The Sporting calendar

As a life long Liverpool fan, it pains me to say it, but the club is looking for leadership at every level, yet Rafa Benitez, is flapping around in the wind.
I have never been a fan of his, but I was won over as he seemed to be heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, the more I look at his “style” the more I see gaps appearing.

Youth set up:
In the past three seasons, the youth team has been right on the ball as regards league position and the youth cup. Where are these players coming through? Kelly and Spearing are the only ones I see, and their appearances (even when the team is losing regularly) are few and far between and involve substitutions.
Reserves:
We have a great string of reserve players, who, no matter how many injury problems and defeats, just don’t seem to get close to playing for the first team. How many more promising talents are going to farmed out to other clubs when on the verge of a break through into the first team?
The first team:
I have said it before and I’ll say it again, you cannot have players build up relationships on the pitch if every other week they are playing alongside different players!
How can Babel build rapport with his defensive back if he’s being subbed every time he plays and the defender is different?
Lucas, Ngog… are these players of the quality Liverpool need in a 65 match campaign?
Continuing to chop and change the first team put out for each game does not encourage competition for places.

It’s time to move on Rafa, Liverpool FC cannot afford to plod on any longer. Bring in a manager who will support the structure of the club, its traditions and its heart, no single player is bigger than the club and it is unfair to continually rely on two, maybe three, top quality players to keep its position in any competition.
The fans demand that the first team is put out for all games, get a system in place and stick to it, then everyone who supports/works for the club knows what is happening.

Corporations and vested interests are killing the sporting world.
Strong statement to make, after yesterday and today’s events in the sporting world, I no longer have any doubts about it.

Football:
Chelsea are playing Stoke City, Chelsea are 1-0 down, a couple of injuries, at the end of the first half, the third official holds up the injury time to be played board… 8 minutes!
Chelsea scored.
Second half, with 88 minutes played, Chelsea are still being held at 1-1, the injury time board goes up again, another 5 minutes to be played.
Chelsea scored in the 94th minute to win the game.

Tennis:
Serena Williams slams her racket against the floor in frustration at her own failings, she was given a warning.
When facing match point, she was given a foot fault by the line judge (when replays show she did not foot fault on the point, the line judge got it wrong) after a verbal outburst at the line judge, the umpire listened to the line judge then took a penalty point from Williams, costing her the match!

Formula one:
Watching the Italian Grand Prix this afternoon, it is dull!
Less overtaking opportunities, safety this safety that, its becoming mundane.
It is less about sport and more about generating money. For the fans that have paid good money to watch a “race” I feel sorry, they should have their money refunded!
“I went to monza today and saw a thrilling race where the winner took the lead with a faster pitstop!”
Come on sporting world wake up, anyone would think that influences and corporate money are dictating sports?

As England cricket basques in the glory of their 2009 Ashes win over Australia, questions need to be asked about the disagraceful scenario the Ashes series 2009, has thrown up.

Cricket is not alone in being a sport under funded by the powers that be, the damage is not just done to the individual sport, but also the children of the UK, that are the new stars of the future.

This has been the first Ashes series that has not been available to watch on the UK terrestrial television channels.
Instead, coverage has been live on subscription TV channel Sky, for a premium price of their sports package of £32 per calendar month (which involves also being tied into a 12 month minimum contract), which in effect means that if we wanted to watch the ashes test matches live, then it would have resulted in a 12 month outlay of £384!
All the fans who have no option but to watch sport on our national TV, have had to watch each night (on the day of a test) a lesser channel (channel 5) for a 40 minute highlights program.
Although channel 5 did a very good job, it is totally unacceptable, to have one of our national sport’s biggest event, unavailable to the people of the UK on national television!

Sports, for any nation, is of vital importance to any country.
The level of interest that was generated as I grew up, could never be measured. I watched Wimbledon, my friends and I went out for weeks and played on the local tennis courts.
During the football season, Match of the Day and the Big match, were played out and discussed in school yards, back streets and on the fields of Britain.
Cricket was the sport taken up by many children once the football season was over.
Olympic games and later World athletic championships, were national sports that all of us could watch. (Currently, the World athletics championships are shown on BBC 2).
Most of the children of today, do not have access to subscription TV, how else are the future generations (from which we will pick our future sporting stars) be selected?

