>Gillingham cure travel sickness

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PIC: Steve McCaskill

What a difference a few months have made for Gillingham.Back in November, the Priestfield crowd was baying for blood, calling for theresignation of Manager Andy Hessenthaler and Chairman Paul Scally, but after aturnaround in form, the Gills are firmly back in the promotion picture.

A defeat to Kent rivals Dover in the first round of the FA Cup combined with a home defeat to Crewe left the Gillshovering above the relegation zone. The club’s promotion hopes were lookingbleak, while Hessenthaler’s second spell in charge of the club was lookingdoomed.

Gillingham’s misery was compounded by the fact that theyhadn’t won away from home since May 2009, a record that now stretched to 34games across all competitions. The likes of Leeds and Southampton had beendefeated at Priestfield the season before in League One, but the failure toregister a single away victory eventually sealed the Gills’ relegation to thefourth tier of English football. The poor away form had been tolerated to adegree because of the results achieved at home, but now that source of preciouspoints was running dry, such tolerance was decreasing rapidly.

It was with this unwanted away record that Gillinghamtravelled to the Kassam Stadium to face Oxford United, urgently requiring a winto relieve the pressure. The travelling support could be forgiven for possessing little optimismbut somehow, Gillingham recorded a 1-0 victory, their first on the road sincebeating Rochdale 1-0 in the 2008/09 season. The monkey had finally been removedfrom Gillingham’s collective backs.

The joy of finally lifting the away curse acted as acatalyst for a remarkable run of form that has seen Gillingham win eight oftheir last eleven matches which has catapulted the club into the play-offplaces. After the doom and gloom of the autumn, the winter has given reason tobelieve that promotion could be achieved in the spring.

One of the causes of this change in fortune has been thegoalscoring form of Cody McDonald. The striker, who is on loan from NorwichCity, has now scored 14 goals this season including a hat-trick in the 5-1demolition of Stockport. His contribution has gone some way to offsetting theinevitable loss of firepower from the Gillingham frontline when Simeon Jacksonmoved to Norwich in the summer.

Gillingham have also benefited from the return of severalplayers from their extensive injury list and now only long-term absentee SimonKing remains unavailable. The form of youngsters Jack Payne and more recentlyLuke Rooney have also lifted the mood around the club.

After a troubled return to League Two, Gillingham havefinally turned the corner and will hope for a top three finish or a return toWembley, a venue which has been the scene of two celebrations in the lastdecade. While the glory days of the Championship may now be a distant memory,there is now genuine belief that the club will return to where they feel theybelong in League One. 

>Deja Vu?: The Search for Edwin Van der Sar’s replacement

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PIC: AP

Last week, Edwin van der Sar confirmed that he will retirefrom professional football at the end of the current campaign at the age of 40. Speculation thatthe former Dutch international goalkeeper was ready to hang up his gloves hadbeen increasing over the last couple of the season and the announcement seeshim bring an end to an illustrious and trophy laden career that has seen himwin three Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues. Not many players, even goalkeepers, are able to play into the fifth decade of their life and it is testament to the ability and fitnessof the man that he has been able to stay at the top for so long.

However accompanying the sadness that is inevitable whensuch a revered player decides to retire is a sense of déjà vu. Twelve yearsago, Peter Schmeichel left Manchester United for pastures new and the club willhoping that the process of finding a suitable successor for Van der Sar will be less arduous than the one that followed the great Dane’s departure.

A succession of keepers arrived at the club in an attempt tofill the massive void left by his exit. Mark Bosnich, Fabien Barthez, TimHoward and Roy Carroll all tried and ultimately failed to replace Schmeichel ina process that proved not only costly off the pitch but also on it. This wasepitomised most spectacularly by the signing Massimo Taibi from Italian sideAtalanta for a fee of £4.5m. Taibi just lasted four error-strewn gamesincluding a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea and ended with a 3-3 draw atthe hands of Southampton during which he let a tame shot from Matthew LeTissier slip underneath him. Only the signing of Van der Sar himself in the summerof 2005 brought stability to the position and set the foundation for the club’ssuccess in the latter part of the last decade.

Van der Sar’s decision has not come as a massive surpriseand moves had been made to prepare for his eventual retirement. Ben Fosterarrived at Manchester United in 2005 and had been groomed as the long-termsuccessor. He had been touted as the next England goalkeeper, but unfortunatelyfor him and the club, Foster was unable to recreate the form that he had shownin loan spells at Watford and he was sold to Birmingham City in the summer.

Foster had been the most likely of Van der Sar’sunderstudies to inherit his Number 1 jersey with current second choice keeperTomasz Kuszczak considered a rank outsider. Kuszczak joined the club in 2006from West Bromwich Albion and although he has represented Poland ten times, heis unlikely to become first choice at United.

