UK News

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

FIFA takes agenda by scruff of the snood

There will be a lot of fashion-conscious footballers holding their breath for item “V.1.b” at the International Football Association Board’s annual meeting next month.

Forget goal-line technology and positioning of goal posts and the other very sensible items on the agenda, the one sure to get a few people rather hot under the collar is the “wearing of snoods” – those snugly neck warmers much loved by the likes of Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri.

Soccer’s rule makers will determine whether the fluffy accessories are a safety hazard in the “Any Other Business” section submitted by FIFA.

“There may be a safety issue – if for example a player was running though on goal and an opponent grabbed his snood, that could pose a potential danger to his neck,” a FIFA spokesman was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Based on that, shouldn’t Andy Carroll’s long ponytail be quickly added to the agenda? One tug on that would also pose “a potential danger to his neck”.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has already said he thinks snoods actually protect against injury.

Players already grab each other by the shirts and shorts – the latter which could have pretty painful results too – so surely nipping at a snood is nothing that really needs discussing.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Beckham’s value is his values

Harry Redknapp does not need a right-sided midfield player and, with the depth of talent regularly available on his bench, he hardly needs to bolster his squad with a three-month loan signing.

Yet he, and several other Premier League managers, are trying to secure the services of 35-year-old David Beckham.

Many observers are scratching their heads and wondering just what is the enduring appeal of a player clearly several years past his peak.

They point to the unavoidable media frenzy that will come as part of any loan deal arranged with LA Galaxy, if the American club agree to let their number one asset go again after he suffered a serious injury on his last sojourn, to AC Milan last year.

Yet Redknapp, who has seen football from all sides, knows the value -- or more to the point -- values, Beckham brings.

Having served his apprenticeship with West Ham in the penny-pinching 1960s and now overseeing players earning millions of pounds a year, Redknapp recognises that the professionalism and dedication to his art that Beckham shows could help turn some of his “nearly men” into the finished article.

"I am a great fan of his," Redknapp said.

Best of Britain: Let it snow

For the past week, snow was more than just a single story, it encompassed many stories.  This week’s Best of Britain features a selection of pictures ranging from a sheep in a winter landscape to students determined to protest despite the snow.  There’s a West Ham United player frolicking after scoring a goal and the trace footprints of pedestrians walking down a London street.

Also included are photos of Elton John guest editing The Independent, the cries of anguish as a fallen soldier is lead through Wootton Bassett and football fans distraught that the World Cup will not be coming to England in the near future.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Liverpool board leads 2-1 in court cases with end now in sight

Here we go again. After another legal victory in the High Court for the Liverpool board and main creditor RBS, all eyes turn to Dallas, where a new hearing on the ownership battle is underway.

Wednesday's original ruling had, it seemed, paved the way for Liverpool to be sold for 300 million pounds ($479.8 million) to New England Sports Ventures (NESV) -- owners of the Boston Red Sox -- but that was before George Gillett and Tom Hicks obtained a temporary block in a Texas district court.

Lawyers for Royal Bank of Scotland went back before the same judge in London Thursday and he granted an injunction to restrain the Dallas court ruling, saying the case had no connection to Texas.

"The owners' behavior conclusively demonstrates just how incorrigible they are," he said. "They are absolutely determined to stop this transaction in its tracks and they have no lawful justification for behaving in this way."

Liverpool's independent directors issued a statement on the club website (www.liverpoolfc.tv) saying: "We are glad to have taken another important step toward completing the sale process."

Whether this really is the green light to sell depends on what happens in the 160th civil district court in Dallas, after a judge adjourned Thursday's hearing.

We will have to wait until Friday, then, to find out whether Liverpool will have new owners by the time they play the Merseyside derby against Everton Sunday.

from Photographers Blog:

Yes, my job really is this glamorous

When people ask me what I do for a living, or they hear tales from my wife about me being away at the Olympics or shooting football or golf or a Papal visit somewhere, the usual response is to tell me how glamorous my job is, rubbing shoulders with all these famous sporting and political icons and how lucky I am to get to attend all these events and call it work!

Granted, I am incredibly lucky to have an office that regularly includes Premier League football grounds and other major sporting events, but glamorous......not a word I would often use, and last night was a perfect case in point.

I've been shooting professionally now for 15 years. Being located in the north of England, an awful lot of that time has been spent shooting football, which we all know is an outdoor sport. I've experienced most things that football can throw at you: the thrills, the spills and the bad weather. But I have never been as wet as I was at last night's league cup game between Liverpool and Northampton Town.

The early rounds of the annual cup competitions always throw up the classic David and Goliath contests with teams from the lower leagues drawn against the Premiership big boys,. This one had all the ingredients for an upset, especially when you take into account my beloved Liverpool's off pitch going's on with talk of takeovers and board room splits being rife. So, the game plan had to be to shoot as if Liverpool would lose, after all they are expected to beat a team from the lower divisions with ease, so where is the story in that?

I positioned myself in front of the Northampton fans, knowing that this would usually give me Liverpool's attack in the first half should they run away with it but also give me a picture if Northampton scored and ran to their own supporters in celebration. The only issue with this plan was it was raining, not too badly, but enough to get you soaked and the end I had chosen to sit at offers the photographers no protection.

Liverpool duly scored early on and ran towards me, job done I thought. The floodgates would now open and Northampton would be swept away. But at half time it was still only 1-0 and Liverpool were far from dominant. I would have to file pictures and return to the same end, just in case.

from The Great Debate UK:

Luck is the residue of design—even in football

- Isaac Getz is a professor at ESCP Europe Business School and co-author of Freedom, Inc. (Crown Business, 2009). The opinions expressed are his own. -

This Sunday will decide the World Cup champion. Yet, most nations will ask themselves again what’s needed to build a world-class national team?

