Fantasy football

Every so often readers of this blog have to put up with posts about Newcastle United FC. More often than not these have been tales of woe, with accounts of mismanagement and uncertainty of direction, skulduggery and delusion. Not today. Against all the odds, for the past year Newcastle’s owner has served up a banquet for the fans in the form of extraordinarily skilful management (in the form of the unexpectedly brilliant Alan Pardew) and sheer genius in sourcing new players. The result: the club sits at number 6 in the Premier League, equal on points with Chelsea, but after spending only a fraction of the money that has sustained (or not sustained) the latter. And they are just five points below out-of-form Tottenham Hotspurs, with eight games to go.

If Newcastle can win enough of these games to get above Chelsea and overtake Spurs, then it’s the Champions League. Oh well, you can dream.

In this blog I have been very critical of owner Mike Ashley in the past, and would still maintain that he needs to become better (or even just very slightly good) at communicating with fans. But it may well be that, contrary to what I had thought, his recipe for running a premiership club is right after all. Less of the silly spending, more strategy and tactics. And to be honest, it’s a more interesting approach.

The Tevez anguish

Argentine footballer Carlos Tevez is out of favour with his manager in Manchester City FC and wants to move. He is deeply unhappy, perhaps depressed, and is desperate to get away from Manchester. ‘Oh dry the starting tear’, as WS Gilbert once wrote in a poem, because a solution is in view: Italian club AC Milan is prepared to take him on loan and pay him his salary of, wait for it, £200,000 per week. That’s £10.4 million per annum.

So let’s see where that places him in the general league table of millionaires. It is, as it happens, almost exactly the same pay as is earned (and I’m using the word with a straight face) by the chief executive of Barclays Bank, Robert Diamond. But it is much more than the paltry £2.2 million earned by the chief executive of Ireland’s largest company, the Smurfit Kappa group, Gary McGann. Furthermore it is three times what Tevez’s manager at Manchester City, Roberto Mancini, earns, and 20 times the pay of Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew.

It may seem that highly paid university heads should stay clear of this subject, but I’ll venture forth anyway. Football is becoming crazy, and we are setting up conditions in which over-hyped prima donnas (even when talented, as Tevez is) destroy themselves and others around them while burning an amount of money that they do not, in any objective sense, actually earn. This in turn feeds from an over-priced system of television rights and season tickets, and it is turning a people’s sport into something that is as much soap opera as it is football.

I do not object to high salaries for footballers. They only have so much time in which to earn it. But £10 million p.a. is way beyond what is needed to set them up for life. In the meantime, this extraordinary business model is subverting the ideals of the game.

I know I’m not saying anything new here. But I’m saying it anyway. This cannot go on, or at any rate it shouldn’t.

An unexpected Newcastle United FC story: a good one

From time to time, as readers of this blog know, I comment on the affairs of Newcastle United football club. Mostly these are comments of despair and disbelief, as the club has for years now had a habit of taking mad decisions, firing good managers and appointing not-so-obviously-good ones, selling players the club needs to prosper, and generally behaving in an insane way while the long suffering fans look on.

But what’s this? Newcastle United have been in the top 4 of the English Premier League for weeks. The club’s players are behaving in a disciplined manner. They are unbeaten so far this season, an achievement only one other club can claim, Manchester City. They are set to break even financially. Their game is (usually) attractive and entertaining. The manager, Alan Pardew, is showing real skill in dealing with both players and fans. People are daring to whisper about playing in Europe.

This isn’t the Newcastle United we know. But we could come to love it.

A famous victory (actually no, it’s just a draw)

Yesterday Newcastle United, tossed about on the waves of unpredictable actions by a mercurial owner, seemed to be facing almost total humiliation. It was a home game in front of over 51,000 die-hard Geordie supporters, and the visiting opponents were Premier League title chasing Arsenal. At half time Newcastle were 0-4 down, and disaster seemed certain. Then, somehow, they managed to score 4 goals of their own in the second half and got back on level terms. It is not really possible to do justice to the sheer drama of the game, which afterwards was immediately labelled by various sports commentators as the best Premier League game ever.

Maybe the loss of star striker Any Carroll to Liverpool is not so disastrous after all. But then again, when it’s Newcastle you never know what is going to happen next week.

Taking ‘banter’ seriously

It’s not easy to take Katie Hopkins – really a person just famous for being famous – seriously, and so probably one shouldn’t bother too much with anything she says. For those who are not familiar with her, she was a contestant on the BBC’s show The Apprentice in 2007, and before and after that she was known more for her various relationships than much else; but somehow she has reinvented herself as a serious business consultant, and indeed has made it twice (including yesterday) on to the BBC’s political programme Question Time.

