Christ, He's Off On One Again

This week has seen the publication of the self-proclaimed Independent European Sport Review 2006, a European Commission Report funded by UEFA. Even before it is read, the point has been missed. This is not generic to sport, it is directed at Professional Football. Not amateur football, the professional game. Even then, the specifics are aimed at the major clubs in Europe not those in the Championship or below or their equivalents. Indeed, the primary driver is that according to the Report, is that Sport accounts for 1% of the entire GDP of the EU. Of that, professional football will deliver at least 75% if not more. Accordingly, it is a large sum over which the meddling fingers of Brussels and Strasbourg have little direct influence and they are desperate to do so. Having tried to lay waste to the Premiership Clubs cartel in selling their TV and media rights, the EU are trying to become involved in other ways. This report is nothing less than a shot across the bows of UEFA, and FIFA for that matter , even if that was the outcome that they were trying to avoid.

Do not get me wrong, in principle I believe the EU to be a good idea. In practice however, it has proven to be nothing more than a institution whose decisions are based upon self-serving interests, be they the French protecting their incomes via the CAP or Britains Rebate. In this light, this humble blogger is incredulous that they believe that the EU can protect or improve the administration and operation of football.

However, to purely describe this Report as EU meddling does it a disservice. It is more pertinent to look at the posturing and litgious nature of the relationship between the authorities, e.g. UEFA and FIFA, on the one hand and the G-14 clubs on the other. It is apparent that both sides are as much to blame as the other. That UEFA fails to recognise the G-14 is well documented, claiming that the Professional Clubs Forum is the appropriate place for such discussions to take place. That the G-14 exists as an organisaton is the ultimate proof that the PCF has failed in its fundamental raison d'etre. Instead, we as football fans, watch from the sidelines as the two and FIFA fight for the soul of the game in the courtrooms, not directly against each other but with one hiding behind a club that could never dream of being a member of such an "illustrious" group.

In the body of the Report, it is hard to escape the feeling that the authors believe that Sport sees itself as being either above the Law or not subject to the Laws that govern the rest of Society. I do not believe this to be the case. Is it therefore necessary to have a section on Money Laundering. Indeed the latter is reported as being a specific problem with "International Networks" managing this business. Forgive me if I do not share their concern. Unless the Authors or UEFA / FIFA provide specific evidence of this problem then this is a non- issue that is being used as a front for their desire to enforce nationality rules. In themselves, rules forcing teams to contain a minimum number of citizens of that country are good for international teams and the game within that country. For the authorities to present a case without evidence of human trafficking, is nothing short of despicable. Does the EU seriously contend that scores of children are brought to Europe from the Rest of the World in the back of flat-bed trucks, forced to go training for pitiful wages and then forced down into Soho or the Rieperbahn to work at nights? If they do, the proposers of such theories are fools and liars. In any case, to compare the plight of footballers to the misery suffered by those victims of truly grotesque human suffering, kidnapped from their families whilst being held hostage is bizarre and destroys the credibility of this Report.

The main recommendations of this report are alas at the rear of a one hundred and sixty page document, full of legalise and political double-speak. I was not sure which sent me to sleep first, this document or the glass of brandy that accompanied it - Terry's Brandy de Jerez 1900 Solera Reserva, if you're interested. The main recommendation, i.e. the first and therefore most prominent, is that the EU taking into account all of their pontification and navel gazing formulate a set of rules, specifically for Sport. Yet, earlier the authors have espoused that Sport and Politics should be kept separate, exactly the opposite of what is being proposed. In an ordered Society, Sport is surely subject to the same rules as you or I at a place of work or at leisure? Are they saying that they believe Sport to be outside of those rules. Certainly some tackles should have been subject to criminal actions in the past but then you get into the realms of intent. Roy Keane, for example, admitted he intended to hurt Alf Inge Haarland when he almost broke him in half. Despite the evidence of Keane's boasting, as of yet no criminal proceedings have been started indication as if any were needed that footballers are not subject to the Law once they cross the line at the start of a match.

