Even He Neuer It Was In

As regular readers will know, I have been banging on about the introduction of video technology on this site for the last twelve months and there have been no shortage of examples during that time to make any normal person shake their head in disbelief that the most influential person in the game, Sepp Blatter, simply refuses point blank to even consider the suggestion.

Watching the England game yesterday was embarrassing and disappointing – we played badly, we were well beaten and Germany thoroughly deserve their place in the quarter-finals.

However, none of this should be allowed to detract from the fact that England were denied a clear goal which would have been picked up within half a second if Hawkeye technology was used and within ten seconds if simple video technology was used.

The debate as to whether this goal would have changed the dynamics of the game and the overall result is completely irrelevant to this argument but I’m sure we can all at least agree that scoring goals is the whole point of football and when mistakes are being made regarding this most basic, but most crucial, part of the game then the powers-that-be should be doing everything in their power to eliminate them.

Sepp Blatter has yet to comment on this latest farcical moment but he was in the crowd watching the match yesterday and he would have seen the replay on the big screen for himself. I would love to know what was going through his mind as he watched that.

Millions of people around the world had just seen a moment of sporting injustice within seconds of it happening and the fact that it was allowed to stand, despite all those people immediately knowing that it was wrong, just makes an embarrassment of the game and as this is the World Cup – the most glamorous and famous event in football – just makes it all the worse.

This embarrassment and injustice is not the fault of the referee and his assistant and I hope that he does not try to deflect it onto them. The cause of it all is down to one very powerful but very stupid man who can’t see the error of his antiquated ways even when they are shown to him on a fifty foot high screen.

I look forward to his response to this incident with great interest.

St George Defeating Germans... or Something

At 3pm this afternoon, I will be sat in front of my telly with my St George flying high as our boys take on Germany in the World Cup.

I must admit, I am not feeling quite as bullish as I was before the Slovenia game but I am quietly confident that we are going to win this game.

There will be no danger of the England team not being “up” for this one and an England team playing with pride and passion is a match for anyone in the World.

It is going to take more than pride and passion though and we are going to have to show a lot more in front of goal than we have shown so far. Rooney, in particular, needs to find his scoring boots.

Still, cometh the hour, cometh the man and the stage is set for Rooney to show the World just what he is all about. I think he will score this afternoon.

That’s all I have to say for now. I’ll leave the rest of this post to my mate Bill.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

NOT Coming to United

Michael Ballack has rejoined Bayer Leverkusen on a two year contract.

What has this got to do with Manchester United? Well, as he was released by Chelsea and as we are now apparently in the market for any players going on a free, it was suggested that we would be interested in bringing him to Manchester United by some mischievous little hacks.

Something I wasn’t happy about and said as much in a recent article.

The Joe Cole rumour, unlike Michael Ballack, had some legs, he’s a decent player with a good few years ahead of him but the Ballack story was a non-starter as far as I’m concerned.

Come And Get It Slovenia

Apologies for the lack of posts recently but there has been very little in the way of news on the Manchester United front and the World Cup hasn’t exactly been something to get excited about so far – especially for an Englishman.

We English are used to seeing our boys hyped up before these tournaments to the point that anything less than winning the thing would be seen as abject failure. The fans themselves are a bit more realistic. We know that we have a very good bunch of players but “forty years of hurt” has tempered our willingness to get swallowed up by the hype to such a degree.

What we want to see is our boys playing with pride and passion and for every player to give it everything. If we get that then it is usually more than enough to take care of most teams out there.

What we have seen so far as been nothing short of embarrassing. The draw with Algeria last week was probably one of the lowest moments in England’s World Cup history. Take nothing away from Algeria, they played well, they were organised and deserved their point.

England just looked devoid of passion, to a man they underperformed and those Three Lions on the shirt seemed to mean nothing to them.

However, I expect different today. The lions have been sleeping so far but they are going to come out of their slumber today. Hungry and angry, they will tear Slovenia to pieces.

Wear your England shirts with pride today because the boys are going to do us justice.

Mark my words.

Come on England!

Today I sat myself down and watched the England-Algeria game. This was a first for me, since I have not really had the time to watch a game in its entirety till now, usually flicking in and out and catching the last 20 minutes when not traveling.

