Currently, there are three distinct bodies running football in this country – all with their own agendas, all with their own objectives and all with an overriding aim couched in corporate rather than sporting terms. Any first year student of management studies could tell you that is a recipe for disaster. RTG believes there must be one body to govern football working to clear priorities and properly set objectives.
South Africa 2010 may not have been the most spectacular showcase for the game of football. But, if it showed us anything about international tournament football, it was that good coaching and intelligent players can produce a team that is far better than the sum of its parts. England, on paper, should have been more than a match for Germany and, man for man, should have stood comfortably shoulder to shoulder alongside the Dutch. However, when the chips were down against the Germans, the England players did not possess the thought-making process to understand what was going wrong and subsequently to put it right. It appeared that, running around like headless chickens and chasing shadows to show the ‘commitment’ and ‘passion’ that are so often quoted in relation to great England players was all they were capable of doing. And, in fact, that is all many simple-minded media pundits and commentators have believed to be required to win matches at this level for years.
Take Germany, as a good example (and why not since they are the most successful international European footballing nation). Following their failure to even get out of the group stage at Euro 2000, they revamped the structure of their coaching and administration as well as requiring Bundesliga teams to maintain a minimum number of home grown talent in each of their squads; together with a raft of other changes designed to help the development of the game. At the same time, England (who also went out at the same group stage) mindlessly contented themselves with a fortuitous single goal victory over the old enemy in one of the worst international matches RTG has ever witnessed.
In a similar vain, in 1976, Australia came back from the Montreal Olympic Games with no gold medals. That led to a root and branch analysis of what was wrong with sport in the country at all levels and ages. Consequently, they have punched way above their weight in every Olympics (and many other sports) since. In 1987, after suffering the humiliation of another comprehensive Ashes defeat, they did the same with cricket – the idea of being second best in their national sport simply not being acceptable. They didn’t lose the Ashes again until 2005. Likewise, English football needs to do the same with our national sport now. To do that it will have to acknowledge that the profit motive can no longer be the main driver behind how the game is run. It needs to set proper objectives and priorities for playing, coaching and governing the game in this country – and it needs to happen now.
Priority 1: Participation.
Football is our national sport and maximum participation is good for the health and well-being of the nation. Above all it must be fun to play to get the most out of it and we need to ensure that, at all ages and levels, the best possible facilities and standards of coaching are available - whatever that takes.Priority 2: The England Team.
If the first priority is met then we should be producing better players at grass roots level. But the club structure has to be revised in order that it helps the national team not hinders it. It’s obvious that the Premier League’s objectives could not be further from those of England right now. Clubs develop and buy players, quite justifiably, for their own economical and tactical needs not those of the national side. If available English players are not meeting those needs from the club’s perspective they will choose from elsewhere. And that’s exactly what they have been doing.Priority 3: The Clubs.
RTG has written plenty about this and there isn’t the space to address it fully here. But we need a fair competitive league structure that is not structured around how much money the owners are prepared to bankroll their clubs by or how much debt they feel they can get away with maintaining. The Premier League will argue that more money spent equals better players equals bigger gates. To use the German example again, grounds in Germany are full every week and clubs are not in debt. Likewise, their so-called ‘team in development’ reached the semi-finals of the World Cup – again!These priorities represent some not insignificant changes. Like Germany, we may have to accept that our club performances in Europe will suffer in the short-term while genuinely talented players come through the ranks. In addition, qualification for the European Championships and World Cups at international level may have to be seen as a bonus rather than a given for a number of years. But removing that expectation from the shoulders of the team may, again like Germany, help them to over-achieve.
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….is hitting the beach instead of people!
As if England’s ignominious exit from the World Cup wasn’t bad enough already for English fans. We then had insult added to our pain by former Scotland manager Craig Brown. Mr Brown claimed that had Scotland qualified for the finals, they would have reached the quarter finals at least. This from a man who lamely responded after a 2-2 draw with the Faroe Islands with the immortal line “well, we did win the corner count”. The Keeper also recalled that Scotland later managed to lose to the mighty Faroe Islanders. Actually, on second thoughts, thank you Mr Brown, the memory of repeated humiliating Scottish failures to reach the European and World finals has cheered the Keeper up enormously.
Since the days of the sadly missed dishy Des Lynam, the Keeper has noticed that his punditry heirs have scaled ever further heights (or should that be plumb further depths?) in trying to outdo each other with the clever quips and puns. The Keeper’s favourite ‘waiting for the moment, but not worth the breath’ quotes have been Peter Drury’s USA – Ghana post match quip: “bye, bye, America sigh”. Ye-es. Sigh indeed. This was only just bettered in the cheesey stakes by Martin Keown’s comment on Japan’s “the lad Honda – played more like a Rolls Royce”.
And finally, whilst the Keeper is sticking the proverbial boot into media pundits – this time journalists, Diego Forlan was, somewhat controversially, awarded the “Golden Ball” trophy. This, to commemorate him as the outstanding player of the tournament. Whilst admiring of Diego’s performances and his finishing as joint top scorer, the Keeper is perplexed at the overlooking of the handfuls of German, Spanish and Dutch players in favour of Diego. Until that is, it was explained that the assembled journalists in South Africa alone voted on the award. Enough said. Don’t think however, there would have been any controversy caused by the nationality of the “Golden Turd” award winner – any one from a number of Englishmen.
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