This points to an outside candidate taking the job andalthough the signing of Anders Lindegaard in the Janaury transfer window gave aclue to the plans of Van der Sar, it is still unclear whether the Danish Number1 was signed as a replacement for the Dutchman or as a back up. Peter Schmeichelhimself has said that Lindegaard is not ready to be United’s first choice goalkeeper, so it seems likely they sign another player in the summer.

A number of goalkeepers have been linked with Manchester Unitedover the last twelve months or so as speculation over Van der Sar’s future hasgrown. Schalke stopper Manuel Neuer has been strongly linked with a move afterhis impressive performances at the World Cup for a youthful German side thatreached the semi-finals, while Atletico Madrid’s David de Gea and CSKA Moscow’sIgor Afinkeev have also been mentioned.

However in recent days, Dutch Number 1 Maarten Stekelenburghas emerged as the favourite to succeed his compatriot at Manchester United.First team coach Rene Meulensteen is reported to have told Dutch Radio thatStekelenburg is United’s top target this summer.

Whoever replaces Van der Sar, it is clear that United haveto handle this changing of the guard far better than they did back in 1999. Allsigns point to the club signing a relatively young goalkeeper, but if this isto be the case then any new recruit should be given time to settle into therole and avoid the constant chopping and changing that occurred six years ago.

Whether United opt for a new keeper or promote from within,it is going to be a tall order to replace the giant Dutchman that has protectedthe home goal at Old Trafford for the last five and a half years. Edwin Van DerSar brought stability and presence to a position that had been a problem sinceSchmeichel left in 1999. Hopefully the transition will not be as difficult aslast time.

>Home Sweet Home: EV Zug move to the Bossard Arena

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PIC: Stephen McCaskill

In the summer of 2010, EV Zug completed the move from theirhome of over forty years to a brand new, ultra-modern arena. The need for a newstadium had been apparent for some time as the Eishalle Herti, in which EVZhave played since 1967, had not aged well and plans were made to move. The endresult was the 7,015 capacity Bossard Arena which is billed as the most modernhockey stadium in Switzerland, and after my first visit, I am inclined tobelieve the hype.

The old Herti could be best described as a giant shed withan ice rink inside. Seats were cramped and uncomfortable while standing areaswere even worse. Every facility within the stadium, be it turnstiles or foodstands, felt squashed and compacted. While some fans have bemoaned the loss ofatmosphere, there is no doubt that the old arena was unsuitable for atop-flight hockey team in the 21^st century.

The Bossard Arena improves on the old stadium in almostevery conceivable aspect. Firstly, the seats are spacious and easily accessiblewhile standing areas exist for both home and away supporters. A giant LCDscreen above the rink replaces the archaic scoreboards while modern lighting createsa sense of spectacle. Entering and exiting the ground is no longer a chorewhile areas inside the stadium are much bigger, ensuring that facilities don’tfeel like an afterthought.

Hospitality has also been improved dramatically. While thisis probably of no concern to those cheering on EVZ in the stands, the newfacilities will surely increase revenue. As one of the wealthiest towns inSwitzerland, if not Europe, Zug is host to a number of multinationalcorporations and the new dining and hospitality areas will hope to attract agreater number of corporate events. A new restaurant overlooks the ice andallows diners to eat while watching the game and a private room is availablefor functions. These facilities are a drastic improvement on the previoushospitality tent, which although offered great service, was situated outside ofthe stadium.

I was fortunate to be able to sample these facilities duringmy visit to see EVZ face local rivals Zurich. EVZ are enjoying a good seasonand are currently in 3^rd position in the NLA having alreadyqualified for the post season play-offs. Games between these two teams areusually feisty encounters and this was no exception with a number of penaltiesissued by the match officials. The ZSC Lions barely troubled EVZ who emergedcomfortable 3-0 winners in front of a capacity crowd, who were delighted asseeing their team defeat the 2009 European and Victoria Cup champions.

While there was great sadness that accompanies any suchmove, the move to the Bossard Arena will hopefully be a positive one for theclub as they aim to add to their only championship, which they won in 1998.Some fans may miss the old ground, but if it’s good enough for Kimi, it’s goodenough for me.

Match Photos: EVZ 3-0 ZSC Lions

>FIFA: New Frontiers or Same Old Story?