The key recommendations that they recommend for the EU and UEFA are:

1. An effective Club Licensing system
2. Central Marketing of Commercial Rights
3. A European system of player transfer regulations
4. A European Players' Agents Directive controlling their activities
5. An effective system of encouraging local education of players, obliging clubs to have a minimum number of home grown players in their squads
6. Legal protection for the pyramid structure of sport
7. Protection for intellectual property rights for fixture lists

The first indications that this is a whitewash are that all of the above exist anyway, under either EU legislation or UEFA / FIFA regulations. What is proved is that UEFA is not able to enforce these regulations or rules.

Where the Report steps onto new ground is the introduction of a salary cap at club level, followed by a levy on those clubs who break it. My initial reaction was that this is unenforceable under European Law so therefore the lawmakers will allow it. However, this is likely to be successfully challenged in the European Courts as it inhibits free competition and isolates Football from the rest of Society by setting limits on the earnings and rewards that a Company can pay to its employees. Should it succeed, the levy is pointless unless it is especially punitive. If for example, the cap is set at 80% of Revenue and Chelsea (and I use them only as an example) exceed that with their salary bill being 85%, then the Levy need not exist. Put them out of the Competitions that they are entered in. Immediately, the club will be relegated and out of Europe the following season. Perfect punishment. Most of their stellar players will leave or request a move, no doubt appreciative that their International game will suffer in playing in a lower league. Indeed, better still, demote the clubs to the lowest level of the Professional Pyramid. If that does not bring them to heel, nothing will. There are too many unanswered questions by this Report on this matter. Nowhere is there a proposal for the Levy. Nowhere is there a proposal for wealth redistribution which is the aim of the Levy. In fact, like most of the Report it is a mish mash of vagaries and fine ideals that will never be enacted, along with crass stupidity.

One overriding thought prevails when reading this Report. Most of the recommendations and points made are covered under existing Laws and Football Regulations. Which then brings into question the suitability of UEFA and FIFA as the games governing bodies. But that's a whole different ball game. And one missed at this juncture.

"An unbelievable climax to the League season" was how the late Brian Moore described the final game of the 1989 season at Anfield. Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary of Arsenal's 2 - 0 win to snatch the League Title from under Liverpool's noses, having done their very best to throw it away in the lead up to the match. I recall The Sun proclaiming that it had broken the news of Liverpool's 5 - 1 win over West Ham the preceding Tuesday, his reaction was "Oh My Gawd!" according to the journalists. I would have thought it would have been slightly stronger than that.

The day still seems fresh in my mind, meeting with Larry & Neil in The Hare & Hounds in Broad Street in Guildford at noon, couple of beers before setting off at mid-day in Larry's works van, I lost the toss and was in back without a seat on the way up. Despite leaving Park Barn at 1pm we still managed to miss the first fifteen minutes of the game due to the heavy traffic on the journey up, listening to the match on the radio whilst trying to park up. Getting the wrong end of the stick, thinking that Steve Bould had cleared off the line instead of what really happened with his header being cleared off the line by Steve Nicol. The match rushed by until Alan Smith's opener, still being none the wiser today as to why the referee and linesman spent the next sixty seconds discussing the goal - surely it was resolved with "Did you flag for a foul?", "No", "Goal it is then". Two second conversation, tops. From then on, the game passed slowly - thinking we'd blown it when Thomas shot straight at Grobelaar from inside the area but it didn't matter in the end. The ball hit the back of net twenty minutes later and I ended up fifteen rows further down the visitors terracing than I started, and climbed back to our original spot just in time for the final whistle. The party did not feel that it was ever going to end. When I eventually got back home, I found that my Nan (God Bless Her) had bought every newspaper from the Saturday morning so that I could make a scrapbook (and I was 23 at the time!), something that I still have to this day, complete with match ticket and programme. Heady days.

