GAVIN HAMILTON
Editor of World Soccer, writes for worldsoccer.com.
THE 39TH STEP
29/02/08
The cancellation by FIFA of this week’s planned meeting with Premier League boss Richard Scudamore is the final nail in the coffin of the Game 39 plan. The question is what step do the Premier League now take, if any?
My initial reaction, on hearing of the Game 39 plan three weeks ago, was a cynical one. My suspicion, that the plan could be a first salvo in a long drawn-out battle, was held by lots of others. Once the genie was out of the bottle, the argument went, the idea of playing games overseas, though not necessarily in the format of a 39th round, would be hard to resist.
Now, I’m not so sure. The above theory suggests a carefully executed plan from the Premier League. But over the years, I’m come to realise that, with English football administrators, the cock-up theory always takes precedence over the conspiracy theory. With Game 39, that appears to be the case again.
Richard Scudamore, in his eagerness to sniff out new revenues for the Premier League clubs, has seriously misjudged the mood of the international game. Years of pulling the wool over the eyes of a meek and submissive Football Association had convinced Scudamore and his advisors that they could run roughshod over FIFA and the assorted world “family” members.
Ironically, the great strength of the Premier League – its collective organisation – has proved its undoing over Game 39. The collective negotiation of TV rights, where clubs share TV revenue equally, has enabled the Premier League to grow rapidly over the past 16 years, overtaking Serie A and the Spanish Liga as the world’s most lucrative domestic competition. Yet the need to find more money for all 20 Premier League clubs forced Scudamore into a proposal which appealed to a majority of the Premier League club owners, but whose implication to the rest of the football world had not been though through properly.
The Game 39 plan offered each Premier League around £5million a year – money which the likes of Blackburn and Birmingham could never hope to earn if they tried to organise overseas matches themselves. In contrast, the likes Manchester United and Arsenal could easily earn such sums if they so wished, but the collective nature of the Premier League’s commercial activities prevents them from going it alone.
Yet in his eagerness to please the Birminghams and Blackburns – who, after all, pay his considerable wages – Scudamore failed to see the bigger picture.
There will now be lots of talk from the Premier League of “going back to the drawing board”, “taking soundings from the football community” and so on. It will probably be quite a while before we hear of Scudamore’s next wheeze, but we will get one.
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LOST IN TRANSLATION
26/02/08
The shocking injury to Arsenal striker Eduardo last weekend has inevitably sparked a debate about dangerous play. It’s something that we have discussed on these pages before, and I don’t want to go over old ground, suffice to say that I’m surprised that injuries such as Eduardo don’t happen more often.
An intriguing aspect of the whole affair has been the way the global media has covered the story, as well as the way Arsenal reacted to coverage of the story.
It’s been virtually impossible to view any footage of the incident on the net, thanks to the Premier League’s obsession with protecting its copyright. Broadcasters and newspapers have been remarkably squeamish in their reporting of the story, with most refusing to publish pictures of the actual point of contact of Martin Taylor’s boot on Eduardo’s ankle.
It’s a sensitive issue; in the World Soccer office, we’re currently debating whether or not to publish the pictures in our next issue. My feeling is that we should, though I can fully understand why some people might object.
Arsenal acted quickly in reaction to manager Arsene Wenger’s heat-of-the-moment comment that Martin Taylor “should never play football again”. That evening Wenger, via a message on Arsenal’s website, conceded that his comments about Taylor had been “excessive”.
Wenger’s u-turn and Taylor’s apparent remorse at least spared Taylor the wrath of the English media. Overseas, however, it has been a somewhat different story.
One Brazilian website (globoesporte.com) claimed to have interviewed Eduardo on the telephone from his hospital bed. According the interview, Eduardo accused Taylor of acting with “malicious intent”.
Eduardo was quoted as saying: “I don’t remember the incident very well and it’s not something that I want to see again on television or in the newspapers.
“All I remember is that when I fell, I looked down at my foot and it had turned the other way. The rest is just a blank.”
He was then quoted by globoesporte as adding – crucially: “To go in like he did, it had to be with malicious intention.”
