GAVIN HAMILTON
Editor of World Soccer, writes for worldsoccer.com.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
25/01/08
I have been meaning to write about this for a while and never got round to it. Recently I’ve come across a number of people, notably in the States, who take great pride in using the world ‘football’ rather than ‘soccer’.
By talking about football instead of soccer, they to think that it somehow makes them more "authentic" fans. There’s even a Facebook group called “And by Soccer you mean Football, Bitch”. You get their drift. I even got email recently calling me an “ignorant yank” after a column I wrote for an
American website in which I referred to soccer rather than football. (For the record, I’m English, born and raised in London).
It’s time for a bit of a history lesson. Soccer, as a term to describe football, is as old as the modern game itself. By that I mean the mid-19th century. The origins of the word ‘soccer’ can be found in the slang terms used by the English public schools, who were the first people to play the different variations of the game known as football, including the code that would become universally known as ‘association football’. Just as another code, rugby football, became known as rugger, so the ‘soc’ in association football was used to develop the phrase ‘soccer’.
So don’t believe anybody who dismisses the use of the word soccer as an Americanisation of the game. In fact, in these days of the Premiership, franchises and MVPs, soccer is a traditional term that evokes an altogether different era. Just ask the producers of Soccer AM or Soccer Saturday on Sky
this weekend.
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OUT OF AFRICA
23/01/08
It’s now become fashionable to say that the African Nations Cup is no longer a great place for European clubs to go scouting for talent. Instead, so the argument goes, the continental youth championships are the place to go to unearth gems before they become widely known.
This argument may hold some water in South America, where most senior national sides are dominated by players who have already been transferred to Europe. But in Africa, that is not case - as the swathes of agents and scouts currently in Ghana would testify.
There are so many visitors at the 2008 tournament that Ghana’s transport and hotel infrastructure - one of the most developed in Africa - is struggling to cope. But the numbers are proof of the growing pulling power of the Nations Cup.
Chelsea manager Avram Grant has said that his club will now think twice about signing an African player, having lost Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel for the duration of the Nations Cup. But I suspect Grant may come to regret that statement.
One of the most important developments for African football in the past decade has been the number of leading African players who have made the step up from middle-ranking European clubs to teams who are challenging for the very honours. Losing players to Nations Cup duty used to be a problem for the likes of Bolton and Sochaux. That it is now a problem for the Barcelonas and Chelseas of this world is proof of the growing stature of the Nations Cup.
Many of the players on show in Ghana are already well established in European club football. But they are still many talents who have not yet made the switch. And don’t forget players such as prolific striker Tresor Mputu Mabi, whose country DR Congo did not qualify for the 2008 finals in Ghana.
It’s a shame that so much of the coverage of the Nations Cup is devoted to the issue of European scouts, with few questions asked about what can be done to invest more in African club football to keep talent on the continent for longer. World Soccer is as guilty as anyone on this count, but people always want to read about the next big thing.
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It’s not often that I blow my own trumpet, but I am indebted to an oldfriend Les Murray - Mr Soccer Australia, no less - for some favourable comments about World Soccer. You can read his latest column on the website of Australian broadcaster SBS here.
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THE RETURN OF THE MESSIAH
21/01/08
Only one word to describe how Kevin Keegan’s second coming in Newcastle will end - tears. But there’s no doubting that it will be a lot of fun along the way.
William Hill are currently offering odds of 4-1 on Keegan staying as Newcastle boss until 2011. The weekend’s action suggests, if anything, that the bookies are being a little too generous on KK.
It’s going to be fascinating to see who Keegan tries to sign in what remains of the January transfer window. However, his signings this summer will give the best indicator of whether or not he can deliver success second time around on Tyneside.
Keegan’s greatest strength is his forceful personality. In 1996, he famously persuaded Alan Shearer to ditch Man United in favour of Newcastle. And the club’s then owner Sir John Hall wrote a cheque to Blackburn for a world-record fee of £15million. Football’s spiralling inflation means that for Keegan to match the ambition and spending of his first spell in charge, lashing out another world-record fee, he would have to spend in excess of £50million.
