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.

Back to the Classroom for Lessons Not Learnt

In just a few hours the game which will have a huge bearing on the future of football in this country kicks off. As usual, there are unlikely permutations which would allow England to progress with a draw, but basically, England need to win to get through to the last sixteen, and they need to win well to really get this world cup campaign back on track. Even a good win will not alter the feeling that 2010 is not going to be England’s year and, yet again, will stumble out limply within a couple of knock out rounds – at best.

As usual also, there will be the post mortems, the finding of a scape-goat to hang the nation’s angst onto and some more mindless optimism just before England embark on the Euro 2012 qualifying competition. Most people in football and knowledgeable supporters felt that there were grounds for optimism: we had the right manager and the world cup qualifying rounds went very well, and there had been an impressive win on German soil with an essentially England second XI. From the matches played since England’s only defeat in qualifying and especially the friendlies this year, it’s been downhill ever since.

Now press stories are circulating that irrespective of what happens, Don Fabio will be off, to be replaced by an Englishman, Roy Hodgson. There seems to be a pattern emerging here. Hire an expensive foreign manager, don’t give him the infrastructure and support to do his job properly, sack him amidst murmurings of disquiet over foreign managers, meanwhile continue to pay lip service to developing the game at lower levels and ignore the parlous state of football’s finances. Get another English manager, spurred on by the ‘little Englander’ media faction, and repeat process as before.

The truth is that millions of inches of column space and TV air time have been devoted to discussing where things go wrong and how to put them right. These have been discussed since England’s 1970 exit from the Mexican world cup. Managers have come and gone. Some were blatantly the wrong choice (Taylor, Keegan, Hoddle). Some were overlooked (Clough), but whatever and whoever the choice, RTG just can’t help coming back to the same conclusion: it’s yer basic raw talent, that’s the problem.

Clearly the ‘Golden Generation’ was totally oversold and optimistically assessed when coming through the ranks. Judging by the number of public relations gaffes that the current squad seem to be making, maybe they’re using the same PR outfit as Tony Hayward, BP’s beleaguered CEO! Let’s face it, most English footballers are pretty thick and even make a virtue of their gauche bling culture. When you see how most foreign players in England are better in English than many of their native counterparts and how English players abroad rarely pick up their local language, you realise how English players have largely ignored their off-field development. Indeed, reading an interview response by Jamie Redknapp, he boasted how his dad would encourage him to bunk off school to go training at Bournemouth.

What has resulted over the last forty years are successive generations of England players who are so singly dimensioned that you can’t really sense that any of them is going to read a game tactically and change things in real time on the field. They’ll just wait until half time and wait for the ‘hair-dyer’ treatment to be told what to do – that’s according to what all pundits say. And perhaps, RTG is finally coming to the nub of the problem. A failing education system in this country which rates the UK as one of the lowest in the developed world, allied to a celebrity culture which extols and promotes worthless people are taking their toll on our poorly educated footballing souls. Basically, England just can’t get clever players who have developed their minds to cope with adversity, to embrace change or to rationalise and deal with the pressures exerted on them by modern British society.

The Keeper

…it’s gone right through his hands

The Keeper has managed to prize himself away from his new HD TV (special offer at Tesco) to bring you his first report since the start of the World Cup. And what a week it’s been. After getting over the shock of seeing a Hyundai car drive on and score England’s first goal, the Keeper has maintained an almost permanent vigil in front of a festival of football – well, three football matches a day anyway and more of a village fete in the end than a festival. But surely the standard can only improve.

At the BBC it’s a case of recession, what recession? The Beeb seem to have upped sticks and headed mob handed over to South Africa for a last choo choo on the old gravy train before the cuts kick in. The Keeper entered into this televisual feast thinking that it was all about football but how wrong you can be. Chris Hollins has shown him that South Africa makes wine; two blokes who he’s never heard of are driving around in a bus to show that there are also exotic wild animals in South Africa and, favourite among favourites, Gabby Logan, reported live from the townships to show us that some poor people live in South Africa too, ‘you know’. What a shame that, when the Keeper wanted to learn something useful about football, all he had was Mick McCarthy, who, with the dourest of manner, sought only to repeat exactly what had just happened in full view on screen in a drab Yorkshire drawl - “Aw naw. Yer see ‘ees just missed t’pass and the chance of a counter by giving t’ball away again.” Yep, I just saw that Mick. Glad the licence fee is working hard for us over there. The Keeper’s viewing experience was also enhanced considerably by the presence of that doyen of football analysis, CBBC at Wayne Rooney’s live press conference when their incisive questioning revealed that, yes, he was missing his first born child.