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(PIC: Stephen McCaskill)

The day had started with a genuine sense of optimism withinthe England camp. The bid team felt that they had weathered the storm resultingfrom the BBC’s Panorama investigation into corruption within FIFA and after aperfect presentation fronted by David Beckham, David Cameron and Prince William,spirits were high. However by the time the FIFA Executive Committee had exitedtheir conclave, news was filtering through on twitter and media outlets thatEngland had been eliminated from the first round of voting. After FIFA’strademark pomp and ceremony delayed the announcement, we were finally put outof our misery as Sepp Blatter announced that Russia and Qatar had won the raceto host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively. While there are genuinereasons for selecting Russia as hosts, the selection of Qatar and the biddingprocess itself have highlighted fundamental problems within FIFA.

Russia has never hosted the World Cup before and thetournament offers the country a chance to improve the nation’s infrastructureand repair its image tarnished by decades of communist rule. A genuine legacyis possible in the world’s biggest country, something that was arguably not astrue of the three other competing bids, Despite the desire of FIFA to bring the WorldCup to new countries, many have questioned the wisdom of awarding the World Cupto the two countries ranked worst in FIFA’s technical report. England, who were ranked the highest in the same report, did not have a divine right to hostthe competition but for the bid to finish behind the rank outsidersNetherlands & Belgium in last place is nothing short of astonishing. Fortwo years, the bid team had been campaigning around the world in an attempt tosecure the votes of the members of the Executive Committee. The bid cost £15mand its return yielded just two votes, one of which is expected to be England’ssole member on the committee, Geoff Thompson. Following FIFA’s decision, manywere quick to point to the effects of the Sunday Times investigation thatrevealed two members offered their votes for cash and of the BBC Panoramaprogramme that aired allegations of corruption by another three members. Thetiming of the broadcast of Panorama was criticised by those who felt that showingit just three days before the vote would sabotage England’s bid.  FIFA did not welcome the intrusions andalthough they suspended Amos Adamu and ReynaldTemarii after the Sunday Times investigation, they made it clear thatthey were not grateful for the exposure of the corruption. The BBC’s Panorama programme largely consisted of old material and although it wasnot the most enthralling pieces of investigative journalism, the British media should not be forced to censor itself. FIFA stated that they are againstany breach of their code of ethics, but rather than attempt to clean up theirorganisation, FIFA felt that it was necessary to hold this against the Englandbid. 

Qatar’s selection as host for the2022 World Cup is difficult to justify. The Emirate has a population of justover 1.6 million people, summer temperatures of anything between 40 to 50 degreesand six of its proposed stadia are in the capital, Doha. These are genuinepractical problems that must be considered, and the heat was noted by the FIFAtechnical report as a possible risk to spectators and competitors’ health.Qatar’s solution for the heat is to regulate the climate of the stadia to amore manageable temperature but problems such as the country’s human rightsrecord will be more difficult to overcome. The case for giving Qatar the worldcup rests almost solely on the basis that they have never hosted it before, butAustralia, a country with a growing appetite for football that has never hostedthe World Cup either, were eliminated in the first round of voting afterreceiving just one vote. Qatar does have some experience in hosting majorsporting events as Doha successfully hosted the 2006 Asian Games and thecountry will host the 2011 Asian Cup in January. However both of thesetournaments take place in the winter, when the heat will be far more bearablethan June and July.

FIFA’s lack of transparency andreform has left it open to accusations of corruption and greed while some decisions appear to be improvised and at the whim of Sepp Blatter.Allegations have been raised intermittently of members of the executivecommittee, yet FIFA has done nothing about them. The whole bidding process isdesigned for its members to gain favours from countries who daren’t offend themfor risk of losing the chance to host the World Cup. Jack Warner was courted by theEnglish bid and he managed to have England play a friendly in Trinidad in 2008 and David Beckham open a soccerschool in the Caribbean country as the bid team massaged his immeasurable egoonly for him not to give them his support. Governmentswere required to agree to a set of FIFA demands that promised them to waivevisa regulations, strengthen laws that protected FIFA’s commercial partners andto gift FIFA tax exemptions. The governments were instructed not to publishthese extortionate demands but when the Dutch government objected to them anddid so, it damaged the Netherlands’ joint bid with Belgium. The bidding processitself is secretive and the room where the Executive Committee made theirdecision looked like something that a James Bond villain would have designed for his secret lair. Thevote was only given a degree of transparency when in the dying moments of thecampaign FIFA revealed that they would make the detailed results public.