Money is only half of the story. Keegan will be competing in the transfer market with clubs who can offer Champions League football as well as the chance to work with world-class coaches. Would Fernando Torres have spurned Rafa Benitez and Liverpool for Keegan’s Newcastle? Ditto Carlos Tevez at Man United, Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal, Didier Drogba at Chelsea.
Newcastle fans would love to turn the clock back to the mid-1990s, when the collective might of the Toon Army helped to finance the Hall and Keegan revolution. But a decade on, fans’ money is not enough. In addition to the Premiership’s top four, whose dominant position is reinforced by Champions League earnings, Newcastle have to compete with the likes of Man City, Aston Villa and West Ham - all backed by ambitious owners who can give Mike Ashley a run for his money. Then there are those clubs like Tottenham and Everton, whose managers have the tactical nous that Keegan has always struggled with. The remaining half of the Premiership are all masters at scrapping for points and making life difficult for teams who want to play a more expansive game - as Bolton showed on Saturday.
Nevertheless, Keegan is pressing all the right emotional buttons for the Toon Army. His quote about Geordies seeking entertainment football in the same way that Southerners attend the theatre was classic Keegan. The rest of the country laughed out loud when they heard it. But for Newcastle fans it merely strengthened their bond with Keegan.
As someone who follows football around the world, I can safely say that Newcastle fans are among the most deluded anywhere in the world. Former managers of clubs such as Corinthians, Internazionale and Marseille have all complained that their respective jobs were made “impossible” by the unrealistic demands of the fans. But in the case of those clubs, fans were only demanding a return to past glories.
At Newcastle, they have precious few past glories to relive. Instead, there is an inexorable belief in their “right” to success because they are “special”. While every club is special to its own fans, Keegan has proved a master in exploiting the emotional links that Newcastle fans have with their club.
The emotional side of Kevin Keegan is the key to his enduring appeal on Tyneside. Yet it is also what makes him so vulnerable. Seat belts on, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
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PEACE IN OUR TIME
18/01/08
The G-14 is dead, long live the G-14? This week’s announcement that FIFA, UEFA and Europe’s richest clubs had agreed a deal to head off legal action by clubs is the culmination of a decade battle over the issue of club versus country.
FIFA announced on Tuesday that it had signed a letter of intent with UEFA and representatives from the G-14, the body represents 16 of Europe’s richest club. The clubs will withdraw proposed court action while in return UEFA and FIFA will make financial contributions for players’ participation in European Championships and World Cups.
The joint statement said that FIFA and UEFA would in return begin making “financial contributions for player participation in European Championships and World Cups, subject to the approval of their respective bodies.”
UEFA said its European Club Forum would be replaced by a new independent “European Club Association” representing 100 European clubs, including representatives from all of UEFA’s 53 national associations.
The statement also claimed that the deal could lead to “the dissolution of the G-14 with the withdrawal of its claims in court.”
The G-14’s general assembly meets on February 15, reportedly to discuss such a move. It is going to be fascinating to see if the G-14 members take their lead from the FIFA/UEFA statement and actually go through with their disbandment. A brief statement on the G-14 website stops short of announcing such a move. Instead, it concedes that the proposed European Clubs Association “may become the sole independent representative body defending the interests of clubs at European and international levels”.
The G-14 emerged at the turn of the century following the failed attempt by Milan-based company Media Partners to launch a breakaway Champions League. After a deal to head off the breakaway, the top clubs benefited enormously from their expanded share of the Champions League spoils - and the G-14 struggled to find a role, with FIFA and UEFA refusing to deal with them.
The court case seeking compensation from FIFA by Belgian club Charleroi, whose Moroccan midfielder Abdelmajid Oulmers was injured playing for his country, handed the G-14 a lifeline. But this week’s deal has seen off a potentially serious falling-out between the clubs and the federations.
The biggest victor has been UEFA president Michel Platini who has once again shown his powers of diplomatic persuasion. His predecessor Lennart Johansson had refused to have any dealings with the G-14 while his mentor, Sepp Blatter, has taken a similarly confrontational stance. Yet Platini promised to have closer dealing with the G-14 when he came to office last year - and has been true to his word.
What is not clear yet is how or how much compensation the federations are going to pay the clubs. As such, this week’s landmark deal could turn to be no more than a truce in the long-running war between clubs and countries.
