football_premier_league

Mixed results in Champions League

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The first legs of the Champions League (CL) last-16 games produced mixed results for the British teams, along with some controversy.

The best result was undoubtedly Liverpool’s superb 2-1 win against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, both sides reacting differently to recent controversy behind the scenes. At Barça, coach Frank Rijkaard appears to have come to the end of the road: a recent row with striker Eto’o may be a reflection of how the Dutchman’s relationship with his players has degenerated, and it’s rumoured that he will be leaving the club at the end of the season. Liverpool, on the other hand, appeared to shake off immediately the scandal of an alleged drunken night out last weekend in the Portuguese Algarve, where the team were preparing for this CL game. One of the stories goes that at a certain point in the evening, the Welshman Craig Bellamy threatened the Norwegian John Arne Riise with a golf club. Then who would score the two goals in Spain but … yes, Bellamy and Riise. Bellamy’s goal celebrations included him swinging an imaginary golf club, as if hitting the mini-crisis out of the stadium. Liverpool, who won the CL two seasons ago, must now be favourites to go through, at the expense of the team who won the last one.

Lille versus Manchester United was that rare animal, an exciting 0-0 draw. Then seven minutes from time, Tavlaridis fouled Saha near the penalty area. The Lille players, including goalkeeper Tony Sylva, were still organising the defensive wall when Ryan Giggs stepped up and swung the ball into the goal, with Sylva staring helplessly on. The incensed Lille players protested and even threatened to leave the pitch, saying that the goal was illegal, but the game eventually continued; the club has appealed to UEFA. Off the pitch, there was also trouble between Manchester United fans and the police: the fans, some of whom tried to climb over the security fence, claimed they were in danger of being crushed because of overcrowding, but the police had other ideas and charged the fans with batons and launched tear gas.

In Portugal, there was the return of José Mourinho to the Estádio do Dragão with his Chelsea side. The Special One is well-liked at FC Porto for his achievements there, including winning the CL trophy in 2004, although on the night he was of course jeered by the Porto fans - normal behaviour towards any visiting team. Mourinho was forced to re-think his tactics after skipper John Terry was injured in the first ten minutes and stretchered off, but his team reacted well to a Raul Meireles volley, equalising through Shevchenko with what could be a priceless away goal. The money for qualification would be useful: the club announced this week a loss of £80 million (120 million euros) in 2006. Chelsea continue as candidates for four trophies: the CL, the Premiership, the FA Cup and the League Cup.

Asked if he had any advice for the young players in his side ahead of the Celtic versus AC Milan game, Celtic coach Gordon Strachan kept it simple: “Just run about”, he said. They didn’t run about quite enough, though, it seems, drawing 0-0. They now have the prospect of a very difficult trip to the San Siro … but who knows? If they can get an early goal …

The worst result for the Brits was Arsenal’s 0-1 defeat at PSV Eindhoven. Last season’s beaten finalists “played well in the first half but lot worse in the second”, according to coach Arséne Wenger. Edison Méndez, with a spectacular shot from 25 metres on the hour, made it a miserable Carnival for the Gunners.

by Phil Town

How long does a half last in football?

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How long does a half last in football? Forty-five minutes, right? Plus, of course, added time … so why does a referee wait 15 seconds beyond added time to see how an attack by a team might end? That’s what happened in the Manchester United versus Reading FA Cup Fifth Round tie at Old Trafford on Saturday, and during those 15 seconds, Michael Carrick scored (an admittedly brilliant goal with a long range shot). It put Manchester United in front at half-time. Fortunately for justice, Reading equalised midway through the second half with a header from Icelandic defender Brynjar Gunnarsson, but the question remains: is the referee the best person to control time played, seeing that he has so much else to look after during the game? In basketball, the time of the match is controlled from a table on the sidelines. Isn’t it something the fourth official could do in football? What else does he have to do, besides telling the coaches to keep to the marked coaching area and supervising the entrance of substitutes?