Until the structure of FIFA andits host selection process is overhauled and made more transparent thenallegations of corruption will persist. The IOC has managed to reform itselfand would provide an ideal model for FIFA. Following the Salt Lake Cityscandal, members of the IOC are forbidden from having private meetings withbidding candidates while members are not permitted to vote if their country isa candidate. Executive Committee members had long decided who they would votefor and offered empty promises of their support to rival bidders. England’s bidwas rated the best by the technical report and on profitability, yet lost tothe country that rated the worst. The same was true in the bid for the 2022World Cup where the United States and Australia were thwarted by Qatar whosebid was the worst technically and deemed ‘high risk’. If England’s bid wasindeed derailed by the efforts of our free press then perhaps the World Cup isa price worth paying for bringing these allegations to light and for notjumping when FIFA clap.

>FA Cup R1: Gillingham 0-2 Dover

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The Sun sets on the 2,300 Dover fans, and on Gillingham’s FA Cup run (PIC: Stephen McCaskill)

There have been many low points in the recent history ofGillingham Football Club but few have been as humiliating as what occurred atPriestfield on Saturday. Gillingham were outplayed by their Kent rivals to theextent that a casual observer would be unable to determine which team played inthe Football League and the other the Conference South. The result heapsfurther pressure on under- pressure manager Andy Hessenthaler who quit Dover to rejoin Gillingham inthe summer. Many Dover fans understood that the lure of a return to the clubwhere he was a legend as both a manager and player was too strong to turn downbut the departure became acrimonious following Hessenthaler’s recruitment ofhis former coaching staff. Ian Hendon had been appointed the new manager at theclub, but their former manager returned to recruit Hendon as his assistant andNicky Southall as player-coach. These actions angered the Dover faithful andbelieved that it tarnished Hessenthaler’s legacy at the Kent coast club where he had secured two promotions in three years and narrowly missed out on a third.

There was a sense of inevitability that surrounded the FACup 1^st Round Draw and even the Dover chairman himself believed thathis side would face Gillingham. Admittedly, he predicted a home draw butDover’s 2,300 travelling fans comprised a third of the total attendance andcreated a genuine cup atmosphere at Priestfield. As Hessenthaler came onto thepitch he was greeted by jeers from the Dover end and applause from theGillingham fans while Nicky Southall was subjected to cries of ‘Judas’ from thevisitors.

A minute’s applause in the memory of Gillingham and Kentfootball legend Buster Collins was held before the game and was respected byevery member of the 7,457 in attendance, the largest at Gillingham this season.Collins joined the club in 1949 as a player and remained at the club for 60years in various roles such as chief scout, reserve team manager and youth teamcoach before sadly passing away earlier this week.

Following the tribute to a club legend, the game gotunderway and Dover started the brighter of the two. The Whites went ahead thanksto Adam Birchall’s sensational long range effort.  Birchall had been in good form for Dover andhis stunning strike proved why Andy Hessenthaler had thought about bringing him to the club in the summer.

While they were impotent going forward, Gillingham were alsocalamitous at the back with Dover outmuscling the opposition defenders and forcingerrors. The Whites capitalised on poor defending from John Nutter as Luke I’Ansonmade it 2-0 with a tap in. Gillingham had reverted to long ball tactics in thehope that first half substitute Adebayo Akinfenwa would be able to producesomething from often aimless passes. Boos echoed around Priestfield at the endof the first half as Gillingham went to the dressing room to face the wrath oftheir manager.

Gillingham improved markedly in the second half as theyforced a series of saves from Dover goalkeeper Ross Flitney. Danny Spiller andStefan Payne were both denied by Flitney who protected his team’s lead. Doverwithstood the pressure and their victory was all but assured when John Nutterwas sent off with twenty minutes to go. Baker found himself clear of theGillingham defence but was tackled by Nutter, who was the last man.

The crowd was noticeably deflated after the red card andtheir attentions turned to Hessenthaler and Chairman Paul Scally who haddefended his record at the club earlier this week after the stadium had been vandalised. Scallybought the club in the mid 1990s, saving it from bankruptcy and redevelopingthe stadium. Despite this The Rainham End of the ground made their feelings known,chanting “We Want Scally Out”, to which the Dover fans humorously responded “WeWant Hessy Out”. The Whites were revelling in the disarray that their opponentsfound themselves in and even optimistically sang “Que Sera, Sera”, hoping thatthis would be the start of an unlikely road to Wembley.

At the final whistle, the Dover fans celebrated wildly whileanother chorus of boos rang around the stadium. The Gills players looked dejected;especially Jack Payne and many were wondering whether this was Hessenthaler’slast game in charge. Hessenthaler has said that he will not walk away from the club despite the team’s poor form. Hewill hope to turn things around at a club where he is held in high regard, but yesterday was definitely a new low in an increasingly disappointing season.

