To Beijing or Not to Beijing, that is question?

More carping about the Premier League's forward thinking imperialist desire to take Bolton and Fulham to the five corners of the earth?

Sorry - I am on the fence on this one - The FSA is up in arms and ready to bring Barclays and Lucozade to their corporate knees if the they put their support behind the "winter road trip". Bold words and surely well within the compass of such an august body.

Back in the 80's, when going to the match was marginally less acceptable than smoking crack and sleeping with your family pet, the FSA was born and did much, if not all, to return football from the hooligan abyss. Thatcher (remember her) was all for marching the fans into pens at railway stations, tagging them and keeping them under surveillance for the duration of the week. The FSA successfully fought the battle and won. Since then a gentrified game has taken up with Sky and the Yankee dollar.

Sadly that is the last time fan power prevailed - we were united in one cause and there was a seamless resolve. Having seen the Glazers protest fizzle out, "Getting behind Rafa" and a whole bunch of worthy but failed attempts to display who is at the heart of the game, the writing is on the walls. The Premier league hierarchy are under pressure to deliver US sport style solutions to UK sports franchise owners. The Premier League is now so divorced from the reality we grew up and understood as football. MP3 download against wax cylinders. Go and watch Crawley Town this weekend in protest.

We're dead in water brothers and sisters

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Wednesday 7th February 2008 - write it in your diary.

What a terrific day for world football it was yesterday.

1. The premier league imperialists laid out their world domination plan.

2. Andre Bikey strikes a blow against that unseemly football minority stretcher bearers

Where to start?

My favourite response to the impending shoe horning of a new Pay for View money laundering operation into the beautiful game has got be Gareth Southgate. If you aren't totally au fait with the premier managers below Fergie and Arsene, Gareth is the English one who looks and talks like a secondary school physics teacher .

Southgate felt, when questioned about the concept, that he was being exposed to some April foolery. It has got be a great idea for English football for establishing it as the number one world leader in selling itself. It should be no surprise that, wherever football is played it there by virtue of the pioneering spirit of British travelers at the turn of the last but one century.

When Steve Bruce and other dissenting voices have to employ an extra man with a wheelbarrow to help them take home even more money in season 2010 -11 I'm certain they will have been tuned into the many positives that can be taken out of the scheme.

Mr Bikey - yowser. There will be people who tell you this was a dark day for football when Andre saw red last night but like Zidane in 2006, Cantona at Selhurst Park in the 90's, Di Canio when he was an owl, these are the moments that punctuate and validate our beautiful game. They are pure gold and whilst I would hate to see them more than once in any given football season, they brighten up everybody's [except the surprised bearer] day.

It's a passionate game (copyright Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan)

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Beautiful Game - my arse

Let's have it right, football is not as good as it was. It is in a constant state of decline since the day it began. With the plethora of live football available to view on telly it becomes more apparent that if you want a guarantee of quality you may better going to see the new Coen brothers film.

Against this backdrop of falling standards and unmet expectations I would like to speak up on behalf of the African Cup of Nations. Far from the turgid moments of recent Euro and World Cup finals I am yet to see a game that didn't excite and raise the pulse rate. Last night Angola showed abandon, joy and a little homage to the stalwart role of the traditional English No.9. Blood and thunder, passion and desire. No balloons in site.

Kevin Cummins the revered Rock photographer is currently in Ghana and posting regular albums of photos on his facebook depicting the sights and flavour of what must be a joy to behold - check them out

"A sign of our elitist supremacy"

When your web browser brings you the words in the headline above, you would be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled into the world of neo-fascism or religious fundamentalism. But as you know this is a site dedicated to the beautiful game and that sort of thing doesn't happen in football any more, well not in the UK.



I have taken this quote from a fabulous site I was directed to by The Guardian. Calm down, calm down this isn't an excursion into the realms of woolly student political liberalism.



Reclaim the Kop is a pressure group charging itself with the task of reintroducing the traditional values of that esteemed standing area behind the goal at Anfield

Have a look at their manifesto, it is a really genuine attempt recreate the spirit of a bygone age, recover the Liverpool Way. It was set up in response to some unsporting chanting at a European fixture by Liverpool Fans. It's a fascinating read.