The Reading versus Manchester United tie will have to go to a replay next week. In some countries, Cup games are decided on the day, with extra time and penalties, if necessary. But the English model allows for a smaller club to take a big club back to its own ground for the replay: the outcome is less certain, and the small club gets the money from the extra game. Reading, who played several of their reserve players on Saturday in a gesture of confidence and lack of awe of the so-called ‘Theatre of Dreams’, will surely field a stronger side for the replay; the arc of the new Wembley Stadium beckons, and for a club that has achieved few honours, this may be a chance to write its name in the history books.

It was a round without great upsets. Chelsea dispatched Norwich 4-0; the Championship (second tier) team from East Anglia resisted until the 40^th minute, during which time they could have gone ahead but hit the post instead. Then Shawn Wright-Phillips sent in a speculative shot that deflected off a defender and past David Marshall in the Canaries goal. If you go one down against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, you have an uphill struggle on your hands. And so it proved.

Tottenham Hotspur travelled from north to south London to beat Fulham by the same score, with Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov both scoring twice; the Bulgarian could say that he was slightly better than the Irishman on the day, though – he got his two in the space of only a quarter of an hour at the end of the game after coming on as substitute.

As if by magic, the draw for the Quarter-Finals matched the two teams that had won 4-0 in the Fifth Round: Chelsea versus Tottenham Hotspur, arguably the most attractive tie of the round. Whichever team wins the Reading versus Manchester United replay will travel to the winner of the West Bromwich Albion versus Middlesborough replay. Manchester City will have to wait to see who their hosts will be: Blackburn or Arsenal. And relative minnows Plymouth Argyle, the only Championship side left in the Cup, will be at home to struggling Premiership side Watford.

Sticking its neck out, the British Council Blog predicts that the following teams will go through to the Semi-Finals: Chelsea, Reading,  West-Bromwich Albion and Plymouth.

There’s no change in the Scottish Premier League, where Celtic (2-1 winners at Aberdeen) maintained their surely insurmountable 19-point lead over Rangers (2-1 winners at home to Falkirk, in front of a crowd of 50,000). The scene is becoming very familiar, with Rangers now seven points ahead of Aberdeen and … Hearts … whose Chairman, Vladimir Romanov, featured here last week, called the critical Scottish press “monkeys” before the 1-1 home draw with St. Mirren. And just in case they didn’t get the message, the club served them nuts and bananas at the game … and the music played in the stadium was by the 60s pop group … the Monkees.

by Phil Town

Foreign football takeovers in fashion

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Last week, Liverpool became the seventh Premiership club to be taken over by foreign money, joining Fulham (owned by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Fayed), Chelsea and Portsmouth (the Russian connection), West Ham United (Icelandic biscuits), and Manchester United and Aston Villa (American dollars). Liverpool, too, has been bought by Americans: George Gillett Jr. and Tim Hicks. If any Liverpool fans were suspicious of the American duo (as Manchester United fans initially were of the Glazer family), Gillett was making all the right noises to ease their worries: “This isn’t about making money – this is about winning, passion and tradition.” Indeed, Gillett appears to be as much a sports enthusiast as a businessman; he also owns the ice-hockey team Montreal Canadians and has, by all accounts, done a quiet, respectful job there.

One of Gillett and Hicks’ plans, though, is to break with tradition and move the team away from the legendary Anfield to a larger stadium yet to be built in Stanley Park, which separates Liverpool and arch enemies Everton. Everton are also considering a move, to nearby Kirby from their current home, Goodison Park, but the geographical distancing will not dissipate the rivalry between the clubs. They recently played out the 205^th Merseyside Derby – a dour 0-0 draw – after which Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez referred to Everton as “a small club”, an insult that will not be forgotten on the blue side of Liverpool for some time to come.

Further south, another club that seems to be owned by a foreigner – Reading / John Madejski – actually isn’t; Madejski is British (although his father was Polish) and is among the 200 wealthiest people in the UK. He has been at Reading since 1990, and the 25,000-seat Madejski Stadium, inaugurated in 1998, was built mainly with his money. There are millionaires and there are millionaires, though: while Abramovich at Chelsea may not think twice about getting his cheque book out to sign players like Shevchenko and Ballack, Madejski has always been much more discreet: the club’s record transfer fee was recently broken, Greg Halford moving to the Royals from Colchester United for just £2.5 million (around 3.75 million euros).

