A Phoney Phase to a Phoney Competition – Part Two

Last week RTG highlighted the total distortion of competition within the Premier League caused by the unrestricted spending of Manchester City and Chelsea. RTG also highlighted how this distortion is putting additional financial demands on the rest of the Premiership. So much so, that promotion can now be viewed increasingly as a poisoned chalice, with financial implosion and further relegation becoming the norm for those clubs failing to maintain their premiership status beyond a season or two. As RTG writes, recently relegated Hull City is believed to be on the brink of administration following a host of other clubs whose recent history has included a period in the top flight.

RTG believes the time has come to impose financial controls on this unbridled distortion. Yes, UEFA has announced rules that impose some limited constraints, but as RTG has previously pointed out before, these are very limited and will allow the continual subsidy of clubs living beyond their means until at least the 2019/2020 season! Also, they will continue to allow the purchase of clubs via leveraged buyouts, thus waving in more Glazers, Hicks and Gillettes into the English game.

Salomon Kalou made the back pages last week by asserting that Manchester City won’t be able to buy the league title. That, coming from a player whose team has already had around £700 million of subsidies from a Russian Oligarch, says much about the hypocrisy and lunacy pervading the upper tier of English football. And there’s more to come. Since Abramovich’s subsidies, Chelsea have finished in the top two in each of his six seasons as owner, winning three titles – this for a team that had finished in the top two only once in the previous 98 years. Sorry Salomon, you really can buy the title and you can buy success. You may not be able to do it by the Real Madrid ‘Galactico’ method – which in the end is more to do with a vanity ‘fantasy league’ project, than a serious football-winning team building exercise.

People have argued that the additional billions that the game has received from oligarchs and oil sheikhs have made the Premiership a more exciting league, attracting the best talent in the world. RTG argues differently: the additional money has led to absurd transfer and player salary inflation, which has only fuelled the disparity between the rich two and the rest. Yes, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have been able to challenge Chelsea in recent seasons, but these challenges are fading and, arguably Manchester United, without Ronaldo, would not have been able to prevent Chelsea from winning all titles since Abramovich appeared on the scene. As it stands, with UEFA’s so called financial constraints, the title for the foreseeable future will be a contest between City and Chelsea – with the rest making up the annual fodder for these two. It will also mean a lot more clubs going into administration and ruin.

No, the time is now for the Premiership to impose unilaterally its own controls to prevent not only the massive subsidies to clubs, but the obscene leveraged buy-outs which will bring ruin to both Manchester United and Liverpool. In Liverpool’s case, it already has done. Yes, it may mean the ‘best’ talent in the world may bypass the Premiership (and arguably they are doing so already) and it may mean that the Premiership’s recent ‘domination’ (according to the pundits) of the Champions League would end in the short term, but it would make for a far better competition and safeguard the future of clubs for their supporters.

So sign up to RTG to help get a proper football competition! 

The Keeper

…still waiting for the call from City! 

If the Keeper sounds a bit distracted this week then many apologies but it’s down to this new shirt they’ve got him wearing for the new season. It itches like hell. The days when the old green cotton jersey was washed and laid out on the bed in August have long since departed. Now it’s a question of making sure he gets used to at least three different luminous coloured nylon affairs. It used to be the case that the Keeper only had to go through this unpleasant process every few years but actually it seems to be a yearly occurrence now. In fact 18 from 20 Premier League clubs have changed their first team kit again this year so why should the Keeper get off scot free? At least Arsenal and Manchester United have ‘gone green’ by claiming their new replica kits are made from recycled plastic bottles. This does not unfortunately result in the shirts being cheaper to buy for the average football supporter but from a manufacturing production viewpoint, it makes perfect sense. After quenching their raging thirst in the oppressive heat of the sweatshop, a Chinese worker will be able to throw their plastic water bottle in the skip next to their work space safe in the knowledge that it will be back in front of them in a matter of days to be hewn expertly into a Nike football shirt.

Speaking of recycling in sport, the Olympic Stadium for 2012 is the first ever that is apparently totally recyclable. It is designed so that the top tier can be removed and recycled to leave a 25,000 capacity athletics stadium. Or, as talk has it, West Ham may take it over and have their own brand new home ground ready for 2012-13 presumably at taxpayers’ expense. But this doesn’t necessarily mean the recycling doesn’t have to happen. Just think how many peek-a-boo latex bras, crotch-less skin tight knickers and synthetic rubber Rampant Rabbits David Sullivan and David Gold will manage to make out of the recycled running track when it’s ripped up. 

