Category Archives: World Football

racism

From Zenit to London football has one thing in common: racists

You know how I know that someone’s about to say something racist? They always say, “you know I’m not racist BUT…” and then they say something completely racist. Either that or the racist person will lower their voice, cover their mouth, and say something like “those people” with a wink wink and a nudge nudge to let me know that I am in their club of racists.

Another thing that I have noticed about racists is that they are very concerned with other people’s racism and especially any perceived racism against them. It’s always the most racist people who are ever vigilant about non-existent things like “reverse discrimination”. And no matter how many times you try to explain the concept of a double-negative to these people, they just don’t get it. “Think about it for a second,” I’ll say to the racist “reverse discrimination would be actually privilege, wouldn’t it? Or at the very least reverse discrimination would be anti-discrimination, right?” That’s when they look at me blankly and then I try for the really simple, “besides, if you are being discriminated against, it’s just discrimination, there’s no need to have a special ‘reverse’ category just because you are in the group that was historically the oppressor and now you suddenly feel like you’re the oppressed because other people have to be treated fairly and not racially abused.”

That’s how I used to be anyway. Now days if someone tries to rope me into their merry band of racists or engage me in a discussion on why they feel reverse discriminated against I adopt a zero tolerance policy and just walk away from them. I just don’t have time to suffer these fools and neither should anyone else.

So, why on earth are we still suffering racism from the terraces of clubs like Millwall and Zenit St. Racistburg?

Pretending that there is no racism in England is part of the problem. It’s a major reason why the FA doesn’t deal with clubs like Millwall whose fans have been accused of racist chants no less than three times, since October. Once against Bolton, once against Charlton, and now against Leeds. Three times in five months? Isn’t England the most watched country on the planet? Don’t you have cameras on every street corner? Don’t you abhor racism so much that it’s a crime to use a racial epithet? Why did it take a SkySports “special investigation” to get these racists banned from the terraces? If the club and the FA truly cared about banning racism, they would have dealt with this problem years ago. But they didn’t and that’s how racism in football is still alive and well, because the clubs and the governing bodies don’t really care.

And Zenit. I’m not really even sure how a football team, where the manager can say that he openly discriminates against black players, can have a license to play in Europe. I’m sorry but any team which openly discriminates and which has a fan base that has been fined so many times for racist abuse that I’ve actually lost count should play in their own racist league of racist teams but be denied entry into Europe.

racism

And that’s why I’m actually happy that Liverpool complained about Zenit prior to the match. Of course, some folks are pointing out the irony that Liverpool are suddenly so concerned about racism. But I suspect their newfound concern is actually a byproduct of the shame that they were subjected to after the Luis Suarez debacle. Which is exactly how you deal with these cunts, you name them and shame them.

It’s easy to make fun of Liverpool for that sordid affair with Luis Suarez but you also have to understand that they have several black players who are going to be in very close proximity to the most racist fans in all of Europe. Any team, every team I would hope, would seek protection before the match.

The ball’s in UEFA’s half now. Let’s see how they handle it. My hope would be through tough measures. But history tells us it will be by punting.

And the FA. Sorry guys but racism is no longer just an overseas problem (hint: it never was). There’s a Den of racists there, in London, a few miles from the HQ at Wembley. Maybe take a look?

Qq

King Richard the Wicked

Premier League seeks to create permanent underclass with new financial restraints

The Premier League announced new spending rules yesterday which aim to cap player salaries without implementing a salary cap and which seek to limit club losses by demanding that rich owners promise to back those losses for three whole years.

Reading the bold print, because there will not be any fine print until April when the actual rules are voted on, the most stringent rule is the £4m per annum limit on wage increases for teams who have a wage bill already in excess of £52m. At first glance this seems like a very tight inflation cap on player salaries. But the actual statement reveals that the restriction on salary inflation only applies to the increased revenue from the League’s bumper new television rights deal.

In layman’s terms, the League is saying, “here’s £20m extra per year, you can only use £4m of that on increased salary”. This is not a cap on salary, this is a cap on how much of the extra television money can be spent on salary. Increases in wage bills are unlimited as long as the money comes from matchday revenue, commercial operations, or some wealthy person just putting money into the club.

The other rule which Premier League chief Scudamore is trumpeting is the “£105m loss” rule. Again, reading the bold print, the rule simply states that any owner who wishes to make more than £105m in losses over a three year period must provide a further three years of financial backing for those losses. From the PL’s very own press release:

Any club that makes a loss up to that limit [£105m over three years] will be subject to a tighter regulatory regime that includes:

- Secure owner funding for three years ahead
- Increased future financial information over the next three seasons.