But this doesn’t mean that the club is struggling in the Big Boys’ League – quite the contrary, in fact. In the first Premiership season in the club’s long history (136 years!), many have been surprised by the quality of the team’s play, especially their organisation and spirit – under the quietly efficient manager Steve Coppell. From being everyone’s favourite at the start of the season to go straight back down to the Championship, they are now sixth, which will mean qualification for the UEFA Cup next season if they can stay there: an amazing feat if they can pull it off. And presiding over the success story, John Madejski, much loved by Royals fans.

Which is not necessarily the case at one famous Scottish club. Lithuanian banker Vladimir Romanov arrived at Hearts in January 2005, and while things looked good in the early days, with Romanov promising to make Hearts one of the top clubs in Europe, things have turned sour this season, with Romanov himself controversially involved in picking the team (he has experience as a submarine commander, not a football coach) and having to deal with a players’ mini-revolt. Hearts may be in an apparently respectable position in the league – fourth – but they are 24 points behind Celtic. And during this controversial season at Tynecastle, they have been knocked out of the Champions League in the qualifying round, the UEFA Cup in the first round and the Scottish Cup in the fourth. For Hearts fans, it’s been a case of ‘Money can’t buy them happiness’. For Romanov, and to paraphrase some famous Liverpudlians, ‘Money can’t buy him love’.

by Phil Town

On attendances (and other things)

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Attendances in the English Premiership must be the envy of many clubs from other countries. But while Manchester United can boast an average crowd of 75,000 plus (earning the club more than £2 million a game: around € 3m: on gate receipts alone) and Arsenal over 60,000 in their brand new Emirates Stadium (both clubs filling almost 100% of their seats every match), other, smaller clubs are beginning to experience a bit of a crisis.

Although Blackburn Rovers, from the north-west of England, won the title in 1994-95, aided by Chairman Jack Walker’s millions, it is essentially a small town club, ‘condemned’ to exist in the shadow of teams like Manchester United and Liverpool. Rovers’ ground, Ewood Park, with a capacity of 31,000, sees an average of only 21,000 at Premiership games: a take-up of around 68%. The club’s Directors have heard the alarm bells and are reacting; they are going to use the cushion of the extra revenue from the Premiership’s new TV deal to try to reverse the fall in attendances. “Our view is that some of this new money must be returned to our supporters in admission prices," the club's chief executive, John Williams, says. "Most clubs, apart from the biggest, have a problem with crowds, and it’s crucial that the game remains a live spectacle."

Indeed, some observers point to the cost of watching football as one of the main factors for fans staying away; a father taking his son to a Premiership game will not have much change out of £100 (€150) after he has paid for travel, the tickets (the cheapest seats), a match programme and a half-time snack and drink. The people who don’t worry about the expense are the higher-earning middle-classes, who, some say, are taking over the stadiums. This in turn leads to a less exciting atmosphere at games, especially since stadiums are now all-seater. There is also the question of how much football is being televised: people can stay at home and watch their team … and they can stay out of the rain in the process. And finally … the Premiership is perhaps becoming a little predictable. “Most people can name at the beginning of the season who the top four clubs will be,” says John Williams. Fans of smaller clubs, knowing that the most they can expect is a mid-table place, are less keen to spend so much money on watching their team.

Speaking of which, the top four in the Premiership remain the same: Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Manchester United demolished Tottenham 4-0 at White Hart Lane, their first goal scored by Cristiano Ronaldo from the penalty spot after he had been ‘fouled’ in the area (the replays showed he had not). It was his fifteenth goal of the season, meaning he has already won a bet he had with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The £500 he won is probably the equivalent of about ten minutes’ work for him, but it will keep him in chocolate eggs (his favourite) for a week or so. 

