One Shot For Profit

There is little more discouraging than those terrible, awful people who seek to make money from football. There are many examples of these villains in the modern game; not least those foreign investors who buy clubs and run them into the ground for personal profit, or the agents who act as malicious middle men providing minimal service at maximal profit, or even those who run the game these days, treating it less as a sport and more as a business, sacrificing the games’ integrity to further fill their pockets.

Of course such acts of greed are commonplace in today’s materialistic society. But these footballing crimes are worst because they take advantage of the sheer obsession of football fans. We are the life and blood of the game, and without us it could not function, nevermind make them money. And they rely on that, safe in the knowledge that we cannot pull away, that we are an easy source of income, that they can rip us off again and again and we cannot, no matter how hard we try, sever our ties with out club, our game.

Below even these executive types of modern football though, are the touts. The ticket scalpers. They buy up tickets for the big games and flog them at an enormous profit, depriving real fans the chance of seeing the game that means so much to them, or at least making them pay far over the odds to do so. It sickens me because these are people like us, fellow fans who are content to take advantage of their peers for their own personal profit. And at present, there are hundreds of them in New Zealand, denying me the chance to see New Zealand’s World Cup Qualifier against Bahrain.

WDKF Wednesday: Playing Away – A FIFA Conspiracy?

I woke up early this morning to attempt to buy a couple of tickets for the All White’s playoff match against Bahrain in November, but the 500 temporary seating tickets that went on sale today somehow disappeared in the 3 seconds after clicking “Buy Now” at precisely 9am that it took the next page to load. That seems implausible to me, but I know next to nothing about the workings of Ticketek, and so I move on.

The distinctive smell of conspiracy and controversy is far more pungent around FIFA’s strange decision to alter the usual enforcement of the away goals rule for the same fixture, which means that away goals will continue to decide the tie after extra time – giving the away side Bahrain an extra 30 minutes to score a crucial away goal. What could have driven such a strange and apparently obviously unfair rule change? Why, FIFA’s never-ending greed of course!

Click through for the full conspiracy theory at WDKF.co.uk…

Beckham’s on his way to Milan… and the World Cup.

Beckham flourished during his last stint in Milan, will he do so again?

So AC Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani has assured the world that the loan deal to take David Beckham back to the red half of the San Siro in January is “100% done” and “The only thing missing is the signatures” which simultaneously confirms that he’s lying (let’s face it, unless it’s signed and sealed, it isn’t 100% done) and that David Beckham will almost certainly be part of England’s World Cup squad in South Africa next year.

He’s proven popular as a squad member during Fabio Capello’s time in charge of the three lions but because of the Italian’s reluctance to take a player plying his trade in the sub-European standard MLS to a World Cup there was still a chance that Beckham could miss out. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that a move to Milan was the only way that Beckham could give himself a really good chance of being included – a much talked about Premier League return could actually have harmed his chances.

WDKF Wednesday: Who’s on your proverbial plane?

Today we briefly divulge ourselves of the dramas of domestic and European club football and return to the international arena as I complete selections as to who I would be taking to South Africa if I were in Fabio Capello’s shoes at this point in time. Last week I selected the goalkeepers and defenders who I think would best serve England come next summer, and today I complete the squad.

Major questions that plague Capello with the selection of his midfielders and forwards are who to deploy on the right wing, whether or not old heads like David Beckham and Michael Owen should be included in the squad and how best to partner Wayne Rooney, especially with his favoured option spending plenty of time warming the bench. I’ve picked a squad of thirty-two that I think can win the World Cup for England so to find out whether or not you agree with me…

…click through and have a read of my WDKF Wednesday article!

WDKF Thursday: Who’s on your proverbial plane?

Having lost track of the days of the week due to my days being filled with a continual headachey and groggy illness recently, I missed my WDKF Wednesday article this week and so recompense for it with a Thursday post at We Don’t Know Football instead.

It’s the first of a two-parter (the second will be next Wednesday) which, in light of the conclusion of the European World Cup qualifying phases, looks at the decisions that face Fabio Capello in his selection of his World Cup squad between now and next June. Goalkeepers and defenders today, midfielders and strikers next week.

