Blatter's Proposal Only Scratches the Surface of Change

Our favourite 'champion of the game' and esteemed President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has actually done England a favour for once and cleared the way toward us making a bid to host the World Cup in 2018. He is suggesting an end to the current rotational policy between the various global football associations that currently dictates where the tournament is staged. This has naturally been opposed by executive committee member of Concacaf (and who could only be American with this name), Chuck Blazer, as rotation should decree that it be held in North or Central America. In other words, being totally realistic, the USA. And, of course, Chuck is not going to give up the chance to attract all that sponsorship revenue and the boost to the MLS.

For once RTG is in agreement with Sepp Blatter, if only because it is farcical for the competitive nature of the bidding process when only one nation in three of the major football associations can even hope to host it - namely, Brazil in South America, the USA in North America and South Africa in Africa (and they, reportedly, are struggling). As you'd expect from RTG, we fear also that a US bid will regurgitate some of the issues that concern us greatly such as: extended half-times, four quarters, larger goals and, of course, rampant commercialisation.

But this highlights one area only where the World Cup is falling short as the most popular sporting spectacle on the planet. Currently you have a situation where, in Europe, (where new countries are being created at a rate that will keep cartographers in gainful employment well into the next century) you have 62 nations fighting for 13 places (in 2006). This despite having 21 of the top 32 teams in the FIFA World Rankings. The USA and Mexico effectively get a bye straight into the finals, as do Argentina and Brazil though they have to play 18 games to achieve it. Plus, they can end up with five places from just 10 teams. Europe is clearly the strongest continent in World football, and looks to remain so for the foreseeable future and yet, because of the archaic and political machinations of FIFA, the quality of the tournament is being compromised. Whereas, of course, it should be the highest quality of football anywhere. Nowadays, the Champions League is easily of a much higher standard.

With so many nationalities now playing football all over the globe, the time has surely come for a rationalisation and reorganisation of international football tournaments and fixtures - removing the geographical element of qualiying groups. That is, pick qualifying groups based on seedings and world rankings.

We have to now be looking at reorganising groups in order that we get the 32 best nations in what is the World Championship of football. We should have some form of pre-qualifying for the smaller nations. It seems ludicrous that qualifying for the major football tournament in the World could come down to having to beat Lichtenstein by 8 goals. OK, we admit we're still bitter about losing out to Italy in 1978 because we didn't beat Luxembourg by enough goals. But the point is very valid.

In 1974, England failed to reach West Germany after losing out to Poland in a group that contained just three teams. Contrast that with the current Euro 2008 qualifying groups of seven to eight countries. Which means we played four games in 1974 to qualify and now we have to play a minimum of 12. Surely we should be looking to play less games not more (from a sporting not commercial point of view). This might mean Wembley has to host a few more NFL matches or Giant Wheel Monster Truck racing events but so be it.

In addition, with groups that are based on ability and not specific geographic areas, and playing less games, we should be able to co-ordinate national and international schedules more effectively. South Americans based in Europe have to be away 18 times during qualification. With the Club versus Country issue brewing, surely this would be an excellent compromise in addressing the needs of both national and club interests. Watch out for more of this come the African Nations Cup in the new year (ridiculously, still played every two years). If our aim is to improve African football, why are we giving top clubs every reason not to recruit African players? A point already made by Sir Alex Ferguson by not having any in his current squad.

We're sure people will find many reasons for dismissing these ideas - not least because it will involve fewer qualifying matches and less revenue. We're not saying we have all the answers but the point is that currently they're not even being debated. If there is only one thing we should do with immediate effect it is to get rid of these pointless, mickey mouse confederations cups in between tournament years that just heap more unnecessary matches on tired players and a fatigued supporter base - or as the new football oligarchy would like us to be known, "GUESTS".

RTG - The Weekend's Events

• Despite being in Third Division, sorry the LDV Windscreen, sorry League 1 whatever, Leeds United recorded the fourth highest attendance in England this weekend. Admirable indeed. An entertaining game against Millwall, featured in virtually all the Sunday papers, took Leeds into the play off spots despite their 15 point penalty deduction at the beginning of the season. Strangely, no mention of the pitched battles involving riot police charging Leeds fans and Millwall fans being held back inside the ground for hours. A Leeds source close to us says it was worse than anything he'd seen in the 1970s/1980s. While the Yorkshire Post reported that there were minor skirmishes in the ground with the 800 or so Millwall fans trying to break through police lines to taunt Leeds fans during the game, no mention was made of any other incident that we can find in local or national press or the media.
• For all those supporters turning up at Old Trafford on Saturday at 3:00pm.....congratulations. You got to watch a game at last! Don't worry. 'Normality' is resumed next weekend at 12:45pm on Saturday at The Emirates. Don't forget to set your alarms!

Hats Off. Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the Week - Cesc Fabregas. Top scorer in the Premiership from midfield and rescued a point for Arsenal. Frankie. You know what you've got to do.

Hero of the Week - Martin Jol's nephew. The only person who appeared to have the balls to tell him what was going on. i.e. that he'd been sacked (in a crowd of 36,000).

Villain of the Week - Daniel Levy. In amongst news of his inevitable dismissal, we hear that 'his recruits' for this season's assault on fourth place were actually not his choice at all. Spurs put their money where their mouth was. But whose mouth? Certainly not the manager's who has paid the ultimate price. Levy's pathetic attempts to justify his and his board's conduct during this period is incredible and cannot possibly instil confidence in the board from the supporters. RTG says, "sack the board". Oh! Unfortunately they can't!

Shock of the Week - Besiktas beating Liverpool. Leaving aside the comedy defending, they were the only English club to lose in the Champions League this week.