Today's Tunes are posted here as a compliment to another blog, Ickmusic, where Pete has posted the full Style Council concert from Milan in 1984. These are from TV performances in that year, thanks to Carlos for this boot:

Long Hot Summer

My Ever Changing Moods

Hanging On To A Memory

Angels and Devils

John Obi-Mikel's future has, depending upon which media outlet you believe, either been resolved or is still up in the air. Back in February, I noted that the likely outcome would be United owning the players registration but that Chelsea would then "buy" him and get off scot-free for their shenanigans. It looks as if this is going to be the case with the fee set at £12m (approx. $20m), of which United get £10m and Lyn Oslo £2m. Given the players subsequent comments about the Mancunians, this is the best outcome for Fergie despite his wish to sign the player. Going to Chelsea is proving to be akin to be put on death row - ask Shaun Wright-Phillips. Obi Mikel will need to show exceptional talent to break into the first team in his chosen position, languishing behind Fat Frank and The Red Baron on the playing front. Add to that mix Cole, Robben, Duff, Makalele, Wright - Phillips, Diarra and Geremi and it becomes apparent that Chelsea are not buying to strengthen their squad, more to prevent their rivals from signing decent players. It is heartwarming to hear that Rosicky has joined Walcott and Diaby amongst others who have decided that first team football is more important than money and rejected the Blue Menaces advances.

Fernando Morientes was a few years ago riding the crest of a wave, part of a dream forward line with Raul in Madrid. Whilst his cohort has been protected at the club due to his previous exploits and being a media darling, Morientes found himself being pushed further out of the picture until a loan spell at Monaco resurrected his career. Seemingly on an upward trajectory, he joined Liverpool with the promise to deliver the goods and become one of the best forwards to grace the Premiership. That did not happen and he is now back in La Liga, at Valencia. The question must be asked as to why both he and Cisse have failed to make an impact. In theory, these two make a good partnership in that both are capable of scoring and creating goals but neither has proved themselves able to do so. The pair were highly rated before joining Liverpool and Benitez has failed to get the best from them. In Cisse's case, he did not sign the player but thought highly enough of the Frenchman to try to hijack his move to Anfield. The answer must be the style of play - a problem that will not be immediately resolved by signing Mark Gonzalez although he has to be an improvement on "Peachy Bum" Kewell. By not signing Owen when he returned from Madrid, Liverpool now will have to pay more for a less proven goalscorer to resolve that particular problem. It is inconceivable that Owen has an escape clause valuing him at only £12m but if he has, I would have thought that Rick Parry would be on the phone to Freddie Shepherd to fill his pockets full of paper stuff. That is of course, provided David Dein has not got to him first. Arsenal need another goalscorer in the team to alleviate their over-reliance on Henry to get them out of trouble. Owen would compliment Thierry well, his basic game would fit well into the Arsenal team, so there is no obvious reason other than Newcastle's unwillingness to sell for clubs not to tempt the Geordies with a huge wad of cash. Of the top four, Benitez and Darth Fergie will be vying for the title of busiest manager over the summer.

Theo Walcott made his England debut last night in the B International defeat to Belarus. For the watching England manager, the only real positives to come from this match were that Michael Owen came through unscathed against some pretty, ahem, basic defending. Michael Carrick and Aaron Lennon stood out for England but otherwise it was a pretty low key affair. Walcott did OK, showing glimpses of why Wenger paid up to £12m for him. The main talking point however was the injury to Robert Green after being on the pitch for five or so minutes, ruling out his involvement in Germany. His replacement in Germany will be Liverpool's Scott Carson who played for Sheffield Wednesday on loan this season. Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney will not be playing in England's Group Matches and is unlikely to be fully fit for a potential second round tie against Poland or the host nation. In an ideal world, Eriksson would play 4 - 5 - 1, with a midfield of Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Cole and Carrick with Owen the lone striker. This formation would probably be the one to face Sweden with Carrick making way for Crouch against Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago.

Today's Tunes are from Echo and the Bunnymen, taken from the Avalanche Tour EP, Silver and It's All Over Now (Baby Blue)

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Alas poor Bobby, I knew him well as William Shakespeare may well have written if he were alive today. Contrary to popular rumour, Robert Pires was not offered a two-year deal as part of Thierry Henry’s contract renewal negotiations and it is confirmed that from next year, one of Arsenal’s French contingent will be playing in La Liga. Villarreal will be the next port of call for Pires, fresh from helping sink The Yellow Submarine in this season’s Champions League Semi-Finals.

