Football - Spare The Rod and Spoil The Child??

Hello All,

Happy Holidays everyone . . .well, the festive Football campaign is well under way. The games come thick and fast . . .games are on as I write this right now . . . must get to the telly very quickly!

I've been reading a lot lately about football players and their thoughts and behaviour. Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, wants a quota put on the amount of foreign players allowed in the English game. My beloved Manchester United had their recent Christmas Party and got into trouble ( making the trashy British TV series "Footballers' Wives" look a bit more realistic than is comfortable for my liking.

Let's talk about the quota issue for starters. It's never going to happen. The Treaty of Rome prohibits the restriction of movement of EU citizens between member states. The argument "well, it'd have to be an agreement between clubs" would never get off the ground in my book. Let's face it, clubs sometimes want their cake and eat it. Let's remember Jean Luc Bosman.

Here was a guy in the mid 90's who was at the end of his contract. Thankfully, freedom of contract by now was in place. He wanted to play for one particular club. The transfer fee offered by this club was more than was offered by another club who his employers wanted to sell him to. However, the club was not prepared to sell hum to the club he wanted to go to. ( As I write this, it reminds me a bit of the saga United had with Gabriel Heinze . . . )

Bosman was unhappy, quite rightly so. At the end of the day, when you go to work, you have to be happy don't you? He consequently took his case to the highest European Court - and he won. Now players can move more freely than ever before. They can let their contract finish, and be perfectly within their rights in doing so. More importantly, clubs who have players who let this happen lose out financially. Big style. Classic case in point - well, two now I think about it - Steve McManaman at Liverpool in 98-99 season if I remember rightly and Michael Ballack at Bayern Munich. Both left their clubs to go to other clubs ( Real Madrid and Chelsea ) for no transfer fee and pocketed a huge signing-on fee. The pendulum has swung so in favour of the players it's gone just a little bit silly. Players can now, after the age of 25, if they have been with their clubs for more than 3 years, buy out their contract if they want to. Like most things in life these past 40 odd years, there needs to be a happy medium struck. Will it happen? I don't know.

I sound a bit like an old fart! Oh well, I have turned 40! Only joking, I am a fully paid up member of the "Life Begins At 40" brigade! Anyhow, I have to say that I fully back Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, who has banned his players from organising parties after lurid tales emerged from their Christmas Party. What players have to realise is they really do have a duty to set an example to people, especially the younger generations. They are paid thousands of pounds a week ( to put it into context, I was on 15,200 pounds a year working in a call centre back home and that was the highest salary I had ever had in my life ) for playing football. I'd give my high teeth to be able to say I have stood on the grass at Old Trafford.

However, I'm not totally against footballers and their salaries. My argument has always been that if you are in an industry which wants to pay you silly money, are you going to turn it down??!!! I don't think so. It is a short career and they do have to look after themselves financially as best as possible. You just have to behave fellers, that's all we want. Plus, fans have to stop treating opposing footballers like they are something they have trodden in. We all have a duty to clean up our collective acts. We are all only human after all. Eric Cantona famously proved that in January 1995. If I find the footage, it'll be on this blog, have no fear.

If you want to read what a well brought up footballer and human being can sound like, read the article from "The Guardian" which carried an interview with Phil Neville. It makes refreshing reading. It's on this here blog.

Anyhow, time for me to be glued in front of the telly - it's Boxing Day after all, which means beaucoup de footy. Have fun and be ready, there may be shows posted on here soon of the show David Beckham only dream about getting on , namely"Match of The Day The USA Way" every Monday morning at 7am on Valley Free Radio, 103.3FM here in the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts. It is also available to listen to online, just go to www.valleyfreeradio.org and follow the instructions. It's dead easy - if I can do it, so can you. Ta ra!