Finals Ain't What They Used To Be

So, tomorrow will see Liverpool and Chelsea facing off against each other in the 131^st FA Cup Final – the premier showpiece occasion at the end of the English football season. Or rather, not. You see, The FA Cup Final ain’t what it used to be. Let me take you back....

The time was when the FA Cup Final was the only club match that you could be guaranteed of seeing live on TV. You might also get to see the finals of the European Cup or UEFA Cup if a British team were involved, but that was about it. Even England international games weren’t shown live as a matter of course, as was gloriously illustrated in the famous episode of “Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads”, where they spent the whole day trying to avoid an England result before they watch the highlights in the evening. So the fact that a game was being shown live was an occasion of itself.

Cup Final day was one of the most exciting days of the year in a young boy’s life. It was just about the only Saturday of the year when you would willingly get out of bed early. The TV would go on at about 9:00 a.m., and there you would sit for the next 9 hours. First off would be such treats as “Cup Final It’s A Knockout”, “Cup Final A Question of Sport”, “Cup Final Mastermind” or ...well, you get the idea. There would be regular reports from the two hotels where the teams were staying, and about  late morning Frank Bough or Dickie Davies (depending on whether you were watching BBC or ITV) would interview a couple of the players and the managers. This was mind-blowing stuff back then. Further interviews at Wembley with the likes of Tarby or Brucie or some other 70’s comedian would follow.

Early afternoon and we would have the joy of watching live as the two team coaches left their respective hotels on their way to Wembley. More discussion with the likes of Saint & Greavsie, Bob Wilson, Jack Charlton, etc would precede the arrival of the teams at the stadium amidst much talk of “going down Wembley Way” or “remember the White Horse Final” or “the Matthews Final”.  Then Tony Gubba or Tony Francis would buttonhole the players as they took a look at the Cup Final playing surface. Excitement on the sofa was pretty much at fever pitch by this point. The living room would be steadily increasing its population as kick-off time now approached. And then the moment would arrive – the Cup Final itself. What a way to end the season, and to bid farewell to all things football for another three months. Those matches are seared onto my mind, as they are to every football fan who lived through that time. True spectacle, and a real feel of occasion permeated the whole day. The FA Cup truly was the greatest cup competition in the world, and the final was the biggest day in the football calendar.

But now? Well, now the Cup Final isn’t even the last match of the season. The Premier League carries on for another week afterwards and there are even league matches being played on the same day as the final. The match has now been elbowed to a tea-time kick-off with the TV coverage starting a mere two hours before kick-off. The teams competing during the season have often fielded weakened teams for their FA cup matches as the priority now is very much the Premiership or the Champions League. There is even a possibility that Chelsea won’t be putting out their very strongest team tomorrow as they rest players ahead of their Champions League Final appearance in a couple of weeks time.

The Final is now just one of dozens (if not hundreds) of matches shown live each season and fans are wearily familiar with every team and every player. The competition no longer holds the place in the football season that it used to – both literally and figuratively. The world has moved on I guess, but progress doesn’t always mean improvement.

And the Rollercoaster Moves On Again

I should probably be talking today about the Champions League semi-finals, or the spat between Guardiola and Mourinho, or the Snooker World Championships nearing their end, or whatever. But, to me this last week has meant only one sporting story - the relegation of Swindon Town to the fourth tier of English football.

Just 11 short months ago, Swindon were facing Millwall in the final of the League One play-offs to determine who would claim the final promotion place to the (ridiculously named) Championship. I don't think anybody who was watching that day would have thought that we would be looking at relegation down to the basement of league football less than a year later.

There are a number of reasons why this has come about, all of which I know every Town fan is sick of hearing. Sold a number of the best players, never properly replaced, board dithered over changing manager, poor tactics, ..... I could go on for hours. The fact is we are where we are because the players that were put out onto the pitch did not perform to the expected level. A lot of them are now out of contract and a big rebuilding job is clearly needed. The current stop-gap manager, Paul Hart, is not in my opinion the man to carry out that rebuilding process. His reign has seen little change from that which went before at a time when a big change in attitude, if nothing else, was needed. Very negative tactics and some bizarre substitutions, together with an extremely haughty manner when dealing with the media (and through them the fans) has destroyed any semblance of credibility he had with the Town faithful. The team are not inspired and the fans are merely agitated. A change is needed.

And a change did come today - the resignation of chairman Andrew Fitton. He is the man who, three years ago, led a consortium that saved the club from the brink of bankruptcy and liquidation and I will be forever grateful to him for that. But, whilst the club is now immeasurably better off away from the pitch, the same can obviously not be said for the playing side. Some poor decisions on managerial appointments, and a busy work schedule that took him away from the County Ground on a very regular basis, have contributed to the failure of the team this season. I feel that a change will be welcomed by most supporters, and I hope that new chairman Jeremy Wray's first decision will be to point Mr Hart in the direction of the exit and look to bring in a new, enthusiastic and inspirational manager to revive the team and get us moving back up the league.