No opportunity for Eduardo to don the reconstituted coke bottles as he thanked his old club Arsenal and departed for Shakhtar Donetsk. The unusual part of his transfer was that he had to learn Ukrainian as part of the deal. This serves as a stark reminder to the Keeper as to why so few English players travel to foreign climes to ply their trade. In three years at Lazio, the best Gazza managed was “uno birra per favour chief” (belch), while in the same time period in Madrid, David Beckham got at best to “grassy arse” and sticking an ‘o’ on the end of any English word he knows (of which, let’s face it, there aren’t that many). The Keeper wonders how many times the phrase “yer know o” was quoted in post-match interviews to the Spanish media.

Closer to home, the saga of Liverpool football club drags on and on. After last season when it seemed that a few scribblings on the back of a fag packet were enough to prove oneself worthy of buying Portsmouth, it could take many months for prospective buyers to prove their own suitability to buy the Merseyside giant while they, in turn, carry out their own due diligence. If this proves too much of a financial strain on Gillette and Hicks it may be that they will default on their loans and Royal Bank of Scotland, effectively a state owned bank, will end up running Liverpool FC. While opposition football supporters the length and breadth of the country have, for many years, taken the piss out of Liverpool folk and their supposed reliance on benefits from the state, having their football club relying on taxpayers’ handouts is surely taking it a bit too far.

Triesman: Mail on Sunday Treachery

Question? Why would the Mail on Sunday, a paper that claims to be, at best, “batting for Britain”, in reality, a vehicle for fuelling the angst of “Little Englanders”, decide to derail England’s 2018 World Cup bid?

When you think of the potential benefits the world cup would bring to both the footballing and economic development of the UK, you have to start believing that evil forces are at work. For an organisation to have taken upon itself to have set up Lord Triesman in this way - and published transcripts of Triesman’s words would suggest relaxed speculation rather than outright accusations – there must be ulterior motives in compromising the national (istic!) interests in such a way.

Is RTG starting a conspiracy theory? Actually, we are and we believe there is good reason to do so.

"There is one certain fact about debt, it has to be repaid or refinanced. The debt mountains are owned and therefore the clubs are owned by either financial institutions - some of which are in terrible health - or very rich owners who are not bound to stay, or not very rich owners who are also not bound to stay. As we all know today, finance institutions have finally become highly risk-aware. They break debt into smaller packages mixed with other more or less toxic debts and sell these impenetrable instruments on. This poses very tangible dangers. Not only is debt at high-risk levels, we are also in a period when transparency lies in an unmarked grave. There is little point in thinking this now affects everyone except football. I predict, especially in today's financial climate, it cannot go on."

FA Chairman, Lord Triesman, October 2008

Since RTG started publishing in 2007, it has been looking for an empathetic voice at the highest levels of football administration. We don’t claim to know Lord Triesman personally, or professionally, but his public pronouncements of the inequities and indebtedness of the game in this country were starting to highlight the differing objectives of the bodies governing football. That is why he made many enemies in the game, particularly in the Premier League - principally, Sir David Richards and Richard Scudamore. Yes, the same Dave Richards who was instrumental in turning Sheffield Wednesday from an established Premier League team into a struggling and debt-ridden League 1 side. . And yes, the Richard Scudamore who, in the past, RTG has been passionately disapproving of for his short-termist policies.

The warning flags should be raised yet again by football supporters to say that everything is not right with the governance of the game. Anybody within the football establishment who dares to question the old order, be it a Lord Triesman or an Adam Crozier, seem to end their relationship with the FA with their heads bowed in shame. It seems that the word “change”, so popular with the politicians in recent weeks, is an anathema to the world of football administration. That is, anybody who dares challenge the (very) old order, is dispensed with at the first politically expedient opportunity.

Conspiracy theories feed off attempts to explain why shocking events happen. They are a way of rationalising historical happenings that pour scorn on the official explanation or pronouncement. However, RTG feels we can identify how Lord Triesman entered into a seemingly innocent, but recorded, conversation with a “friend” and, at the same time, ended up losing his job.