The Keeper had serious reservations about the BBC’s choice of music to introduce Japan’s opening game against Cameroon – the soundtrack to ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’ which, for those who don’t know it, starred David Bowie as a rebellious PoW in a Japanese camp during the Second World War who dies a horrible death buried up to his neck in sand in the blazing heat of the day. Or, as Mick McCarthy would expertly summarise it: “Fer me ‘ees let isself down by getting ‘imself buried in t’sand up to ‘is neck and ‘ees 'anded the initiative right over t’ Japanese.” Aside from adding a huge oil slick to the fire of opinion that popstars can’t act to save their lives (see also Phil Collins in ‘Buster’, Mick Jagger in ‘Ned Kelly’), the film is a graphic illustration of the enormous cruelty exhibited by Japanese soldiers toward their captives in the appalling conditions of the PoW camps. The Keeper felt it was a rather lazy choice of music given the enlightened mood of friendliness and reconciliation of modern times (or pretend we do eh Major?) and perhaps one that should have been given a bit more thought by the BBC researcher as he sipped a glass of Stellenbosch Shiraz in his Cape Town hotel room.

The Keeper couldn’t get through his first World Cup report without mentioning the signature sound for the tournament, the vuvuzelas. Now, there have been rumblings afoot that certain viewers are not happy with the constant buzzing, resembling a swarm of angry bees, that provides the backing track to all the games. So much so in fact that there was talk of a Fifa ban on taking them into the stadium and the BBC (yes them again) were even prepared to offer a vuvuzela-free broadcast via the red button. The Keeper was astonished at this blatant disregard for the cultural heritage of the host nation. After all, what else is going to drown out the sound of that bloody awful brass band that insists on following England around?

There was more good news for the people of Southern Africa this week when it just happened that Princes Harry and Wills, who are known to love Africa ‘with a passion’, stopped by to do a bit of charity work in the region at the same time as the World Cup just happened to be taking place. What’s more, some ITV geezer just happened to have a couple of spares for the England match in Cape Town, where the Princes just happened to be at this point in their charity tour. Better start looking for a charity in Brazil in four years time, eh chaps?

Lack of Vision Means Same Old England

The England team have departed for South Africa. All the talk of who will make the 23 is over and the serious business of trying to win a World Cup begins. RTG watched the thrilling spectacle of a bunch of wealthy young sportsmen boarding a Virgin Atlantic 747 , live on Sky Sports News, and naturally, we felt a certain degree of excitement that only the World Cup can generate. But underlying the anticipation was a slight sense of regret that England have not really moved on from the huge disappointment that was Germany 2006, just like we hadn’t really moved on from Japan or France before that. Where are we as an international football nation and what have we learned?

In 2006, the team, dubbed the ‘Golden Generation’, departed these shores amidst enormous national expectation. Ultimately, the term ‘Golden Generation’ referred more to the opulence that the players and their publicity seeking WAGS lavished around the town of Baden Baden than it did the quality of their football. It was USA Today, a paper that measures its football coverage in millimetres rather than inches that stood alone in predicting that the ‘overrated’ England team would go out with a whimper. And, famously, as we know, they did.

You can’t really blame a nation like England for having unrealistic expectations of the national side. After all, supporters hear constantly about how our league is the best and richest in the world. The Premier League and Sky are forever slapping themselves on the back in congratulation at what a fine job they are doing and never stop telling us so. Surely, with the kind of sums of money we hear banded around and the celebrity status that some of our players seem to acquire in the eyes of the media, we should be winning more trophies shouldn’t we?

