In the past three games between the sides the Australians have one victory and two draws. Wesley Sneijder of Inter Milan threatened Australia’s goal a number of times before Orlando Engelaar replaced him in the 70^th minute and performed well enough to be named player of the match for the Dutch.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar, a striker with AC Milan, and Dirk Kuyt, a forward with Liverpool, also had opportunities to score, but they couldn’t finish in a game that was played in wet conditions. In the first half Australia had difficulty finding their rhythm and creating scoring chances for forwards, Josh Kennedy, Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell. In the second half they were more competitive, but The Netherlands were still the more imposing team.

The fixture was the final warm-up for the Aussies before their Asian Cup qualifier on Wednesday against Oman in Melbourne. They might end up having to play Oman without Vince Grella, their defensive midfielder, who limped from the pitch in the 15^th minute with an injured thigh. Lucas Neill, Everton’s new signing, played the entire game for Australia in spite of the fact that he wasn’t quite match fit.

If you look into their results over the last couple of seasons and their falling positions in the FIFA world rankings, that gentleman’s statement seems to bear out. As a matter of fact, whomever the club were to appoint to take over the head-coaching job of Joel Santana, whether it was Alex Ferguson, Mourinho or Carlos Alberto Parreira, they are not going to be able to turn the side around any time in the near future.

The blame for all of this should rest squarely on the shoulders of SAFA and their shortage of foresight in building capacity. SAFA’s new regime might desire to place the blame upon the old regime, though we should hope that does not happen because the majority of the new people played a role in the previous SAFA in one position or another.

The gentleman who phoned the radio station stated it best; sports such as cricket and rugby were doing so well on an international level because they had good youth programmes in position where highly skilled players right through the age groups can compete for places along with professional grooming and coaching for specially selected players at choice institutions.

The bookies favourite result in a football match, a draw, has been, until last weekend anyway, a rare feat this season. The first 66 games only ended up producing four ties, which is far below the five-year average of 1 in 4 matches ending in draws. The total number of victories for the wealthy “big four” sides has also managed to hold back the football takings of Ladbroke.

The bookmaker revealed that, in its profits warning report to shareholders, the total amount of money earned in betting shops, not including touch-screen roulette devices, had fallen approximately 22% for the three months up to the end of September. High rollers who won big also diminished takings and that left their overall group operating profit at £22.4million, down 58%.

Betting shop punters, in previous years, have usually responded to winning a lot of money by increasing the total amount they wager, but Ladbrokes stated that the total amount of money staked actually fell 3%. Another sign that punters have begun to cut back is the fact that earnings from the 8,000 touch screen slot machines that Ladbrokes owns, which account for around one third of betting shop earnings, fell by 1.2%.

If the system isn’t working properly and obviously it is not or footballers aren’t competent enough, fit to play or questionable tactics are employed, then it really is the person who makes these choices who’s exclusively to blame. Why doesn’t anybody understand this? The ‘buck’ must surely stop with the person making the decisions, a nice gentleman, but wrong occupation. Much-heralded, experienced former footballers and all the experts are capable of seeing it, so why is it that the ‘Rafa club’ cannot see past their thick Rafa-haze?

It is hard to believe that scores of people still blame Rafa for the club’s result against Birmingham. Don’t take this the wrong way, everyone is absolutely appalled by the side’s run of results lately, but they had almost 80% of the possession and round five times more shots on goal than Birmingham.

The Willow Foundation, which was set up by Bob Wilson, the former goalkeeper for Arsenal, along with his wife, Megs, provides special days for chronically ill 16 to 40-year-old people throughout the United Kingdom. It has recently planned meetings with pop stars, like McFly and footballers, as well as visits to the opera and personal driving sessions with Damon Hill, the former Formula 1 world champion. Wilson said, “These armbands are a real one-off and I’m sure that any football fan would be thrilled to own one.” The Steve Bernard Foundation backs sporting projects of all kinds in remembrance of 18 year old, sports-mad, Steve Bernard, who tragically died in a car crash in November 2005, near Chichester. Following his passing, members of his family established the foundation in order to raise funds for sporting projects around Bournemouth, along with a couple abroad.

The armbands that the captains wear were autographed by the players themselves and a number of them have already been worn, even displaying the days battle scars. They will be framed, along with a photograph of the footballer in action. The Willow Foundation has, to date, managed to provide over 5,000 special days for individuals suffering from muscular dystrophy, motor neurone disease, cystic fibrosis and cancer, among other conditions.

Before I watched QPR, my favourite team, last season, I went to W12, the club’s restaurant and was amazed. It is operated by Cipriani, the showy Mayfair restaurant owned by Flavio Briatore, the controversial chairman of the championship side.

