The Man Who Stole Football

Amidst much, gnashing of teeth at his words and hearty guffawing at his stumble into an ornamental fountain, the irony of the Premier League Chairman talking about the theft of the game was not lost on me.

Richards himself is a prime exhibit of all that is wrong with the commercial, yet conversely archaic, behemoth that football has become. A man with no great record in business (his engineering business went into administration) takes over the running of his hometown club. A willingness to be a central figure, to talk to the media, to  be seen and heard by the connected people, whilst behind the scenes barking orders at his minnions like a Bond villain with a cat in his lap. Then once his public exposure and pleasantries have allowed him to reach the position he wants, he walks away leaving behind a trail of financial decisions that lead to a financial time-bomb from which the club would struggle to recover.

Richards cast little thought to the club he supported as now, thanks to Ken Bates, he was on the Premier League board and on a fast track to chairmanship. He was the kindly faced uncle, the media friendly figure to wheel out on big occasion whilst remaining subservient to his paymasters. The fact he then received a knighthood for services to football, must owe more to friendships in government and sporting authorities than any real achievements. I challenge you to name one success, one achievement that can be attributed to Richards' stewardship or initiative.

As a Blade I should revel in the catastrophic contracts and commercial decision making Sheffield Wednesday undertook under Richards' stewardship, which took them to the brink of administration. And in a purely tribal way I do, however Richards is not a lone figure wreaking havoc . There are chairmen like him all over the country, the ones who demand the media attention above that of those on the pitch, that place personal attention above the club they profess to love.

The game was lost to its people, the fans, twenty years ago. When matches started being played at 12pm on a Sunday, or that trip to the other end of the country was moved to Friday night for TV. That's before Europa League games started kicking off at 6pm to maximise the number of televised games. Fans cannot associate with player salaries or lifestyles. They cannot understand how failed businessmen are allowed to take over their club, when the authorities have rules in place to stop them. Why claim to have Fit & Proper rules if they are such a blunt instrument and reportedly too financially prohibitive to administer? Then these same businessmen fail to pay over the tax that these supporters don't think twice about paying over in their everyday working and business lives.

As the club enters administration, it's the players and clubs who are protected, not the local businesses who have supplied them and could be put out of business themselves, not the local people exploited and paid a pittance for the pleasure of taking on menial roles for the club they love.

Then, every so often, the authorities and Premier League get involved, but only when they have their "product" to protect. Everyone else affected….forget it.

Yes, maybe I look back at football twenty years ago with rose-tinted spectacles. Not all was good in the game, but everyone had an opportunity to watch their team play, very few were excluded through price discrimination. Football was a game everyone could play and watch and feel a part of.  

Football was stolen away from the man in the street 20 years ago. It raised little stir at the time, many couldn't see it. A small petty theft, glossed over with the distraction of cheerleaders, half time entertainment and flash presentation. Once the thieves realised they had got away with, they looked at the mark and the plans became grander. The grand con was on; what we can now see was a staged heist of our sporting jewels. The game is now a "product", supporters are "customers" on "loyalty databases" measured by how much you can spend, those excluded by financial hardship sniffed at.

And then the coup de grace - The 39th Game.  Add an extra game to the season, only to take away the opportunity for the supporters, who spend a high proportion of their wages following their team all season, to see it.  All for the money and opportunity to take the "product" to the "geographic markets" that Richards so widely offended with his jingoistic comments yesterday.

His clear conflict of interest, between roles at the FA and Premier League, brushed under the carpet whenever it was raised. The FA is now impotent in the running of the professional game, it has admitted as much recently.  The subservience of Dave Richards to his Premier League paymasters makes him wholly complicit in allowing it to happen. If he is looking for a thief, he doesn't have to look far. The thing is, I am not sure he is intelligent or self-aware enough to see it. He certainly didn’t see that ornamental fountain.  

 

The kids are alright

In the aftermath of another turgid England display against Montenegro midweek, I read a tweet that brought a brief flicker of happiness to my face. The England Under 21 team's success in qualifying for next year's European Championship finals in Denmark means that we are the only one of the "big" European nations to qualify for each of the last 3 European U21 Championships.  At a time when Germany are being held up as a prime example of an exciting youthful international side and everyone from Fabio Capello to Harry Redknapp, Dave Whelan to Sam Allardyce feel the need to bemoan the lack of good English talent coming through, it led me to look into the facts a little further.