This time, as the team left to do battle in South Africa, there was undoubtedly a more distinct sense of realism about this squad and their chances? There are the inevitable last minute injuries to key players that inevitably reduce the chances of success. That always happens and this year is no exception. But, RTG wonders if maybe the football watching public are feeling, like us, that this is just a case of here-we-go-again.

The first choice team for South Africa bears a striking resemblance to the one that failed last time. They are obviously older and, perhaps to our benefit, more experienced. But it is worrying in the extreme that we don’t seem to have produced any players in the interim to challenge those that turned out in 2006 for places. Even the ‘Wonderkid’ of last time, Theo Walcott, didn’t even make the cut. Yes folks. This is just the ‘Golden Generation’, four years on, minus a few faces – left out mainly due to injury. Capello has been forced to stick with what he knows because there simply doesn’t seem to be anything better out there.

You may not even know it, because the coverage was so sparse, but the England Under 17s recently won their version of the European Championship. The Under 21s got to the last final of theirs. So there are good young players out there, there just aren’t enough of them pushing on to greatness once they make it to the ‘big time’.

When England went lamely out of the competition in 2006, at that point we needed planning, vision and proper footballing objectives from the governing body of our national sport. We needed the kind of strong leadership that could take this recurring problem by the scruff of the neck and deliver us an England team full of players capable of winning a tournament and giving the long-suffering, overpaying English supporter something to be proud of? Four years later and one failure to qualify for Euro 2008, where are we? The FA promise to focus on all the right objectives – that are supposed to be in the interests of football - but have continued to deliver all the wrong ones. Even England’s state-of-the-art new home, the New Wembley Stadium, was built with revenue raising as its main objective, while failing to deliver a playing surface worthy of Sunday League let alone potential world beaters.

The Premier League is increasingly the playground bully in English football. No one at the FA seems willing to stand up to them in the name of football development and, when they do, they seem to disappear without trace. Development of players is very much a random process left to the will of the clubs. If they make it, they make it. If they don’t – well who cares? This situation has allowed promising young English players to be swallowed up by big spending Premier League clubs only to spend many of their formative years languishing on the bench. Meanwhile, the experienced English talent that does feature regularly in the first team seem to arrive at the end of the season either injured or too tired to compete meaningfully in a four week tournament. The so-called ‘richest league in the world’ does not seem to be able to generate enough wealth or expertise to produce talent at grass roots level, merely to pamper and pay fortunes to its overrated stars.

There are some positives. St. George’s Park, once the national football academy at Burton is due for completion in 2012. Exactly what its role is, and what purpose it has, RTG is not sure. We wait to see. We do have a new manager and one that most supporters will feel was the right appointment, even if it took the FA, yet again, to throw huge sums of money at him to come over.

RTG desperately hopes that the Capello factor, and a little bit of luck, spur England on to victory. Of course we do. But there’s a distinct sense that our governing body’s refusal to change and their inability to set, and follow, proper football objectives, rather than corporate ones, means we are once again entering a major tournament having learned nothing from our failings at the last one and having squandered the huge resources that the game generates in this country.

As stated earlier, RTG believes we have the right manager. If it goes wrong again, surely it is time for supporters to start asking more questions of the powers that keep making the same mistakes over and over again with seemingly precious little will or ability to do anything about it.

The Keeper

He’s complaining about the ball already!

The Keeper apologises for his tardy appearance this week and can only blame the mountain of special and not so special world cup pull outs that has blocked his path to his desk. Amidst the mass of information of absolute no need to know facts and figures, very few media pundits were making predictions and of those that were, none were backing England to win. No bad thing since the jingoism of previous world cups has raised expectations that have only served to act as an additional squirt of lemon to the eye in the run of disappointing results. The Keeper notes that the last time the press was so pessimistic, in 1990, we did rather well!

Well the Keeper is going to make a prediction. Yes, the Keeper believes that come July, the words “arise Sir David Beckham” will be proclaimed. The Keeper predicts that under the astute tutelage and inspirational presence of himself, the Queen will respond to the will of the People (and the Sun, News of the World, Mirror, Daily Star, Hello magazine etc) to knight our favourite footballer for his outstanding contribution in getting England to the quarter finals, only to go out on penalties. Needless to say, Beckham’s Ingerlund was (sic) undone by cheating foreign bastards playing for Manchester United. The Queen will overlook the inauspicious start to Sir David’s coaching career, as his well publicised advice to “hit the space” to Theo Walcott prior to the final squad trials, was taken by Theo to be an invitation to go onto the deserted private beaches of recession hit five star resorts this summer.