The same quotes were translated into Spanish and picked up by the Spanish news agency EFE, and the story was duly reported by the sports daily AS.
Eduardo subsequently issued a statement via the Arsenal website where he insisted, perhaps under pressure from the club, that there was no malicious intent on the part of Taylor.
I was immediately suspicious of the Globesporte interview, which claimed to have spoken to Eduardo in a London hospital. Aside from the difficulty of actually getting making phone contact with anybody in hospital, Eduardo was actually taken from St Andrews to a hospital in Birmingham, not London.
Despite doubts over the veracity of the quotes, they were widely reported in Brazil, and thanks to the EFE story, throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
Rightly or wrongly, the English media have chosen not to report Eduardo’s comments to globoesporte.com in full. Reuters, for example, reported some of the quotes, but did not include the controversial “malicious intent” line.
Yet the coverage in England has largely exonerated Taylor. He was, according to his manager Alex McLeish, “distraught” at the extent of the injury to Eduardo.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Arsenal react to the whole affair. Mental strength is often the quality that sets apart truly great teams from mere great ones. But the petulant sit-down protest of club captain William Gallas after the Birmingham game suggests that Arsenal’s season is in danger of imploding.
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GOING DUTCH
22/02/08
The appointment of Johan Cruyff in an advisory role at Ajax is intriguing. Cruyff is not, as some reports suggested set to become technical director of the Amsterdam club this summer. Instead, he is likely to advise the club’s new board on the identity of a new head coach.
Since he stepped down as Barcelona coach in 1996, Cruyff has remained a hugely influential figure in both Catalonia and Holland. Through his Dutch and Spanish newspaper columns, he has maintained a public presence in both countries, but he has also ezerted considerable influence behind the scenes.
He is often described as Barca’s Cardinal Richelieu figure, the power-broker and close confidante of Barca president Joan Laporta. Despite basing himself in Barcelona, Cruyff’s opinions are still taken seriously in Holland, where Marco Van Basten would not have been appointed as national coach with Cruyff’s blessing.
That raises the possibility of Van Basten returning to Ajax when he steps down as Holland national coach after the finals of Euro 2008. That in turn would mean Barcelona looking elsewhere for a replacement for Frank Rijkaard, who is widely expected to leave in the summer.
Jose Mourinho has again been linked with a move to Barcelona. Crucially for Mourinho, Cruyff appears to be softening his stance on the Special One, who angered many at Barca with his antics before and after the Champions League games between Chelsea and Barcelona in 2006.
Cruyff, who turned 60 last year, may be about to become more involved with Ajax, the club where he won three successive European Cups in the early 1970s (his spell as coach in the 1980s was far less successful). But he is still likely to have the final say over who is appointed as Barcelona’s next coach.
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SCOUT'S HONOUR
19/02/08
It often amazes me the lengths that some clubs go to sign players from overseas. But for every club that checks out a player’s family history, his injury record, his personal life, and so on, there is a club who will sign a player on the back of nod and a wink, without having seen the player in competitive action.
I got a phone call this morning from an English Championship club (I will spare them the embarrassment of naming them) who have just signed a foreign player who had been out of contract since the summer, having previously played for a number of well-known clubs in a major European league. Did I know anything about the player, as his Wikipedia entry only ran to a few lines?
Apparently, the player had impressed enough during a trial to be offered a short-term deal. But it seems remarkable that the club had not done any proper research before committing pen to paper.
People marvel at Arsene Wenger’s ability to uncover foreign players who have few other English clubs have heard of. Yet the Arsenal manager has an extensive network of scouts around the world. They make it their business to know every last detail about a potential signing, to the point where they literally know a player’s inside leg measurement and what he had for breakfast.
Obviously, there is a huge financial gulf between the likes of Arsenal and Championship clubs, who cannot afford to develop anything like the scouting networks that Wenger can call upon. But I would have thought that the parlous financial state of many lower league clubs would have forced them into becoming more reliant on scouting their own talent.
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END OF THE ROAD?
