that it never even came down to them to make a choice. But it is only a minor blow and don’t think for one moment that RTG is suggesting that clubs are going to start fighting back against TV companies in the interests of their fans.

There are, of course, problems for supporters associated with trying to travel on Christmas Eve. There are problems, too, for the police faced with rival Merseyside and Manchester supporters enjoying a spot of pre-Christmas bingeing on what is already a busy night for them. And, credit where credit is due - players come in for a fair amount of stick for the amount they earn these days but shouldn’t they at least have Christmas Eve free in what is a hectic period in the Premiership schedule?

It pains RTG to think that TV companies have so little respect now for supporters that they were even prepared to contemplate this. It has already been discussed here in previous posts how TV revenue is gradually growing in importance over gate receipts as a proportion of a club’s turnover. And, as it continues to take on greater and greater significance, we might even expect to see Christmas Day fixtures let alone Christmas Eve.

The Premiership as a ‘product’ continues to grow in popularity the world over. The need to look after the wishes of the supporters in the stadium, therefore, diminishes. We have already seen Manchester United and Arsenal happily play their recent fixture at the Emirates at 12:45pm on a Saturday while Vietnamese beer commercials flashed up all around the pitch. It was predicted (RTG doesn’t know whether rightly or wrongly) that one billion people would watch that game on TV. Given those kinds of numbers, an attendance of 60,000 inside the stadium starts to seem fairly insignificant.

Furthermore, as the needs of worldwide TV viewing figures begin to take centre stage, so competitive sport will begin to be compromised. How long will it be before a team winning fairly comfortably brings on a Chinese, Indian or Korean player, for the last 10 minutes, purely to boost TV revenues? Player decisions will increasingly be made for commercial reasons. Impossible? Well, just look at the case of Brazilian player, Giovanni, who, was not only a surprise pick for the 1998 World Cup squad, but he also played in the first game against Scotland to satisfy a commercial commitment with Nike. He was substituted at half-time and was never seen again for the rest of the tournament. Ronaldo was evidently not fit to play in the final that year, for whatever reason, and yet the idea of him not taking the field was unacceptable to the sponsors. And, you might question why England took an unfit David Beckham to Japan in 2002. Shirt sales, perhaps, ahead of the construction of the New Wembley? Trust RTG on this one. You ain’t seen nothing yet!

If fixture times can be moved to accommodate TV, is it not also feasible that we may soon see, for example, Liverpool versus Manchester United played in Beijing or New York? That may seem ridiculous to football supporters now but so did the idea of changing kick off times to Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons and Friday nights once upon a time. In fact, the idea of only one match in the top division being played at 3pm on a Saturday would have seemed like nonsense.

In its recent study of the globalisation of sport, The Observer pointed to research that showed that the armchair TV fan is more open to the idea of switching allegiances from team to team. Anyone who has watched a game in a bar in the Far East can clearly see this process in action. The truth is it suits the franchising model for exactly that to happen. Supporters who get uppity at clubs who threaten the tradition and makeup of the team they have followed since they were a kid are not what the modern club owner wants to see going forward. Fickle TV viewers who are prepared to come on board when their favourite star player moves to their club. Now that makes far more financial sense!

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• An interesting development taking place at Arsenal where three of the club's season ticket holders are suing their own club for racist chanting at the Emirates stadium. Arsenal fans have long held out that the word 'Yid' is just a nickname for Spurs fans who use the term themselves. The supporters - a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian, beg to differ. A far cry indeed from the days when nicking over the fence was the only way you could get back at your club financially! Supporters these days are clearly too educated and too well-heeled to stop at that.
• A football fan was shot by a policeman in Italy at the weekend during a fight between Lazio and Juve fans. The match was subsequently postponed. Other games in Serie A kicked off ten minutes late as a mark of respect while games between Roma and Catania and Atalanta and Milan were abandoned due to rioting. Far be it from English fans to start getting sniffy about this. Anyone who goes to watch football here knows that hooliganism still goes on but tends not to get reported. But, Italy has ignored or chosen not to confront this problem for too long. Three Middlesbrough fans were stabbed during a UEFA Cup quarter final and dozens of Manchester United fans were injured during their Champions League match with Roma while the police chose to look on or baton charge those fans actually being attacked. Instead of condemning this, the Italian authorities chose to get really defensive about it instead. Italy has contributed too much to the game to allow this to go on and someone in authority needs to start taking action rather than burying their heads in the sand any longer. Playing games behind closed doors and over zealous rules and regulations rules are not what we want to see in European matches. Supporters should be able to enjoy the experience of travelling abroad to games without being in fear of their lives.
• Are the pressures of anchoring mid-week games starting to show on Jeff Stelling? Not only does he not excel at this role (being only marginally better than the infuriatingly bad Richard Keys) but his performance on Gillette Soccer Saturday was less than exemplorary this weekend. Apparently Ware is now in Herefordshire not Hertfordshire and Dagenham and Richmond....sorry....Hampton and Redbridge....sorry...what? Well you get the point. Come on Jeff, you are the guiding light in the tawdry world of Sky Sports. Don't get complacent now!