Cliche of the Week - I'm totally committed to continuing to help and seeing out the remainder of my contract.

There's Only One David Beckham, Thank God..

Well the main part of the American Major League Soccer (MLS) season is over and the play-offs, that absolute must of all American sports, are about to begin. Absent from the the end of season chase for honours is LA Galaxy. This despite recruiting the world's highest profile footballer in David Beckham. It seems that if you pay $250 million for a super duper galactico player, it certainly doesn't buy you any guarantees of success. You can hardly blame Beckham for he has only been able to make two starts for the Galaxy in that time.

However, there must be people within LA Galaxy and MLS management wondering what they have got for the first $50 million instalment of the five year £250 million deal that they will be paying him. At least superficially, Galaxy and MLS have said that they are pleased with their investment. Indeed, apparently additional millions have been taken in extra shirt sales and season tickets. We at RTG take these with a pinch of salt - after all who would admit to making a multi-million dollar gaffe? The Home Depot Center, LA Galaxy's home venue has mostly been full - of the capacity 27,000 - since Beckham's arrival, but is some ways short of the 30,000 that they averaged in their inaugural season of 1996. And that is the real point about the current David Beckham. He's not in the US to win things for his team. He's there to spearhead a marketing drive for MLS. Notwithstanding, the ever more cringing attempts by his stick insect wife to remain in the public eye.

In the mean time, Beckham's England career, having re-surfaced due to popular demand - well, popular with the media scribes and "I've only read the Sun's headlines" pundits, not so much with people who understand football - looks effectively over, given that England look likely to miss out on this summer's Euro 2008 tournament. It is reported that Beckham is looking to train with an English club for the intervening period before his call up for the next MLS season in February 2008. This begs the question of what would have happened if a fit Beckham was available for England if we had qualified?

Beckham has set a much publicised target of winning 100 caps for England. He is three short currently. This pressure exerted by Beckham's PR machine has got under RTG's skin. Indeed, it got us thinking about how the whole PR bullshit had initially promoted and then effectively destroyed the playing career of a fine footballer.

David Beckham was once a key player in the best midfield that the premiership has seen, and arguably the best ever in English football - that of Keane, Scholes, Giggs and Beckham. A few weeks after completing a unique 'Treble' of honours with Manchester United, he married Posh Spice in what was at that time one of the most kitsch and over the top celebrity events witnessed. The usual A to E celebrity guests were in attendance, along with the the money spinning photo shoots. Indeed the glorious couple had to make dozens of costume changes to satisfy their wedding photo contract. Unfortunately, this was the point that the footballer in Beckham stopped and he was taken over and subsumed into the publicity crazy ambition of his wife. Failing to revive a short, but financially successful pop career, the Beckham brand was born out of the frustration of Posh's failure as a singer. Trouble was it was affecting his performances on the field.

Whilst that United side went on to win two more successive championships, all was not well at the club regarding Beckham's playing career. His performance levels dipped - albeit in line with the rest of the team, as the champions limped into third place in 2002. By the time the World Cup of 2002 came around, Beckham's flagging United career was compensated by his captaincy of the England team - foolishly given to him by fill-in England manager Peter Taylor. The next England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, sensing the media wind, as he always did, carried on the foolishness. All of a sudden the England Captain's armband was, and is now, seen as a money making opportunity. No wonder the seeming bitterness from other players detected at the award of the captaincy to John Terry. But like the MLS/Galaxy situation, all of a sudden, England had their eye on the financial implications of Beckham's captaincy and place in the England team. A plainly unfit Beckham was taken to the 2002 World Cup less for his ability and suitability, but more for the fact that there were an enormous number of Japanese teeny boppers willing to buy Beckham 7 shirts. Even prior to that tournament, the Beckhams hosted a party at "Beckingham", where Posh announced to the press that her husband would be taking penalties if England were awarded any. Thankfully, the England team didn't pay a price for Posh's tactical expertise - though the one penalty awarded was very badly taken and was the fore-runner of a number of subsequent fatal spot kick misses by Beckham for England. The less said about World Cup 2006 and the role of WAGS, the better.

Unfortunately for Real Madrid fans, after losing his place in the United first team in 2003, Beckham got the call from the so called galacticos. They then had their least successfull four years since the Spanish civil war days. They did win the Primera in his last season - but it was a season in which he only made the starting line up a dozen or so times. Again, the feedback from Real Madrid management, was that they were very happy with the supposed financial benefits that Beckham brought. Again, we think these should be taken with a pinch of salt. There was even one claim that Beckham's transfer had brought in £250 million in extra revenue - astonishing, especially since this was considerably more that Real's entire annual revenue at that time!

So will this be the last of David Beckham that English football supporters will see of him? Or are there more twists in the story to achieve his personal goal. The trouble is the answer to this question is in posing another question: is there any milk left in the cash cow that is David Beckham?

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Most eyes turned to europe this week, as the next round of matches got under way and as the media pundits tried to bury english disappointments over the weekend. Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea all recorded fine wins - especially Arsenal in a 7 nil thrashing of Slavia Prague. Only some comedy defending by Liverpool spoiled the media's "we've got our pride back" english theme. However, disturbingly for those looking to the english pride bit, there were only 10 englishmen in the combined starting line ups of the Big Four. That's less than 23%.
  
