Time For Revolution in English Football

Following yet another dismal England failure in a major tournament, RTG is calling for a complete overhaul in the administration and running of football in this country. No more talk about tiredness, Winter breaks, technical ability or changes to the England management. Unless supporters want the discussion for the next 44 years to mirror those of the last 44 years, now is the time to have the courage to accept that the way the game is run is both archaic and anarchic and totally detrimental to the well-being of not just the national team but football in general.

“They [Holland, Germany and Spain] are the three nations who have won the greatest number of youth tournaments in the last four years. Can all this be put down to mere good luck? I don’t think so. We are witnessing a triumph for technical education programmes, sound management and good governance.”

Michel Platini, South Africa 2010

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.

Once a single governing body for football in England is established, RTG believes clear priorities for the game must be set out:

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.

Help us to put pressure on the powers that be to reform the game by signing up here. We’ve paid handsomely for these past incompetents both financially and emotionally and we’ve earned our right to have our say.

The Keeper

….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”.

TV pundits, however, much like tournament referees and assistants are not beyond reproach and paying for their mistakes. As the tournament progressed, various ‘expert’ panellists were culled from the initial line-ups. One of the first to go, thankfully, was the incomprehensible Emmanuel Adebayor, but much to the Keeper’s chagrin Alan Shearer remained. Now Mary Poppins, as he is known to the Geordie nation, didn’t, admittedly, attempt any cute quips or pathetic puns – to the Keeper’s knowledge – but his monotonous delivery and statement of the bleedin’ obvious was a continuous irritation. However, in response to the rest of the BBC panel’s discussion about Cesc Fabregas’ contribution in Spain’s triumph, he (boringly) told viewers that he had been outstanding “between the sticks” in the tournament and had made “two outstanding saves in the final”. Still Fabregas…..Casillas easily confused as they are only bloody foreigners to boring old Mary. Note: some media pundits were actually promoting him to be next England manager!

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.

Kilts a' Reelin' Whilst Calm England Expects

What a difference four days make. All last week the talk about England was of missing players, fitness gambles and "failure" recalls. Today, just those few days later, two wins and six points have been gained by England against their two main rivals in the chase for the assumed remaining qualification place. Croatia is widely seen as already qualified, not least by its infamous manager, Slavin Bilic - yes, he of the "Blancgate" scandal, where his feigned facial injury caused Laurent Blanc to miss the final and the winners' medal he deserved - but we digress. Deservedly, Scotland have taken the plaudits and most of the media attention following their one nil victory over France in Paris. This has, for once, driven the normally over reactive english media into giving, for them at least, relatively sober assessments of the England team's achievements over the last few days. So far nobody has taken qualification for granted and credit was given, where due, without embellishment and setting of unrealistic targets.

You have to fear for Scotland though. If ever there was a media build up resembling the ludicrous claims of Ally's Army of 1978, then we are seeing the beginnings of them. "Greatest result of all time" or a qualified "greatest result of the modern era" are just some of the platitudes. They've even wheeled out a list of the greatest Scottish results of all time. Confusingly, Scotland's 3-2 1967 Wembley victory over the then English World Champions seems to have the nod as the greatest of all, despite the fact it was a friendly and that for the English players it was their last match of a season that had lasted nearly a year because of their Summer '66 exertions! Tongue in cheek of course. We'd really love the Scots to make it finally into a European Finals tournament. Well who wouldn't prefer meeting Scotland to meeting one of France or Italy? For the record though, we don't think Scotland will make it, despite their commendable efforts.

The many merits that accompanied England's performance included individuals such as Owen, Heskey, Barry, Richards and, at least in part, Wright-Phillips. It also came in the shape and balance of the team which has been so conspicuous in its absence in the McClaren era. Good grief, we even passed the ball around a bit in patches! But there was one other ingredient: good fortune. Had the referee not ruled out, incorrectly, Zyranov's 18th minute effort, the result may well have been very different. Just 12 minutes later, Owen cruelly punished Russia's lack of scoring in their only truly dominant period of the match. Whilst we didn't see the Scotland match, it doesn't take too much working out that, with just 28% of the possession, Scotland would have had their work cut out defending with some measure of luck thrown in.

With the level of professionalism now at international level, and with the demands placed by clubs that the internationals have to operate within, it is not surprising that fortune does play a part in football. The point is to grab that good fortune when it comes your way. Last night an in form Holland required a 90th minute Van Nistelrooy goal to secure the points against unfancied Albania. All great teams get a "lucky " label attached at some point in their greatness. But as Jack Nicklaus' old adage goes, "it's amazing, the more I practice, the luckier I get".