1. He criticised the so-called ‘fit and proper’ test that the Premier League put in place to, supposedly, regulate ownership in football. RTG say he has been more than vindicated on that score but, note, vigorously opposed by Richard Scudamore.
2. He raised huge concerns about the indebtedness of football clubs but, again, totally rebutted, by Richard Scudamore
3. The other bidders for 2018 (Russia in particular, since Spain logically should not get it after hosting it more recently) have a lot to gain from this and probably a lot of money to throw at it. Let’s park that one there for now but presumably you get RTG’s point (and yet more Abramovich involvement?).

"The fit and proper persons test does not do the job sufficiently robustly. A review is now inevitable because football clubs are not mere commodities. They are the abiding passion of their supporters. We forget that at our peril."

FA Chairman, Lord Triesman, October 2008

Is RTG going mad or what? Whoever tries to change football for the good seems, after a decent while, to get their mandated balls cut off. And by ‘the good’ we mean for the benefit of all football supporters through equal competition. But, look at the huge amount of money now involved in football, and it is hard not to subscribe to conspiracy theories. We clearly have some unsavoury characters involved in running and influencing football. Sadly, RTG believes, we have just lost someone who may have forged a better path for football.

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The Keeper

...he's got it covered!

My mate’s wife’s brother-in-law was installing a new kitchen at Carlos Anceolotti’s house when he overheard Carlos’ son saying someone called “Stevie G” was on the telephone asking for him. My mate’s w’s-b-i-l etc managed to listen in for a while and heard them debating whether it was better to sign contracts before or after the world cup. It’s a done deal. You heard it here first!

Yes folks, it’s transfer rumour rubbish time! This year’s opening to the transfer window is again spurred on by the speed of various trophy laden Playstation managers to fuel their own fantasies via websites specifically set up for that purpose (see football rumours.co.uk). The fact that the rumour mill is also given an additional spin by footie journalists who, post season, are having trouble filling column inches prior to the world cup is neither here nor there.

Here’s what the Keeper thinks will happen: a repeat of last summer’s trading. That is, a record year again in transfer spending, but actually very few transfers take place. Records will be broken only because Manchester City will overpay on stroppy prima donnas, Abramovich will let loose a fraction of his billions to try to realise his European ambitions and… everybody else will be trying to stick to whatever their earnings and budgets are in the current economic climate. But the Keeper also predicts that the market might go mad, if England goes on to lift the World Cup, based on the feel good factor that would be engineered. Hmm..ok. Stick with the original prediction bit.

Talking of rumours and Stevie G, he and his wife have had to issue a press statement to deny the rumours that have been circulating over the ‘net in the last couple of weeks. You know the one: Stevie has apparently impregnated a 16 yeard old, whilst his wife, Alex Curran, has supposedly been having an affair with a Derby County player. What utter rubbish! The Keeper knows for a fact she has never been to Derby.

A big up to Fulham, their management and their fans for doing England proud as the lone carriers of the flag into a potential European trophy winning position. Most commentators described their heart breaking extra time loss to Atletico Madrid as a “plucky and proud” glorious failure. Given that Atletico’s first goal was offside and their winner a flukey own goal, The Keeper thinks that the Fulham fans would have been justified in being hugely disappointed. Panning around the crowds, tears from the fat middle aged men, as seems the norm these days, were duly expected. But no. Not even from the “way past your bed time” kids. Their stoicism amidst their disappointed acceptance was laudable.

Sadly, there was one exception. The TV crowd scenes focused, as usual, on a celebrity “I only go to finals” person. In this case, Lilly Allen, who was seen blubbing away in the stands looking to all intents and purposes like she should have been more worried about the amorous advances of Pepe Le Pew. But then if you were faced with the prospect of sitting next to Keith “look at me, I’m almost as famous as my daughter” Allen, surrounding yourself with Eau de Skunk might prove to be a very worthwhile exercise.

Congratulations to the likeable (so far, at least) Carlos Anceolotti for clinching the domestic double in his first season in England. A remarkable achievement. But sadly, The Keeper just can’t help but contrast the images of the second highest paid players in the world holding aloft their cups of victory along New Kings Road, with those of old babushkas holding out their begging cups in countless Russian cities and towns. As a French writer (it was Honore de Balzac – OK, so I looked it up!) once said: ”behind every great fortune, lies a great crime”.