In the other ties involving Kent clubs, Dartford were a whisker away from securing a place in the Second Round. The Darts led for much of the game but League Two high-flyers Port Vale equalised in the 84th minute to send the tie into a replay. Ebbsfleet United and AFC Wimbledon played out a goalless draw after both teams were reduced to ten men. The Dons will be fired up for the replay as the winner will face either Stevenage Borough or MK Dons, whose move from London to Milton Keynes resulted in the creation of AFC Wimbledon. Hythe Town were the lowest ranked club in the first round and they were defeated 5-1 by Hereford United.

>From Kent to Wembley: FA Cup 1st Round

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(PIC: Stephen McCaskill)

The FA Cup starts this weekend and there are five Kent teamsin the first round of this illustrious competition, the largest representationthe county has had in the competition since the 1963/64 season. Once the mostimportant competition in English football, the FA Cup has seen its stockdecrease in recent years as Europe, promotion or survival has been the toppriority for many clubs, but there is no danger of that happening this weekend.

The tie of the round from a Kent perspective is without adoubt the clash between League Two Gillingham and Blue Square South DoverAthletic. This Kent derby would be tasty enough but will be even more intriguingas Gills manager Andy Hessenthaler is facing the club he left in the summeralong with coaching staff Ian Hendon and Nicky Southall. Dover will be bringing2,000 fans to Priestfield who hope that their side can cause an upset and heapfurther pressure on the struggling Gills and their former manager.

Hythe Town are the lowest ranked team remaining in the competitionand the first Kent League side to reach this stage of the competition since the1950s. Gills boss Hessenthaler had offered Hythe as many DVDs as they wanted inorder to prepare for their clash with Hereford as they seek to cause a massiveupset.  With Hereford currently rockbottom of League Two, the Kent club feel that there is a genuine chance of anupset on Saturday.

Dartford also face League Two opposition in the form of PortVale, but the team from Stoke are doing considerably better than Hythe’sopponents. Dartford haven’t been in the first round for twenty years and thiswill be the first time that they compete in the FA Cup at their new PrincesPark.

Ebbsfleet Town won the FA Trophy in 2008 and will be hopingfor similar success in the cup as they take on non-league darlings AFCWimbledon away from home. Wimbledon pulled off one of the greatest upsets inthe competitions illustrious history in 1988, defeating Liverpool 1-0 in thefinal but their main focus this season will be a return to the league. WithEbbsfleet relegated last season from the Blue Square Premier, they will be hopingthat the cup will provide a welcome distraction.

Away from Kent, there are a number of First Round ties that capture the imagination, especiallyFC United v Rochdale. FC United was formed in 2005 by former Manchester United fans disillusioned with club following the Glazer’s takeover. Since then theclub has been rising steadily up the non-league pyramid and qualifying for theFirst Round represents a real milestone in the fledgling club’s history. Thecontest will also be their first appearance on television as ESPN will becovering the game on Friday night. Other plum ties include Southport vSheffield Wednesday, Corby v Luton Town and Cambridge United v HuddersfieldTown.

To have this many clubs at this stage of the competition isgreat for Kent football and a real good news story following the problems thathave affected many clubs in the last few years. For Gillingham, anything but awin would be a disaster but for the other four teams it would exceed allexpectations. Hopefully the weekend will end with four teams in the SecondRound and challenge the statisticians to find out the last time that happened.

>The astroturf is always greener on the other side

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Following last months takeover at Maidstone United, plans for the club’s long awaited return tothe county town have gathered speed, with the new £1m stadium at James WhatmanWay earmarked to open in time for Christmas 2011. New owners Oliver Ash andTerry Casey are adamant that any return to Maidstone is dependent on a new state of the art 3G artificial pitch being installed at the new ground. Ash claims that such a surface is theonly way that the new stadium could fulfil its role as a facility for all ofthe club’s teams as it could be used seven days a week, something that wouldnot be possible on a traditional pitch. The 3G artificial pitches proposed byMaidstone United, and those used by a number of clubs across Europe, are vastlydifferent to the ‘plastic’ pitches used by QPR and Luton Town in the 1980s thatwere so maligned, but scepticism of synthetic turf remains widespread withinfootball. Clubs and supporters have long rejected the idea that football couldbe played on anything but natural grass, but has the technology advanced enoughfor critics to reassess their view and recognise the benefits of artificialpitches?

In 1981, Queens Park Rangers believed that they were changingfootball for the better when they installed an artificial pitch at Loftus Roadand three other clubs, Oldham Athletic, Preston North End and Luton Townfollowed their lead. The pitches however, were hated by opposition players andmanagers who believed that they were unsafe and gave the home team an unfairadvantage as they were used to the oddities of the surface. Jim Smith, the QPRmanager between 1985 and 1988, acknowledged as much when he recalled hismemories of the pitch, “Itwas a false game, I knew exactly when we were going to score. It was likerobots playing. You got carpet burns and very bad backs if you played on themlong enough. The likes of ourselves who played on it regularly had a bigadvantage”. The pitches were banned in 1988 and the hostilities towards themhave been sustained since then.