Anyway, Katie Hopkins has a Twitter presence, and a couple of days ago she issued the following tweet:

‘Sky sports – can no one have an opinion anymore? Can no one have a giggle? Must everything be so sanitised and magnolia? Equality mania.’

She also delivered herself of a limerick on the same subject, but I am certainly not going to repeat it here as it is wholly objectionable. Why bother with her at all? Because, alas, I suspect she does speak for more people than just herself, and it’s a serious matter.

For those who may not know what her tweet was referring to, it was the comments made by Sky Sports football commentators Andy Gray and Richard Keys about a female assistant referee, amongst other things expressing the view that women are unable to understand the offside rule. As people started digging they found that both pundits had form, and that they had been recorded making other objectionable remarks previously. At first it was thought that Gray was the worse offender, but since then Keys was shown to have made horribly lewd comments to a fellow pundit, referring to a former girlfriend as ‘it’ in the context of obscene suggestions about sexual conduct.

Sky Sports and the two commentators have parted company, and it would be nice to think that this has addressed the problem; almost certainly not. But the more worrying aspect for me has been the willingness of others outside the world of football, like Hopkins, to come to the defence of the two idiots and suggest that this was nothing more than just a bit of banter. Online debates about the affair also have tended to have plenty of contributors taking the same line, though in fairness most express strong disapproval.

But those who think that this is ‘just’ a case of wildly inappropriate and sexist comments are also wrong. There is more to this. As more information has been revealed, it has become clear that Gray and Keys were known as bullies who regularly abused their positions as veteran pundits. This is not just about maintaining decorum, being fair or keeping the language clean. It is not even about recognising gender equality. It is about combating abuse and harassment and bullying.

For those who think that this is just typical of football and that the rest of the world has moved on, I’m not so sure. Recognising the dignity and equal worth of all people, regardless of gender, race, origin, sexuality or other characteristics is still not something we always manage, in various walks of life. And that is one of the reasons why I was being vigilant in the political context earlier this week.

In the meantime, football is better off without Gray and Keys (and I hope they don’t re-appear elsewhere). I hope the lesson is being more widely learnt. I much prefer to be writing about the just cause of Newcastle United than this kind of idiocy.

Right on the ball

It’s good that people keep up with the news.

Overheard in Dublin yesterday. Three people were standing on the side of the road with placards reading ‘Beep for Gaza’. Two young men were walking past this little protest, and I was behind them. After they had moved on a few yards, this exchange took place.

Young man #1: ‘I wonder what that’s all about.’
Young man #2: ‘Maybe he’s going to be the Ireland manager?’

It gets crazier and crazier in Newcastle (and that’s saying something)

I suppose it had to happen. Just as everyone was settling down, the fans were content (if occasionally a tad anxious), the media vaguely positive – just as it all looked reasonably good, in steps Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and fires manager Chris Hughton. OK, I hope you know what I am talking about here: it’s one of my occasional rants about football club Newcastle United. Apologies to those not in the least interested.

Nearly two years ago former Ireland international Chris Hughton was plucked from a supporting role under Kevin Keegan to take over as acting manager, and eventually permament manager. How did he get on? Just after Newcastle were relegated in the summer of 2009 he put in place a proper team spirit and a determination to get out of the mess, and sure enough, Newcastle dominated the Championship and were back up in the Premiership at the first available opportunity. A number of commentators predicted they would fail there, but in fact Newcastle have beaten Aston Villa and Arsenal and held Chelsea to a draw. So what does an owner like Mike Ashley do? Well, he fires the manager of course. And what do the fans do? They cry in despair.

One of the major problems with soccer right now is the role that has now been given to rich football club owners. They often treat clubs like their personal toys, undermining stability while often not providing necessary funds. Some get it right: Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and Alex Ferguson at Manchester United have been given full autonomy to act as needed without owner interference. And who could deny that it has been a successful formula?

In the end, though, football clubs are the property of their fans, for without them the business would collapse. I believe we need to think again about the appropriateness of having wealthy owners at all – perhaps there should be a FIFA rule (if only FIFA were more transparent) that all clubs are required to be cooperative ventures owned collectively by their supporters.

Right now I am stunned, in total disbelief.

Over-spending their way to success?

Longer term readers of this blog will know that occasionally my attention here turns to football (soccer); this is one such occasion, for which my apologies to those not interested. But the topic I am raising here may have implications beyond football, and may even be relevant to the management of universities, indirectly. Also, to declare my vested interest, I am as some here know a supporter of Newcastle United FC.