For Football's Sake, Time for Overspending To Be Penalised

Another Champions League week and three of the four English teams look well poised to go through, while Arsenal are still certainly not out of it despite some pessimism. Recently, accountancy group, Deloittes, published a football ‘rich list’ which emphasised the importance of the Champions League as a revenue earner. Again, the big four in England are miles ahead in terms of revenue, bolstered by these Champions League earnings.

Chelsea also published their financial results – or at least the legal minimum that they had to – and these revealed some interesting points. On turnover of £223.3M (£190.5M from football) they made a loss of £74.8M. The losses were £5-6M down from the previous year (£80.2M). The accounts also revealed that about 71% of the turnover was taken up in wages alone. Whilst losses have been reduced, it is hard to envisage Chelsea achieving Peter Kenyon’s oft quoted aim of reaching break even by 2010.

Add these losses to previous years and Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, has now subsidised the club to the tune of £578M.

At the core of every sport – and RTG means sport as opposed to what sport has become defined as – is the overwhelming belief that, whatever the sport being engaged in, either individually or as a team, it is contested on a level playing field (no pun intended).

Compare and contrast Chelsea’s situation now, with that of Leeds United in recent years. Peter Ridsdale, the then Chief Executive of Leeds saw the revenue earning potential of the Champions League and pinned all their commercial strategy on it. This strategy fell at the first hurdle when they failed to qualify. The rest, as they say, is history, with Leeds now languishing in the third tier of English football, and the club currently under administration. The amounts involved were deficits of £80-100M (depending on what source you refer to). But these amounts are trivial when you compare Chelsea’s losses above. In fact, if you look at the Deloitte rich list, Chelsea’s losses are greater than the revenue of all but the top 16 earning clubs in the world - bigger than Celtic's revenue who lie in 17th spot. Note also that Leeds are currently suffering a 15 point penalty as a result of their overspending in previous seasons. So what’s the difference between Leeds United and Chelsea?

Answer? Roman Abramovich. Intrinsically there is absolutely no difference between the two situations. Had it not been for Abramovich, assuming no other suitable buyer had been found in time, Chelsea would also have been under administration. In fact, had it not been the rather fortuitous situation where Abramovich, in negotiating over the purchase of Tottenham Hotspur, spotted from his helicopter, the Stamford Bridge ground’s proximity to Battersea Heliport, then Chelsea would be in similar circumstances to Leeds now.

Much speculation has been made of how Abramovich dubiously gained his riches, let alone his motivation in investing in English football. Some say his only real interest is in creating a high profile for himself as a ‘protection’ against retribution from Russia and its current leaders. From a purely footballing perspective, RTG believes that, if Leeds are penalised for overspending – which amounts to ‘cheating’ and is rightly penalised – then why shouldn’t other overspending clubs suffer the same penalty? Isn’t it just a case of, “my dad is richer than your dad”. On another equally contentious point, by pouring in so much money, and thereby increasing salary and transfer inflation, is it right that one person should exert so much influence over what is supposed to be, and RTG states again, ‘a sport’.

RTG believes in putting limits on the amounts that clubs spend on wages, as a percentage of their turnover, and putting limits also on squad sizes as well as the ludicrous loan system, as a first step in levelling out what has become a blatantly uncompetitive sport.

If you too believe that football is now played out in an unfair and unequal environment, then please sign up to our campaign to ‘Reclaim the Game’.

Reclaim the Game – The Weekend’s Events

• In another sign of modern standards of behaviour, Birmingham City’s Mathew Taylor, whose challenge broke Arsenal’s Eduardo’s leg very badly, has received death threats as a result. Completely over the top. However, RTG commends Arsene Wenger for retracting his earlier over emotional response, when he called for a life ban for Taylor.
• Apparently Joey Barton will not be available for selection against Liverpool away on 8th March as a result of a court order banning him from his home town following his recent arrest. The way he played against Manchester United on Saturday, he won’t be missed.
• Comedy moment of the week was provided by La Liga in the game between Real Madrid and Getafe at the Bernabeu yesterday. If you thought goal celebrations had got out of hand, then check out this link where Real’s celebrations of a disallowed goal caused such distraction that they neither noticed nor had time to respond when Getafe went straight up the other end of the pitch and scored what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

Hats Off, Take a Bow (Or Not)

Player of the Week – Jonathan Woodgate. Scored the winner in the Carling Cup Final ending nine trophy-less years for Spurs and put in a performance that showed if he could stay injury free, he would surely be partnering Rio Ferdinand in the heart of England’s defence.