Hat's Off - Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the Week - Gabriel Agbonlahor. Who says one player can't change a match? Cleared off the line in the 'Second City' (as it now seems to be called) derby while the score was 1-1. Went almost immediately up the other end and scored the winner for Villa. And as the media love to remind us, "he's English you know".

Hero of the Week - Torquay United. The only non-league team to defeat a league team (and one two divisons above them to boot). Not only that, they did it in style with a 4-1 thrashing. Oh the magic of the FA Cup!

Villain of the Week - Joey Barton. Fairly obvious why when you look at his high tackle on Sunderland's Dickson Etuhu and perhaps, worringly, the fact that were stories of racism banded around when he left City. Our Joey just doesn't seem to want to put his chequered past behind him and move on. He has as much trouble shaking off controversy as his brother does his ball and chain.

Shock of the Week - Liverpool 8 Besiktas 0. Time was when all English teams used to get a bit 'brown underpants' about the idea of playing Turkish teams in Europe. Now it seems a below par Liverpool can see them off at a canter.

Cliche of the Week - 'Israel Do Have A Lot To Play For' and other similar statements of mindless optimism churned out by the press who are struggling to come to terms with the idea that they may have to spend summer with their families rather than on the lash in Austria and Switzerland.

Capping Foreigners Not the Answer to a Better England

Sir Alex Ferguson has come out in favour this week of a cap on the number of foreign players allowed in each Premiership squad. Given that only four of Manchester United's starting line up last Saturday were English (though four more than Arsenal it should be noted), it is likely that there is more than just a hint of tongue in cheek here from the maestro of the mind game. Sir Alex is a genius when it comes to winding up his rivals and this comment is more likely a reflection of a man with a growing confidence in his team's ability to see off challengers to United's Premiership title this year. Let's face it English football would be a sorrier place without him whether he is being serious or not.

But what would a cap actually achieve? Premiership football is where it is. It has attained a high standard and entertains supporters the World over. At least three of the big four usually qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League and last year we had three semi-finalists. The point is we can't go back and lower the standard now. Putting an artificial restriction on the number of foreign players would almost certainly do exactly that. Rather than helping English players to get better, it would more likely create an artificial situation where clubs would have to pay a premium for them to keep their quota at the required level - whether they are good players or not.

There is an argument in Scottish football that when Sky pulled out of its coverage deal with the SPL, it meant that expensive foreign imports could no longer be afforded by the clubs. The result has been that more younger, home-grown players get to play at the highest level than would have done previously. Hence, the more impressive performance by the Scottish national team in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. It certainly seems a reasonable argument but if you actually look at the stats, there are no more Celtic or Rangers players in the Scotland team now than there were in 2002, 2004 or 2006 when Scotland finished third in their Euro and World qualifying groups. You could argue that perhaps there are more Hearts players present than there were and Hearts were certainly one of the clubs who went for East European imports in some numbers. But what is not mentioned is that two of Scotland's star performers in their current run, James McFadden and Duncan Fletcher, rarely start for their clubs. And while it has to be said that Scotland have certainly surprised everybody by their current position in what is a really tough group, they haven't actually qualified for anything yet.

At RTG we actually believe that football has moved on to take on the status of a truly global sport. There is, therefore, a big argument in favour of Premiership teams employing players from places like Africa as it might actually help to instil some sort of regulation in the movement of players. With the huge spoils that are currently on offer in leagues such as the English Premiership, the procurement of a young African player's signature by an agency and his subsequent movement overseas can be likened to something little short of people trafficking or slavery. If English football can help improve the transparency of deals involving non-European players then perhaps we can see an end to the farcical situation that occurred over the Tevez affair. Of course, FIFA-affiliated national football associations could all help in this with more co-operation, transparency and less corruption involving transfers across borders. But at RTG experience leads us to suspect that this will never happen.