“We put money into the sport” argument, is a false one and ultimately damages the sport it is applied to.
As subscription TV takes over coverage of most sports – there are even rumours abound that Wimbledon could be lost to it – the prices of attending the grounds and stadium (that taxpayer’s money often has built) is not dropping. Access to the sports is increasing dramatically!
Each sports governing body is facing funding issues, but the public, which is their life blood, is being cut off from each sport when subscription is required to access it.
Ticket prices are going through the roof, parents of children have to pay money for coaches and sports, where as, in previous generations, children learned sporting skills at school and off their peers.

This can all be turned around and put right!
The government of the day needs to step in and protect national sports for free to air national television for the people. A simple law could be brought in, giving rights of coverage first and foremost to the people.
It cannot be right, morally or legally, that countries such as Norway and Iraq, have access to our premiership football matches being shown live, when the people of the country they are played in, are over charged and denied free access to the same games?

In the case of English cricket, all is not lost.
At present, ticket prices for the test matches here is less than £30 for each days play.
It has been reported that interest in the Ashes series in 2009 has not met the same levels of the Ashes win in 2005.
This is not just because the Aussies are no longer world leaders and THE team to beat. It is because in 2005 the nation was able to tune in and watch every shot played, every over, building up to the final test and the draw we needed to win the Ashes.

Not only does the sport benefit from more people viewing it, it also has a knock on effect in the revenue it generates. Websites and shops promote merchandise, kit, flags, equipment, etc.
More people pass through the grounds to watch county cricket as their players, who have played and won for England, draw in the crouds their status grows, which leads to TV endorsements, increasing the coverage of the sport still further.
When we win, the people come out to see the team parade the streets. The kids start playing the sport in the steets and on the fields, we have role models and idols from the sport, as a result, more talent is unearthed from the young kids and the sport benefits long term.
There will always be times when interest drops off a sport, we saw this with darts, stock car racing, ice dance, etc in the 70s and 80s.
Until Torvill and Dean revived interest in their sport at the olympics, the sport had been very low key.

If the public are being forced to pay a license fee for “free” television, then UK laws should back this up and retain free access for all to our national sports events, without exception.

To listen to all the “pundits” over the past four or five seasons, you could be forgiven for thinking that the most important aspect of the premier league, in deciding the league title each season, was the mini league between the four top clubs.
Last season for example, I witnessed constant analysis about how Liverpool had won more matches against the other top four clubs and that this was a factor in their climb to finish runners up.

In fact, the opposite is true.
The top four “mini league” is not a major factor in deciding where the premier league title goes each season.
What decides a team of champions, is a little more complex.
New teams playing in the premiership:
Last season, the top flight of English football witnessed a dramatic change.
Liverpool of the late 70s/early 80s had Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest to contend with, (ie, teams with managers that cared not one instance for the dominating clubs) and in the late 90s Liverpool had the Wimbledons and Leeds Utd teams that swam against the status quo tide.
Last season we had Hull City and Stoke City, not possible title winners, but teams who are just as dangerous in causing damage to the big clubs.

They both have managers that don’t care for the “in club” of the well known, established managers. They show respect to other teams, but don’t feed off the back of the bigger clubs.
They have the ability to be unpredictable and dangerous, to encourage other teams to do what they do, have a go at the big clubs. For English football, they have been a breath of fresh air!
Last season we saw Hull City come to Anfield and terrorise Liverpool. They repeated this at Manchester Utd, they won at Arsenal they destroyed Newcastle in their own back yard.
The pundits said they were freak results, the pundits were wrong.
Stoke City held Liverpool home and away, to a 0-0 draw. They upset some of the stale middle league teams by beating them and, in a small way, contributed to the downfall of Newcastle and Middlesbro, sending them to relegation.
But there is a more damaging aspect creeping up on the big clubs, the end of Alex Ferguson’s control and influence!

What Fergie has done over recent seasons, has been no different from Shankly and Paisley’s boot room.
A cunning trickery that has benefitted Man Utd each and every season.
Instead of the “boot room” Liverpool used to have, Man Utd’s manager has “shared a bottle of wine” after every game.
The cosy club of Sir Alex Ferguson visiting a little ground and a manager who is fighting tooth and nail to survive in the premiership, in awe of this “great man” trying to learn from him, inadvertantly giving away titbits of information, that only end up benefitting Manchester Utd in their chase for yet another title.