The game today was abysmal from an English viewpoint, but ended quite well for the Algerians (they have given themselves a chance to progress). England by now should have been the first to qualify for the round of 16. The U.S. has a competitive edge (physical fitness) that most teams cannot boast. Throughout this world cup I’ve noticed a real drop in players energy levels towards the last 10 minutes of the game, and this is where the U.S. can capitalize. England, though, on paper look like they will be in the round of 16. However, I don’t see much progress beyond that.

Why does England perform so poorly, esp when flooded with a bunch of premier league superstars? I’ve boiled it down to three points:
1. No footballing exports from England to continental Europe. This is the main problem. The current team is loaded with players from Man Utd, ChelC and Liverpool. I find it hard to understand how bitter opponents for the last 9 months are meant to come together for a possible 7 games. Esp with the kind of end of season we just had. These guys have egos way over the majorities head. Overseas based players can help mitigate this bitterness and ego problem. Additionally exported players help provide diversity in their understanding of differing footballing customs. This is vital in terms of footballing knowledge. I hope this makes sense to you.
2. Two out of the three goalkeepers were busy fighting relegation all season. Relegation comes with conceding far higher share of goals. How I wonder can your top goalkeeper can be those that have become familiar with conceding goals rather than keeping clean sheets. This just makes no sense. Are the decision makers in the England camp really that bad in their judgements? The highest placed premier league team with an English starting keeper is Birmingham who conceeded 47 goals this past season, while both West Ham and Portsmouth conceeded 66. How the England team still refuses to go with Hart is a mystery. Further, the strongest league in the world does not have an English starting keeper amongst its top 8 teams.
3. There is no system! Who is the pointman? Rooney, Gerard, Lampard???? This team has had an awful long time to be built around certain players. Watching this World Cup and seeing Rooney playing almost in your own third (defending) should be an embarrassment to all the players. The lead striker playing everywhere but upfront. Are the players tired after a gruelling season? I highly doubt so. What I see is a complete lack of will on the part of management and players. Probably making difficult decisions is not part of this England management team’s responsibility. Plenty of people want to see Joe Cole. My problem with that is that out of the starting 11, 8 would be from Man Utd, ChelC or Liverpool. And this again points to a clash of egos and bitterness.

Hi all,

This commences the first post for me on The Red Devil blog. Some thoughts on the new schedule follow, but first factors which will play lead roles in who from the big 4 will claim the crown come May 2011. My account of the big four this coming season is Utd, ChelC, Man CT, and Arsenal.

Leading factors

1. The weather – how many games shall be postponed and cramped much closer to crunch time

2. Performance of the medical department – Utd’s medical dept was absolutely out of wack last season as was Arsenal’s

3. Performance and run in domestic cups

4. Sky Sports – how many games will be rescheduled for early kick-offs following CL games

5. Adaptation to the new 25-man squad rule

6. Performances and run in CL – looking for a very strong Utd performance this season. Man CT will be competing in Europa so their analysis is related to such

7. 12th man – Utd fans have to make a choice at some stage as the protests will at some point begin to impact  player performance

2010-2011 season should see relatively weaker performances from Liverpool and Tottenham, and stronger performances from Everton, Blackburn, Sunderland, Fulham, Birmingham City and Villa.

In regards to the upcoming season:

ChelC seem to have the easiest start. Their first 10 games sees them face Man CT, Arsenal, Villa and Rovers from the main 12 teams in the premier league. Man Utd in their first 10 face Fulham, Everton, Liverpool, Sunderland and Tottenham. Arsenal shall face-off Liverpool, Rovers, Sunderland, ChelC, Birmingham City and Man CT. In turn Man CT will have to contend with Tottenham, Liverpool, Sunderland, Rovers (this is their first 4 games…wow!), ChelC and Arsenal.

The last 10 games AGAIN sees ChelC have the easier ending. From the main 12, they face Man CT, Tottenham, Man Utd and Everton. United in turn have Liverpool, Fulham, Everton, Arsenal, Chelsea and Rovers (4 of their last 5 games are going to be critical). Arsenal face Sunderland, Rovers, Liverpool, Utd, Villa and Fulham. Man CT shall be prviledged with ChelC, Sunderland, Liverpool, Tottenham, Rovers and Everton.