Villain of the Week – William Gallas. Completely threw the toys out of the pram and sat sucking his thumb even after the final whistle when Arsenal really needed a captain’s presence. Admittedly, the penalty awarded was a harsh decision but it is hard to imagine Frank McLintock or Tony Adams, both great professionals and leaders, behaving in such a fashion.

Hero of the Week – Fernando Torres. Eased some of the pressure on Benitez, from a Premiership point of view, with a hat-trick against Middlesborough.

Shock of the Week – Tottenham win the Carling Cup. The first major trophy won by a team outside of the big four since 2005.

Cliché of the Week – “The sleeping giant has arisen”. The media and Tottenham supporter’s description of their triumph. We’ll see.

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.

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.

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.

Chelsea Go From Strength to Weakness

In the BBC series "Great Britons", Winston Churchill was voted the number one great Briton of all time. It is not difficult to understand why. He was one of the greatest wartime leaders the world has ever seen. Yet, when he tried to win an election post-war, the 'wartime hero' actually became a liability and, strangely, one of the reasons the Conservatives lost. Bear with RTG on this one; you'll see where we're going soon. Perhaps a more relevant example in this arena is Thierry Henry. Undoubtedly one of the finest players ever to grace the Premiership and clearly a major contributor to Arsenal's 2002 and 2004 championship winning sides. But such was the dominance of the man and his character, that what made him great actually became Arsenal's biggest weakness. You only have to look at the liberated way the younger members of the squad are playing so far this year to see the effect his leaving has had on the team. Ruud Van Nistelroy found it easier to score than not to score when Manchester United won the title in 2003. Yet, their reliance on him to score goals was exposed when his form deserted him.

Which brings us nicely on to Roman Abramovich. He was booed when he arrived at Old Trafford last Sunday by Chelsea fans. The same Chelsea fans who presumably were singing the praises of all the money he spent when he first arrived. Is it not obvious that a man who can afford to use huge sums of money to bankroll a football club will, sooner or later, become the problem rather than the solution? In the end, he is entitled to fiddle and interfere with Chelsea as much as he likes. It's his toy and he pays for it. But standing in the dressing room giving advice to Michael Essien through Andriy Shevchenko acting as interpreter must surely raise alarm bells in Chelsea circles. Ultimately, you can't really blame Chelsea fans for getting caught up in the hysteria of it all when they started winning trophies on a regular basis. But surely now Abramovich's behaviour must cause genuine Chelsea fans real concern.

He has created an environment where players feel comfortable making ludicrous demands on the club. Before John Terry became England's highest paid footballer on £131,000 a week, he requested a 'limitless parity' clause to be written in to his contract to ensure he would always be the club's top earner for a nine year period and a clause that would ensure he become manager of the club after that time. He got the first but not the second. And this is someone Chelsea fans apparently are supposed to look up to? In our opinion he isn't even as good as the sensationalist media who over-champion his cause think he is. But that debate is not for here. The point is that Abramovich created the situation where felt it was within his rights to ask for it.

Abramovich has allowed divisive behaviour and cliques to develop within the squad through his blatant favouritism toward certain members. Peter Kenyon has felt compelled to make ludicrous claims about Chelsea's ever growing "global brand" claiming 25 million worldwide fans and 2.2 million in the UK. This from the Chief Executive of a club that can barely fill half its seats for a Champions League game. But it seems the louder Roman's money talks, the less it feels the need to either tell the truth or show respect to the game it feeds.