Things are never boring at the County Ground. The rollercoaster moves on again.

It's More Important Than That

One of my favourite sporting quotations is one attributed to the famous old manager of Liverpool, Bill Shankly. He said, or is alleged to have said that "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Bill Shankly

It is a great line and succinctly sums up the feeling that a lot of sports fans have for their chosen game. But then, sometimes, real matters of life and death impinge on sport and you realize all over again that at the end of the day, sport is a leisure activity, a piece of entertainment, a release from the daily grind but that is all. Two events over the last week have reminded me of that very fact.

Firstly, last Friday was the 22nd anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, where 96 people lost their lives whilst attending the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. I can still vividly remember that day. I was at the County Ground, watching Swindon take on Watford in a Division 2 game. I switched on my radio at half-time to see how the other games were going, only to hear that there had been “some disturbance” at the semi-final, and that a number of fans were injured and they believed that there was a possibility that 1 or maybe 2 people had even been killed. Obviously, that information just got worse and worse as the afternoon and evening wore on. It struck me to the core that these were fellow football fans, doing the exact same thing as I was on a Saturday afternoon, and they had lost their lives because of it. It was a seminal moment in English football, and years later resulted in the enforcement that every major football ground in the country should be an all-seater stadium. The ultimate sacrifice of The 96 will never be forgotten.

The other episode that brought the importance or otherwise of sport into proper focus was reported on the news bulletins last night. Neil Lennon, manager of Celtic, and 2 – possibly now 3 – other renowned Celtic supporters have apparently been sent parcel bombs in the post. Somebody has seemingly seen fit to try to take the lives of these people because of their football affiliations. I know that there is also a religious element to the rivalry between the 2 Glasgow clubs, but ultimately we are talking about sport here. People are dying all over the world because of real problems and real issues; let us not start killing each other because some are wearing a different replica top. Strikes me that some people need to grow up, open their eyes and see the world for how it really is.

Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death – it isn’t, and it never should be.

Don't Bet on This GG!

As always it has been a busy and eventful week in the world of sport. This weekend saw the start of the cricket World Cup, taking place in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The opening game took place on Saturday in Bangladesh where the hosts were beaten convincingly by India. Predictable wins followed on Sunday for New Zealand and Sri Lanka against Kenya and Canada respectively.

In all there will be a total of 49 one-day games played over the next 6 weeks, with the final being played in Mumbai on April 2nd. England have yet to win a World Cup, despite hosting 4 of the 9 tournaments so far. Even though they performed heroics in the recent Ashes Test series in Australia, it looks like that wait for the trophy may have some way to go yet. The following One Day International series against the Aussies was far less successful, and although the team has certainly improved over the last few years, this tournament may have come a little too early for them. India look to be the favourites this time around.

In the world of football, this last week has also been mainly about cup action. The 5th round of the FA Cup, or some of it at least, took place over the weekend with Leyton Orient grabbing a draw against the mighty Arsenal to force a replay. Other notable results were the narrow 1-0 defeat of non-league Crawley Town by world superpower Man Utd, and the deposing of the cup-winners of the last 2 seasons, Chelsea, by Everton in a penalty shoot-out – although I should point out that that game was actually a 4th round replay.

The real fireworks though occurred in the Champions League, which returned from its winter hiatus last week. Sadly those fireworks had little to do with the actual football though. AC Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso seemed to lose the plot and bizarrely lashed out at renowned former hard-man Joe Jordan, now assistant boss at Spurs. Anybody who chooses to headbutt Joe Jordan may need to re-examine their thought processes – there is a reason why he has 2 front teeth missing!

What would have been really interesting is if everybody else there had just taken a step back and let Gattuso and Jordan go at it. Gattuso may be a sportsman still playing at the peak of the game, and Jordan may be 59 years old, but I know which one my money would be on!

What A Weekend!

Well, that was quite a weekend for top sporting action. The big event was Super Bowl XLV and the game certainly lived up to the hype - so much so, in fact, that I stayed up to gone 3:00 a.m. to see the climax of the whole thing.

The Vince Lombardi Trophy, Uploaded on flickr.com by user "pkeleher" [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Congratulations must go to the Green Bay Packers for a tremendous 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. But, as with most sports, the result doesn’t even begin to tell the story of the match, which ebbed and flowed throughout. The Packers led 21-3 at one stage early in the game, but a tremendous comeback from the Steelers got them to within 3 points of their opponents, and with the momentum on their side the Championship was definitely there for the taking. But, the Packers regrouped and found the determination to score again and deny the Steelers a third Super Bowl victory in six years. For me, it was an excellent contest and the destination of the Lombardi Trophy was up for grabs right until the dying seconds. Sport at its best.