• If ever there was a more clear cut example of what RTG is fighting against, check out the Global Sport Conference being attended by such luminaries as the Kenyons, Glazers and Hicks et al

Early Season Excitement Makes Way for the Humdrum

About a quarter of the season has passed and it is only now that we can really draw any conclusions as to how the season in the premiership is shaping up. Now as autumn draws in, all those that wrote off Arsenal's chances pre-season are suddenly backtracking wildly as they sit atop of the premiership, unbeaten and having only dropped two points. Manchester United are within spitting distance of Arsenal, despite having been written off just three games into the new season. Liverpool, heavily criticised for much of the opening phase of the campaign, lie in fourth and still remain unbeaten - no pleasing some people we say! Only Chelsea from the so called Big Four have slipped out of the pole positions in the premiership. It would appear though that Chelsea have now returned to winning ways following the shock departure of manager Jose Mourinho. Time will tell whether the reported internal unrest has a terminal effect on Chelsea's chase for honours this season. However, they remain the wild card, as it would be foolish to predict the outcome of the management changes that have happened at Stamford Bridge.

Elsewhere, a "resurgent" Manchester City lying in third and a disappointing Tottenham languishing in 18th position, are the only real surprises this season. Though RTG finds it hard to understand how a "resurgence" can occur after 36 years! So despite the media hype and over reactions in pre-season and after the opening games, RTG believes it is plus ca change in the premiership. Even the usual suspects for relegation seem predictable enough, although Bolton might argue that they occupy a position that they haven't experienced for years. However, as is often the case when an enigmatic manager leaves a club punching above its weight, the whole character and spirit of the club seem to leave with them. In Bolton's case, the new manager Sammy Lee was the early favourite for the managerial sack race. For once it would appear, the pundits got it right.

This premiership predictability is finally taking its toll on attendances. This weekend, there were vast areas of empty seats at all but three premiership grounds. At Villa, for the visit of United; Everton for the Merseyside derby and at Arsenal - although there were empty seats there too, and indeed Arsenal appear to include 'no shows' in their attendance figures. Listening to the various powers that be, you could be excused for thinking that everything was fine and dandy within the premiership. Attendances have been 'steady' and even shown slight rises in some of the last few years. What the figures don't show is that most of these increases are attributable to the increased capacities at Old Trafford and Arsenal's new home, the Emirates. In addition, the promoted trio of Sunderland, Birmingham and Derby have attendances which exceed the trio that made way for them: Charlton, Watford and Sheffield United.

Of course, it is not only the predictability of the premiership that has an impact on attendances. TV saturation, the rising cost of tickets and travelling costs, varying kick off times and, as shown in the past, the failures at international level all have an impact. However, the most serious of these for the future of the game must be the decreasing level of competition and the humdrum predictability that it accompanies. The vast areas of empty seats seen this weekend are common this season and a dramatic turnaround from just a few years ago when it was virtually impossible for a neutral supporter to attend any premiership match - "all tickets sold" was the common mantra. You can take your pick nowadays - of anywhere but the Big Four of course.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• It wasn't a good week to be an English sports fan, with failures in Football, Rugby and Formula1 racing. The Rugby was agonisingly close and gives rise to one of RTG's pet bugbears. Namely the use of video for refereeing decisions. Yet again the technology was found lacking and RTG still can't see for sure how the Mark Cueto "try" decision was made. And didn't it take ages for the decision to be made?
• Following Rob Styles' refereeing gaffes at Anfield earlier in the season, Rafa Benitez and Steven Gerrard launched into vitriolic attacks on the poor man. No surprise though that the pair are muted, when they have been the beneficiaries of even worse decisions this weekend in their fortuitous win over rivals Everton. Just goes to show that the old adage of decisions evening themselves out during the course of the season holds pretty true, though Fulham fans are still awaiting theirs.

Hats Off, Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the Week - Wayne Rooney. Back in the groove with England and Manchester United. We were getting a bit worried there!

Villain of the Week - Steven Gerrard. No not because of his performance in Russia, he was not alone in performing poorly, but because he appeared to get the ref to send off Everton's Terry Hibbert.

Shock of the Week: An Italian Serie A four - four draw. We know the days of catenaccio are long gone, but we are still not used to it.

Cliche of the Week: "we gave a good account of ourselves" from various pundits describing the immediate 60 odd minutes prior to Russia's equalising goal.

Do We Not Like That?

In a throwback to the bad old Graham Taylor England days, we are left contemplating various permutations for qualification to Euro 2008. So if Macedonia beat Croatia, and then we beat Croatia by a three goal margin or Israel draw or win against Russia and then we beat Croatia - we're through! Never going to happen. RTG hopes you took our advice from our September 6th posting not to book your flights to Austria or Switzerland.

Of the scenarios above, according to the form book, we are most likely left relying on Israel to get points off Russia. Let's take a look at the likelihood of this for a moment. We've already discussed in this blog last week how influence and interests of wealthy football investors appear shrouded in confusion and potentially detrimental to competition in the sport. Roman Abramovich is a major contributor to the Russian national team and is believed to bankroll Gus Hiddink's salary. He also 'found' the funding for the new Russian national stadium. Strangely, he doesn't seem able to afford to put underfloor heating in the stadium but we'll gloss over that for now.

But his influence also extends to Israeli football. He attempted to purchase Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2005 but was advised, given he is owner of Chelsea, not to do so. Consequently he persuaded his wealthy, close friend, Lev Leviev, to get involved with Israeli football and buy them instead. He seems to be most comfortable when he surrounds himself with Jewish/Russian cronies anyway. Take Avram Grant and Pini Zahavi as clear examples of this. Whichever way you choose to look at it, he clearly has major connections with both Israeli and Russian football. Can we really expect an Israeli team who are already out of the competition to go all out for victory? We don't think so, nor do we expect Croatia to lose to Macedonia.

Let's make no excuses for England's failure last night. We've heard a lot about "lack of passion" and "wanting to wear the shirt" ad nauseam from the pundits but the bottom line is we have not been good enough in what should have been a comfortable group. We made a promising start last night against Russia where we attacked and defended comfortably, and managed to take a one goal lead into the half-time break. But Russia's tactical changes saw us retreat further and further back until we were left looking like a bunch of clueless hoofers.