Going back to what this blog is all about for a moment - namely Reclaim the Game. People not connected with Chelsea were able to take a more considered viewpoint when Abramovich was welcomed into our game with open arms. Most felt this was a bad thing for football supporters if it set a precedent. Which it appears to have done when you look at the number of teams being taken over by wealthy businessmen. Surely it is now time for Chelsea fans to see that the man who brought glory back to Stamford Bridge is now its biggest threat. The time for singing about "being loaded" is over because the ousting of Mourinho could just be the beginning of the end for Chelsea Football Club. And it is that kind of blatant disregard for the supporters and the sport they follow that made us begin this campaign in the first instance.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• Given the nationality of their owner, the release of Chelsea's 'Blue Revolution' DVD had us smacking our lips in anticipation of a tale as dramatic and world-changing as the Russian Revolution. You know how it goes. Old regime usurped by a popular uprising; people stabbed in the back; creation of a new regime worse than before which then steals all the resources; heroes of the original revolution being victimised and ousted....But sadly what did we get? John Terry playing darts in the changing room. Perhaps the Russian Revolution template would make a more accurate represenation after all.
• We wonder if Larry Grayson look-alike and new (stand-in) Chelsea manager, Avram Grant, may bring some dietary and muscle toning tips from his wife into the Chelsea dressing room. On a TV show called 'Milkshake' that she hosts in Israel, she has been known to bathe nude in chocolate and drink her own urine. Cancel that order of Lucozade Roman!
• It is our considered opinion at RTG that the over-exposure of football on TV is actually damaging the game. There is an argument to say that many of the games shown live at the moment, necessitating fixture shifts down the line are annoying and inconvenient at best. Basically, you don't need us to tell you that there is probably too much football on TV right now. Well, put slightly differently, we definitely don't need anymore. Showing Northern Ireland football (which hardly anyone even in Northern Ireland watches) was pushing it to the limit but Sky's Premier League All-Stars is really taking the biscuit. Put an empty skip out in your road and sooner or later it will be filled with rubbish. Sky TV is the television equivalent. This needless over-exposure of football on TV just to fill up the vacant skip that is Sky One is not just unnecessary but dumbs down the game and insults the intelligence of football supporters. Somebody tell us please how many people out there really watch this mindless drivel. Remember how once upon a time snooker and darts were on TV all the time? Did you know that Steve Davis was the first millionaire sportsman in this country? TV took the piss out of snooker and look what happened as a result. Football is special. For heavens sake Sky you have a responsibility and duty to keep it that way!
• McCaffrey found! Rumours abound that the hyper-active former presenter of Goals on Sunday has been spotted on Showtime Arabia (formerly known in illegal Saturday afternoon pub TV viewing circles as Al Quaeda TV) presenting their English Premiership coverage this year. Next time we're in said selected watering holes we'll look out for him.

Hat's off, Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the Week - Emmanuel Adebayor. Hard to ignore the Gunners at the moment. Adebayor's hat-trick maintains the smile back on Arsenal fans' faces. Thierry who?

Villain of the week - John Terry. Apologies if the Blues are getting it in the neck a bit this week but there's just too much ammo. JT played his own part we're told in the downfall of Jose who was forced to ask backroom staff whether there was any physical evidence to explain JT's lack of form. When JT refused to come out for the warm-up ahead of the lacklustre performance against Rosenborg, he gave his reason as "having something on my mind". What an inspiration!

Hero of the Week - Leicester City. OK we mentioned this previously but they deserve the accolade.

Cliche of the week - Not so special for 'The Special One'.

Shock of the Week - Yes, it was a shock but we've done it to death. We're going for Fernando Torres. Benitez may be keeping his powder dry for later in the season but the man who, in our opinion, is one of the most promising strikers in Europe (and Liverpool are lucky to have got him given the interest over the summer) keeping the bench warm while his team draw 0.0 at home to Birmingham is unfathomable.

Enough is Enough For Football. Not Just Jose.

Well I suppose we should all get ready for a minute's silence at all the grounds this weekend. The Prime Minister Gordon Brown felt compelled today to pay his respects to the passing of one of the game's great............sorry, what's that? Nobody's died? But I thought someone must have died the way people are talking.

What? A football manager's lost his job? Really? Oh I see.

