Football needs to save itself

Football needs an “independent regulatory authority” according to the co-founder of the Football Supporters Association.

Dr Rogan Taylor, speaking at an event at Bramall Lane on Friday which I was lucky enough to attend, was asked, what he thought the best action the game could take in regards to increasing debt levels was.

“I think the answer has to be an independent regulatory authority and it is the fit and proper persons element that is key.

“Nobody asks what are you going to do with Portsmouth? What’s the plan? Where’s the money? How will you sustain the expenditure you are outlining to us? Those are the questions that need asking and that sorts out the cowboys from the sensible businessmen.”

I could not agree with Dr Taylor further. Football has reached a point where if it continues to travel down the path it is on currently then it will kill itself off. Clubs will continue to be badly run, players will continue to be given free rein and fans will continue to be the group that suffer the most.

Portsmouth is the highest profile example of how football clubs can so easily implode but there are others, just look at Chester City, now no longer in existence because of the way the club was run.

In Germany it is illegal for any private individual to own more than 49 per cent of a football club. Dr Taylor and others present at the event highlighted this as a move that they would love to see come into the English game. It would stop what happened at Portsmouth happening again and would probably help to even the playing field a bit as well.

The Bundesliga is one of the most competitive and financially stable leagues in the world. Bayern Munich for example has made a profit for each of the last 14 years, a far cry from the reports of clubs like Manchester United, currently in something like 750 million pounds of debt.

However we all know that football, especially in Britain has lost its moral compass and now has only money as its master, not the well being of the sport and certainly not the concerns of the fans.

I appreciate that the Premier League is one of the best in the world in terms of quality but it is not competitive, only four teams have ever won it, and it is certainly not financially healthy. Player’s wages are too high, leaking money straight out of the game and it is the fans who pay the price in the form of extortionate ticket prices and merchandise.

Something needs to be done before the whole thing comes crashing down. Sadly I can’t see anyone making that all important first move.

Futsal disappointment.

What is it about football in this country?

I spent all of yesterday watching the BUCS futsal championships in Sheffield and left wondering how we in this country had managed to take a game that is made for skills, flicks and tricks, and end up with a display of what can only be described as largely tedious mini football.

Most of the games consisted of teams passing it back and across the defenders for a bit then trying a long shot from the wings, hoping for a deflection.

There was a lack of intent to run and try to beat players or to try something that was even vaguely away from the pretty bland script that seemed to be set out by the coaches.

I understand that there was a desire to win but I was disappointed and a little bored.

We notoriously struggle to produce players with the flair of the South Americans and futsal has been put forward as a way of countering that. It is small sided football, played indoors with a weighted ball that puts an emphasis on touch and control. It is not going to help create a new generation of footballers if those playing it end up playing it the way I saw it played yesterday.

Anyway, slight rant over and back to today. As I write this I am sat at the EIS watching the athletics heats and semis before I head over Don Valley for the finals of the boxing tournament.

I have to admit to only really being interested in athletics once it gets to the final stages but some of the performances here have been quite impressive.

However, today’s personal highlight is going to be the boxing. I’m pretty hopeful of some fairly high quality pugilism. I shall let you all know.

Hockey on the rise?

Hockey is a great sport.

I challenge anyone to show me that I am wrong in my statement. It is fast, physical, skilful and open to everyone, male and female, young and old.

In my opinion, the fact that it is not more popular amongst the majority in this country is a massive shame.

However, there are signs that it might be time for me to banish my disappointment.

Not only have the England men’s team just had a successful World Cup, reaching the last four, but I have seen evidence that the game is flourishing at university level.

I spent all of today at the BUCS Hockey finals and was pleased to see that there is a passion for the sport at that level and that this is beginning to translate onto the national stage.

A quick look through the programme showed you all you needed to know. Next to maybe half of the names were notes telling you that they had gained some sort of representative honour, be that under-19, under-21 or, in a few cases, full international honours.

PricewaterhouseCoopers have sponsored university hockey this year, another sign that the sport is starting to come more into the public consciousness.

Another sign is the way that the bar was packed with people crowding to watch the England Germany match in the bar. I know that these were, for the most part, hockey people but it was so encouraging to connect some of the feelings and experiences that one normally associates with football and rugby to hockey instead.