This has been a worrying trend right back to the Euro 2000 tournament where we were brutally exposed in our inability to keep possession of the ball. In his defence Sven Goran Eriksson must have realised this from the onset of his tenure because he turned us into a long ball side, capable of qualifying out of a group but shown wanting against the better sides. Last night we could blame Robinson, Rooney, plastic pitches or the ref if we wanted but, the way we were playing last night, it seemed inevitable that Russia would score again once they had equalised. The talent is there no doubt but the tactics and the intelligence to win important matches are not. Gus Hiddink out thought Steve McClaren completely and in an interview last night said that he knew that if you put the English defence under sustained pressure they would struggle to cope. And struggle they did.

Where do we go now? We've already discussed the problem lies deeper than just the manager but Steve McClaren clearly has to go. Who to replace him? Is there somebody out there with the tactical know-how, winning attitude, skin of a rhino and ability to get the best out of English players? Ole Jose!

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• The BBC have been preparing, over the last week, for announcing redundancies to recover a £2 Billion deficit. Here's some suggestions to recover part of the debt: 1. Concentrate on acquiring the sport in the first place and don't pay the useless, ex-footballers, but with no brain pundits - e.g. Alan (I'm so Mary Popiins, my wife makes me do this) Shearer, Ian (the louder I shout, the more people believe my credibility) Wright and several others who don't add anything to our coverage to make it worth the expense; 2. Keep your serious football reporters and get rid of Chris Hollins who seemed to spend the whole of Germany 2006, at our expense, reporting on anything but football. What on earth do WAG massages and making Black Forest Gateaux have to do with World Cup football? 3. Gaby Logan - why? 4. Stop sending Five Live's Nicky Campbell to every major sporting occasion just for us to have to listen to him recounting his previous evening's corporate (also at our expense) entertainment over breakfast. Do the BBC, or any TV company for that matter, not understand the basic supply and demand laws of economics. There are millions of people willing to do presenting jobs out there. The desire to do the job should pay for itself.
• The collective intellectual footballing brain that is the Sky Sports pundit team, suggested one solution to England's qualification woes is to 'bring back David Beckham'. Well, when he gets his place back in the LA Galaxy team perhaps it might be a 'solution' (?@!*@??&*) worth thinking about. Solution? It's too late to help us now thanks chaps but you keep spouting out the first thing that comes into your brain rather than giving any serious thought to something that might be worth hearing.
• Sammy Lee, despite being the early favourite, was not the first Premiership manager to get the boot this season. Just goes to show that promoting second in command to overall General doesn't seem to work. FA take note...........hmmmmm.

Grit, Determination and Calm Under Pressure. Yes it Was an England Team

At the risk of invoking a collective sigh of "oh no here we go again" from our readership, it is with a little regret that RTG begins this posting by mentioning the dreaded 1966 triumph. Dreaded, of course, because it is held up there as England's one and only major trophy success and is now 41 years ago. Anyway, there you go we've done it. But we've done it for good reason.

Since that glorious day, generations have passed, whilst only one further plausible attempt at winning prizes has been made – that in Italia ’90. It has felt, at least to us at RTG, like a never ending cycle of supra-hyped up ambition, followed by the inevitable damp squib of a tame exit. As part of that cycle, we of course get a media-led campaign featuring the hard luck stories of those that have had a direct effect on the exit - namely the spot kick fluffers and the usual scapegoat who made a mistake and felt the wrath of a nation come down upon him (usually it seems a Manchester United player). People have talked about systems, tactics, techniques, lack of Englishmen at the top level etc. etc. to explain away these failures. However, there has also been a nagging worry in the subconscious that maybe by the same process in which the British Empire finally extinguished itself in the 1960s, we had also lost the right to consider ourselves as a leading player in the world. So for cultural, historic and characteristic reasons, England was to be, for the foreseeable future at least, confined to ‘also ran’ status. To be mocked by numerically inferior and financially weaker nations, who possessed superior skills and the most vital of ingredients – nerves and will – to win at the highest level.

Well, this weekend’s events showed that we can, as a nation, still stand up and be counted. To put in performances whilst having the odds and expectations stacked against you. No, of course, we’re not referring to England’s comfortable victory over Estonia on Saturday afternoon. Instead, we are referring to the England Rugby team who put in one of those performances on Saturday evening that has stirred the nation. It was a performance which collectively utilised the team’s strengths but, above all, was one of sheer doggedness. They didn’t panic, even as time was ebbing away and their points deficit was so tantalisingly narrow. Breathtaking stuff, and we hope an inspiration for all England teams, whatever sport. It’s a relief to know that the spirit and courage do reside within us. Interesting isn’t it, that like the Football team of 1990, expectations and media hype for the 2007 Rugby team were the lowest ever.

If this all seems a bit hand-on-heart, spirit of the blitz type stuff, there is an important point here. Strip away the so-called 'personalities' who allow the effect on their media persona to influence how they play sport and stick to a basic philosophy of teamwork and determination and it can be done. We don't need to overrate our players or stick them up on a pedestal they can never live up to. The tragedy is that we may never see the like again where the England football team is allowed to act purely for the common good of the sport in isolation of the media and the over-egged expectations of a nation. Perhaps one good example to illustrate this is Steve McClaren's enforced selection of Emile Heskey and Gareth Barry against Israel and Russia last time around. Rather than having all his first-choice 'superstars' available he had to pick players who were eager to play, come-what-may, in a properly thought-out system designed to do a job. And guess what? They played like a team for once having started with fairly low expectations from a media still strangely mourning the absence of the continually ineffective David Beckham.

