Comments for Olivers Almanack Blog

Comment on The next exciting installment from Andrew Jennings by Andy

Andy — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:37:39 +0000

We might well be regarded as bad losers, but I think it’s justified given the manner in which we lost.

All interested parties were asked to prepare a bid, at great expense, demonstrating their capabilities of hosting the World Cup. We hosted FIFA delegations who inspected our facilities and scrutinised our financial forecasts. All were said to be completely satisfactory, probably even better than the others. Our final presentation was said, anecdotally, to be the best too. The reasonable inference would be that when the vote was taken all this work would be taken into account.

Then we did not just lose the vote, we were almost completely ignored. It is fact that the decision not to award England the tournament was despite rather than because of the merits of our bid. Instead of England being regarded as bad losers wasn’t it a case of FIFA being spiteful and vindictive as a result of certain press coverage?

Comment on Everton – fighting against the odds by Andy

Andy — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:50:27 +0000

I think Spurs have blown Everton’s constant whinging about this over the last few years out of the water. I have always felt David Moyes was a limited manager who would have been better off concentrating on getting the most out of the squad he has rather than his frequent indignant rants. While Harry’s repeated assertions that Spurs could win the Premier League (“why not?” he says), might have seemed a bit tongue in cheek, not to mention pie in the sky, I firmly believe that if you aim for the stars and miss you will still end up quite high, while managers whose aim is only to finish 17th are almost guaranteed just that – if they are lucky. Everton, and Moyes, have been happy for years to claim that they can’t go any higher than 6th, and have been merely admiring the view accordingly while others have sailed past them. They could and should have been in pole position to take advantage while Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are faltering, instead of which they are also below Sunderland, Norwich and Newcastle. Does it really take half a billion quid and a new ground to stay ahead of those Mr Birch?

Even Darren Ferguson was at it last weekend, stating that his target was still just 50 points, meaning a mere 12 points from the remaining 14 games. What sort of message does that send to his players? That they’ve already virtually done their work for the season, and subconsciously I bet they’ll not be 100% ‘there’ for the rest of the season. Surely from a position of relative comfort he should be looking up the table, not actually aiming to finish lower than they currently sit.

And given Sunderland face Everton in the quarters, I can say that all their fans feel that they can go all the way this year.

Comment on A Winter World Cup in Qatar by admin

admin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:52:05 +0000

I would have personally chosen Australia as I think a 2022 World Cup down under would have given a massive boost to the game there – much as in the same way that the 2018 World Cup will transform football in Russia. But that doesn’t change my view that countries in the Middle-East have every right to host a World Cup and if that means playing it in January then so be it. Also I not aware that the Qataris have not made any requests to play in January…

Comment on Fog in Channel – Continent Cut Off by admin

admin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:27:10 +0000

April 2012 is the pub date for the next Almanack… Point taken re the medals table for New Zealand. The idea was to focus on those clubs currently in the league but if you would like to see a complete list, I’ll make sure it is in for the next edition. Are you from NZ?

Comment on Fog in Channel – Continent Cut Off by Davybhoy

Davybhoy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:18:22 +0000

Guy

when will the 2012 almanack become available?

Also, in the 2011 almanac for New Zealand you only list the champions for the last 6 seasons. NZ has had a national league since 1970!! And a national cup competition since 1923. The “medals table” is woefully inaccurate!

Comment on A Winter World Cup in Qatar by Davybhoy

Davybhoy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:12:13 +0000

Whilst switching from summer to winter in Qatar makes good sense for players and fans alike, we shouldnt forget that Qatar won the bid based on playing the tournament in June.

If they change one of the very fundamentals of the bid then its not fair on any of the other bidding nations.

I still can’t believe that Qatar won those rights. Not one of FIFA’s finer moments

Comment on Fool’s Paradise by Danny Cleary

Danny Cleary — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:10:50 +0000

Hi Guy, completely agree with you about capitalism and football. The Tevez debacle will be seen in years to come as the moment football lost the right to be called the people’s game.

Good luck with the blog, really enjoyable. Can you sync it up with facebook or twitter?

Comment on Mel Goldberg, the BBC and World Football by admin

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:30:02 +0000

Hi David, the point I am trying – tirelessly – to make is that football goes way beyond the small clique of European clubs that want to control the game (see my post of June 27th). There may be a strong business case for a European League (at least as far as the few clubs involved are concerned) but there is no sporting case to be made at all. I did an interview with former French manager Aime Jacquet at the start of 1998 and he said the one thing that really worried him about the future of football was that the business side of the game was becoming more important than the sporting side. To be honest, I believe that Aime Jacquet has a much deeper understanding of football than people like Mel Goldberg and 13 years on I would like to see the balance swing back in favour of sporting priorities. As I said in the post, do we really want football to go the way of boxing? I’m sure there was a business case to be made with the creation of all the governing bodies in boxing – no doubt some people made a very large amount of money in doing it – but you will never persuade me that from a sporting point of view it was a good move to have four (or is it five?) governing bodies.

I’d also like you to point out to me where in the post I have condoned corruption? I think it is interesting that months on from when I originally posted this, it has generally been accepted that Russia deserved to win the 2018 vote – even in the British press. That is why all the fury has turned on Qatar…

Comment on Mel Goldberg, the BBC and World Football by David umbeke

David umbeke — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 06:37:08 +0000

The point of your seems to be that you just don’t get it? If you don’t get the various commercial implications of what Mel was saying that is fine but don’t berate him for understanding the business of sport better. You also seem to imply that somehow the FIFA vote was not riddled with corruption. If this really is what you wanted to suggest, I am afraid any good points you may have raised in your article will be lost behind a wall of either blind optimism or sheer stupidity.

Comment on A first comment and justifying my editorial stance by admin

admin — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:42:28 +0000

Thanks for your comment Dave… I’m about to post a response as a new blog entry because I feel the issues you raise are important and deserve an entry in their own right.