The question raised in my mind was what is this "Liverpool Way" they talk about. It's enshrined in a 10-point charter [very biblical] and eloquently lays down a code of conduct for the modern day fan. As someone who stood many times on the Kop and on some of those occasions even wanted Liverpool to win I remember the past in a slightly different way, I guess Bobby Hazel may do too. I'm also guessing that the bygone toilet habits, possibly point 11 that didn't make the cut, were dropped for reasons of hygiene

That said, good luck to RTK, their values are admirable and anything that improves the atmosphere should be encouraged, which gladly Rick Parry and his merry men are. In time The RTK may even want to reassess their sense of elitism when they realise that in the land of the fans there is no hierarchy, if you love your club and you love the game, we are all brothers (and sisters too) unless of course you support Manchester United that is.

Never Go Back

What a delightful notion that Kevin Keegan can become the Newcastle United manager in January 2008 with his track record and having been out of the mainstream of football so long.

It gives hope to those people who send in letters of application for random Manager's jobs that become available.- Both my brothers have unsuccessfully applied for the England job in the past. The FA's rebuttal polite, swift and negative. My only vicarious link to the England managership has been horrendous trouble with the inland revenue.

That said. Keegan like Capello is a stroke of genius, watch Newcastle mount a serious revival, Keegan is pure magic and his effect on the Toon originally, Fulham and Man City subsequently is unique and has never been equalled by any other manager in my recollection.

I once bumped into Keegan and his trusty sidekick Arthur Cox at Hartshead Moor Services on the M62 one late Wednesday evening back in August 2003. The two football men were returning from a reserve game in Sunderland. Kev was sheepish, I'm a lot taller than he is and I guess you never truly get over a Baseball batting incident. I congratulated him on his ability to transform City from a Club of intense self pity to a genuine big club with European Football coming up [OK it was a while ago]. He took it in good faith and went on his way with enough confectionery for an entire team bus - which was actually returning separately from the senior management team.

Good Luck to Kev and a plague on the nay sayers. Here's to Football and the true spirit of our game, lost long since.

Harry Plotter & the Sour Grapes

It is reported that Harry Redknapp said this regarding the recent appointment of Fabio Capello as the new England manager.


I would suggest that of all the English Candidates for the post he was top of the list. What he has achieved in his managerial career in the Premiership has been nothing short of miraculous, He is a genuine soccer hero. On the basis of his belief that England manager is all about tactics and motivation I suggest he may have overlooked Capello's ability to win things in a variety of locations foreign and home based. He is a sure fire winner and will definitely win something with England.



Harry seems to think that motivation can only be delivered by English managers, that tactically english tactics beat foreign tactics. Wake up and watch the England teams I've been watching since 1966, falling at the semi-final hurdle or undone earlier by foreign tacticians. Hiddink openly laughed at the England tactics after the defeat in Moscow, a surprising post match tactic from one, normally so respectful in his colleagues. If foreigners don't do motivation and tactics why was John Terry so keen for Mourinho to pick up the chalice



Capello is out of the top drawer and Harry - our best candidate - isn't. But really he doesn't seem to understand international management either and sadly will never get that opportunity. I'd suggest the Ireland job but I would imagine the money wouldn't be enough.

A thankless task

After a few days reflection I am moved to spare a thought for those poor folk who last week saw the writing on the wall for the England national side. From George Cohen to Alan Green the general feeling was England had blown it. The wisdom of going public with their condemnation of the nation was loud and certain. Now the outlook seems very different

Now after a weekend of results that put qualification back at the feet of tonight's starting XI, the dissenters are quiet. Possibly tonight's scoreline might vindicate their farsighted proniouncements

What I guess is slightly disappointing is that for anyone with any or many years of experience of football the possible outcome of Saturday in Tel Aviv were not even considered. Football journalism tends to get a really bad name and the laziness of this particular episode it easy to understand why.