The picture at the bottom of the table is looking increasingly black for West Ham, Charlton and Watford, who all lost. The team above them Wigan won their first league game after eight straight defeats, 1-0 at home to high-flying Portsmouth. They are now five points clear of the drop zone with a game in hand on the bottom three.

It was Cup day in Scotland. Celtic won 4-1 at Scottish First Division (second tier) side Livingston. Dunfermline, bottom of the Scottish Premier League, provided the (minor) upset of the day, beating Hearts 1-0. Celtic travel to chilly Inverness in the quarter-finals, while Dunfermline are at home to Partick Thistle. Without Rangers, who were knocked out by Dunfermline in the third round, the way seems clear for Celtic to go on and win the League and Cup double … unless Dunfermline can pull a couple more rabbits out of their hat.

by Phil Town

A very busy week for English football

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It was a very busy week for English football. The weekend saw the fourth round of the FA Cup, there was a full programme of Premiership games in mid-week, and to top it all, there was a League Cup semi-final, not to mention the end of the mid-season transfer window. Phew!

While in most countries the knockout cup competitions take a back seat to the league, the English FA Cup is at least in the passenger seat alongside the Premiership. The appeal of the tournament is undoubtedly tied up with its history – the first one was played in the 1871-72 season, Wanderers beating the Royal Engineers 1-0 at … the Oval, now famous as a cricket ground – and also its potential for giant-killing.

Unlike the League (‘Carling’) Cup, which involves only the 92 clubs from the top four divisions in the country, the FA cup is open to all clubs which are members of the Football Association, from the most modest district side to the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea, and this season a record 687 (!) clubs entered. As the tournament progresses, the small teams naturally fall by the wayside, but when the Premiership clubs enter at the third round proper, there is always the hope, at least from neutral fans, that a team from the lower divisions, even a non-league team, can beat one of the giants of the game. This season, the biggest third-round shock was Premiership side Sheffield United losing 0-3 at home to Swansea of League One (third tier).

Unfortunately (for this neutral fan) there were no major upsets in the fourth round, except perhaps the 5-1 thrashing of Premiership side Newcastle at home to Birmingham City (not strictly speaking a giant-killing as Birmingham were in the Premiership until last season, but embarrassing for Newcastle nonetheless). Elsewhere, one of the best displays was by Bristol City of League One, who came bravely back from 0-2 down to draw 2-2 with Middlesborough at home. They will have a replay, as will Arsenal and Bolton,who drew 1-1. Most of the other major teams (Liverpool were knocked out in the third round) are among the 16 with their eyes on the rebuilt Wembley, which will be the venue for the Final for the first time in six years. Favourites with the bookmakers are Chelsea, who play Blackpool or Norwich and second favourites are Manchester United, who have a potentially complicated tie at home to Reading, the surprise team of the Premiership this season.

So the bookmakers have ignored the current ranking in the Premiership, where Manchester United are still six points ahead of Chelsea after both teams won comfortably on Wednesday, United 4-0 at home to seemingly doomed Watford, Chelsea 3-0 at home to Blackburn Rovers. At the bottom, Wigan joined the three other favourites for the drop (West Ham, Charlton and Watford after their eighth (!) consecutive league defeat, this time 2-3 at Reading. A year ago Wigan were riding high in their first season in the Premiership, while Reading were running away with the Championship (second tier). Wigan fans will be praying they can hold onto their place in the top division.

North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham didn’t have a Premiership game this time because they were busy thrilling us with a pulsating League (‘Carling’) Cup semi-final second leg. The first game had finished 2-2, and the second one, at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, also ended in a draw (1-1) , which meant that the game went to extra-time. Arsenal proved the stronger and scored two more to win 5-3 on aggregate. They meet Chelsea in the Final.

In Scotland the big news story of the week was the naming of Alex McLeish as the new coach of the national team, taking over from Walter Smith, who returned to Ibrox, home of Rangers. McLeish was at Rangers until he was sacked in February 2006. We’ll see whether he can carry on Smith’s good work: Scotland are top of their Euro 2008 qualifying group, ahead of giants France and Italy (!).

by Phil Town