The majority will go for the easy answers: great players, great coach. England had both. Some nations, though, might search for more complex answers—as Germany did.

After the French won both the 1998 World and 2000 European championships, the German World Cup winning player and coach Franz Beckenbauer said: "France is a model with its school tracks [combining] sports and studies and its [soccer clubs’] training centers. We are trying to copy… but we will need ten years to catch up with them."

And Germany did. Its football federation completely redesigned the German football system. Its most important new component became the mandatory academy for every professional club which trains future great players beginning from the age of 12.

Country-house opera wonders where it will get its next million

There’s more to the English summer social calendar than sport – but it is in danger of being drowned out by the cries of disappointed football fans and sapped by lack of cash.

During the June and July evenings when much of Britain grinds to a halt to watch World Cup matches on giant screens in pubs and smaller screens at home, a different style of audience escapes to the countryside, wearing evening dress and carrying picnic hampers, for the 2010 season of country-house operas.

While the most famous are at Glyndebourne, a younger rival Grange Park Opera in Hampshire has also earned critical acclaim.

It is undeniably elite, but that does not mean it does not have money issues.

Whereas football is guaranteed enormous audiences and sponsorship deals, often in defiance of the quality of play, Grange Park ticket sales fell last year against the backdrop of global recession and funding cuts to the arts.

It was the first time they had not shown annual growth since the founding of the festival in 1997.

from The Great Debate UK:

In football, the biggest losers win

“Football is just a business nowadays, isn’t it?”

Well, actually no, it’s not, and it never has been - at least not if a business means an enterprise intended to maximise shareholder value.

In the “good old days” – so called because they were bloody awful – football clubs were financed by a Big Sugar Daddy, often the millionaire who owned the local mill or maybe a small chain of shops in the town.

As Chairman of the Board, he would treat the club as his little indulgence, a rich man’s hobby, an alternative to collecting old masters or old mistresses.

In return, he would behave as if he owned the club (which he did), his name would probably be on the main stand and his real business – the one that generated the money - would advertise in the match programme and on boards around the touchline.

With players’ wages subject to a Football League limit so low as to have become a joke (or a national disgrace) by the 1950s, the BSD had little to lose, even though there was no income from TV, only peanuts from sponsorship deals and match tickets cost less than you’d pay nowadays for a half-time coffee.

What’s changed? Everything, except the role of the BSD. Millionaires or the simply rich need not apply nowadays, at least not if a club entertains serious ambitions in the English Premiership (or the Spanish Primera Liga or Italian Seria A).

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

We predict the worst … you show us how it’s done

It seems like ages since we last managed a proper weekend programme*  but at last, here we are, with an all-singing, all-dancing snow-free extravaganza, with the dubious attraction of Arsenal v Man Utd's traditional handbags at 10 paces highly competitive fixture being shown in 3D at select boozers across the land.

Below you will find the Reuters Soccer Blog standings and predictions for the week but remember, we'd like you to join in as well. If you're a newcomer, you get 10 points for correctly predicting the exact score from the weekend's Premier League game, or two for getting the right result. (If you've been with us for a while, it's five points and one point).

Being on double-bubble means you can catch us up in no time, especially with huge bonus points on offer for incidental details like scorers, penalty misses, substitutions, or indeed anything else. So please send in your scores and have the satisfaction of out-predicting the stat-obsessed football nerds here at Reuters Soccer Blog Towers.

Reuters Soccer blog panel: Patrick Johnston 194, Mitch Phillips 182, Paul Radford 181, Neil Maidment 166, Kevin Fylan 148, Mark Meadows 142, Simon Evans 142, Julien Pretot 137, Mike Collett 132, Asia Sports Desk 115, Martyn Herman 109, Miles Evans 107, Sonia Oxley 71, Justin Palmer 41

Here are this week's matches ... leave your predictions in the comments.

Birmingham City v Tottenham Hotspur: Patrick Johnston , Mitch Phillips , Paul Radford 1-0, Neil Maidment 1-1, Kevin Fylan 0-2, Mark Meadows 1-2, Simon Evans 1-1, Julien Pretot , Mike Collett 0-2, Asia Sports Desk 2-2, Martyn Herman , Miles Evans 1-3, Sonia Oxley

Fulham v Aston Villa: Patrick Johnston , Mitch Phillips , Paul Radford 1-0, Neil Maidment 0-1, Kevin Fylan 0-2, Mark Meadows 0-1, Simon Evans 1-2, Julien Pretot , Mike Collett 1-1, Asia Sports Desk 1-2, Martyn Herman , Miles Evans 1-0, Sonia Oxley

Is Fabio being beastly to the WAGS?

In keeping with the spirit of the times and with his own stern image, Fabio Capello has clamped down on the WAGS.

The wives and girlfriends, whose exuberance and excess often made for more interesting viewing three years ago in Germany than the games their HABS were involved in, have been banished to the stands.

Capello is going to allow England’s players to see their families only one day a week, after matches, at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

“We’re going to South Africa to play, not for a holiday,” he growls. “If they don’t want to come for the day only, they should stay home.”

To make matters worse, he says the Football Association will not pay for them to go to the tournament, as it did in 2006.

Do you think the WAGS made much difference to England’s lacklustre performance in Germany. Is Capello being a bit harsh on them?