Talking of Theo, the Keeper was truly taken by the humility shown in his acceptance of Don Fabio’s decision to leave him out of the final squad, along with his “will try harder” guarantees for the future. His PR company really did a bang up job issuing their client’s statement within minutes of the news. Well, he was too busy on a golf course with his dad to do it himself. Let’s hope though that Theo, before he hits the beaches, remembers his environmental duties in switching off some or all of his ten plasma TV screens that fill his mansion acquired on becoming a multi-millionaire before even kicking a ball for Arsenal. And no, professional solidarity means the Keeper totally refutes suggestions of too much too young in his career.

Having not much, too young, didn’t affect the greatest ever footballer too badly however - as the picture showing England fans’ most loved foreign footballer proves. Maradona has promised (threatened more like) to run naked through the centre of Buenos Aires if Argentina wins the world cup. Expect a run on magnifying glasses in the capital if they do. Although given his managerial record – in a word, awful – the most naturally gifted squad at the tournament will not make this happen.

The Keeper truly hopes England and their fans have a great world cup! We’re going to need a lot of luck, but with, for the first time ever, temperatures more suited to English players, you never know!

UEFA’s Useless ‘Fair Play’ Rules Bad News for Fans

Last week, UEFA passed unanimously new “financial fair play regulations” that will come into force from the 2012 financial reporting period for all European clubs that wish to maintain a license to compete in European competitions.

At first glance – and it is only a glance, since UEFA will not be publishing details in full until an unspecified date in June – the regulations appear to be laudable. The main proposal is very simple – a club can only spend what it receives in income. Presumably, this was an effort to level the playing field in preventing clubs from “cheating” by stopping wealthy benefactors distorting competition. The main proposal is flexible in that the revenues to expenditures are assessed over three years and allows shortfalls of up to £38 million. Sanctions, as yet not detailed, will be liable to be applied from the 2013/2014 season.

However, according to a Guardian report on 28th May, these shortfalls can be met by club “sugar daddies” and that these subsidies will only gradually reduce until the 2019/2020 season. Again, no details exist about what happens after that period. In addition, the regulations allow Club owners to invest in “infrastructure projects” such as: stadiums; training facilities; and youth development – but only if they appear as equity and not as loans on the club’s balance sheet. Short fall subsidies will also have to be taken as equity and not loans.

RTG applauds the original intention, but as always once politicians and pseudo politicians get involved they mess it up. Yet again, the vested interests of a few have impacted what is essentially a set of compromises by UEFA. All they have really managed to do is to switch the on-field battles firmly into the board room. But by far the worst “compromise” is in allowing the carpet baggers like Glazer/Gillette/Hicks to be able to continue their debt-loading of clubs, enriching themselves at the expense of their clubs’ histories and supporters. Meanwhile, the sugar daddies will be able to continue their game ruinous inflation of transfer fees and salaries for the next two years, with some restrictions in future years.

What UEFA has also totally failed to address is the issue of fairness regarding TV deals, which form a significant part of revenue for major European clubs. How is it that, in Spain, Real Madrid and Barcelona are allowed to negotiate their own TV deals, earning in Real’s case over £100 million last year? Likewise in Italy, while in England the Premier League has a collective shared agreement. How long before a regulation struggling United, Chelsea or Manchester City start to agitate for similar agreements here?

UEFA say that the “fair play” rules will be regulated by a new UEFA body headed up by a former Belgian Prime Minister. They also acknowledge that it will have to put in place strict assessments to prevent financial cheating – over valued sponsorships being singled out as a potential area by UEFA’s own web site pronouncements.

RTG say that if the experienced regulatory bodies governing the world trading markets have allowed Goldman Sachs, Leahman Brothers, Bernie Madoff and a host of others to conduct their financial shenanigans – in some cases over decades, what hope have a non-legally binding set of football administrators in achieving fair play?