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RISKY BUSINESS
15/01/08
Recent events at Newcastle and Liverpool beggar belief and once again call into question whether football clubs should be falling over themselves to jump into bed with billionaire businessmen who seem to lose all common sensethe moment they cross the threshold of a football club.
Newcastle’s owner Mike Ashley has been left with egg on his face - not to mention the small matter of £6million in compensation - following the sacking of Sam Allardyce. The decision to get rid of Allardyce appears to have been taken without first having lined up a replacement for the former Bolton manager.
So in the past three days we’ve had a succession of names paraded in the media. Yesterday Mark Hughes, today Kevin Keegan, tomorrow Gerard Houllier. And all the names mentioned know that they are second choice, behind Harry Redknapp.
Over at Liverpool, Tom Hicks and George Gillett are doing their best impression of Laurel and Hardy as they try to unseat Rafa Benitez in the
most unsubtle way imaginable.
What is it that turns apparently successful businessmen into such bumbling fools? Could it be that football and business are not the perfect mix that some people would have us believe they are?
The likes of Ashley and Hicks and Gillett are making the same mistake that many other rich men have made in the past. Namely, that you cannot buy success in football in the same way you can buy success in business.
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THE INCREDIBLE SULK
11/01/08
Nicolas Anelka’s move from Bolton to Chelsea means that the French international striker has now had nine different clubs in 11 years. Only at Arsenal can he be deemed to have been an unqualified success.
The reported fee of £15million is an awful lot of money to pay for a player whose place in Chelsea’s starting line-up is likely to be under threat the moment Didier Drogba walks back through the door when Ivory Coast’s African Nations Cup campaign in Ghana is over.
But then £15million means very little to Roman Abramovich. And current transfer market conditions are such that £15million is the sort of money that is needed to sign top-drawer players who are still eligible for the Champions League.
Crucially for Chelsea, Abramovich is making funds available to Avram Grant that were not offered to the out-of-favour Jose Mourinho last summer. Further reinforcements will make Chelsea an even more attractive prospect when the Champions League knockout stages begin next month.
Few of Europe’s big guns are likely to spend heavily over the next fortnight. Barcelona may sign a reserve goalkeeper (Sander Westerveld, anyone?) and Internazionale are looking for midfield cover following injuries to the likes of Patrick Vieira and Luis Figo. But the simple truth is that there are very few available players out there who would reinforce their squads.
I’m sticking to my prediction that Chelsea will reach the Champions League in May. Not because of their current form, but simply because there is a depressing inevitability about the Abramovich-funded bandwagon. The structure of the Champions League supports the richest clubs, not the best teams. What price Anelka, “the incredible sulk”, repaying his hefty fee with a goal in Moscow?
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CLIMATE CHANGE
07/01/08
The African Nations Cup is 12 days away and the usual arguments between clubs and countries have started, the most high-profile dispute being between Everton and South Africa over the availability of Steven Pienaar.
I tend to agree with the age-old argument that European clubs who sign African players know exactly what they are getting and should have no complaints when their best players disappear for the best part of six weeks in the middle of the European season.
However, the debate is becoming more complex, not least because of the growing financial power of Europe’s leading clubs. The players and their national federations may be well within their rights to demand to play in the Nations Cup, but the clubs sense that they their financial muscle is increasing and they can use it to force through a solution.
Inevitably, there is going to have to be compromise, with future tournament dates being switched to accommodate the European leagues. That means playing over the Christmas/new year period, rather than late January and February or, more drastically, during the summer. As the primary argument against playing the Nations Cup in the summer months has been meteorological - you try playing in the rainy season in temperatures of 40-plus celsius - early January looks to be the best bet for future tournaments.
That, however, will not satisfy the English Premier League clubs, who would still favour a switch to the summer, something that would only be possible if the hosts were in the (relatively) cooler North or South of the continent. Angola are due to host the finals in 2010, but can hardly be expected to do so in the summer months of 2010, just as South Africa stages the World Cup.
A more likely scenario is a switch to odd years, thus avoiding a clash with the World Cup finals and Euro championships. But the problem of climate conditions will rear its head again in the next finals, which Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are due to host in 2012.
There’s no easy solution to a genuine problem, but we could all use a little less arrogance on the part of the rich European clubs.
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