Click on through to have a read…

Ronaldo & Messi: Are you coming?

Will they be in South Africa next year? Are we bothered?

With Portugal and Argentina both faltering in their attempts to qualify for next year’s World Cup, there has been much discussion about whether or not it would be somehow improper or unworthy to have a World Cup in which the world’s best two players do not take part. This of course assumes that Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the world’s best players which is an argument for another day, but either way, they’re in almost everyone’s top five, and their absence would raise some eyebrows.

However, I take exception to concerns that the World Cup would not really be the World Cup without the likes of Messi and Ronaldo there. While both are great, great players who would undoubtedly bring much to the tournament in terms of excitement and glamour, I don’t see that the World Cup is concerned with individuals. It is a tournament which sets out to determine the best football team in the world after all and so if Messi and Ronaldo aren’t there, I won’t be losing any sleep.

Ukraine 1-0 England: Questions and Answers.

Rio certainly wasn't a picture of confidence on Saturday.

However much I had hoped to see England reach South Africa with a 100% record in qualifying, I must admit I’m not too disappointed about the defeat in Ukraine. Indeed, the performance of England’s 10 lions against the 11 Ukrainians fighting tooth and nail for a place at the World Cup was, in the second half especially, quite encouraging. For much of the game they still looked the better side, and against Ukraine, who themselves reached the quarter finals of the last World Cup, that’s no bad thing.

What is worrying though, is the way in which the defeat came about. While much of the pre-match talk concerned England’s ‘problem positions’ (goalkeeper, right-back, right-midfield) it was two of our supposed strong points that let us down, namely Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole. What’s worse, is that it’s not the first time that each of these players has made a costly mistake in a high profile match. So what does that say for England’s summer prospects?

Put your best foot forward, Fabio.

Will Fabio stick with his big guns now that the heat is off?

Fabio Capello finds himself in an unusual position for an England manager: having engineered a flawless qualifying campaign so far, he now has two competitive matches which will have no bearing on our chances of qualification at all. We’re in South Africa as group winners, and nothing can change that. Being in this position so prematurely is a rare feeling for us England fans, because England being England, we usually like to do things the hard way.

It’s a lovely position to be in then, but it does leave Capello with something of a dilemma. With matches against Ukraine and Belarus coming up this week, Capello has the perfect opportunity to complete a 100% qualifying record and send us into the World Cup in imperious form. Or he has a perfect opportunity to experiment a bit with some of his players with a view to establishing precisely what he believes his best side to be.

Sin-Binning in South Africa? No thanks.

Should divers like Didier be sin-binned?

After UEFA’s spectacular cock-up regarding the whole Eduardo diving affair recently, it looks like FIFA’s vice-prez Jack Warner wants in on the action. Warner suggested today that referees need to toughen up on players who dive or overact on the pitch and that in next year’s World Cup in South Africa, those judged to be attempting to con the referee could be sin-binned for five minutes.

Now don’t get me wrong, as I said when UEFA foolishly revoked Eduardo’s ban, I am well and truly in favour of the sport’s governing body taking a hard line on diving which is, as far as I’m concerned, the biggest blight on modern football. However, it seems blatantly obvious to me that sin-binning simply is not the way to go, and introducing it straight into the World Cup would be a huge mistake. FIFA need to act yes, but they need to think it through first.

WDKF Wednesday: Football Fever – Bahrain vs. NZ

This week’s WDKF Wednesday column sees me looking forward to New Zealand’s World Cup Qualifying tie with Bahrain in Manama, due to kick-off at 4.30 am NZT on Sunday morning. The World Cup is such a massive sporting event that qualification would have an enormous impact on either of these countries. Living in NZ as I do, I desperately hope that NZ can overcome their more fancied opponents and really put football on the map here.

To find out why qualification would be such a big achievement and have such effects on New Zealand, as well as to see whether or not I think they can qualify, click through and read my WDKF Wednesday article…