This almost looks like the season organizers have basically afforded ChelC the crown on a silver plate. However, stronger opposition towards the end of the season can be quite desirable especially if a strong run is made in the champions league.

Who Would Have Foreseen This Twenty Years Ago?

Far away from Manchester, Florida, PIKs and Debts, all eyes will be on South Africa tomorrow and I, for one, will be glad for that.

Yes, the World Cup is now just one day from kick-off.

First up is the match between hosts South Africa and Mexico. I’ll be watching as much of this one as possible and hoping to see our own Chicharito doing the business on the big stage.

Later tomorrow, is Uruguay against France and our own Patrice Evra has been named as Captain (reportedly causing some annoyance for William “Permasulk” Gallas). United fans will know that if there’s one player in the French team who deserves that armband, it is Evra.

A genuine player who gives 100% in every game, a role model on and off the pitch and, as far as I am aware, has never deliberately handled the ball in the penalty area in order to qualify for the World Cup.

All this is just for starters. The day after we have, of course, England against the USA but I intend to cover that one in a bit more depth tomorrow.

It promises to be a great tournament. I can hardly wait.

The First and Last Time Gerrard Will Feature On This Site

Whenever the England team plays, it is always a strange sensation for football fans.

As Manchester United fans in the modern era, we find ourselves hoping that Ashley Cole keeps that right side of the opponents attack in his pocket and that the likes of Stevie Gee and Fat Frank can snuff out everything in the middle of the park whilst banging in a goal or two in the process.

If our own Wayne Rooney can prove to be the match-winner, then that is merely a bonus.

With the Captains Armband coming with more of a curse than a honour down the years, all eyes now rest on Steven Gerrard.

He has seen off both John Terry and Rio Ferdinand to become the Captain when he was surely an afterthought when Capello announced the default hierarchy.

I know some Manchester United fans are now turned off the idea of England lifting the World Cup because it would mean decades of headlines showing Stevie Gee getting the “glory shots”.

Consider how many times you have seen “that” image of Bobby Moore lifting the cup and replace that with Stevie Gee. Yes, it’s sickening.

Personally, I think Capello should come straight at this point and tell Stevie that he didn’t think it would come to this and that Wayne Rooney far better represents the fighting, biting, snarling British Bulldog that he wants to lead his side and name his Captain accordingly but it doesn’t look likely.

However.

For all his misdemeanors OFF the field, my most vivid memory ON the field is that Champions League Final Liverpool played against AC Milan in 2005.

It is quite unbelievable that that match was played over five years ago but there you go.

Rafa Benitez gained an awful lot of mileage from that campaign but I watched that match and Liverpool’s win was nothing to do with Rafa’s “tactical genius”.

For almost the entire tournament, Liverpool looked second best to their opponents and maybe Rafa did have something to do with the fact that they always won through but whatever his tactics were in the final, they didn’t work.

Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time and dead and buried.

It was not “tactical genius” that got them back into that match, it was a couple of lads from Liverpool who, having arrived at the biggest stage in European Football did not like the fact that the team they loved were being humiliated, that history would show that they were thumped possibly 5-0 in the Champions League Final.

Those two lads were Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. As Scouse as they come.

Forget the rivalry, it was the kind of Roy of the Rovers stuff every team in the world would like to see from the home-grown talent.

What we want to see now is the same kind of stuff from Gerrard in an England shirt… something that has been sorely lacking so far.

Can the Captain’s armband inspire him to the heights we know he can achieve?

When the chips are down, will we see him roll up his sleeves for England in the same way that he rolled them up for Liverpool on that night five years ago?

For the next month or so, Club loyalties go out of the window. I want to see England lift the World Cup.

It might be unlikely but so was a Liverpool victory when 3-0 down at half-time to a classy AC Milan five years ago.

Gerrard will be as frustrated as anyone at Liverpool’s poor showing last season. Over the next five weeks or so he has the chance to put that behind him in the most memorable way possible.