On a slightly different tack, but related nonetheless, we should mention Scotland here. It is early days yet but few could argue that there has been a significant rebirth of the Scottish national team during this Euro qualifying group. One of the reasons put forward for this renaissance is the collapse of the Sky deal for the SPL. Unlike in England, where foreign players tend to be cheaper than their English counterparts, in Scotland they came at a premium. Consequently, a number of them had to be let go when the Sky money disappeared. But what you got as a result was Scottish nationals being asked to come in and fill the shoes of the foreign players. They got to play competitive football at a higher level more often than before. The result is not necessarily a bunch of more skillful Scottish players, but a group of players used to competing at the highest level, more visible to the national manager and desperate to give their all for their national side. There was no expectation on Scotland to get out of that group. But through teamwork, determination and a desire to give their all when asked, they have taken themselves very close.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• Much has been writtern about the artificial pitch that England are having to play their Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on in Moscow on Wednesday night. Some say it increases risk of injury. Others that the ball does not bounce the same way as it does on grass. Either way, surely it is not right that some teams in the group got to play on grass while England are having to play on the artificial surface. This, quite literally does not ensure a level playing field for all. Russia have known about this fixture for over a year. Surely, their wealthy benefactor, Mr Abramovich, can afford to put in some undersoil heating so the game could have been played on grass. It is not acceptable that UEFA are allowing this fixture to go ahead in this way. Hopefully we will be able to report on Wednesday night that it did not affect England's performance.
• Frank Lampard once again came on to boos from a small section of the England crowd on Saturday. You may have your own opinion on whether you think this kind of behaviour is acceptable or not. Firstly, you have to say, it is hard to imagine this having any sort of constructive input to the success of the England team. But, perhaps, the amount of money supporters have to spend to watch football, and the sums of money they see being earned by the players themselves has led to your average supporter feeling that it is their right to abuse players in this way. The problem is that the over anlysis of every aspect of the game in the media today also fuels this kind of over-the-top reaction. Trust us it won't happen, but the powers within the game, and the players themselves, should be constantly reminding themselves that people are more conscious of the money they spend on football these days and whether they feel aggrieved at being booed or not, should not forget that the supporters are the ones who ultimately can make or break the game.

Hats off. Take a Bow (or not!)

Player of the Week - Sean Wright-Phillips. Not for anything particularly special other than for finally making people start to ask, "David Who?". Special mention also to Gareth Barry for showing that players can maintain a dignified silence until asked to do a job for their national side and give it their all when they do. No whinging to the press. No temper tantrums. And no private jets home after being left out on numerous occasions.

Hero of the Week - England Rugby Team. For showing us that England teams can have the mental strength to win important games against the odds and when the pressure is on.

Villain of the Week - Frank Lampard. We've already stated we're of mixed opinion concerning Frank getting booed. But when a football player (and don't forget that is all he is) gets his PR people to insist that he will only give interviews for the non-sporting section of the paper in order to preserve the correct positioning of his image, you do wonder. Add to that the fact that he has to vet the questions first and approve the final article before publication and you can see why people are getting fed up of this sort of bullshit.

Cliche of the Week - Pictures of John Terry in his mask. We've seen this in the past often enough. Gazza, Gary Mabbutt et al all wore them when they had facial injuries. So we get it OK. Can we now dispense with the incessant picutres of [our hero] JT in his plastic mask?!

Shock of the Week - Scotland beating Ukraine to go top of the group. Not a shock particularly the way the Scots are playing just now. More that despite two wins against France, they are still likely to have to get points from Italy to qualify. If they do qualify, they will certainly have earned it.

When Does an 'Interest' Turn to Influence?

So no surprise at all that Gus Hiddink did actually meet (for coffees) with Roman Abramovich on a few occasions. In fact, following these meetings (that were definitely, absolutely nothing to do with Chelsea) it has been announced that he has extended his contract as manager of the Russian national team to 2010. According to reports, Abramovich apparently does not want to upset the Russian people by stealing away their manager. This despite the fact that the billionaire is bankrolling the Russian Football Federation and indeed the Russian oligarch is helping to 'find' the finance for a new national stadium.

But this raises some intriguing questions as to the extent and reach of powerful football men and organisations. In addition to his interests in Chelsea and the Russian Football Federation, Abramovich did, through his companies, sponsor CSKA Moscow to the tune of something like $30 million per annum - this for a team whose annual revenue was barely in six figures and would represent the equivalent of Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United being sponsored for billions rather than their current tens of millions. The logical conclusion being that this must have had an influence on competition within Russian football, in much the same way as his bankrolling of Chelsea has in the English Premiership. Indeed during that period it brought them three Russian Premiership titles.

UEFA investigated Abramovich's apparent conflict of interest and concluded that no rules were contravened as 'interests' are normally defined in terms of ownership. However, you have to wonder what would have happened if Chelsea, needing a certain result to go further in a competition, had played CSKA at that moment. But these levels of dubious influence are not confined solely to Chelsea and Roman Abramovich. All the big four have tie ups with other clubs such as Arsenal and Beveren in Belgium. In fact, Peter Kenyon was the architect of these types of deals when he announced that Manchester United were hooking up with the New York Yankees baseball team (a 'deal' that made United shares go up in price but never really came to anything). The truth is that these 'arrangements' (for want of a better word) are often announced with a fairly serious PR machine behind them only to disappear into the 'fog' that surrounds them over time. The main reason to have these arrangements seems to be a way for English clubs to recruit non-EU nationals.

Alongside this, you have the situation, following the Ondigital collapse, where the loan of players to Championship, League 1 and League 2 clubs is at an all time high. This was not a bad thing in the short-term given that so many clubs were left out of pocket by the collapse. But, we now have the increasing situation where richer clubs buy up the best young talent and farm it out on loan, even to to other Premiership clubs.