No, RTG has thought long and hard over what is good for the game and still believe that unless a formula, whereby supporters are put in the forefront of managing their clubs is devised, without debt and without recourse to wealthy individuals, football will bury itself in its own commercial abyss. There are supporter owned clubs and whilst not all models could be defined as ideal for the good of the game (Real Madrid for a start), better and cleverer minds surely exist to be able to meet the developing and future needs of football – as a sport. Not one that is a compromise on continuing the status quo: carpet baggers, dodgy deals and sugar daddies.

And on a final note, given that most clubs will need to boost their incomes to meet the new regulations, guess who will end up having to pay?

The Keeper

...he Shoots, He Fumbles, He's Scottish!

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative Bing Crosby sang. Clearly words that struck a chord with newly appointed England captain Rio Ferdinand before his first game in charge last week. And why not? When asked about the Wembley pitch he located the positive where nobody else had managed to do before him. By alluding to the fact that the players had no idea what the pitches would be like in South Africa, he assured the watching public that, should any of them turn out to be less than perfect, playing at Wembley would prove to be the perfect preparation. Any of you out there who thought that it was an appalling error of judgment on the part of the FA not to make the quality of the pitch the overriding objective in a national football stadium can eat your words. It seems it turns out to have been a masterstroke of genius to have produced something akin to playing football on a sheepskin rug on a newly polished floor on the off chance that it replicates the pitches in South Africa. Surely this has to be the 2010 version of Rio’s World Cup Wind Ups.

Still, nevertheless, it was good to see positive vibes coming from the head of the England team. Sadly, the previous incumbent, John Terry’s, reputation was done further harm this week by the news that yet another member of his family had fallen from grace. We’ve had his mum caught shoplifting, his dealing cocaine (again!) and JT himself playing away from home with Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend and asking for brown envelopes stuffed with cash to show people round the Chelsea training ground. The Keeper was not surprised, therefore, when he heard this week that JT’s brother Paul has been caught having an affair with one of his Rushden and Diamonds team mate’s missus. Wherever there is a scandal to be found, the Terry family will be around. The Keeper is just relieved that JT is not England skipper anymore as “lifting the World Cup” might mean something completely different in his world and we might never have seen it again.

The fallout from Lord Triesman’s departure continues with news that Ian Watmore’s departure came also because his plans for reforming the FA were not popular, in particular with the Premier League. When he presented his 20 point plan for reform to Richard Scudamore, he apparently described Richard Scudamore’s reaction to it as if he’d deposited a “bucket of sick” in the room. The Keeper can exclusively reveal that this had nothing to do with Watmore’s plans at all. In fact, the staff had been making far too much use of the freebies offered by FA official sponsors Carlsberg and MacDonalds!

RTG reported last week that Fabio Capello had a post World Cup get-out clause removed prior to Lord Triesman’s resignation. The Keeper has found that these reports were not true. This just illustrates succinctly the shambles that the FA is in. Just two weeks before England’s first game, Capello is still in doubt over his long term future as England coach

Following his Dutch success, ex-England manager Steve McClaren took over this week at the helm of Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. He has proved himself to be the master of chameleon-like re-invention in adapting himself to suit his environment. He successfully transformed himself from the ‘Wally with the Brolly’ to Dutch ‘total football’ coach, complete with plausible ‘akshent’, to, pictured here at his first press conference, German autocrat in auto town. Congratulations Steve.

Capello's Contract Changes Reflect Uncertainty Over FA

In amongst all the, now customary, trivial tit-bits of World Cup stories leading up to the tournament proper, were reports of a significant change to Fabio Capello’s contract to manage England. Following the announcement and the ensuing uproar caused by the Capello fronted commercial scheme, a fantasy football style game based primarily on Capello’s own assessment of his players’ performances, the FA and Capello responded quickly to the media’s protestations by withdrawing from the scheme altogether.

Less publicised was the announcement that the two year break option in Capello’s four year contract – the break period coinciding with the end of the 2010 tournament – had been deleted at Capello’s request. No-one from the media seemed to link the two events. After all, it wasn’t the first time that an England manager tried to cash in on his position with some ill thought out commercial venture – Glenn Hoddle’s world cup diary in 1998 springs to mind. However, following a successful and encouraging start to his England tenure, characterised by Capello’s own strong sense of discipline, on and off the field, and his pronouncements on being focused fully on the job, using players who were both fit and in-form, RTG detects a worrying change in Capello’s attitude to the job.