Gerrard will NEVER win the Premier League but he now has the chance to Captain England to glory on the biggest stage in the World.

I, for one, will be looking for a bit of that Spirit of 2005 from the man chosen to best represent us.

Don’t let us down, Stevie.

Michael Carrick

Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney were always certs for the World Cup but the third Manchester United representative, Michael Carrick, was something of an unknown.

He has hardly had a stellar season for Manchester United and his appearances towards the end of the season seemed to become less and less frequent.

He didn’t exactly seem to do his case for a place any favours when Capello picked him against Mexico the other week by giving the ball away on several occasions.

He does seem to be a bit of a borderline selection and if Barry is fit then I expect him, Lampard and Gerrard will be ahead of him in the pecking order so whether he will get to play in any of the games whilst out in South Africa remains to be seen.

However, for a player who seems to have lost a bit of confidence this season, being picked for the World Cup squad can only do him good.

As some will know, I have been running The Red Devil for several years now but something happened a couple of years ago which very nearly brought it to an abrupt and senseless end.

Let me just ask you one question here… if you ran a website and you said that Liverpool were playing Arsenal this weekend and Everton were playing West Ham, do you think you would be breaking any laws?

It’s “common knowledge” right? You and your mates probably talk about these things in the pub or when you’re at work.

Anyone with an interest in football will at least know the next few fixtures of their own team. If you run a website dedicated to a particular team, it is difficult to do so without referring to the last match and, more specifically, the next match but as you’re talking to people who are also interested in the same team then by putting this information on your site, you’re not exactly telling them something they don’t already know are you?

However, you could well be breaking the law.

You see, the fixture lists are Copyright of the Premier League and the Football League and, in 2001, these bodies set up a company called Football DataCo with the express intention of providing data services for the UK professional football leagues, their member clubs and their various customers. These services would all be centred in the areas of data and particularly digital data content. [Italicised part quoted directly from the Football DataCo website].

However, somewhere along the line, Football DataCo became a little more than an archive of football related data and it became something of a sinister, money-making scam scheme.

Football DataCo Limited vigorously polices and protects the Leagues’ commercial rights, including the Leagues intellectual property rights in the Fixture Lists. On behalf of Football DataCo Limited, NetResult will be regularly monitoring web sites to ensure that the Leagues’ intellectual property rights are not infringed.

This is a quote from the standard email they send out to any website owner who is showing upcoming fixtures on their website.

This is the email I received a couple of years ago.

The legality of this stance has been challenged for several years now but a few weeks ago, a court case decided that the Fixture List is indeed covered by Copyright laws and they have every right to pursue anyone in breach of that copyright.

If you’re a masochist, you can read the court’s judgement here (but don’t come whining to me if you lose five years of your life because reading it sent you into a coma).

Now, unlike say, an artist who would be livid if you copied his/her work wholesale, Football DataCo do not actually mind if you copy their work, in fact, they are eager for you to do so, provided you have the appropriate licence.

The cost of such a licence? Well, it is all very complicated and it depends on exactly how much information you want to include on your site and what type of site you run but at a basic level:-

If you want to show the fixtures for ONE Premier League club, then that is currently £266 plus VAT per season.

If you want to show the fixtures for the entire Premier League then that is £4,244 plus VAT per season.

If you want to show the fixtures for ALL the English and Scottish Leagues it is £12,998 plus VAT per season.

Obviously, this put paid to a lot of Club fansites because initially, Football DataCo were rigid in their stance on the issue – just ONE fixture was a breach of copyright and unless you had the licence, you were breaking the law.

Perhaps the most famous case of the impact this can have on football fans who simply want to share their views of their favourite football club is this one. I strongly urge you to read that page in order to see for yourself how ridiculous the situation was/is. You can almost feel the anguish and utter disbelief coming from the website owner.

This is basically the same situation I found myself in with Football DataCo and it required several emails from me to their contact person before they finally agreed that I could show a maximum of ONE upcoming fixture which does at least demonstrate a relaxation of the rules to a more sensible level but that was a couple of years ago i.e. before the recent court case which gave them the legal right to perhaps go again after every website out there similar to this one.