Sadly for Pires, his last appearance for Arsenal was an eighteen minute cameo in Paris, whereupon he cast a forlorn figure on the bench for the remaining seventy two minutes of the defeat to Barca. Having been prominent in the run to the final, turning in arguably his best performance for the club at Highbury in the Quarter Final against Juventus, it was a sad end to his Arsenal career.

Having signed for the club in 2000, Pires at first struggled to adapt to the English game but when he did, the winger set the Premiership on fire, topping the assists lists regularly over the next three or four years; 2001/02 being his peak at the club, acknowledged by his team-mates as he hobbled to collect his Winners Medal, with a “We Are Not Worthy” bowing scene. The injury suffered against Newcastle in the FA Cup Replay at Highbury was so serious that you wondered if he could fully recover. He did and returned seemingly fitter and quicker than before. In acknowledgement of his achievements that season, he was voted the FWA Player of the Year. Not bad for a man whose season ended in March.

He chipped in with 84 goals in his 284 appearances for the club – not a bad return for a winger, a goal every three or so games. Popular with the players and fans alike, he took as much delight in creating as he did in scoring. In particular, Tottenham were on the receiving end of his finishing touches, a record of eight goals in twelve derbies was always going to make him popular, particularly the winner in the FA Cup Semi Final at Old Trafford and the 5 – 4 win at White Hart Lane in 2004 / 05.

Pires will be remembered as one of the most skilful players to grace the Highbury turf, deceptively fast despite having an idiosyncratic running style due to being pigeon-toed, with immaculate ball control. He scored many important goals for the club, including the winner against Southampton in the 2003 FA Cup Final at Cardiff.

A sometime DJ with his own French Language radio show, Pires influence on the pitch could still be felt over the last season and a half despite his diminished playing time. This season though he has been used more as a bit part player domestically, replaced by the next generation as Wenger shuffled his midfield to accommodate Hleb and Fabregas. The final nail in the coffin would have been this week’s signing of Tomas Rosicky who, although not a direct replacement, will necessitate shuffling the side again.

His honours list is impressive. Already a World Cup Winner in 1998, after joining Arsenal he added the European Championships in 2000 and Confederations Cup in 2001 & 2003 for his country. In the meantime, his club honours included two Premiership medals, three FA Cup Winners medals, unfortunately not topped off in Europe in May.

I wish him well in the sunshine for the next few seasons at Villarreal.

Self Destruction Blues

The fall - out from the Champions League and Theirry Henry's decision to remain at Arsenal continues. Over the weekend, Patrick Barclay and Hugh McIlvanney both chastised the Frenchman and Le Boss for their reactions immediately after the final whistle in Paris. Accusing the pair of being sore losers, both lamented the reaction and the absence of the "Corinthian Spirit", contrasting the reaction of the 1952 FA Cup Final losing side with the current version. Now forgive if I start off on one but there are several differences between fifty years ago and today. Firstly, if you put a microphone in front of a player roughly one minute after the final whistle, it takes a particularly calculating character to give a balanced opinion of ninety minutes play where one player has been sent off and one of your opponents goal was borderline offside, only settled with the use of TV replays. The more the media demands, the more their hypocrisy stinks when the criticise players and managers for giving honest opinions. The second observation I make is that I do not want gracious losers. To politely reply that your opponents played well and deserved to win on every occasion defeats the object of asking for an opinion. And that is what football is, a game of opinions. Some may be unpalatable to the few or even the majority but so long as they are honest, can one really complain.