Yes, the selection of players who are half fit and those that have played no part in any Capello selected squad might appear to be hypocritical to some or, they might just be acceptance that the ideals as set out by himself on taking on the England job cannot possibly be delivered in the real world. As Capello showed when managing Real Madrid, in his dealings with Beckham, at first discarding him very publicly and then bringing him back when Beckham responded with hard work and determination, he is a man who is not so proud as to admit a mistake – even if only to himself. This is encouraging and for once the media responded positively, “He’s learning about international football like any other new manager” and “He’s never been in this position before” being typical comments from the paid pundits. Had this occurred during a less than successful qualifying campaign RTG wonders if they might have been a little less sympathetic and torn him to shreds instead. But that’s a story for next season perhaps.

No, the worrying aspect is Capello’s clear concern on his job security, so much so that he felt compelled to enter into that ill-advised commercial venture. With Triesman’s high profile departure, adding to the recent somewhat furtive resignation of the FA’s CEO, Ian Watmore, it is clear not all is well at the FA. Now, RTG does not know what organisational power blocks exist within the FA. What it does know though is that they exist, within itself and in relation to the Premier League. That’s pretty normal. It is also clear, that if you add in former CEO Adam Crozier’s experience as an agent of change within the FA – he talked at great length about the need for the FA to modernise its outlook and organisation – the FA is not a place to be if you want to change the 130 or so years old institution. But change it must, as the guardian of the game in this country it is has been running, more or less, on the same basis in its entire history. And this is the most worrying aspect of Capello’s recent actions: his realisation that the FA is a “sick” institution with little or no prospect of re-inventing itself to deliver its key goals. That is to develop the grass roots of the sport, creating an environment which enables world class footballers to be produced and, therefore, a team that can actually win tournaments. If you were working for the FA, wouldn’t you feel insecure too?

The Keeper
He Stands Tall and Firm...ooer!

No World Cup build up would be complete without the release of the official England Team World Cup song. Who could forget the rousing tones of “Back Home” in 1970 or John Barnes in da house for “World in Motion” in 1990. Well, the Keeper has some bad news to report. The build up to South Africa will not be complete on account of the fact that there will be no 2010 England World Cup song released. Your modern day England footballer is no longer willing to make themselves look like an idiot for posterity’s sake anymore (well not intentionally anyway) and they certainly don’t get out of bed for the mere tens of thousands of pounds that a hit record earns these days.

But don’t despair out there. El Tel (formerly known as Terry Venables) sporting the very latest in outdated goatee beards has taken it upon himself to release his own World Cup song; a rather laboured version of Elvis Presley’s “If I can Dream” which actually sounds like it would have done had Elvis himself recorded it seconds before he passed away on the loo. Filmed for Sky Sports on the roof of that footballing Mecca, the O2 Centre, to promote the record, El Tel’s interview was sadly interrupted by the arrival on the roof of his backing group, the London Philharmonic Orchestra. “Sorry chaps”, said Tel, “it’s the London Filler…..Fillar….Fill Up…I’ve got to go!”. I think Tel you meant The London Fillyerpockets Orchestra.

Maradonna’s predictably stormy and somewhat unpredictable reign as Argentina’s head coach continued as he accidentally ran over a camera man’s leg this week. Calling on his usual reservoir of understanding and humility with regard to the plight of other less deified members of the human race, he was heard to say, “What an asshole you are. How can you put your leg there where it can get run over man?” Strange, because we England fans thought he was the expert at putting limbs in places they shouldn’t be.