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Pascal Chimbonda, the Spurs' defender, has been arrested on fraud charges related to his transfer to Wigan from Bastia in 2005. The charges are believed to be part of another investigation concerning money laundering. Which kind of begs the question: what's happening about Lord Stevens' bungs enquiry? Gone disturbingly quiet - again. Anybody?
• Good grief! Shevchenko is alive and well - and scoring - for Ukraine. Shame for the Scots that it was in a loss against their rivals Italy.
• David James, interviewed in this September's 442 Magazine, said that it was true that he refused to do interviews with Sky Sports from October through December, because December was the earliest that they could fix his satellite system. Good on you David! Though wish I had some means of retribution against those effing c***s. They made me wait in all 3 days of an August bank holiday, only finally to turn up and refusing to do anything because a High Installation Team (HIT) was needed. It wasn't at all, and it was another two months before I had my Sky installed. Monopolies eh.

  
  

England Further Away from the Prizes Than Ever

It is now just over 41 years since England had its finest footballing hour when we won the World Cup. Now in 2007, and with only two losing semi final appearances in all competitions, we find ourselves further than ever from being able to make realistic bids to win any tournament.

In 1974 when we failed to qualify for the World Cup, and with the subsequent failure to qualify for the '76 Euros and '78 World Cup, many reasons were put forward to explain England's failings:

1. Lack of appropriate coaching at grass roots and other levels
2. Poor 'technique'. Yes this was the moment when that term became standard excuse-speak in footballing pundit circles
3. Too many non-English players. Don Revie, when England Manager, was quoted as saying that his effective pool of players available for selection numbered 54 only!

Surprise! Surprise! These exact same issues are still put forward today. But now add to that:

1. Even less English players available (with Scottish, Irish and Welsh players being replaced by everyone on the planet). And many of those that are available are, or have been bit-part squad players - Joe Cole, Steve Sidwell, Peter Crouch, Sean Wright-Phillips, Glen Johnson, Scott Parker, Jermaine Pennant.
2. Less kudos associated with appearing for your country. Look at the early retirements of players such as Scholes, Bergkamp, Carragher, Shearer. Take the example of Frank Lampard's early 'taxi' home (actually a hired private jet) from the England squad after being dropped from the first team.
3. The diminishing authority and effectiveness of the FA. It is interesting that in 1958, a post Munich Manchester United team released Bobby Charlton for an England friendly tour rather than playing him in a European Cup semi final.
4. The fewer number of pupils playing football in schools coupled with lack of facilities.
5. The continuing absence of a policy on youth development as illustrated by the demise of the FA school of excellence after years of debate over its requirement in the first place.

We're not saying anything here that hasn't already been written and discussed at great length elsewhere. But the underlying point is this. For the generation that grew out of the post-war optimism of 1966, it was still a Britain of empire that was accustomed to being the best at what it set its mind to. That included football. The tragedy is that, in 1974, we still clung to the hope that English football would get to the bottom of its problems, sort them out and move on to another victory.

But in 2007, those who can remember those days, now find themselves not only contemplating the possibility of never seeing it happen again in their lifetime, but that of England moving even further away from ever achieving it. Yet, there have never been more financial resources available to the powers that run the game to address this problem. However, when you read Sir Trevor Brooking's pessimistic view of the future for the development of young players via the club academy system, it doesn't appear that the FA have either the will or the competence to do anything about it.

If, unlike the British Empire, football should survive another 1000 years, we have to contemplate the fact that 1966 was, and will remain, it's finest hour. If it is not, then it really will owe so much to so few!

Reclaim the Game - The week's Events

• Well done to the Football Supporters Federation on finally persuading the government to reconsider the reintroduction of terracing (safe standing). Though a black mark for them for not updating their website at time of writing. The majority of those who back the campaign appear to believe that this will mean cheaper prices and a return to good atmospheres in grounds. Sadly we believe neither will actually be achieved. In the short-term, the most likely outcome is that we'll end up paying £40 plus to stand at a game. In addition, most club owners seem reluctant to reconvert seating areas they paid to have installed already. It's good that a body has managed to sway government opinion on behalf of the football supporter. But as we have already stated, decisions made by people who run football clubs tend to be made for their own benefit, not those of suporters.
• Alan Hansen's appearance. Now a beard? The mystery deepens.
• Predictions are rife. Will England beat Israel and Russia in their forthcoming "must-win" games? Do you want our prediciton? Well let's just say, we don't think you should book your flight to Austria or Switzerland next year.