If we care about the development of the game overseas, then there is also a lot to be said for developing players from China, India, Korea etc. in the best European leagues, to encourage the game abroad. Let RTG stress again, we are not against the operation of football as a business. It is too late now for it to be anything else. We just want to see that genuine competition is maintained.

It is true, that there is something frustrating about seeing players like Jermaine Pennant or David Bentley struggle to break into the Arsenal team when they are clearly more than capable of holding their own in the Premership. And perhaps their attitude, that Arsene Wenger could not seem to come to terms with, was borne more out of the frustration of being highly paid millionaires sat in the reserves week after week. But the real way to develop English players is not by artificially raising the value of home-grown players. English footballers would benefit more from a proper coaching and education programme backed by the FA. That way, they would earn the right to be in their club starting line-up as skillful and intelligent footballers rather than being there because the club has to pick them. While the responsibility to develop players rests solely with the clubs they will continue to operate in their own best interests and not those of the England national squad.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• It is early days and we shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet but there are worrying signs of yet more polarisation in the game - this time in the Champions League. Is it our imagination or do teams appear to be achieving qualification for the knockout stages earlier this year and does there appear to be a bigger prevalence of teams at the bottom of their group struggling to maintain the required standard? Let's hope not. The last thing Europe's elite competition needs is for the group stage to become a meaningless bunch of games simply to see the predictable 16 teams march comfortably through.
• Rumours have reached us that Steve Maclaren actually visited LA Galaxy, not to watch David Beckham (because he didn't even attend the game in fact), but to attend an interview for the vacant manager's position. Well, all we can say is jolly good luck with that Steve. Though sources today seem to suggest that Ruud Gullit is likely to be appointed very soon. Oh well!

If You Want a Free Market, Let's Have a Free Market!

Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has attracted much criticism following his comments that some footballers' wages (and in particular John Terry's) were 'obscene'. In addition, he claimed that ordinary fans of Manchester United were being priced out of going to watch matches due to the excessive rises in ticket prices. Chief amongst his critics was PFA Chairman, Gordon Taylor, who pointed out that there are many sportsmen who earn far more than John Terry and that it was not the place of a Sports Minister to criticise a sport that brings in so much money into the country and the UK economy. Though RTG doubt very much that over 50% of JT's wages go in taxes to the government as claimed by Mr Taylor.

We at RTG want to make our position perfectly clear on this matter. RTG are not against players being paid fabulously, if that is what the market dictates. RTG are not for salary caps - which would be totally unworkable in a cash-rich business anyway - and we are not here to pass judgement on what anybody does or does not earn. Nor are RTG here to discuss the morality of a footballer's wages versus a nurses wages, for example. These are far bigger issues concerning global capitalism and civilisation itself. There are far better, and more qualified, philosophers and commenatators than ourselves for that. But, given that the highest paid player, in a matter of less than 20 years, has gone up by a factor of about 20 times, it's hard not to believe at times that footballers get paid unbelievably large sums for doing a job that most would give their right arm to do.

What RTG struggles to come to terms with is how the supposed 'free market' operates in an uncompetitive manner in football. RTG believe that no club should spend beyond its means to pay over-inflated players' wages. One of the most dangerous consequences of Abramovich's regime at Chelsea is the hyper-inflation to players' wages and transfer fees. At the time he arrived, the Leeds financial crisis had appeared to deflate the market - that is, the cost of players and their associated pay demands. Abramovich's millions served to re-ignite inflation in the transfer market as well as to land Chelsea in a situation where the club is completely reliant on the funding provided by one person - obtained through highly dubious means. But that's another story.

It is not for RTG, or anyone, to tell Chelsea or Abramovich how to spend their money. But it seems highly uncompetitive for teams to spend way beyond their revenue. Leeds and others, quite rightly, have been handed penalties for spending beyond their means - it is a form of cheating! So what is different about Chelsea's current situation? RTG cannot give you the exact figures, after all we are dealing with massaged balance sheets and financial statements, but their over spend must be in the region of £200M - £300M since Abramovich took over. This for a club that was reportedly within days of filing for administration itself. RTG stress this has nothing to do with Chelsea itself. But, anecdotal evidence from a small number of Chelsea fans would suggest that their recent success has been tainted in their own eyes by their financial advantage.