Manchester City meanwhile seem to be hell bent on signing one of Don Fabio’s up and coming stars, James Milner. As with Chelsea a few years ago City seem determined to over bid for good English talent. It started at £20M rising to £30M and currently topping around £40M – the same sort of figure Arsenal are likely to end up getting for Cesc Fabregas. You know what the Keeper is saying. If it ended up at £100M, why should it matter? He can join the Glen Johnsons, Scott Parkers, Steve Sidwells and Sean Wright-Phillips of previous years who chased the big bucks to Chelsea and languished on the bench for the next few seasons at the expense of unfulfilled promise. It could be important to bag the best English talent, though, in the coming seasons as UEFA’s new rules on home grown talent kick in. City apparently made a £30M bid for Adam Johnson last week before they realised he was actually already one of their own players.

It was refreshing to be marshalled through the FA Cup final on ITV for the first time by the combination of Clive Tyldesley and Jim Beglin. When Didier Drogba’s shot rattled the Pompey cross bar to see the ball apparently cross the line, Messrs Tyldsley and Beglin launched into a frenzy of protestation. “It was over Clive”, “Definitely over Jim”. Then Clive consulted his TV commentator’s what-do-we-say-in-these-circumstances instruction book and decided to launch into a scathing attack on Fifa for not allowing technology. “It only takes a few seconds to confirm Jim, why oh why don’t we use it?” The TV replay dutifully followed 40 seconds later and, after several different camera angles were examined, revealed that the ball clearly hadn’t crossed the line after all. Jim Beglin immediately started back pedalling at a rate that would have taken him comfortably rear-first up Mount Everest. “Actually looking at it again Clive I’m not sure it was over”. But our Clive, clearly on a roll by now and enjoying his foray into the role of ‘commentator/technology bandwagon jumper, was not to be put off his stride. “It’s madness Jim. We have the technology. It just takes a few minutes so why don’t we use it?” At which point it became clear, after discussing the issue for n minutes that, in fact, Messrs Tyldesley and Beglin had illustrated exactly why goal line technology has been resisted. That is, a perfectly good decision made by a well positioned linesman prevented the need for unnecessary hold ups to play and a cumbersome and time-wasting, on-field player-appeal system. Thanks Clive.

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”.

Owners or Administrators. Are Any of Them 'Fit and Proper'?

For those of us who include a study of the league tables as part of our Sunday morning ablutions, tracking the form of clubs has become rather more convoluted over the last few seasons by the need to refer constantly to one or more asterisks alongside various teams throughout the league tables.

Even those of us who like to think that they are football ‘savvy’ are left in some bewilderment – Crystal Palace minus 10 points, Southampton minus 10 points, Chester minus, don’t know they’ve disappeared, Luton minus 30 points, Leeds minus 10, then another minus 15, Portsmouth about to be deducted 9 points etc.

What’s striking about the deductions is their variability. Why the different deductions? They are all for basically the same thing. They overspent and, quite rightly, this is tantamount to cheating. But why the disparities? What exactly are the rules governing points deductions and why have they been applied with additional sanctions in some cases? Yes - RTG knows that additional rules have been broken in the method and circumstances of clubs facing administration – hence more points deducted – but you would need to be a forensic financial analyst to understand exactly what rule is being broken. Why will Portsmouth get a nine point reduction as opposed to the ten points for other Football League clubs?

All this does is illustrate that there is a paucity of clarity from the FA, Premiership and Football League. Equally so, it represents not just the bust phase of the football boom and bust show, but the total lack of leadership from those that govern football.

"We have to be careful we don't adopt Michel Platini's and the French view of debt, which is that it is bad. Debt is inevitable. You say debt is not healthy but debt, of course, to a degree is healthy. If we are not careful we'll end up where no one is allowed a holiday in France who has a mortgage in England."


Richard Scudamore, October 2008

So Richard Scudamore, like so many fat cats – sorry – corporate professionals – is happy to sit back and do almost nothing to pick up large six figure salaries and large six figure bonuses (pushing his salary well into seven figures) for doing basically nothing. He believes that football is a corporate dog eat dog world and that clubs that are mismanaged will be punished for their profligacy. For some reason, he doesn’t seem to realise that his organisation has an active role in ensuring clubs have the right management with the Premiership’s (alleged) ‘fit and proper’ tests. How is it then that these tests allowed four (or is it five?) different and clearly not fit owners to take over Portsmouth in a few months? Clearly the Premiership applies rules which are meaningless at best, bordering on criminal at worst.

