USV Hercules 3-2 Ajax: Amateurs pull off major upset in Dutch Cup. BBC Those pesky kids in the lower leagues foil the plans of the big boys. Not just Saints then that roll over.
Pep on winning the FIFA World Club Cup "It was an incredible year," said Guardiola. "Today we closed the chapter. We won everything we could. Now time to try again." Eh-em, not true Pep. The fittest man in Europe with the best stats knocked you out of the EFL Cup with a 2-0 victory.
I am a bit taken aback by the comments about Sam Allison being the first referee of colour to referee in the Premier League since the great Uriah Rennie in 2008. The stats on the BBC article are not promising either and I think that most football fans will either be surprised that there has been such a hiatus and that 15 years have passed since Rennie hung up his whistle. Rennie always struck me as a ref who had absolute respect and authority to the extent that he was probably the most commanding ref of his generation. I think it is hugely disappointing that only 8% of officials are from non-white backgrounds at all levels and that this reduces to 4% in the professional game. If I am honest, I am astonished that this is the case and especially more so given that you would have thought that the respect fans and professionals had to Uriah Rennie would have encouraged more people to take up becoming match officials. Something is seriously wrong with the sport is this is the case in the UK.
Can i ask why you are astonished and what you think the percentage should be? The country is 82% white so we would expect a maximum of 18% non white referees if proportions are kept However most of that 18% are (south) Asian who have little primary interest in football on average. There is a disproportionately high number of black players in the men’s game. But traditionally this is because it is an escape from working class poverty / deprivation. Being a successful player does this. Being a referee - doesn’t really. And there appears to be no real connection between playing the game and becoming a referee. So that proportion split can sort of be discounted then. So i guess we return to the question of what the percentage should be. I agree there should have been more but it doesn’t actually seem too far out of line with what actually should be expected if you take a step back at what the country actually looks like. What I don’t know and would be interested in is the backgrounds of referees and steps required to become one. Without that I can’t suggest there are absolutely no extra barriers that black referees might face - something that there appears to be with the women’s game and location of the facilities compared to urban centres. This came up with the hand wringing about the lack of black lionesses during the World Cup. No indication the same is really true for refs
Greg I am surprised by the lack of black referees because I think that most football fans are not prejudice. I would imagine that the issue cearly stems from grass roots issues although I think that this goes wider than being an issue of race. I noticed one fan giving the linesmans abuse at Winchester last weekend alhough it was the usual comment about neeing glasses. I have seen worse and Winchester City should be praise for the quick action they took against one vocal supporter who harrassed a black player from an opposition team. I would have to say that your comment about Asian players is a generalisation as far as I understand and not necessarily true these days. In my opinion Uriah Rennie was inspirational figure and it seems odd that few have followed in his wake.
Anyone know why there are matches in Scotland at 3pm on a work day today? Actually baffling! What are the attendances like?
Do they not have the Boxing Day bank holiday on the 2nd Jan, as Hogmanay is a bigger thing in Scotland than Christmas?
Some strange decision making going on at Sunderland. As part of Newcastle's away allocation for Saturday they are getting a semi corporate area called the 'Black Cats Bar' and the powers have be have decided to strip it off Sunderland colours etc and decorate it in black and white. Seems utterly mental that and a sure fire way to piss off your fanbase.
Respect to the guy, that must have been terrible playing like that. They're all bloody mad though, goalies.
I can’t imagine a more fundamental example of not understanding British (or pretty much global) football culture than allowing your rivals to take over your home end AND decorate it. Although I suppose we may have let the Skates tip a few bins over to make themselves at home in previous encounters, simpler pleasures. Back to Sunderland, they also blocked the Sunderland fans from performing an anti-sports washing display.
This is symptomatic, and a perfect example, of the 'new owners' effect - often American, increasingly oil-backed Arabs, who think that they are buying into an entertainment industry, with an audience, in the grounds and on TV, who simply want to be entertained, and who will respond with polite applause. George Orwell once said: Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting. Sorry about the increased font, I lifted the entire quote. Football fans are often polite and well-mannered, but local rivalries, as mentioned in the previous post, have very little to do with what happens on the pitch, and everything to do with owning/holding/ invading territory. So letting your bitterest rivals put up their own decorations (aka regimental flags) is a sure-fire way to get fans incensed.