I really hope that in years to come people see hockey in a similar way to how rugby is viewed, as a good quality winter alternative to football. The signs of that happening are definitely starting to show themselves.

£ Elsewhere today and my adventure as a high flying journo has continued.

After last night’s late finish, today started bright and early with a good hearty English breakfast, the holiday feel only broken when I realised I was going to be outside in Sheffield in March for most of the day.

I have spent today talking to players who represent their country, passionate supporters of university sport and, once again, John Inverdale. I think he is my new best friend.

Seriously though, if anyone can think of many things that are better than spending your day outside, watching top quality sport with passionate people then let me know, I want to give them a try.

Tomorrow, the possible future of small sided football; futsal. Oh and possibly a Sheffield success story in the table tennis.

Surreal Sheffield

Yesterday was a bit surreal.

In the afternoon I found myself chatting away to John Inverdale in the VIP lounge at Bramall Lane before moving outside to see a pipe band in full Scottish regalia warming up in the heart of Sheffield. I did say that student sport could be odd.

I suppose that I should put that last paragraph in a bit of context. I was at Bramall Lane for the opening ceremony of the BUCS Championships, an event that consisted of a press conference followed by a formal reception.

It was at this reception that I got chatting to Inverdale, mainly on the subject of how to get a job in the media. He made it quite clear that I was going to have to be patient and that there was no point in getting disheartened every time I get rejected because it will most probably happen a lot.

He was saying how he had been rejected may times before he got his chance which was quite relieving to here from someone who is now one of our most recognisable sporting broadcasters.

Now John Inverdale is not the first famous person that I have met and interviewed but yesterday was something else, possibly the fact that this wasn’t for work, it was a legitimate chat conducted with both of us leaning against a table rather than the sterile constraints of a formal interview.

Things only got more surreal as the evening wore on. Myself and the rest of the media team were taken on a tour of the ground and it was on this that we first encountered the strange sight of the pipe band warming up.

Now I am all for cultural diversity but, in my head, pipe bands belong in Scotland, not in the heart of the Steel City. It just didn’t make sense it my head, it was like seeing your local postman flying your summer holiday flight.

Once I had managed to get my head around what was happening, it was time for the women’s football final and here I must admit to being mildly surprised at the quality of some of the play.

Last week I was at a Sheffield women’s match and it was a poor game, filled with miskicks and unfit players. Last night was different, these girls knew how to play, and play they did.

The match was between Leeds Met and Northumbria and both teams were a credit to women’s football (apologies for a horribly overused phrase). It ended 1-1 after extra time with Northumbria prevailing on penalties but the main story for me was the way that these girls played. There were very few long balls and some of the touches would have put a lot of their male counterparts to shame if some of the football I have seen this year is any indication.

Anyway, all in all it was a surreal but entertaining way to kick off this manic week and I can only hope that the next four days bring some equally surprising and entertaining narratives.

Next stop, hockey.

A new breed of footballer?

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few decades you will be familiar with the stereotype of uneducated footballers.

If reports are to be believed then the young men currently earning thousands every week are possibly not smarter than the average.

However, there are footballers out there who are at pains to show that a University degree does not mean the end of your professional career.

Exodus Geohaghon is one of those players. The 25 year old Peterborough United defender, who has a degree in film and video editing from the University of Wolverhampton, was at Bramall Lane for the opening of this year’s BUCS Championships and was keen to show that football and education were not mutually exclusive.

“There are a lot of stereotypes saying footballers are dumb and they don’t have the capacity to learn but that is far from the truth because in football you have to take in a lot of information and you have to be alert to a lot of different things.

Despite this Exodus realises that he goes against the public perception of footballers.

“There are a lot of people who are fairly surprised that I’ve been to university and at how far I’ve come. For a lot of people it is a shock and they probably look at me and think, no, he’s lying.”

At a time where many footballers are being chastised for not realising that there is life outside of the game and that football isn’t everything, Exodus is a breath of fresh air.

“The degree is definitely there for when I finish. Football doesn’t last forever and there needs to be something there when you it’s over, because that could be tomorrow.

“To be fair there are guys in the game who do think about other stuff, I know a few who want to be teachers and stuff so I am not the only one.”