This adds more distortion to what is supposed to be genuine competition and can seriously hinder the development of young English players. Glen Johnson was a promising young player at West Ham and England. He was bought by Chelsea in 2003 and spent the next four years or so in the reserves or on loan - in this case to another Premiership club, Portsmouth (a practice RTG is completely against). His England career appears to be, temporarily at least, over. The point being, this is another anti-competitive influence that powerful people in football can exert almost without being questioned. Again it should be stressed this practice is not confined just to Chelsea. How ironic then that in possibly the most crucial weekend last season, Tim Howard was prevented from playing for Everton (by agreement) against Manchester United, his previous club. His replacement made costly errors which turned a two-goal advantage into a four two deficit while Chelsea could only draw.

We at RTG believe that the maximum size of a squad should be fixed. Changes can be made in the mid-season transfer window, but only within the numbers stated. Any additional players can go out on loan but only to lower division or foreign non-European involved clubs. There should also be limits on the number of loanees any one club can make or take and subsequent parity agreed across the whole of UEFA. The EU must also equalise its rules with regard to allowing non-EU nationals to play within member countries.

Most importantly, it is time that FIFA and UEFA draw up a new, comprehensive set of clear rules as to what constitutes an individual or corporate 'interest' in a football club and how that is to be monitored, if genuine competition is to be maintained.

Force Fed TV Diet Leaves Supporters Hungry

So, three o'clock Saturday comes, switch on Sky Soccer Saturday and what do we find? One Premiership fixture only. What with European commitments and TV scheduling the vast majority of Premiership matches were moved to Sunday kick offs varying from 12:00pm to 4:10pm. Perhaps the most cruel of all, Sunderland fans being asked to travel early on Sunday to get to London for a midday start. Anyone who uses trains on a Sunday in this country will know that is not a pleasant prospect. If you are attending matches, home, away or neutral, this raises some important logistical issues. Without a fixed schedule, the disruption to arrangements is another headache and inconvenience to the long-suffering football supporter. Nowadays it has become almost impossible to plan well in advance to attend matches.

Judging by a limited fans survey on BBC Football Focus website, only 32% found this to be a problem. What the survey does not say is whether these were attending supporters or merely TV viewers - both of whom deserve to have their needs met in our opinion. But this does throw up a very important point. Why can't supporters pay to view whatever match they wish to view when it is being played? Not just Manchester United versus Liverpool or Arsenal versus Chelsea, but every game in every league. Cameras are there anyway so additional technical costs would presumably be minimal. At the moment we are force fed whatever matches TV companies agree to show and the way contracts are drawn up, clubs have to be shown a certain number of times. Blackburn versus Wigan for example, will presumably be very interesting to supporters of those sides but frankly leaves most neutrals pretty cold. By having to make this commitment, many matches shown hold little interest to neutrals - gone are the days when TV-starved football supporters would watch any live match being screened. Conversely, it is unfair on supporters of say Wigan, who invariably get to see their team live only when they are being thrashed by one of the Big Four. This has undoubtedly led to supporter 'fatigue' where TV is concerned. Without going into specific details, mainly because we haven't got them, our limited research shows that, whilst the numbers of Sky subscribers has increased significantly, viewing figures for individual matches are falling.

With this mind, RTG calls for all matches to be live with a simpler, fixed schedule. This would allow supporters to view whatever match they choose or attend matches with improved ability to plan ahead. What?! Showing all matches live will hit attendances won't it? Well, we're not so sure it will in fact. Firstly, most keen supporters currently attend matches even when they are on live and will continue to do so. Secondly, the cost for neutral supporters simply to attend a game because they 'fancy it' has become prohibitive. In addition, over-hyped, media-fuelled rivalries have led to many supporters to feel that they are betraying their own team if they attend as a neutral, especially as they are filling the coffers of a potential rival.

We believe that having all matches live will increase significantly the revenues to football in general. Aaah, we here you say. All that this will do is to propel the so-called Big Four into a financial stratosphere that will forever render competition as meaningless. Not so. Clearly, a much more equitable form of distribution across both the Premiership and the Football League must be introduced.

In the end, we have no empirical evidence to support what the impact will be. However, we believe it is only a question of time before it will happen but we want to be in a position where the game as a whole benefits not just a few wealthy owners. This echoes a key platform for the reasoning behind our campaign to Reclaim the Game. It is clear that the corporate vultures circling the English Premiership would push for this in their own interests. Consider this. The worldwide audiences for a key Premiership clash can measure in the hundreds of millions if not billions. If viewers pay only £1 to watch, the revenue from one match could be more than the combined annual income of the top six clubs in the world (taking 2005/6 season figures). Clubs could afford to even let us in for free!

Radical as this idea might sound, the key issue is how this revenue would be distributed amongst the clubs and the England national team. However, given the current corporate ownership taking over the Premiership, this is extremely unlikely to happen. It may be that certain key steps have to be taken first such as clubs being owned by supporters' trusts (a cause we wholeheartedly believe in). It's about time this debate happened.

RTG Weekends' Events

• Henk Ten Cate, the current Ajax manager, seems to be the new flavour of Abramovich's month. Talks are in progress for him taking on a role at Chelsea - views vary as to what role that will be - though it would appear to be initially under the new manager, Avram Grant. Is this some new insight into the structure of football management that Abramovich (or god forbid for Chelsea's sake, Peter Kenyon) have adopted for the future? It will be interesting to see how this pans out. Watch this space.
• MaClaren Drops Alonso for Next Season, ran the sports news ticker... . Quite right, actually, not only is he bad for the English cause, RTG don't think he was eligible to play for England anyway! Oh, oh I see... China formula 1. Now we get it....
• Steve Bruce: looks like now that Birmingham's takeover is finally going to happen, he will be replaced by a more "fashionable" manager, despite his very good record at Birmingham. We're told it's because his face doesn't fit. With the, non paid for re-arrangements of his face, it wouldn't, would it?