England's relative success in the last 2 championships (Losing semi-finalists to the eventual winners the Netherlands in 2007 and Runners Up to Germany in 2009) followed two successive failures to reach the finals. This shows that, England are no different from the other larger nations who have all suffered spells where the quality and competitiveness of their young footballers is lacking.

Either side of their success in 2009, Germany failed to qualify in 2007 and have just missed out on 2011. The Netherlands failed to qualify in 2009 after winning the trophy in 2007. France has failed to qualify for the last three finals tournaments and have only made one of the last five. Italy, semi-finalists in 2009, lost their qualifying play-off to Belarus this week. Whilst Spain have failed to qualify for the finals next year and, despite their current senior success, have never reached the semi finals in any of the last 4 tournaments.

Some might suggest that victories in the last 2 tournaments might point towards the success of the Netherlands and Germany in recent major tournaments, but what did become of the players involved in those matches from both sides?

Back in 2007, the fourteen players involved in England's epic 13-12 penalty defeat to the Netherlands in Herenveen included five players who went on to gain full international recognition, with a combined total of over thirty caps to date. Of those David Nugent remains a one cap (one goal) wonder, Baines has played twice and Scott Carson three times. Only Ashley Young and James Milner have made any significant impact at international level.  

A look at the Dutch line-up paints a very similar picture. Four players have made the next step, but only two have gone on to ten or more caps, Babel and Maduro. They also, like England have players whose careers have not maintained their early heights. Three of the England team are currently playing Championship football; Lita, Hoyte and Nugent. A fourth, Liam Rosenior is currently without a club.

In the Dutch side, Daniel de Ridder looked an exciting wing prospect only to see his career falter at Birmingham and Wigan. Maceo Rigters joined Blackburn, but after only two appearances commenced unsuccessful loan spells with Norwich and Barnsley and started this season on loan at Willem II back in his homeland.

Even the player of the tournament, Royston Drenthe, subject to a subsequent 14m move to Real Madrid, finds himself viewed as a "problem" player, sent on loan to newly promoted La Liga club Hercules and still without a full cap.

Playing for the Under 21's was a never a guarantee of future success. In each two year spell you see a turnover of players which usually sees half remain for the next tournament, whilst the remainder move on and hopefully move up.  Looking at the German team that contested the 2009 final, it shows that it is possible to move up. Nine of the fourteen German players have now gained full caps and a tenth, Seb Boenisch has been capped by Poland after switching allegiance. Five players are in double figures, in terms of senior appearances (Neuer, Ozil, Khedira, Boateng and Schmelzer) although, as is often the case, several players had gained full caps prior to the U21 finals.

What happened to the England team from the final is slightly different. Five players (Richards, Gibbs, Johnson, Walcott and Milner) have made at least one senior appearance. Of these; only Richards, Walcott and Milner are in double figures in terms of appearances, however it is hard to believe that Johnson will not be there soon. Gibbs is clearly the long term replacement for Ashley Cole and it's likely that Jack Rodwell (a used sub in the final) would have had an opportunity by now, had it not been for injury. 

It is clear that with an ageing squad, Joachim Low was able to blood many of his young players in a relatively short spell of time. Post South Africa, several pundits and media voices called for a similar overhaul of the England team. Blood the young talent and, accept that Euro 2012 may not be a successful tournament, look to the future. Yet the response seems to be that many of the England team are not ready for the scrap heap just yet and the lack of big club/European experience goes against the young upstarts in terms of getting an opportunity.

Germany's situation was helped by the Bundesliga being a relatively open and competitive league. Five different winners in the last ten seasons and numerous clubs gaining Champions League experience gives young players at a wider range of clubs exposure to big competition at an earlier stage of their career.

Although it is good to see Capello being more willing to give players from outside the top 6 their chance (Cahill and Davies of Bolton as examples), they are not guaranteed to be the mainstays. Phil Jagielka performed well in his two games, but we can be pretty sure that he would have been dropped if both Ferdinand and Terry had been fit to face Montenegro. Yet, if England were looking forward, beyond the next tournament, there is a clear argument for not playing Ferdinand and giving his long term replacement time to bed in.

I don't think that at the moment we are worse off than any other major country in developing young talent and successful teams. It's what happens in the formative years, post  youth football, where it seems to go wrong. A lack of club opportunities as much as a lack of international ones. There may not be a never-ending supply of talented players that the coaches would wish to pick from, but if the best young players we have are not blossoming what chance have the late bloomers got.

With the Under 17 European Championship title under our belt and a strong squad available for Denmark 2011, things do look rosy. The kids are alright (in fact they are pretty good); they just need the chance to develop and the chance to show it.