Elsewhere, the Premiership did their best to try to outshine the showpiece occasion on the other side of the pond. A breathtaking weekend of action, with some amazing scorelines, produced the greatest total of goals on one day – 41 from the 8 games played on Saturday. A stunning comeback by Newcastle Utd saw them recover from 0-4 down after 26 minutes to grab an unlikely 4-4 draw in the last few minutes. That is the first time a team has recovered from a 4 goal deficit in the history of the Premiership. And that was by no means the only sensation of the day, with previously unbeaten Manchester Utd succumbing to bottom of the table Wolves and slipping to a 2-1 defeat.

There were also 8 goals at Everton, in a game that swung one way and then the other, and back again. 7 goals at Wigan, 5 at Stoke and 4 at Aston Villa all managed to push up that record total. The expected titanic clash of Chelsea and Liverpool on Sunday was very mild in comparison and Fernando Torres was kept extremely quiet by his ex-teammates before being substituted in the second half. A 1-0 victory for the visiting side has now realistically ended any hopes that Chelsea may have had of winning the title this year. In fact, they may well be looking over their shoulders at Tottenham and Liverpool themselves in the battle for a Champions League place.

As I mentioned on Saturday, this weekend was also the start of the Six Nations and there were victories for England, Ireland and France. Those latter two teams will meet each other at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin on this coming Saturday, whilst England will play Italy, and Scotland will host Wales.

All in all, it was a very eventful and exciting sporting weekend. May there be many more like it ahead of us.

An Oval Ball Weekend

It is another landmark weekend in the sporting calendar, as the Six Nations kicks off on this side of the Atlantic and the Super Bowl takes place tomorrow on the other.

The first match of the Six Nations took place last night and saw England win at the Millennium Stadium for the first time since 2003. The 26-19 victory gave the favourites the start they needed in this year’s tournament, but was a major setback for their hosts. Wales have now gone 8 games without a win and will face a trip up to Scotland next week in a game they have to be looking to win to prevent their season from spiralling out of control already. Elsewhere this weekend, Ireland travel to Italy and France will be looking to start their campaign with a victory over the Scots. I don’t pretend to be a rugby union expert, but if recent past seasons are anything of a guide then expect a French or English victory lap come March 19th.

The major sporting occasion of the weekend is, of course, Super Bowl XLV taking place in Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas. Now, I know even less about the NFL than I do of rugby matters, but I will be sitting down tomorrow evening to watch the Green Bay Packers take on Pittsburgh Steelers – or the start of it at least. Due to the time difference the game is likely to go on to something like 4:00 a.m. on Monday morning, so I may have to bail out at half-time – or rather after watching the half-time show by the Black Eyed Peas. Even as a non-follower of the sport, the Super Bowl is still clearly a great occasion and a wonderful spectacle. I know that the English FA, not to mention UEFA and FIFA, could learn a thing or two about putting on a show from the NFL.

Back in the domain of the round ball the main interest may be the contest between Chelsea and Liverpool in the EPL – not, for once, because of any realistic title challenges but because the fixture computer has thrown up this match in the very same week that Fernando Torres moves from Merseyside to the Blues. I suspect things may get a little tasty at the Bridge tomorrow!

All of this, of course, pales in comparison to events down at the County Ground, Swindon where the Town are taking on Rochdale as I write these notes. Firmly ensconced in the bottom 4 at the start of the day, Swindon will be hoping to get something out of this game in an effort to revitalize what has been a very disappointing season to date. Elliot Benyon is making his Swindon debut after his deadline day signing from Torquay United, and goals are most certainly needed at the CG. Come on You Reds!

Whatever sport you follow, I hope you have a winning weekend!

Deadline Day Drama

The January transfer window slammed shut last night and, in a mad last-minute scramble, several hundred millions of pounds changed hands as players flitted across the country and continent to find homes in pastures new. Whilst it was exciting to watch, is it actually good for the game?

This year saw a lot more business conducted compared to the previous January window, and apparently also saw some clubs completely lose any sense of reality. Huge sums of money were paid for players either without any real pedigree, or who are currently playing way below their best form. The English Premiership alone splashed out over £200million, including £50million for Fernando Torres and £35million for Andy Carroll. That’s the same Andy Carroll who has yet to complete a full Premiership season and who has played just once for England – in a friendly. Yes he may have great potential, but £35million is an awful lot of dosh to dole out in the hope that one day he will become the next Alan Shearer.

The current economic climate doesn’t appear to have filtered through to some football club chairmen, or should I say owners. Since the arrival of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea the gap between the EPL and the rest of English football, and even to some extent the rest of European football, has grown increasingly wide. And, a gap has also developed within the Premiership itself with just a handful of clubs in with any kind of shout of making it into Europe, and in reality just 4 teams with a realistic chance of taking the title. Can it really be good for the wider game to have so much power residing in the hands of so few clubs? And will the money men hang around forever? Only one club can be Premiership champions in a season – everyone else are losers. For how long will the owners put up with pouring millions of pounds into those clubs without any real silverware in return?

The economic bubble burst in 2008 with devastating worldwide effect. I can only hope that the football bubble doesn’t follow the same path. I have my fears.