This is, of course, not what’s being reported by the big papers. There are quotes about points deductions for teams who run afoul of the losses rule and of how the rule would be implemented (for example, that certain types of spending - infrastructure, etc. – doesn’t count) but you have to understand how corporate communications work to get why that’s being reported but is not included in the actual press release.

Every word of that press release was picked over by several editors, including a corporate communications director, and then approved by the Premier League’s team of solicitors. If the press release doesn’t mention points deductions or details of how they plan to audit clubs then that was left off intentionally because it is not actually agreed upon. The only things that have been agreed upon are that teams can only use £4m per year of the new television rights and that any owner who incurs more than £105m in losses in the next three year period (up to 2016) will need to provide secured funding for that club for the next three years (up to 2019). That’s what’s been agreed to, nothing else.

What we are hearing in the press is, most likely, Scudamore’s dream scenario. Whether that dream will become reality may hinge on one abstaining vote, Reading.

Normally it takes 14 current Premier League teams to vote to change the rules. This vote squeaked by with 13 because Reading abstained. The important thing to remember is that teams could change their mind between now and the actual implementation vote in April. It’s also interesting to note that Chelsea voted in favor of the rule change and are the only owner-financed team to do so. The same Chelsea team which turned a £1.4m profit last year after £166m in debt was converted into equity.

And the press are already hinting that this regulation has fewer teeth than a family in Stoke.* The first hint is that reporters are admitting that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play accounting rules are more strict than the proposed Premier League rules. And, of course, the biggest hint is that Sir Alex Ferguson has stated today that all these rules (both UEFA and the Premier League) are toothless.   

But what if these rules were toothsome? What if the League set a cap on salary growth and a real cap on losses and anyone who ran afoul of that cap were deducted points? It would only ensure the hegemony of the teams who are currently at the top of the spending table.

Capping growth and losses is not the answer to inequality in football. If you want to have a level playing field you have to implement a ceiling for teams like Man City and Chelsea. Manchester City already have a £200m per annum wage bill. Arsenal have a £143m per annum wage bill. That’s a difference of £57m a year. In today’s conversion that’s €67m per year. Just to understand the massive difference in those two wage bills I present to you the estimated salaries of the world’s top players:

That’s just the difference between Arsenal’s current wage bill and City’s current wage bill. Imagine the players one could afford with the difference between Reading and Chelsea?

And worse, if the debt cap is introduced in a meaningful way then that means someone like Usmanov or Kroenke couldn’t put any money into players and bring a club like Arsenal level on spending and squad value through debt financing as Chelsea and City have done. The same applies to any future buyer for a club like Everton.

If you believe that spending, and especially wages, largely correlates with success on the pitch (and most people do) then if they are successful and their rules have teeth, what we are looking at is the Premier League attempting to create a permanent class of haves and have-nots.

Under these rules clubs like City, Chelsea, and United will be perennially challenging for the title; teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham will be left fighting for European football; and the rest of the League will be left permanently trying to stave off relegation. You wonder why Swansea, Villa, West Brom, Southampton, and Fulham voted with Man City against these rules? Because they don’t want to be a permanent underclass.

I, for one, hope that this rule is shot down in flames. If you want to level the playing field you have to implement real spending limits, the same for all teams, and real salary caps, again the same for all teams. Anything else is just rewarding the clubs who gained an unfair advantage through financial doping in the past.

Qq

*The average family of four in Stoke has one tooth, which they share. Like they say, a family that masticates together stays together!

Giroud looks releived, like a man who had been waiting for an hour to take a piss at an open air festival

Aerial Duels, dribbles, and tackles: something to tide you over during Nationalism week

Here are some wacky stats to tide you over during the international break.

Stoke City lead all teams in the top five leagues with 27.6 aerial duels won per game, winning 689 of 1172 high balls. That’s 96 more aerial duels won than second place Osasuna. It’s also interesting to note that Osasuna win almost all of their aerial duels defensively. Their top seven players for headers won are all defenders or defensive midfielders. Meanwhile, Stoke’s top three are Crouch, Jones, and Walters.