Prior to Hull City and Stoke City arriving in the premiership, it was a cosy closed shop. The more they became chatty with Fergie, the more unlikely it became that these smaller clubs would cause Manchester Utd any problems on a wet wednesday night in the harsh British winter games.
Mistakes would happen, long runs of a lesser team not getting any points from their games with Man Utd would occur.
Look at Steve Bruce, in his games against his old club, he has gone 18 games without a win against them. Middlesbro’s record against Man Utd under Steve McClaren and Bryan Robson, who used to be at Man Utd, was abismal, yet when Arsenal or Liverpool came to town, they would get draws or even beat them.

The information Fergie gets from his discussions over a bottle of wine, with the lesser teams, is invaluable.
The managers of lesser teams see it as a bonus for them, they get to speak to “the great man” they may get a favour or two as regards the loan of a player, whilst Fergie gets information on how the smaller club prepares/plays their games. He gets insight into where the strengths and weaknesses of their team is.
Fergie also gets valuable information on exciting players these clubs plan to sign. He has been known to step in and buy them, but not play them, just to stop smaller clubs getting an advantage?
“Loose talk sinks ships” so said the old wartime saying, never has it been more apt than in the world of football.
One smaller club that didn’t subscribe to this “cosy club” was Southampton. They would regularly thump Man Utd, taking points from them, in one instance when they thrashed them 6-2 at the Dell, Alex Ferguson refused the BBC permission to use highlights of the game, once it had been aired on match of the day.

Stoke City and Hull City last season, kicked sand in the face of the big clubs and I hope they continue to do so this season.
With Burnley not yet being part of Fergie’s little gatherings after a match, they too caused an upset, beating a very average Manchester Utd side.
As the number of new clubs appearing in the premiership grows, so the big clubs dominance dwindles.

Fergie’s cosy little club is shrinking, which explains why we had such an open league championship last year.
It has not gone away though, which shows that no matter how the “top four league” do against each other, the title is won and lost against the smaller clubs.

Sportsmanship in todays sporting world is hard to come by.
Footballers barracking referrees when decisions don’t go their way, fighting between two teams out on the pitch (not just in football), etc, there’s a blame culture in sports, which is all to often excused by “it’s the pressure in today’s sport!”

Money is a major factor and occurring all to often, is the view that participants in sport will do anything to get a slight edge over their opponent.
As in everyday life, those who show compassion and a sense of balance towards people, are seen as weaker in some way, than those who must win at all costs!

Bobby Robson was a fine example of how a person can succeed without exploiting others and shows clearly that winning at anything, is down to skill and good judgement.

Two sporting incidents highlight the differences perfectly:
Ashes third test match: As the first days play was delayed by rain until late afternoon, Ricky Ponting (Australian captain) had submitted his team sheet for the test match. Unbeknown to him as he tossed a coin to decide who was to bat first, Brad Haddin, their wicket keeper and middle order batsman, had sustained a fractured finger in the warm up.
As are the rules, Ponting had to ask for permission from the England captain Andrew Strauss, to bring in a last minute replacement.

Andrew Strauss was within his rights to take advantage of this misfortune and force Australia to play Haddin, with his injury!
Strauss displayed good sportsmanship and allowed Ponting to bring in Graham Manou as a last minute replacement, putting the Australian side back to full strength.
It had no real bearing on the rain affected match, but with all the “pressure” on teams to do well in todays sporting world, all the sledging in cricket, this shone out for me like a beacon.
Good sport Andrew Strauss, had he forced Australia to play an injured player and won, it would have been a hollow victory against a weakened side.
English Cricket is all the more stronger for it, a fine example to set the young people who are fans and players of the game.

Michael Schumacher’s return to formula 1: Felipe Massa’s life threatening injury has opened the door for Schumacher to return to formula 1 and race in his place as he continues to recover.
Under formula 1 rules, only special dispensation can allow a driver to test drive a race car during the season.
Ferrari wrote to all the teams taking part in this year’s championship to ask for permission for Schumacher to have a days testing prior to the European grand prix.
Seven teams gave their permission, three teams refused permission!
Williams, Toro Rosso and Red Bull all turned down the request, disgraceful!

What happens when, god forbid, Schmacher drives the car, untested, at the next grand prix and he has a bad accident?

Would one days testing really make that much difference? Are they really that worried?
There is an opportunity here to display good sportsmanship and set an example for those following the sport and the youngsters around the world, that there is more to life than taking advantage of others misfortune, by refusing a days testing, these three teams have displayed complete arrogance towards the “sport” they take part in.

As in real life, progressing at anything should not be by standing on others, what goes around – comes around, good sportsmanship is a lesson everyone in todays world, would be well advised to learn!