Theadvantages that those ‘pioneering’ clubs saw in artificial pitches are stillrecognised today and FIFA has been active in researching and testing the newgeneration of synthetic surfaces. In 2001, they launched a licensing programmefor artificial pitches and in 2004 they ruled that any FIFA approved pitchcould be used for competition. This programme, entitled the FIFA Quality Concept, tests pitches fordurability, joint strength, climatic resistance, player-to-surface interactionand ball-to-surface interaction. Tests are also carried out to see if the pitchcauses any irritations to the players, such as the carpet burns that affectedthose who played on the pitches in the 1980s. Pitches that pass these tests areawarded a one or two star recommendation; the first is mainly for community andmunicipal pitches while the second is awarded to pitches that are suitable forprofessional football.

Thebenefits of these pitches are clear; lower maintenance costs, a longer lifespanand an increased resistance to adverse weather conditions. This may appeal tochairmen, but fans, players and managers remain hostile, believing that despitethe improvements, teams that play on artificial pitches still hold a crucialadvantage. The first competitive international on artificial turf in Europe wasthe Euro 2008 qualifier between Russia and England and the Luzhniki stadium.The pitch was manufactured by Fieldturf, a company whose surfaces David Beckham criticised after playingon one when he joined Los Angeles Galaxy. Before the game, many were alarmed atthe possibility of England not playing on grass, believing it definitely gavethe home team an advantage. It was also suggested that the watering of thepitch increased the England players’ unfamiliarity with the pitch andcontributed to the 2-1 defeat.

As inRussia, the Swiss winter can be cold and the weather damaging to pitches and assuch, some Swiss Super League Clubs have installed artificial surfaces in orderto reap the benefits that their advocates stress.  Young Boys Bern and Neuchatel Xamax are twoof the Super League clubs who have done this when they reconstructed theirgrounds. YB’s pitch at the Stade de Suisse (sadly no longer the Wankdorf) cameunder particular scrutiny after their Champions League qualifier with Tottenhamearlier this season. Manager Harry Redknapp had just watched his team come backfrom 3-0 down to salvage a respectable 3-2 first leg defeat and declared “I playedon Astroturf myself and hated every minute of it. We don’t have it in Englandanymore and I don’t think it should be used in a competition like this”. UEFArejected these claims, arguing that a thorough pitch inspection had taken placeand that UEFA regulations permitted the use of FIFA 2 star rated artificialpitches at all levels of European competition except for the Champions Leaguefinal. Supporters are also against artificial pitches as demonstrated when FCLuzern, another Swiss Super League side, announced that they were going toinstall an artificial pitch at their brand new swissporarena. Fans were outraged, believing thatgrass was to be the new victim of modern football, following in the steps ofstanding areas although, fortunately for the fans of FCL, the decision wasreversed a few months later.

Football is notoriously resistant to change and in the current era ofcorporate boxes, all-seater stadia and high ticket prices perhaps many fansbelieve that artificial pitches are one step too far. At the highest level,grass should always remain the first option as clubs have the resources torelay the pitch and have other facilities that the community could use.However, at lower league and non league level this is not always the case andtherefore artificial pitches are an attractive option. In the winter of 2009,Maidstone United did not have a home game in six weeks, something that causedextreme financial pressure on the club and could be prevented again if theplans for the 3G pitch go ahead. The community aspect of the stadium has beenintegral to the plans for the new ground and if it is necessary to have anartificial surface, then I’m sure that the fans would rather have it than notreturn in Maidstone. The jury is still out on artificial pitches, but research should be received with an open mind rather than a Luddite refusal to hearany argument in their favour. Grass willalways be the ideal situation but not even that guarantees a perfect surface asthe problems with Wembley haveproved.

>Up All Night

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One of the most attractive aspects of sport is the fact thatevery event is unique and unpredictable. While other forms of entertainment arepre-determined, it is sports unscripted nature that attracts spectators,viewers and fans in their millions. While there is always a place in thesporting landscape for highlights programmes such as Match of the Day or tripsdown memory lane on ESPN Classic, the live element of sport is so important toit that if it is removed it can diminish the enjoyment that fans take from it.It was always possible to record games using a video recorder, but the advent of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) andVideo On Demand services such as BBC iPlayer now mean that watching sport “aslive” is easier than ever but it leaves you at the mercy of technology.