On top of that, two of the world’s biggest clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool, have been allowed to mortgage their very existence to allow a handful of disinterested American ‘carpet baggers’ to enrich themselves at the expense of loyal supporters. It is in the ownership and continuing health of all clubs that Mr Scudamore should be judged.

"We have a cosmopolitan approach to players and a cosmopolitan approach to ownership and that is paying off."


Richard Scudamore, January 2007

His last re-signing of the Sky TV deals, a deal that merely continues a 20 year association with Sky at a slightly raised fee (which earned him a £250k - £500k bonus according to whichever report you believe) are the easy parts of his job. The hard parts are to have leadership in the areas which are causing supporters the most anguish: How to ensure a fair and exciting competition? How to prevent the carpet baggers? In reality, how do you ensure the future health of the game? It’s the easiest thing in the world to fly around in first class and sign deals which are just inflation adjusted contracts for the same things. In truth, clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United have done just as much, if not more, than Mr Scudamore in spreading the word to foreign fields.

Mr Scudamore, earn your millions by tackling the difficult issues!

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The Keeper

...he's got it covered!

We’re all trembling with anticipation and tension as the final stages of the season draw out to decide who will be crowned champions of “the most exciting league in the world”™. Entering the final stages, it was a three way race between the three clubs who have won 16 of the 17 “most competitive league in the world”™ titles. Entering the final weekend, it is a race involving the two clubs who have won the last 5 titles between themselves. How those Scottish fans must be envying us!

And if that’s not enough excitement for football fans, we’ve got the FIFA World Cup™ coming up in about six weeks time. It’s come around so quickly again – feels like a matter of months, rather than the four years since Germany’s 2006 tournament when we England fans were sweating over the fitness of several players, including the now obligatory metatarsal troubles, as well as the English media’s wildly optimistic expectations of an England win. Or was that 2002? Or 1998? Plus ca change, as they say on Groundhog day.

Talking of World Cups and South Africa 2010, recent reports following the death of apartheid advocate Eugene Terre’Blanche seem to suggest that the world cup will be played out during a civil war. In fact, the threat of violence is being used to explain poor ticket sales for the Greatest Sporting Event in the World™. Trust us it has absolutely nothing to do with airlines doubling/tripling flight prices, ditto hoteliers for rooms (if available at all) and ticket prices that make Wembley seats appear like a day out to watch your local pub team compete in the inter-brewery play-offs. FIFA don’t even have the comfort of over priced sales to corporate saps because of the global slowdown. Our hearts bleed!

But hurrah! It might just be wishful thinking on the part of certain areas of the media but talk is that Capello wants to take David Beckham along as a motivation to the rest of the selected England squad. That may just be the managerial stroke of genius that could propel England to the world title. After all, wouldn’t you be inspired by someone who gets paid five to 10 times as much as you do for playing intermittently for an English League 1 side and who acts as a Milanese seat warmer in between? Imagine all that invaluable experience of last 16/quarter final exits: the missed penalties, the jumping out of tackles, the petulant sending offs, the shirt sales. On the downside, the players might just be overawed by the presence of this high achiever. But hey – here’s another inspirational idea: why not complete the Hello! package by getting Mrs Beckham to come along as squad dietician. At least no-one will be puking before a match with nerves!

Those of you out there who desperately want to see England win something before you shuffle off this mortal coil—yes you who would dare to suggest that 11 players out on the pitch who are fit and possess the in-built belief that they can actually win something would be a better tactic to follow, can only hope, like us, that Capello really is the man to shake off the shackles of FA mismanagement and make the difference this year. Otherwise will we once again be contemplating the usual FA post-mortem in July that, no doubt, will sound something like the closing scene in the movie ‘Burn After Reading’ where the CIA superior is talking to his underling:


CIA Superior: What did we learn, Palmer?
CIA Officer: I don't know, sir.
CIA Superior: I don't fuckin' know either. I guess we learned not to do it again.
CIA Officer: Yes, sir.
CIA Superior: I'm fucked if I know what we did.
CIA Officer: Yes, sir, it's, uh, hard to say
CIA Superior: Jesus Fucking Christ.

Jesus Fucking Christ indeed!