Whilst I was browsing the Football DataCo site researching this article, I noticed a few areas that I did not see before which relate to betting companies (bookmakers) and their use of the fixture lists.

Copyrighting the fixture lists obviously made things difficult for bookmakers because in order to allow you to bet on a particular football match, they have to let you know which football matches are being played and when i.e. they have to reproduce the fixture list. Indeed, one of the defendants in the recent court case were betting company Stan James, the rest presumably just paid their licence fee.

I’m sure that they don’t like having to pay £13k per season to show the fixtures but if the law says that Football DataCo are entitled to request this sum then they have to pay it or cease accepting bets on football (probably the largest source of revenue for a betting company).

However, when it comes to extracting payment from betting companies, Football DataCo are particularly “adventurous”.

The costs for betting companies are:-

An upfront fee of £500 plus VAT.

It then mentions “three further payments during the season” but does not say how much these are for. And here’s why…

They are demanding that the bookmakers give them a “royalty” payment in the form of a percentage of between 5% and 9% of the bookies income from football bets (the percentage depends on the type of bet).

They refer to it as the “Operator Income” and their definition is:-

“Operator Income means the income receivable by the Licensee in respect of a Football Bet and calculated on the basis of ‘Gross Stakes minus Winnings’”

So, again, if I am reading this correctly then they want a percentage of the stake even if it is a winning bet (i.e. a bet where the bookie loses money).

The more I think about this, the more it just stinks, stinks, stinks. They have just about every individual or company with any connection to football by the balls and are exploiting the fact for every penny they can get – seemingly including taking a percentage of their profits. I wouldn’t say that it is like a Mafia protection racket because I’m a nice person but I could understand why some people might be reminded of that kind of unpleasant way of doing business.

Personally, I think that the recent court judgement should be challenged and if not on the Copyright issue then surely there is something to be looked at along the lines of a monopoly going on here and it is clearly not some kind of benign monopoly.

Looking at Wikipedia, the economic explanation of a monopoly is:-

“[A monopoly] exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.”

I think that that just about sums up the situation we’re seeing here and it isn’t pretty.

Personally, I think the judgement that the fixture list is Copyright is based on a pretty flimsy argument. (I am aware that I am not trained in lawyering at all!!!)

As we all know, the Premier League will consist of twenty teams next season. This is known by the very nature of the competition (although Football DataCo might try to copyright that knowledge). Three teams come up into the Premier League and three leave it.

We all know what the teams will be next season.

We all know that all teams have to play each other twice. Once at home and once away.

The person who compiles the fixture list has a pretty sophisticated method of doing it (it is ‘explained’ in the court judgement link above) but there are a few guidelines that he must try to work to as far as possible:-

i) No club shall have 3 consecutive home or away matches (i.e. no HHH or AAA);

ii) In any five consecutive matches no club shall have four home matches or four away matches (e.g. AAHAA) is not permissible;

iii) As far as possible, each club should have played an equal number of home and away matches at all times during the season;

iv) All clubs should have as near as possible an equal number of home and away matches for mid-week matches.

This reduces the permutations quite a bit but I do accept that the person who compiles the fixture lists has a fair bit to do from there and this can involve discussions with, amongst others, the police (if there is a safety concern over two teams in close proximity both playing at home, for example).

However, based on those parameters, I think that I could create a computer program which would churn out every possible permutation of fixtures. All I would need to do then is choose the one it churns out that best fits my needs.

It would be the product of my own effort and I would not have copied it from anyone.

As I would have generated EVERY possible permutation then it would be for the Premier League to prove that they didn’t actually copy MINE but I would never be so petty.

The fact that this is so easy to do makes a bit of a mockery of Football DataCo’s claim that the fixture list is their “intellectual copyright”, I would have thought.

If anyone out there with legal knowledge has any thoughts on this, I would be delighted to hear them.

If my suggestion sounds absurd then it is only because the whole thing is absurd and crazy problems sometimes need crazy solutions and my regular readers will know that I have plenty of crazy to offer so I’m just throwing that bit “out there” and perhaps someone with a bigger brain can transform it into a sensible argument.

And look how long this article is already! Damn and I had sooo much more to say on this subject. I really could go on for hours but I had best leave it there… for now.