14/02/08
Is this the end of the road for Ronaldo? He ruptured his left knee tendon playing for Milan in a 1-1 draw with Livorno, and after reading the quotes from the French surgeon who has operated on him in the past, it does not look good for the Brazilian.
Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi tried to put a brave face on it, saying: “He has an extraordinary physique, and I think within a few months he could return to being the champion that we all know him as.” But Berlusconi also admitted that Ronaldo “fears for his career”.
Gerard Saillant, the renowned surgeon who operated on Ronaldo following a similar injury to his right knee in 2000, was similarly gloomy. “Considering his age," Saillant said “it is hard to say” when Ronaldo could return to action.
The concern for Ronaldo is that he has not looked after himself in the way that many other professionals have. Though he recovered from his 2000 injury to star at the 2002 World Cup, his nocturnal activities in Madrid have been well documented.
Despite his injury-plagued career, Ronaldo is still the record scorer in World Cup finals history, and is therefore arguably the greatest goalscorer in the history of the international game. That's a debate for another time, though.
One irony that Internazionale fans will appreciate is that Ronaldo has been injured while playing for Milan. Eight years ago, Inter stuck by their man for two seasons while he underwent successful rehabilitation for an injury that has ended many other careers. But just as he returned to full fitness,culminating in the 2002 World Cup success in Japan, Ronaldo turned his back on Inter and moved to Real Madrid.
It remains to be seen whether Milan will be as loyal as their city rivals.
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LEAGUE OF NATIONS
08/02/08
So this is what they call progress. The news that the English Premier League is considering playing a “39th round” of games overseas from 2010 has been condemned by almost everybody - and understandably so.
Already the Football Supporters Federation is mobilising for a campaign against what it is calling “GAM£ 39” - http://www.fsf.org.uk/news/news0095no-to-game-39.html - and protests can be expected at games this weekend.
Yet it is all very well to talk about English football losing its soul. The soul of English football left the building many years ago. Sixteen years ago, to be precise, when the breakaway Premier League was allowed to go on its merry way.
Since then, Premier League clubs have used every opportunity to sniff out money-making opportunitues. They smell money even when it does not exist and this latest plan is just the logical extension of their desperate search for new profit.
The Premier League is keen to perpetuate the myth that it is the most popular league in the world. It is not. Matches involving Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are watched by millions every week, making the “big four” the most popular clubs in the world. Nobody in any of the overseas “markets” likely to be targeted by the Premier League cares much for Fulham and Wigan.
I don’t buy the spin from the Premier League that this initiative has come from the “big four”. The 16 “poor relations” of the Premiership are desperate to cling to the coat tails of the big four. The current TV deals have been negotiated on a collective basis - and the 16 are desperate to keep it that way. Though we don’t know all the details, this latest idea is again based on the collective principle, with all monies shared between the clubs.
I contacted FIFA and UEFA earlier today to see if they would comment on the Premier League’s plans. UEFA said it could not comment until it had seen something more concrete. FIFA responded with comments from Sepp Blatter pointing out that any competitive fixture played in a foreign territory needs the approval of the body’s executive committee as well as the football association of the country in which the game is to be played.
So the Premier League’s plans could yet encounter some opposition. In the past, both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are on record as being concerned about the creeping globalisation of football. It’s going to be fascinating to see if they back up such words with appropriate deeds. My suspicion is that they will pass the buck to the local associations, and let them decide.
The most alarming aspect of the Premier League proposals is the plan to play a 39th matchday in the season. Such a programme makes a mockery of the idea of a league format with home and away matches. Call me a cynic, but I wonder whether the 39th matchday plan could be just a bargaining counter for the Premier League, whose long-term aim is to get the principle of playing games overseas accepted.
The 39th matchday idea has been so universally condemned that I can envisage a scenario whereby the Premier League drop such the proposal (responding to public opinion, of course) but use the debate to force home the principle of playing games overseas, maybe as part of the regular season.
Either way, the debate is just beginning.
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VOTE RIGGING?
06/02/08
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has got itself into a terrible pickle over the African Footballer of the Year award.