So what am I raising? Well, many people interested in English Premier League football will have been watching closely how one club, Manchester City Football Club, is faring. For those who have no idea why this should be so, let me explain briefly that a couple of years ago the club was bought by Abu Dhabi billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan. At the time he did so, Manchester City had for some time mostly been in the lower half of the league. The Sheikh has very deep pockets indeed, and he immediately began to pour money into the club. The idea was that the club should be able to buy any player they wanted from anywhere in the world, whatever the transfer price and whatever the wages. The world’s best and most expensive players were in the club’s sights, and the intention was that it would climb to the top of the league.

Like many fans I suspect, I really really hoped that this wouldn’t work. I was already fed up with the apparent ability of Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich’s ability to buy success for his club, and to have an even bigger spender come in and do the same (or more) for Manchester City seemed just annoying and also wrong. I wouldn’t even like it as a fan: if Newcastle were to win competitions solely because it had a very very rich owner it would spoil it for me.

Well, Manchester City is now firmly established in the top 4 of the Premiership, and may even win it (Chelsea being number 1). There are occasional glitches for these big spenders, but the lesson appears to be that mega-millions talk, and most persuasively. Unless, that is, the new rules being introduced by European football governing body UEFA put an end to this. The consequence of the big big spending by Manchester City is that the club  has a major annual deficit, as its revenues cannot match the expenditure. But now UEFA is about to exclude clubs running a deficit from European competitions, and because these competitions are vital for the big clubs and their players, this may have an immediate effect. Nor will it be that easy for the big spenders just to stop the purchases as the new rules kick in, as they will still have the accumulated wage bills and indeed the amortization of the transfer payments.

So it may be that the rules are about to get fairer. No bad thing. If I were writing the rules, I might actually ban private owners of football clubs altogether. After all, the big Spanish clubs do very well without them. And who would shed a tear if Silvio Berlusconi were no longer the owner of a major club…

In the meantime, I’m still hoping that Manchester City ends up outside the top 4 in the Premiership.

Football wars

Readers of this blog may know that I am a supporter of English premiership club Newcastle United. Just over a week ago the club experienced a major blow when one of its new star players, Hatem Ben Arfa, suffered a major injury when his leg was broken twice as a result of a tackle by Manchester City and Netherlands player Nigel de Jong. Ben Arfa will now be out of action for several months, perhaps for the rest of the season. If you have a strong stomach, you can see the incident here.

The extraordinary thing about the tackle and its result is that the referee didn’t even see a foul, never mind something suggesting a harsher judgement. Indeed de Jong, as crime parlance might put it, was ‘known to the police’. In the World Cup finals in South Africa he was seen doing a similarly outrageous tackle, here.

Soccer, like many team sports, can be a fairly rugged game, and injuries happen. However there must be limits, and where these are exceeded there should be consequences. In that context, the reported decision by the Football Association to take no action over the tackle on Ben Arfa seems to me at least to be hard to understand. If such over-the-top conduct on the field is completely unpunished, then it suggests a type and style of football, and perhaps a kind of conduct off the football pitch, that is aggressive and violent is acceptable. It should not be.

The Newcastle story

OK, I haven’t written about Newcastle United FC for a while, and you won’t expect me to be completely silent on events… For those who don’t know what this is about, a little bit of background on the life and times of this football (soccer) club. Two years ago the sky fell on Newcastle, as the owner fell out with the much loved manager, Kevin Keegan. Keegan left, and a completely chaotic season followed, at the end of which the club was relegated from the Premier League to the (then) Coca Cola Championship. In the meantime the owner, Mike Ashley, was trying to offload the club but couldn’t find a buyer, the fans hated him, the biggest players left. Fatalistic fans were already talking about further relegation to League One.

And then it all changed. Newcastle’s players bonded in adversity with each other and with the caretaker manager, former Ireland international player Chris Hughton, a steely determination set in, and the club started winning games. Actually, winning them again and again. Until at the end of the season Newcastle easily came out on top of the Championship and were promoted back to the Premier League. Then, ten days ago or so, in the opening game of the new season, the club faltered against Manchester United at Trafford Park, and some were already predicting they would be relegated again. But just for now, no-one is saying that, because on Sunday last Newcastle annihilated Aston Villa, beating last season’s number 6 club by 6-0. Maybe things are looking brighter at last.

For me, the Newcastle story is a romantic one, of enthusiasm and determination in adversity, and the desire to do something and be something in and for a city that lives and breathes football. Of course there are still all the questions about where international soccer is going: the inflated salaries and transfer payments, the mountain-sized egos that the modern game has produced, the role of super-rich owners who don’t know how to respect the game, and so forth. But there is also the sheer excitement at seeing these dramatic struggles, and the joy of watching the game when it is at its best.

Go, Newcastle!