Hats Off, Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the week: Afonso Alves of Dutch First division club, Heerenveen who scored 7 of his side's 9 goals in thrashing of Heracles Almelo this weekend. This included 4 in 10 minutes! Not English league, we know, but it is a Dutch record and extremely worthy.

Villain of the Week: Dida. Cheat. Simple as that. Plus, we still can't work out who the hell voted to make him the World's no. 1 goalkeeper. Over-rated.

Cliche of the week: Shevchenko and anything to do with him and the various Chelsea staff he seems to get on with/pissed off with. If he would just play like he used to do, none of this bullshit would be coming his way.

Shock of the Week: Underhyped England team doing very well! Ok, it was Rugby, but at least it didn't go to penalties!

Champions League Raises the Standard

Supporters have differing views on the Champions League (CL). Some are not interested in watching Europe's 'elite' strut their stuff on a Tuesday and Wednesday night (and we don't mean just Chelsea fans). Like all football, if your own team is not involved, it always takes a bit of the sting out of the viewing experience. And let's not deny it, it has been fashioned deliberately to make sure the top European teams enjoy the lion's share of the spoils. So it is not surprising that many choose to disregard it with a slightly inverted snobbish attitude.

However, if you're like us (and we're not alone in this), the CL represents an opportunity to see football from a completely different perspective. European football is a different game which is why it sometimes takes teams a few seasons in the CL before they get fully abreast of its subtleties. It took most English teams a while to get used to the CL style of football and there are now encouraging signs that the Scottish teams are no longer there just to make up the numbers either. There is no doubt that the pace of the game and level of skill are very different to what supporters are used to seeing in British football. From our perspective, that makes a welcome change.

One thing is for sure. The standard has improved immeasurably since the days when each nation's champion (in our case usually Liverpool) used to slug it out in a two-leg knockout competition over the course of the season. With all due respect to the various winners at that time, if the draw was kind to you, you could find yourself playing Grasshoppers in the semi-final for the chance to meet Malmo in the final. Now, you tend to get the very best club players in Europe, competing against each other at the very highest level. And isn't that what its all about? Not money (although in the end, of course it is hard to ignore) but football of the best calibre put together for the supporters' appreciation. That's how we feel and one of the reasons why, for us at least, the CL is worth giving up an evening or two's viewing for each fortnight. Remember, the World Cup was once the best standard of football by a country mile. Yet, by the late '90s it was becoming clear that, by being able to draw on the best players in the world, the CL had surpassed it in footballing standards.

But hold on. Foreign players. Yes that old chestnut. They're ruining our game apparently. Which is why various proposals are being put forward to limit the number within each team that can compete in the CL. Of course, as England and Scotland fans alike, we want our national teams to do well. We want to produce great home-grown players. But putting artificial limits in this way surely just puts a premium price on average England players, just because they have to be there. The end result is not a better England team but a far poorer CL competition and a less attractive proposition to drag you away from Eastenders! (well OK even the UEFA Cup is more attractive than Eastenders but you get the point). We've been shown the best and we can't now go back for a half-arsed idea about protecting national teams.

It's a tough dilemma for supporters because let's face it, we all want to see our teams jam-packed full of highly skillful English players. Surely we achieve that by setting the standard high and doing everything we can to make sure English players are coached and developed to that standard. This of course, means we have to put up with watching foreign players for a while if we want to see good football. The good home-grown players will naturally then find their way into the best teams. Chelsea and Manchester United have proved that. But, giving some average Joe a place in a CL team that he doesn't have to work to keep, simply because he's the right nationality, is not the way to raise standards and give supporters the highest level of football is it? This whole foreign v home-grown players debate needs a lot more consideration before bringing in arbitrary rules for dubious benefits.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Of course there has been widespread condemnation of the Celtic fan who, after a little too much of the old falling down juice, came on and 'made contact' with Dida, the AC Milan keeper. Celtic will, no doubt, be subject to whatever punishment is deemed fair and necessary as a result of this. Dida himself may also be up before the Beak for his part in the amateur dramatics. After squaring up and looking like he was going to lamp the guy, he instead went down like a ton of bricks clutching his face. Now, since it was a fan and not an opposing player, he should be warned that this behaviour (apart from making him look like a prat) is not acceptable. However, maybe there is an ulterior motive. Should Milan find themselves struggling to qualify, RTG wonders if this incident might be an excuse to have Celtic thrown out of the competition. Watch this space!
• A lot has been said in this blog concerning English players and their relative shortcomings and overrated status. It was great from an England perspective to see John Terry fit to play against Valencia and Wayne Rooney back and scoring against Roma. Great. But the highly-critical media are the ones who put these players up on a pedestal to the detriment of England (and possibly their clubs as well). John Terry is a good player no doubt. But these people should always be looked on as having to prove themselves constantly. Instead we get a media who, through their lack of intelligence and "me too" attitude elevate these people above their station. You only have to consider how the inclusion of a clearly unfit David Beckham was integral to England's failure in the 2002 world cup. Still, he sold a lot of England shirts in Japan, so I'm sure the FA would have considered it all worthwhile. So when the likes of Tony Cascarino speaking on the radio bang on about John Terry being "absolutely essential" to Chelsea and England's success, he is just following the crowd in making over sensationalist statements. Sorry chaps but if he is that essential, Chelsea and England are doing something seriously wrong. Don't forget, England have not been especially brilliant over the last few years with or without these media favourites.
• Now it isn't always de rigeur for your average English football supporter to speak out in praise of the Scots (or vice versa). But, as already mentioned earlier, Rangers and Celtic deserve all the accolades for their results this week.
• As if we haven't said enough already about over-exposure of the game, bring on Channel Four's FanBanta. Without going into details about content, is there really any need for this show? Yet more hype and lazy programming that the game doesn't deserve or need. But, if you want to know what we think of it so far, it can best be described in two words - shite. And shite.
  