Lets us state again that RTG is not against the free market. But how can it be a free market when clubs are being subsidised by rich patricians. Clubs' spending on players should be linked to revenue earned. Of course this is an over-simplification but we believe the FA, and the clubs themselves, should be made to be more transparent in their financial dealings to make a workable solution. It seems ludicrous that the world's biggest and richest sport has virtually no financial controls, regulations or restrictions - unlike many other sports.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• It was suggested by respected football journalist, Patrick Barclay, at the weekend that Steve Maclaren's main achievement in managing England was to rid the players of the idea that England was a team of superstars - and that he was actually doing a good job. Strange then to find Maclaren jetting 5,000 miles to go and check out David Beckham's fitness in advance of the Croatia Euro 2008 qualifier. Stranger still, that he chose to ignore an entire Premiership programme to watch a charity match that LA Galaxy won 12-4 against Hollywood United: a team consisting of 40+ year old ex-pros, the guitarist from Def Leppard and assorted "Where Are They Now" ageing popstars. But rest assured, he does not treat David Beckham as a superstar! Perhaps he just fancied a week in the sun at the FA's expense.


• Four South Korean internationals, including the national team captain were caught 'cavorting' and 'drinking' in an Indonesian brothel. They were all handed one-year suspensions from international matches and the captain was stripped of his position. Aside from the fact that their offences were fairly innocuous in comparison to some of the rape and roasting allegations against Premiership players, RTG wonders what the FA would do in such circumstances to England players? Suspect FA!


• You might get sick of RTG banging on about this but we're going to keep doing so because it is important. Once again a decision that would certainly have been referred to the video referee (were it allowed) would have produced an indecisive decision. Chelsea's second goal against Wigan began with a move where Shaun Wright-Philips stretched to keep a ball in play that may or may not have gone out. We can't tell and neither could Sky. Fair play to the BBC for having such limited time available that they didn't even feel it was worthwhile discussing. RTG is convinced that the result would not have been changed by this ruling either way. So, again, let's all stop and think for a moment before we go down the media's chosen route and stop every game for minutes at a time to make decisions that actually won't be as clear cut as the lazy pundits would have us think.


• RTG has touched on this before but it comes to our attention again. Gus Poyet has left Leeds United and Dennis Wise for the bright lights of the Premiership as assistant manager to Juande Ramos at Spurs despite the fact that Leeds have only just lost their first game of the season. But despite Leeds' unbelievable run that still sees them challenging for promotion despite a 15 point deduction at the beginning of the season, RTG can't help remembering the plight of Rotherham who, despite being top of the league at Christmas (in similar circumstances) ended up being relegated. Deducted points are (as they should be) a serious hindrance to progress over the course of a season.

Hats Off (take a bow) - Or Maybe Not!

Player of the Week - Benjani Mwaruwari. Now top scorer in the Premiership in what the papers like to call "an unfashionable team" and coming off the back of a staggering away win at St James' Park of four goals to one.

Hero of the Week - Darren Cann. Referees Assistant at the Emirates. Alert enough to see that the ball had crossed the line and also had the balls to give the decision immediately and no more needed to be said. Job done.

Villain of the Week - Steve Maclaren. Steve! You did the right thing by dropping Beckham as captain of England. Maybe (and just maybe) you dropped him a bit too early from the team (but that showed you were too wary of what the press were looking for you to do). But you brought him back admidst the scrutiny of a baying media rather than having the courage to pick your own team. And where are you now? Flying 5,000 miles to watch Beckham play a charity game to see if he is fit enough to play in a crucial qualifier against Croatia. Look Steve, you don't have to be England manager to know that if he wasn't fit two weeks ago, he probably is not now fit either for such an important game. We've got the players to qualify for Euro 2008 without the need for that. But sadly, we're now relying on Israel to bail us out and a plane trip to LA is not going to change that Gaffa!

Shock of the Week - Arsenal's advertising hoardings. Continuously providing us with a reminder of the refreshing qualities of a Vietnamese beer that, to our knowledge, is not even available here. It does not take a genius to work out that, maybe...just maybe, there was a different audience in mind when this ad space was procured. Perhaps the 12:45 kick off provides a clue.

Cliche of the Week - "Nobody complains about [insert other sportsman's name] earning more than footballers". We get the point Graham but frankly your members do earn a lot of money and hopefully feel grateful once in a while for that.