The live aspect of sport is so important to me that if Iknow the result or a major incident in a match, my interest wanes. It is theunpredictability that gives me the strength to sit through sometimesexcruciatingly boring passages of play in the hope that something exciting isjust around the corner. The live aspect is also important to me because Icannot cope with just seeing a result afterwards. Watching a football match forninety minutes gives you time to accept the 5-0 thrashing, something thatlooking up the score on the internet does not afford you.

Formula One and American Football are but two sports that cantake place at unsociable hours for British fans and watching them live requiresserious discipline or being nocturnal. Before I acquired a PVR I would eitherhave to watch a repeat, which would leave me in danger of finding out theresult before I viewed the event. Although video recorders were an aptsolution, I found it a complicated and occasionally fruitless procedure whereasnow I can push a button and watch the match at my leisure without fear offinding out the result.

I did this last weekend for the inaugural Korean GP whichwas broadcast on the BBC and woke up eager to view the latest instalment in athrilling climax to the 2010 Formula One season. Sky+ has the useful feature ofbeing able to detect when a programme has been extended and adjusts therecording accordingly. Sadly, as good as Sky+ is, it is unable to account fortorrential rain and the decision of the BBC to switch channels as the raceoverran its original timeslot. As it became apparent that the recording was tooshort, I was furious and I was not alone. I checked BBC iPlayer and althoughPart 1 of the race had been uploaded (the part that had been shown on BBC One),but part 2 (the part shown on BBC Two) had not been. In the end, since I amincapable of insulating myself from the internet and sporting media for longerthan a few hours, I blinked and checked the result and discovered that I hadmissed out an eventful end to the race.

Another example of my new found dependence on technologythwarting me was when I recorded Monday Night Football on ESPN a few weeks ago.Green Bay travelled to Soldier Field to take on Chicago and a tense game wasapproaching a crescendo. Almost exactly at the two minute warning, my recordingended. This time there was no other way to view the final two minutes so Ilooked up the score and saw that the Packers had lost 20-17. The time investedin watching an event only to miss the end feels all the more wasted when theending does not have a happy outcome.

The spread of PVR technology now means that sports fans canenjoy far more of the action ‘as live’ and has certainly changed the way weconsume sport. The technology means that the live and spontaneous nature ofsport isn’t removed and results in much of the attraction is retained. I canimagine that many baseball fans are grateful for that this week, given thatmuch of the World Series will be broadcast while they are asleep.

>Sport for all… for a price

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(PIC: Metro)

Following the removal of Sky Sports News from Freeview,there is no dedicated sports channel on Free to Air television in the UK. SinceSky arrived on the British broadcasting scene over twenty years ago, sport ontelevision has experienced unprecedented expansion through the arrival ofsatellite television and dedicated sports networks. While sports that had neverhad much air time previously have benefited from this trend, more and moresporting events have been removed from FTA and placed behind a pay wall.

While Premier League football is the classic example ofsport being used to attract subscribers, most sports and leagues have dealswith Sky, ESPN or Eurosport. England home tests, which were broadcast on theBBC and later Channel Four, were removed from FTA in 2006 as part of a newbroadcast deal between Sky and the ECB. This is but one recent example of agoverning body seeking to maximise revenue from broadcasters eager to pay morefor sports to strengthen the lure of their subscriptions. Premiership Rugby andSuper League had already been on pay TV for many years and it is possible thatthe only major sport that it is possible to view comprehensively on FTA isFormula One, which is now one of the pillars of the BBC’s ever dwindlingportfolio.

The movement of these mainstream sports to subscriptiontelevision has been followed by many niche sports. Only two years ago, ChannelFive’s late night schedule offered the insomniac viewer a variety of Americansports including American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey. Coverageof these sports was cut as five sought to reduce expenditure in the currentmedia climate. While the cost of the rights was relatively low, the studioproduction costs were unjustifiable given the limited audience and advertisingrevenue available in the small hours. While Channel Four and ESPN have pickedup the NFL games that were on five, the NHL and MLB are now exclusive to ESPNAmerica, who provide no studio production to accompany the American feed.

While the BBC continue to show many of the ‘crown jewel’sporting events such as Wimbledon, The Open and the Olympics, it has recentlylost exclusive rights to the US Masters to Sky Sports and the World AthleticsChampionships to Channel Four. The BBC does provide a substantial amount ofsporting programming and its coverage is second to none but the loss of suchimportant events is worrying. ITV 1’s sports strategy has shifted in recentyears with its resources allocated to showing blue chip events such as the UEFAChampions League, the FA Cup and England internationals. It infers that ITVbelieve that football is the only sport that merits the increased cost ofsecuring television rights, although it has extended its deal with the IRB toshow the Rugby World Cup.