From admittedly quite a distance away, in London, it appears that the whole thing has been a fix. The simplest way for CAF to prove that Freddie Kanoute was the rightful winner of the award - rather than the grateful recipient of a fixed vote - would be to publish the votes of the 53 African national coaches who decide the award.
CAF has been strangely silent on this issue. For all we know Kanoute could have finished third in the poll because Michael Essien, the other shortlisted candidate also declined to attend the ceremony because he - quite rightly - wanted to spend time with his Ghana team-mates as they prepared for the Nations Cup quarter-final against Nigeria.
The big question is what on earth possessed CAF to hold an awards ceremony for the best player of last year, in February, in Togo, in the middle of a Nations Cup tournament being played in neighbouring Ghana? The answer, of course, is to do with money and the complex financial and sponsorship arrangements that CAF have in place.
It’s shame that the whole thing has been such a shambles because the current Nations Cup has received more global attention than any previous tournament. And it’s also a pity for Freddie Kanoute, who would have been worthy winner after his Cup-winning exploits with Sevilla. But his award has now been completely devalued.
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JANUARY SALES
01/02/08
It’s been another record-breaking transfer window for English Premier League clubs. Even when the money recouped through player sales is taken into account, the 20 Premiership clubs have spent a combined total of more than £100million, comfortably beating last January’s total of £63million and the figure of £87million of two years ago.
It’s been a different story elsewhere in Europe. In Spain, the only country to rival England for transfer spending last summer, there has been precious little activity, with only crisis club Valencia spending heavily on two youngsters, Ever Banega and Hedwiges Maduro, from Boca Juniors and Ajax respectively.
In Italy, defending champions and league leaders Inter took Portugal midfielder Maniche on loan from Atletico Madrid for the rest of the season. But such is the strength of their squad that not even injuries to the likes of Patrick Vieira, Luis Figo and Walter Samuel could force open president Massimo Moratti’s chequebook. Across town, it’s easy to see why Milan have been so quiet on the transfer front compared to last year, when they signed Ronaldo from Real Madrid. The sensational start of Alexandre Pato has surprised even the most hardened of cynics who suggested that the 18-year-old Brazilian would struggle in Serie A.
Elsewhere, the trend for buying up teenage talent from South America continues. Bayern Munich have paid Sao Paulo in the region of £8million for 18-year-old defender Breno. The way he breaks forward from defence has led some people in Brazil to compare him to Franz Beckenbauer, but £8million still seems an awful to pay for someone with only a handful of professional games under his belt. Lyon paid even more for another Brazilian, Ederson, and then promptly loaned him back to Nice for the rest of the season.
Certainly, there seem to be very few bargains about, with smaller clubs keen to flush out large fees from the big boys. Some of the fees changing hands for untried, untested youngsters make Manchester United’s summer 2007 deals look like clever business. United spent in excess of £50million, but all those signings - Carlos Tevez, Anderson, Nani and Owen Hargreaves - will strengthen the squad in the next three months, the crucial period when the season’s silverware will be won and lost.
Big transfer fees may finally be a thing of the past, following a little-reported story from this past week. The landmark ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case of Scottish defender Andy Webster could be as significant as the Bosman Ruling in changing the football transfer market.
CAS decided that Webster must pay his former club Hearts £150,000 after he terminated his contract a year early in May 2006, moving to Wigan and then to Rangers on loan. Webster invoked a little-known clause in FIFA’s international transfer regulations, Article 17, which allows a player to cancel their contract after three years if under 28, and two years if older, and could now pave the way for many big-name players to negotiate an early exit from their contracts.
CAS ruled that Hearts were not entitled to receive anything like the £4.5million they were demanding in compensation and instead set the payment at £150,000, the value of Webster’s final-year salary at Tynecastle.
The implications for football are potentially enormous. Manchester United may insist that Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, is going nowhere. But he could, in theory, now invoke the Webster judgment and move to Real Madrid for the cost of his salary in the final year of his contract, around £6million.
Transfer fees, which were threatened by the Bosman Ruling, may now become extinct. The money spent on transfer fees by the Premier League clubs in their January spending spree could now be redirected to the players in the form of even higher wages.
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