Supporters' Earnings Funding Owners' Assets

Mohammed Fayed celebrated 10 years as the owner of Fulham Football Club over the weekend. But did you know that he was, in fact, the first 'foreign' owner of a Premiership football club? He may well have celebrated with a fancy dinner dance, but is it a cause of celebration for football fans?

Since then a further nine Premiership clubs have changed hands, eight of which have passed into foreign ownership. Apparently a further nine Premiership clubs are being targeted. Arsene Wenger, speaking in an interview with the respected France Football magazine, highlighted the fact that the new owners were corporate buyers with little connection or emotional attachment to the club itself. To football outsiders this shift may appear to be subtle and irrelevant but to Reclaim the Game it makes up the main driving force behind our current angst - and hence this campaign.

Roman Abramovich and Mohammed Fayed are different in the sense that neither is (yet) seeking to make money out of Chelsea or Fulham respectively. We've yet to establish exactly what their true motives are. Worringly, in particular the cases of Liverpool and Manchester United, owners are using the 'cash cow' to fund their purchases (the cash cow being made up mostly of supporters' loyalty). Note also Arsenal's recent announcement of a record £200M turnover, and operating profits of £51.2M, a large chunk of which is swallowed up in interest payments - but at least they have a brand new stadium at the end of it. In Manchester United's case the servicing of an £800M plus debt is estimated to cost the club in the order of £60-70M per year - with nothing to show except the transference of the club to the Glazers for the future milking thereof.

Either way, at RTG, we feel there is a need to re-emphasise just how different is the attitude of the modern owner, the scale at which they operate and what they are trying to achieve. Remember Manchester United nearly sold out to Michael Knighton in 1989 for approximately £12M. The Glazers bought the club 15 years later for over £800M. So we are operating on a completely different scale now. Our experience of people this wealthy is that they are self-centred, egotistical and controlling, with little or no interest in the views of ordinary people. They are driven by their own aims and achievements and at best pay lip service to football supporters. It is hard to imagine many Chelsea supporters delighting at the idea of Abramovich being in the dressing room at all, let alone helping to pick the side and discussing tactics. One visit to the Shed, surrounded by your minders, doth not a football fan make! Perhaps, equally disturbing is the ostrich-like attitude of The FA Premier League to what is going on. May we remind supporters of all clubs (all coldbloodedness aside) that if Abramovich pulls out of Chelsea tomorrow, the club would be bankrupt.

Look, it needs 15 clubs to change Premier League rules on important matters such as TV rights, relegation issues etc. It will only require a few more clubs to change hands for the prospect of major, unwanted changes to be realised. For instance, no promotion to/relegation from the Premier League, once seen as an unwelcome Americanisation of our sport, suddenly becomes a genuine possibility - and not in a future generation but soon. Why? Because what successful businessman, in their right mind, would deliberately choose or risk the major loss of income associated with relegation?

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• In a throw-back to the good old days of 'jumpers for goalposts', laced footballs and all-standing stadia, Portsmouth and Reading raised the average goals per game this season in the space of a single match (11 goals no less). England new boy Nicky Shorey would surely have taken two goals and a missed penalty if offered to him pre-match. This had RTG looking in the record books to see if a fullback had ever scored a hat-trick in the Premiership. We can find no evidence that they have.
• Tough luck on Leeds failing to break their record of 1973 with eight straight wins. The 'Peacocks' imploded somewhat after losing season heroes Kandol and Beckford to red cards and it was always going to tough after that with only nine men. Bit cheeky for taxi-driver beating Dennis Wise to complain about the referee's language after also being sent to the stands. Just a word of warning to Leeds fans: last season, Rotherham started brilliantly despite a 10 point penalty finding themselves in the play-off positions at Christmas time only to be relegated at the end of the season.
• Good on the Chelsea supporters who tried to register their protest by walking out of the Fulham match at half-time. Sadly, despite an extensive leaflet drop, the bar seemed to lure more people away from second-half play than them. Another reason for a co-ordinated supporters' effort in these matters.
• Bloody hell. Germany won the women's World Cup for the second time on the trot. For us bluff old traditionalists, Germany doing well comes as no surprise but what was a surprise is the standard of football which has improved immeasurably. Not that it stopped us flicking over to West Brom v QPR or Milan v Catania, or marvelling at some of the appalling goalkeeping errors that made Scottish keepers look like Banks, Yashin and Cech rolled into one. But nevertheless, slightly disappointed to watch the whole tournament pass by without one shirt-off celebration! Booooooooo!

Hats off! Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the Week - Michael Mifsud. Scored two goals at Old Trafford to create a Carling Cup upset, and rescued a point for the Sky Blues against in-form Charlton.

Hero(es) of the Week - The Handful of Chelsea fans who at least did their bit and walked out at half-time

Villain(s) of the Week - Atletico Mineiro defenders. Yeah, it was showboating of an outrageous nature but maiming the opponent is not really the done thing!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOWeKsLqSs

Cliche of the Week - "More bad news for [insert team name here] and for England...as [insert injured player name here] was ruled out..."

Shock of the Week - Hull 0 Chelsea 4. Well lets face it with all that's been going on, and it being their only win in six matches, it might just have been the Tigers night.