Football’s bosses must be questioned and not blindly followed

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RECENTLY, the distinguished journalist and Saints fan, Sir David Frost, passed away after leaving Southampton on a cruise ship.

His was a career notable for many things, but without doubt, the standout moment has to be his handling of Richard Nixon, in the former US President’s first major interviews in the years following the Watergate scandal.

On the obvious level it was a landmark moment for Frost’s dogged determination, which resulted in Nixon apologising for his actions to the American public.

On a wider basis, the Frost/Nixon interviews are credited with playing a vital role in ending the idea of reverence to our ‘betters’. The notion that politicians and those in power should be shown an unquestioning level of respect had been blown away.

However, those in power can still struggle with the idea of being questioned or challenged and football is no exception.

Currently, a couple of debates have raised their heads casting huge doubts over the decision making abilities of the people in charge of various facets of the world’s most popular sport.

Firstly, talk is growing over moving the 2022 World Cup, which is due to be held in Qatar.

In the desert. In summer. It doesn’t take a genius to spot there may be a few problems with the original plan.

Yet, that’s where it’s due to be – although the man who trumpeted the decision to award the tournament to Qatar, Sepp Blatter, has conceded that the idea may not be the greatest in the history of world football.

FIFA is a closed shop, and does not take kindly to scrutiny.

Indeed, the Sunday Times‘ temerity to present evidence of corruption within the governing body is often held up as one of the reasons England was overlooked for the 2018 World Cup.

Qatar was a bad idea from the word go. You know that, I know that and now the decision makers are admitting it.

The idea of being reverent to people who make such decisions in light of masses of evidence highlighting the fact is preposterous.

The same is currently happening in England, with regards to the national side and the Premier League. As I said last week, the England national side is no longer the top of the English game.

The Premier League, a marvel of marketing, is the pinnacle.

Yet the behemoth it has become is being questioned – is it really changing the game for the better?

Or is it just exacerbating the gulf between haves-and-have-nots in the Football League with overinflated parachute payments and stifling the production of indigenous talent with huge transfer fees for foreign stars? The new FA chairman, Greg Dyke, certainly thinks so.

However, it’s worth pointing out that Mr Dyke is one of the people who first floated the idea of a break-away top flight. He has since cited ‘unintended consequences’, but they are consequences that many ordinary folk brought up donkeys’ years ago.

The Premier League has now extended an olive branch as it tries to improve its image – the cynical may suggest it’s bad for marketability if the league is the fall guy for international failure.

Going to Qatar is not in the interests of the average football fan. Giving relegated teams ten times the cash their league rivals get is not in the interest of fair competition.

Just because someone is in a position of power, does not mean they know best or are acting in the best interests of all concerned. Ego and money are far stronger drivers than development and fairness.

No-one knows what the outcome will be when it comes to the Qatari World Cup or how the domestic game will adapt to improve talent from these islands – but changes won’t happen if football fans just accept the decisions of those in charge without at least asking questions.

Sir David Frost showed the power of asking few questions. The average football fan may not get a one-on-one with Sepp Blatter, but doesn’t mean they can’t have an impact in this day and age.

Svensson devastates while Lambert elates

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Originally published in The Sports Pink and dailyecho.co.uk

An ex-Saint has ruined my plans for next summer, but a current one may just have sorted out yours.

In Dublin, 37-year-old Anders Svensson popped up to beat David Forde at the near post and condemn Ireland to a 2-1 defeat which pretty much kills of any hopes of the boys in green getting on a plane to Brazil next summer.

To make it worse, I even have a signed shirt of his from 2003. Still, can always use an extra rag. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

About 300 miles away at Wembley however, Rickie Lambert Esq. was busy scoring and creating goals against a rather limited Moldova.

This may have led to a number bemoaning the fact that it’s only Moldova and that Lambert is still not good enough for international duty, but the fact remains he is scoring goals in an England shirt.

Without his contribution in three of the four goals England scored, the result would have been rather more underwhelming – and in international football, you don’t get to play the big boys without dispatching the minnows first.

Lambert’s call up by Roy Hodgson has had a remarkable effect across the country. Since I was a small boy, all the English football fans I know have always put their club ahead of their country.

Personally, I put this down to firstly the clever marketing of the Premier League over the last 21 years, the bloating of the European Cup into the Champions League and finally the constant overhyping of the Three Lions (Golden Generation, anyone?).

In England, England is no longer the pinnacle of the game. Yet, Rickie Lambert seems to have reminded people that it should be.

His progress from the fourth tier to International football seems to have galvanised belief that it is possible to survive the influx of foreign talent and make an impression on the closed shop that is the England national team.

Suddenly, Champions League experience is not a pre-requisite to play international football – lest we forget, Gary Hooper, now at Norwich, has Champions League experience at Celtic, but I don’t see a clamour for his call up.

In Southampton especially, more people suddenly seem concerned, even emotionally invested in what England can do. That’s what international football should be about. Petty club rivalries are left at the door for the greater good as all and sundry come together in hope and expectation.

I had the good fortune to go Euro 2012 last year. The football was abysmal. Giovanni Trapattoni’s atrocious tactics and gameplans saw Ireland humiliated. Regardless, it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Poznan, a city of 600,000 people was invaded by 50,000 Irishmen and women there for the craic and unlikely dreams of glory.

Ignoring the financial realities for a moment, it now looks like I won’t have the opportunity to repeat in Rio the delights of Gdansk – in reality, it just means I won’t have the chance to sell a kidney to fund such a trip. Every cloud and all that.

Should England make it however and you’re lucky enough to be able to afford it, I can only urge you to look at heading to Brazil next summer.

If however you, like most people, don’t have a spare few grand to throw away on a football jolly, throw yourself into International football.

Enjoy the dreams, wallow in the disappointment, but above all remember how Rickie Lambert made it acceptable to care about your country once again.

To Paris with love

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To the people of France, on behalf of the the nation of Ireland:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo[/youtube]

Glad you made the most of your time in South Africa. Hope the flight back home isn’t too long. Or awkward, what with the ill-advised strike and all. I’m sure you’ll live it down one day.

Shamelessly stolen from The Guardian’s coverage of the France v Mexico match.

Oops.

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So, does this splash now look like such a good idea?

Admittedly, I enjoyed France’s abysmal performance far more than I did England’s (schadenfreude) but the English national media do have a tendency to big up the football team’s ability, before overreacting to ordinary performances painting them as the coming of the apocalypse.

And it is for reasons like this gem from The Sun that last night’s draw with Algeria raises a wry smile.

Rooney’s reaction is either being described as replica hublot bigbang tutti frutti linen petulant or indicative of a frustrated warrior, depending on your point of view (seemingly fans think the former, pundits the latter) but what does seem universal is how Capello, in the space of 180 minutes, has gone from the man who could guide England to World Cup glory (which to my mind, was always optimistic in the extreme) to a cold, ruthless dictator whose methods are sapping the confidence from his players (again, a bit unlikely).

I think England will still make it through to the second round – although I disagree that results between sides comes before goal difference and goals scored as a tie breaker.

The reality is that England are a good side. Not a bad one, but most certainly not a great one. That has long been the case, but as long as jingoistic hyperbole continues, most patriotic football fans will be swept up in the bipolar https://www.coolvapesshop.com/product/torch-phantom-blend-disposable-3-5g-bubblegum-haze/ condition that sweeps the nation.

Hell, we battered Algeria 3-0 a few weeks ago!