Henry's decision to stay in London is drawing stinging criticism from the Catalan capital. The latest to question the wisdom is Johann Cruyff. The Dutchman ponders in direct language whether Henry will regret staying, pontificating that Henry should have taken longer over his decision. The general belief is that Henry has more chance of winning the Champions League with Barcelona than Arsenal. History does not substantiate this claim. Barca have only won this trophy twice, so a record of once every fourteen years indicates that Henry will be long retired by the time they win it again. At least Cruyff has some standing in the game to allow you to listen and think about what he says. Which is more than can be said of Belletti who at various points has berated Henry accusing him of being afraid of making the move, not even being in the top ten players in the world and generally offensive. Whilst this makes good copy and allows the club to try and gain face now that their arrogant lies of Henry's arrival have been exposed. Let us not forget that Belletti has fluked a Champions League winner so he deserves to speak his mind. That it shows him up for the footballing pigmy that he is, well, that's his problem. As for his own ego, that has now been suitably deflated from the fact that he is not good enough to get into Brazil's World Cup squad. And let us not forget, he was not considered to be of suitable ability to get into the starting XI of Barcelona.

More media revelations on the transfer front, Arsenal seem set to sign the whole of Crystal Palaces first team squad, the latest target is Gabo Kiraly. Before we get too excited about the Mighty Magyar gracing the Emirates, someone needs to make sure that the local Primark has a suitable stock of baggy, ill-fitting tracksuit bottoms in their shop. Meanwhile Fenerbache have denied that they will complete the signing of Sol Campbell this week. Hats off to Miles Palmer at the idiosyncratic Arsenal News Review for starting this one and getting the gullible fools of Canary Wharf to run with it.

One transfer that seems to be happening is Tomas Rosicky moving to The Emirates. According to reports, he has had a medical this week at Highbury and his representatives are close to agreeing a deal. In terms of the team, this would bolster the midfield substantially with experience. It would also enable Wenger to rest Fabregas and bring him on at slower pace, alleviating the risk of burnout.

Final squads for the World Cup have been submitted to FIFA and barring injuries, these are the players you will be seeing in Germany. In an interview, albeit brief, that was broadcast on Radio 5Live this evening. His observations about the England squad suffering from having too many foreign players in the Premiership will no doubt strike a chord with the many critics of Arsene Wenger. Whereas the naysayers appear to blame him for the problem, Cruyff observes that Spain suffers from the same influx. It is only in recent years that Spaniards have decided to move abroad in significant numbers, England being the current favoured destination influenced no doubt by the relative success of Rafa Benitez at Liverpool. Cruyff also compares the spending power of Chelsea with the advantages that Real Madrid and Barcelona have enjoyed in the Primera Liga. For those who do not believe it can happen here, I would observe that the Top Three of Primera Liga is pretty much sorted before the season starts, it is just a case of what order. Interlopers are relatively few and far between and thus far, the modern era of Spanish Football has not found a sustainable alternative - Deportivo are slowly climbing into the frame again after a few years away from the top. This is what Arsenal have to strive to avoid, disappearing into the multitude; something that Ashburton Grove will financially help the club to steer clear of but a haunting episode that can be glimpsed over the shoulder.

Todays Tunes feature erstwhile Peel favourites, Camera Obscura. This Scottish Quartet first came to my notice on Spanish TV, Conciertos de Radio 3, which those of you with Sky can find on Channel 802. A programme akin to the Old Grey Whistle Test, they feature 2 or 3 non-spanish bands a month.

These are from the bands Peel Session on 7th October 2003:

Greyhound Going Somewhere

The San Francisco Song

Thanks to the guys at The Perfumed Garden for posting this and other sessions up.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

The Sunday papers continue to be dominated by Thierry Henry's future at Arsenal. This time however, it is the "revelation" that Arsenal rejected two bids of £50m for his services both said to eminate from Spain. Given that the plural was used when talking about the bids, the suitors were Real Madrid and Barcelona. Ordinarily, you would dismiss this as paper talk based on a little bit of fact but given the widely quoted source is David Dein, the veracity of the claims should not be doubted.