The UK is seen as one of the biggest pay TV markets in theworld and broadcasters are keen to exploit that as viewers are willing to payfor premium content, chiefly sport. In the US, the market is different as mostpremium sports channels cater for a specific audience such as local sportsteams or niche sports such as football or cricket. While ESPN isn’t strictlyfree as it does require a basic cable subscription, the cost is minimal and themain networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX all show a variety of NFL, MLB, NHLand NBA action. In many countries across Europe, Eurosport is part of basicpackages, while in Germany it is joined by Sport 1 which shows a variety ofsport such as Moto GP, Bundesliga programming and even Premier Leaguehighlights.

The closest example that the UK has is ITV4 which hassteadily built up a substantial portfolio of sporting rights. It broadcastslive UEFA Europa League football as well as programming from ITV’s otherfootball properties, live coverage of the Tour de France and the BritishTouring Car Championships. In addition to this it provided the first FTAcricket coverage in five years when it showed the 2010 Indian Premier Leagueand gave rugby union a Match of the Day style round up with its Premiershiphighlights which were joined this season by highlights from the Heineken andChallenge Cups. While many have criticised ITV’s sports coverage in the past,most notably when their HD channel missed England’s goal against the USA in theWorld Cup, its commitment to FTA sports should be commended.

We will probably never see Premier League football or eventest cricket back on FTA television, but there remains the hope that one day wewill be able to have a service similar to ESPN or Eurosport. The BBC haverepeatedly rejected the possibility that they could create such a channel,arguing that the current red button service is effectively a sports channelwhile others believe that the boat has been missed.  Given that sport remains one of the few unifyingevents in an increasingly fragmented media market (programmes like the X Factorbeing another example), many sports could benefit from the increased exposurerather than the money that pay TV companies are willing to give them. Sportssuch as snooker increased in popularity because of coverage on television inthe 70s and 80s and it is no coincidence that the organisers of Power Snooker,which aims to imitate the success of Twenty20 cricket and rejuvenate interestin the sport, have signed a deal with ITV4 to show the inaugural event thisweekend.

>America’s Game in the UK

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Before the age of satellite television brought us wall towall sporting coverage from every corner of the world, a new television channelcalled Channel Four brought American football to British screens on a Sundayevening. The game reached unprecedented levels of popularity during the 1980’sand developed a hardcore following. In 2007, the NFL brought a regular seasongame to the UK to the first time and the publicity that accompanied the matchat Wembley introduced a whole new generation to America’s game. For a sportthat has no significant domestic league in this country and remains at theperiphery of Britain’s sporting mainstream, there is a wealth of coveragedevoted to the NFL.

The NFL has four broadcasters in the UK. The main televisionbroadcaster is Sky Sports who show games at 6:00pm and 9:00pm on Sunday.Coverage is presented by Kevin Cadle and Nick Halling who are joined by a guestpundit. Sky Sports also show the Thanksgiving games and then show the ThursdayNight game which is aired in the US on NFL Network. This year, American footballhas returned to Channel Four as they have secured rights to Sunday NightFootball. Gary Imlach, who had previously fronted American football for thechannel, is joined by Mike Carlson, who was a pundit on five’s NFLcoverage.  ESPN show Monday NightFootball which is the flagship programme of their American counterparts andshow the entire American production, including Monday Night Countdown. The BBC showsthe Superbowl live with Sky Sports, who show the game exclusively in HighDefinition. While the coverage this year is an improvement on last year whenMonday Night Football was absent from UK television, to watch every game shownyou need two subscriptions and only one game a week is on free to airtelevision and it is on late Sunday night. The quality of coverage isexceptional, especially in high definition and the studio programmes ensurethat British viewers are not subject the frustrating number of advertisingbreaks that plague American viewers.

British fans can also listen to radio coverage which beganlast season. BBC 5 live sports extra provide coverage of a game at 9:00pm onSunday nights. Commentary is taken from an American radio station or from theBBC’s own commentators in the states while the studio keeps the listenerinformed of the scores from around the league. The radio coverage is as good asthe rest of Radio 5 live’s output and the inclusion of many of the best knownNFL UK personalities such as Neil Reynolds means that it is as knowledgeable asanything the US can offer. For those seeking more audio coverage, the NFL UK ‘Inside the Huddle’ podcast provides both previews and reviews of the week’s actionwith Neil Reynolds and Mike Carlson.

Coverage of the NFL in the UK is as comprehensive as it canget, with at least four games a week shown live on television and another onthe radio. It is covered as well in this country as football, rugby union,rugby league and cricket which means that following the league has never beeneasier for the American football fan.