Stoke are also the 4th worst team in all five leagues in terms of possession with just under 42%. Reading are second worst just under 40% and Levante are the outright worst with 36.2%. Low possession numbers make sense when you are hoofing the ball to Crouch who may win a lot of headers (7.7 per game) but who passes at 59% rate because Stoke don’t have technical players around him.

Crouch is third in the League in aerials won per game behind Aston Villa’s emerging star Christian Benteke. Benteke is listed at just 22 years old, but he plays more like a 28 year old. He has to be 22, though, because well, because it says so on Wikipedia. As you can see from the chart below, Benteke leads the League in aerials won (second per game behind Andy Carroll), has 10 goals, leads all three big men compared in assists with 4, passes better than Giroud (on Villa!), has a useful dribble, and decent vision with 1.5 KP per game and 4 assists.

Crouch Giroud Benteke
Goals 5 9 10
Assists 3 2 4
Aerials 7.7 3.5 8.4
Aerial % 67% 53% 58%
Pass 59% 64% 66%
Shots/Goal 5.2 7.9 7.1
Dribbles 3 6 15
Key Passes 25 17 32
Turnovers 30 48 44

The few times I saw Benteke play I was turned off by his poor touch, which shows up in the high turnover numbers. But I have to admit that he has fewer turnovers than Giroud which is a bit of a surprise. Based on the numbers above, I can see why some folks (notably Arse2Mouse who seems to have a nose for finding hidden gems) thumped for Benteke in the January window. For the record, just because I’m saying Benteke has good numbers that doesn’t mean I think he’s better than Giroud, that I like Giroud less, that I’m denigrating Giroud, or whatever weird fantasy you weirdos are concocting in your weird little fantasy worlds. Weirdos.

Moving from head to feet, we take on the topic of dribbles, tackles, and interceptions. You will often hear me say that the Bundesliga is a “dribble orientated league” and what I mean by that is that for the second year running teams from the Bundesliga comprise 14 of the top 20 teams in terms of dribbles per game.

Frieburg leads all the top five leagues with nearly 17 dribbles per game. Their main expressionist is Danny “the Cabinet of Doctor” Caligiuri who leads Frieburg with 3.9 dribbles per game. King of the dribbles in the Bundesliga (and beyond) is Franck Ribery with 5.4 per game. Arsenal will get to see him up close soon enough when the two teams meet in the Champions League in less than a fortnight — barf bags on standby.

Arsenal lead the League in dribbles per game with 11 and just miss out on a top 20 berth because AC Milan have played fewer games. I suspect Arsenal will be in the top 20 by the end of the season. The reason I feel confident in that prediction is that Gervinho led Arsenal in dribbling last year with just 1.4 (of players who got more than a handful of starts) and this year Arsenal are led by Wilshere (2.6), Diaby (2.5), and Cazorla (2.1). If those three can stay healthy, Arsenal should easily eclipse AC Milan.

Special mention has to go to Theo Walcott. I was roundly criticized when I wrote this article earlier in the year which used videos to prove that Walcott is not as poor a dribbler as many made him out to be. And sure enough, his stats are starting to match my assessment as he is now Arsenal’s 4th best dribbler with 1.6 per game, up 0.6 per game from last year. It’s the hallmark of a great player that they work on their weaknesses. Clearly, Theo saw that dribbling was a weakness and has done some work in that area and it is now paying off.

And finally, another odd thing about the Bundesliga is that along with their dribbling they also have 10 of the top 20 teams in terms of tackles per game. The two stats go hand in hand, actually, tackles and dribbles are usually (but not always) part of the same duel. Being dispossessed is also a stat that is mixed in there with dribbles and tackles. I’ll explain it all one day. The important thing to remember is that the Bundesliga dribbles a lot and there are a lot of tackles.

Meanwhile, the Bundesliga also has 11 of the top 20 teams in terms of interceptions per game. That’s a shift, La Liga regularly led this category and now it’s the Bundesliga. It looks to me like there has been a shift in the Bundesliga toward a more exciting product which might explain partly why Arsene and others are shopping there. Players in the Bundesliga tackle more, dribble more, and overall play better defense and offense than most of the other leagues.

And no, that doesn’t mean that I think the Bundesliga is better than the Premier League or whatever other weird thing you weirdos think I’m trying to say. Weirdos. I’m just saying that the Bundesliga has a lot of exciting players right now and looks like they are playing an exciting brand of football. You should check it out.

Anyway, I hope this provided you with a modicum of distraction and now return you to watching carefully for any signs of match-fixing in this week’s FIFA sanctioned games.

Qq