Often society fails to see intelligence and a good education in the positive light that it deserves and this has always been the case in football with incidents like Graeme Le Saux’s bullying at Southampton for reading a broadsheet newspaper.

Exodus takes a different point of view.

“It is not a bad thing to be smart. It is not a bad thing to have an education. I don’t mind knowing that I have the paperwork to back me up when football’s finished.

“There are a lot though that don’t, and the media and the stereotypes that we have shows the naivety of the people involved rather than the stupidity that we are told it is.”

The Posh defender believes that the promotion of university sport is crucial to both the raising of footballer’s reputations and British sport in general.

“It needs to have much more of a role to be honest. Football clubs need to recognise that they can pick up good talent, capable of playing at a higher level, at Universities in this country.

“A lot of young people in football might not be good enough to make it and not wise enough to get an education and they fall out and end up doing nothing with their lives. It is a case of education stepping in and showing them that there is more to life and that they can make something of themselves.”

Let us hope that Exodus is the first of many more intelligent young footballers in this country, Heaven knows we need some.

There will be more from BUCS tomorrow, including John Inverdale, hotels and a pipe band.

Student sport, here I come.

I’m not going to lie to you. I am pretty excited about this week.

Tomorrow sees the start of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championships in Sheffield.

This festival of sport will see 6000 student athletes compete in 26 sports over five days at venues across the Steel City and I will be there.

I’m part of the student media team for the event and as such will be winding my way across Sheffield covering a multitude of different events for BUCS.

My excitement stems from two facts. The first that I can escape my cold, damp student house for a few days and move into a warm, dry hotel whilst the second is the fact that I will spend the next five days watching the best that student sport this country has to offer.

I got my schedule yesterday morning, causing a fresh wave of excitement. I start tomorrow with women’s football before covering, amongst others, hockey, boxing and basketball.

All reports from the Championships will be on bucs.org.uk with next week’s Forge Press focusing on how the University of Sheffield clubs get on.

All of which leaves me free to give a more personal view on this blog and no doubt give some very random comments.

Wish me luck as I wade into the sometimes weird, always intriguing world of student sport.

Is Super Six the future?

This post was written for theboxingblog.co.uk

As we approach the second round of matches in the much vaunted Super Six tournament questions are once gain being asked whether the format is going to be the future of boxing.

For those of you unaware of how the tournament works each of the six boxers will fight three times, getting three points for a stoppage, two for a points victory, one for a draw and nothing for a loss. The top four then progress into the semi finals and the final in a straight knockout. The winner will become both the WBC and WBA Super Middleweight Champion.

I honestly believe that this s most certainly the way that boxing is going to go and I think that it is the right way to go.

Boxing is dying at a professional level. There is just not the appetite that there once was for the big fights. In this country we only ever hear about boxing if we go looking for it or if one of Britain’s fighters is competing.

The idea of tournaments in general and the Super Six in particular will, I believe, combat this malaise.

The modern sporting audience likes a good tournament. They like a good story, one that develops over time and most of all, they like a good rivalry. All of these have always been a key part of boxing’s popularity and all will be greatly enhanced if the sport embraces this new format.

At the moment, coverage of the Super Six is fairly poor with the rights held by US cable company Showtime. If HBO for example where to stage their own version of the tournament then I am certain that we would hear a lot more about it.

The viewing figures would go up, the media would cotton on to it and boxing will benefit all round.

Just think of the way that a tournament like this could work in a division full of stars such as Welterweight; Mayweather, Pacquiao and all would be placed together in a format that would build tension over matches, create situations never before seen in boxing, where a draw might be enough to land a title shot and generally catch the imagination of the public.

We can go even more extreme. Barry Hearn has shown us with his “Prizefighter” series that you can stage a tournament all on one night. Short fights with lots of punches are surely preferable to drawn out 12 round bores.

The rest of the sporting world has seen the future. Cricket has become shorter and faster, even snooker has started to move towards the abridged forms of the game. Yes, it might annoy a few purists but you can not please all of the people all of the time.

If we who love boxing want to see it return to anything like its strength of years gone by then we need to embrace the future, not be scared by it.

I can see very little in the way of alternative.