Yes. A Premiership manager has lost his job people. Why that means that even Gordon Brown has to jump on the bandwagon and stick his awe in on a subject that is nothing to do with him, I don't know. But there we go. This is the kind of over-exposed, over-scrutinised football world we live in. OK, let's be realistic for a second. Jose Mourinho was a little bit more than just a Premiership Manager. He was the one who took Roman's high-profile milllions and actually made a success out of them in his first year. His trophy haul speaks for itself even if he didn't actually manage to bag Roman's coveted European Cup. But two semi-finals in three years is actually a pretty good record in itself and somebody should remind Roman Abramovich that only one team can win the Champions League each year. Perhaps he should take a step back, exercise a bit of patience and accept that some things take time and instant success cannot necessarily be bought; no matter how much money you throw at it.

The general consensus from the media (and Gordon Brown) is that Jose will be missed as one of the "characters" of the game. Maybe so but his part in the whipping up of Chelsea fans' fury against Anders Frisk after the Barcelona game was the sort of behaviour and poor sportsmanship we can happily live without. And, frankly we here will not miss his style of football particularly. Chelsea in 2005 and 2006 were worthy, if not very attractive Champions. But each to their own. We all want our teams to be successful after all. What we at RTG would like to see is Jose installed as England manager should we qualify for 2008. He seems to play a style that gets the best out of English players and his teams are difficult to beat - a quality essential in winning any knockout tournament. Add to that the fact that he seems to know his own mind rather than simply exercising the wishes of the media in his selection policy. Ultimately this appears to have been his downfall at Chelsea.

What the whole episode should teach us is this. Those supporters who embrace wealthy non-football businessmen because they think it will buy their team success should seriously think if this is the way they want the sport to go. Abramovich now believes that, because he is an incredibly wealthy man, he can pick football teams and judge potential players better than his manager and coach. Should the coach not agree, he'll simply get rid of him and put someone else in. In the meantime presumably he'll just continue to spend money until he gets what he wants. What he'll do after he achieves it who knows? But Chelsea fans should be concerned about more than just the loss of a successful manager. These people are messing around with the sport and the clubs that we love as supporters. For some strange reason, everybody seems to be concentrating on one man's plight rather than the bigger issue and why this paints football in a bad light. Mourinho is just a successful, intelligent, slightly quirky, football manager who will bounce back no doubt. Abramovich represents something far different and nobody, but nobody who loves the game of football should be pleased to witness what we are seeing unfolding in our game.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Well done to Chelsea fans for voting with their feet in support of Jose Mourinho and staying away in droves from their Champions League group game with Rosenburg. The unfortunate thing is that fans of Peter Kenyan's "Global Brand" Chelsea did not actually know about it at that stage. They just didn't bother turning up. Word of advice Peter. The local Bingo hall was turning people away that night. Get yourself down there and start giving out a few tickets to next time. London is a cosmopolitan city and you might even get a few non-English people in to boost your "Global" status.
• Leicester City have to be granted a mention this week. By allowing Nottingham Forest to score first, and return the scoreline to what it was when the first game was abandoned due to the heart attack sustained by City's Clive Clarke, they reminded us that there is a perspective in the game that should always be maintained. Congratulations to City for reinforcing the message that football is simply a sport to be enjoyed by spectators and fans and no more than that.
• Two issues have come to our attention this week concerning football kits and we feel compelled to share them with you. The ceaseless exploitation of supporters in relation to the price and frequency of updating of replica kits has, of course, gone on for some time. "Well its just supply and demand", we hear you say. Well, fair point if you are of the hard-nosed school who can continue to ignore the pleas of your children. But not to be content with that, have you noticed the increasing number of kits around that are specifically designed to include a space for a number and a name? In fact, not just designed to include them, but actually deliberately made to look pretty stupid without them. Just another carefully executed plan to squeeze a little bit more out of the long-suffering football supporter. Secondly, Benfica's pink away kit in the Champions League this week. We have it on good authority from connections in the fashion industry that the colour trends in fashion are often purely determined by the availability and cost of specific dyes. Does this mean that we can look forward to a plethora of pastel pink football strips or is this Benfica's attempt to try and attract the pink pound to the Stadium of Light?
• Your current writer was lucky enough to attend a Champions League game this week. Plenty of things stand out at these events, not least of which the difference in the European game versus the domestic game. But what stood out for me was the referee. Like the players, the refs should be Europe's elite also and of course they are. But the control, the calmness and the constant willingness to let the game flow where possible was a joy to watch and something we really should be encouraging more in our own domestic game.