While W12 caters to the rich set, it was recently taken over by Azure, who will cater for society weddings as well. Here there is a good chance that you may cross paths with Flavio’s fellow directors, Lakshmi Mittal and Bernie Ecclestone, or supporters like Tamara Beckwith and Naomi Campbell. You could easily be forgiven for questioning whether or not you are at a football game or at the opulent Sardinia-based Briatore’s. Perfume laden women float by offering wine whilst waiters in white suits serve tasty pasta, finished off with delicious chocolate torte. The W12, contrary to the complaints of a number of club fans, also attracts its fair share of older supporters who have managed to do well for themselves.

]]> http://paulonfield.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/football-food-goes-upscale/feed/ 0 paulonfield http://paulonfield.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/survival-rate-of-football-club-is-50-50/ http://paulonfield.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/survival-rate-of-football-club-is-50-50/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:32:16 +0000 paulonfield http://paulonfield.wordpress.com/?p=306 Continue reading »]]> According to the chairperson of one of the Highland’s oldest football clubs, its overall chances of surviving this economic slump are round “50-50″ after it went into administration.

If Inverness side, Clachnacuddin, doesn’t pay back the  £46,534 that it currently owes Highland Council, it will surely face legal action. David Dowling, the chairman of the club, stated that he remained hopeful of finding a buyer. Dowling went on, “We’ve been told in the past there are people out there who want to take it over. We fervently hope that can happen.” Clachnacuddin, who play in the Highland League, were provided with financial support from the Inverness Common Good Fund. David Stewart, the Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, has asked companies to come forward to help make the side’s time in administration as short as possible. He stated that though the financial problems of the club were a matter of public record, he was still very disappointed to see Clachnacuddin enter voluntary administration. Highland Council board members were due to be informed of the latest developments on the Clachnacuddin situation during its 2^nd November meeting.

A spokesperson for the council reported that this was the date by which the side were supposed to have come up with a business plan showing how they planned to payback their £46,534 debt to the Common Good Fund. One scheme being proposed was that the club might opt to clear the debt over a one year period, by making 12 payments of approximately £3,800 each.

Yes, right above his ankle, but also slightly under his kneecap as well, but at least it is a start. We should all be used to it by now, but we’re completely obsessed with him and its very likely he knows it as well, which could be why he tends to utter such nonsense. It would be wise, one would guess, to completely ignore him and just how would he manage being reverse boycotted? How would Sir Alex survive in a land where the only inhabitants listening to his utterances were the poor people at MUTV, his wife and his football team? That’s harder said than done though, since Manchester United have become so completely vital to all that is important on ‘Planet Football’.

There’s something quite life-affirming about a football manager that shows up at a brand new side and proclaims that, all in all, he would still rather take a drive around Ireland’s rain soaked west coast.

It seems, however, that this did not please everybody. Imagine the surprise you would feel if you tuned into the wireless over the weekend and heard one of the country’s top newspaper pundits say he did not want leading countries like France and Argentina to make it to the 2010 World Cup. Supposedly, this outcome would benefit the England squad and their overall chance for success in South Africa. That’s playground stuff. I mean really, can you honestly imagine a World Cup being played without Argentina there? Sure we would still watch it, but we would watch it with heavier hearts. The entire point of holding these amazing four-yearly tournaments is to find out which team is the worlds’ best. The large countries must participate.

Here is a quick quiz: What do Germany, Italy, Brazil and Argentina all have in common? The answer is that they have all ended up bringing a lot more than England to the World Cup tournament over the Moscow years. Germany has done what they are best known for, producing a display in Moscow, typified by their ability to recover quickly from setbacks, to defeat the Russians.

In addition, it is also quite likely that West Ham will deny the accusation that they were unable to control their supporters on 25^th August. They face a total of four charges, whilst Millwall face three. A toilet block and 200 seats had been damaged in the football grounds visiting supporter’s section. One Millwall fan was stabbed while fans fought outside Upton Park and pitch invasions attempted by West Ham supporters followed every one of their team’s goals in their 3-1 extra-time victory. The authorities said they arrested a total of 19 individuals connected with disorder outside and inside the football ground. 13 of these people were charged with crimes like violent disorder, GBH, violating banning orders, assaulting police and pitch invasion.

Millwall footballer, Jason Price, and West Ham footballer, Carlton Cole, also said they had been racially abused by fans. Both sides were given approximately 14 days to reply to the allegations, but were granted an extension of seven days to 19^th October to file their complete responses. When they announced the charges on 28^th September, Millwall FC stated that they were both disappointed and shocked.