To have been a fly on the wall in the Clubs Boardroom when they received those bids would have been interesting as there would have been serious discussions about whether or not to accept one or both, not just from the financial perspective but from a playing one also. The money would have created a world transfer record, being some $95m. This is a seriously huge sum for the club to reject, given that it represents 1/8th of the cost of the new stadium. I suspect that if it had been received two years ago when the Board were struggling to get the funding together for Ashburton Grove, then reality would have checked the accept the bid box. To counteract this though is the knowledge that the monies received would have potentially been lost on matchday revenues at the new ground unless Arsene Wenger could have signed someone of equal stature to replace Henry, using a large chunk of the £50m to replace his mercurial striker. On the playing front, the teams over-realiance on him to score would have created a massive hole to fill, if indeed it could be filled. At this moment in time, there are probably only two forwards that could guarantee the sort of goals to game ratio that Henry produces; Eto'o and Shevchenko. To be honest, the former is the only one that I could see ever playing at Arsenal. Shevchenko seems to be too settled in Milan, although the lure of Stamford Bridge is proving strong this time around with a decision on his future due by the end of this week. Should he become available, will Arsene ask the Board to put together the funding for a bid? With £35m being the widely quoted fee, I suspect that the answer to that would be a "No" as it represents all of the money expected to be available to Wenger in the summer and he has never been one to blow it all in one go. From a playing perspective, the absence of Henry on a permanent basis would have meant an overhaul of the playing style as the team is set up to utilise his pace, something that is unrivalled in a forward in football currently. It would have necessitated playing two forwards in a traditional 4-4-2 which is the formation Wenger prefers. The departure of Henry this summer would have simply been too big a hole for the team to currently fill. It is a credit to the Board that they have rejected these offers in a game dominated by money.

Other transfer news - gossip might be a better description - in the papers this weekend has centered on three players. Firstly it seems that Henry has asked the Board to retain Pires' services and so he has been offered a two - year deal. At least that is what the press believe. Whether he will accept is another matter, particularly having been sacrificed on Wednesday night in what should have been the pinnacle of his career. Chelsea are still rumoured to be interested in Ashley Cole which makes little sense given their supposed wish to offload Asier Del Horno for £3m plus Roberto Carlos to Real Madrid. It would be no surprise to see Del Horno in the Bernabeu next year as there is a feeling in Spain that when he was at Bilbao he reserved his best performances for Madrid in the hope of getting a move there. However, the media here have "informed" us that Cole has been offered an £80k per week contract to keep him at the club. At the same time, they claim Chelsea will offer £16m plus Shaun Wright - Phillips to tempt the Board into allowing the move to take place. This would be an interesting one when considered with Pires. Should SWP join Arsenal, he would fill the right hand side slot in midfield, leaving Hleb to either move to the left or infield to his preferred central midfield role. This then gives the left to Reyes or Ljungberg. To accommodate this, Reyes would have to move to the supporting striker role, squaring up to Adebayour, van Persie and Walcott. Should the latter have a blinding World Cup, the clamour for his inclusion in the starting lineup may be at the expense of Reyes and Adebayour although I am not sure that Wenger would bow to the Press in the way other managers do, or appear to at the very least. At the same time, Wright-Phillips is going to be at his lowest ebb having been omitted from Eriksson's World Cup squad, quite rightly in my opinion as his form this season has not been particularly good. Wenger would be a good manager for him to have in terms of rebuilding that confidence but whether Le Boss believes that he is an Arsenal player is another matter.

The final piece of gossip this morning surrounds Andy Johnson of Crystal Palace. According to reports, Arsenal are preparing a bid of around £7m for his services. I can see some logic in this "story" as he has shown he can score at the top level but my question is whether he can fit in at Arsenal. Mainly this centres on his mobility as I do not recall him being particularly quick and given that this is what Arsenal's game is based on, it would be an odd fit. Personally, I would rather Wenger added £13m to the £7m and landed Fernando Torres but we shall see.

Todays Tunes returns with a laidback groove for this Sunday morning. The El Michels Affair are a solo project for Leon Michels, sax player with The Dap-Kings and organist with The Mighty Imperials. This one, C.R.E.A.M., is on Daptone records. Next up is Ms Nicole Willis, a commercially underrated vocalist. This is a haunting melody, Siesta, from her album Soul Makeover. You can find more from her website here.