Wembley matches will forever leave that empty feeling

The new Wembley stadium and the decisions made since and during its construction to recoup the £787 million outlayed by The Football Association have often come under fierce scrutiny. Aside from the money-spinning American Football matches, the “Man Vs Machine” event which saw Lewis Hamilton race Sir Chris Hoy and the much-disputed FA Cup semi-finals which are to be staged at Wembley leading to claims by the Manchester United and Everton managers, Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes, that the cup has been devalued; there is one major oversight that should have been addressed at the planning stage which looks set to spoil every match played at Wembley from now on.

The people who occupy the corporate seats or, as Roy Keane famously labelled them, the ‘prawn sandwich brigade’, left a bitter after-taste following England’s 4-0 win over Slovakia on Saturday but, sadly, it is something that doesn’t look like changing. Is it becoming fashionable to miss key moments in football history? If its not ITV replacing Dan Gosling’s extra-time winning goal for Everton against Liverpool in their FA Cup replay at Goodison Park with a Tic-Tac advert it’s the FA doing their best at putting as many disinterested cronies in the stadium as possible, at the expense of ‘real’ supporters.

David Beckham won his 109th cap for England against Slovakia, coming on as a half-time substitute and, in the process, surpassing Bobby Moore’s 108 caps - the record number of caps previously held for an outfield player – and you’d think, with the prospect of witnessing a historic event in English football, that fans would be queuing up to see this happen. How wrong we are.
But these people aren’t fans and, worse still, their seats are directly facing the gantry for the television cameras and so when Beckham stepped onto the Wembley turf, becoming the nation’s second most capped player ever for England, the stadium looked empty. So much so that you’d think it was an England Under -21 international, with no disrespect intended but to underline the appearance of emptiness in the stadium.

It is logical to expect there to be a section of seats for tickets allocated to the corporate sponsors of the England team and The FA but, as has been shown at a number of previous international matches at the new Wembley, these people clearly aren’t there for, what most would consider the sole purpose of Wembley, the football. They have no apparent desire to participate in the atmosphere, so why have we got to see their obvious lack of interest every time a bloody game is played there?

A simple bit of planning would have placed the corporate seats underneath the television cameras so that when fans, up and down the country, watching football either at home or in pubs tune in they see the appearance of a full stadium because the real, paying, fans are in their direct view rather than those who are willing to miss half a match because they’re mulling over the free-food on offer.
More alarmingly is that this problem is commented on every time there is a match of importance yet, unsurprisingly, nothing seems to be done. Surely a simple relocation of the corporate seat allocation out of the sight of the camera is both feasible and sensible.

For a country bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup, its hardly the best way in convincing the governing body of world football that we are a nation worthy of hosting the worlds biggest tournament when, on the surface, it looks as though our home stadium is a constant state of emptiness.

No Sympathy for Middles-bore-ough

In what is becoming an increasingly imminent reality for Middlesborough Football Club there will be little sympathy if they do eventually get relegated into the Coca-Cola Championship.

There are a plethora of reasons as to why Boro have, somewhat, outstayed their welcome in the Premier League. Many clubs are guilty of being played by the individual and succumbing to their needs and some could argue that the Teeside club had little choice but to retain the services of their most prized asset, Stewart Downing for the rest of this season. But what desire does a player have who hands in a transfer request?

Despite sustained interest from Tottenham Hotspur, Boro held their nerve and kept a player, an England international, who they believed to be key to securing their Premier League status. The truth of the matter is that Downing, although regularly picked for the England squad, is some way short of being considered international quality and is, astonishingly, yet to register a Premier League goal for Boro this season. Perhaps it may change if he were to move to Spurs, but there is little to suggest that he is the shining light that his manager, Gareth Southgate, and chairman, Steve Gibson, would have hoped he'd be when they ignored Spurs' advances in the January transfer window.

Although Boro secured a surprise and vital win at home to Liverpool a matter of weeks ago, a game in which Downing was inspirational, there have been no stand-out performances from either Downing or his team-mates. It shouldn't solely be down to the left-winger to keep his home-town club in the Premier League but for a player who is so, apparently, desperate to move away from the Riverside, fans would be justified in expecting a lot more. Worse still is that Downing still remains a fan-favourite among the home supporters, despite his written transfer request and ongoing attempts to broker a move away.

Loyalty doesn't account for much these days, especially in the world of football, but why would a player who receives England recognition and is adored by his home fans want to move away? And, furthermore, to a club that has been successful in slowing David Bentley's progress. It is a ludicrous situation.

The ludicrous situation that has evolved at Middlesborough doesn't start or end with Downing, he is merely another cog in a noticeably faltering machine; a machine that could be working a lot more fluently had they accepted a bid for their left-winger and showed some faith in Adam Johnson, the England under-21 international, who many on Teeside believe to be better than the aforementioned.

The most laughable situation that has surfaced at this club isn't the fact that they have kept hold of one of the most over-rated players in English football, or that their supporters still show adoration for a player who fails to reciprocate that emotion, nor is it that Johnson's glittering form for England u-21's is so sorely overlooked. The news that supporters have repeatedly been told, by stadium officials, to keep the noise down is nothing short of ridiculous, especially at a time when their team need them more than ever if they are to retain their Premier League status.

If Middlesborough do get relegated, which is looking increasingly likely, it looks certain that they will be going quietly.

End of the Carlos Tevez saga? We couldn’t be further from the truth

This week it had emerged that an out-of-court settlement had been agreed, believed to be in excess of £10 million, between West Ham United and Sheffield United in relation to the third-party ownership of Carlos Tevez which many saw as the end of one of the sorriest saga’s to blight English football.

Almost as soon as the settlement was confirmed the former Sheffield United manager, Neil Warnock, who was in charge of the club at the time they were relegated from the Premier League, publicly stated his intention to assess his legal rights in regards to potential compensation. And why not? The spiral of hypothetical events that descend from this saga start with Warnock who, as he justly believes, would still be in charge of Sheffield United in his “dream job” had his side not been relegated from the top tier of English football on the last day of the 2006/07 season.

For all his critics, and I don’t possess to be Warnock’s biggest fan, you can’t fail to see that he has an extremely valid point and he may well have just opened up the floodgates on the east London club.

It should not be forgotten that this case was the subject of an independent tribunal due to the nature of the circumstances involving the Premier League, West Ham United, Sheffield United and the third-party ownership rules. Prior to the tribunal’s report there was little sympathy for the Sheffield club, with people questioning why it took so long for them to raise their grievances’ and suggestions that they did not have the quality many thought was needed to stay in the Premier League regardless.

However, there was an increasing feeling of wrongdoing when it emerged that there was a breach, by West Ham, in the registration of their Argentine duo Javier Mascherano and Tevez, both who have now moved on to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively.
Tevez, who was seen to play a pivotal part in West Ham’s survival from relegation, scored seven goals in ten games helping the Hammers to win seven of their last nine matches which, at the time, upset not only Sheffield United but also Fulham and Wigan once news broke of the illegalities involved in his registration.
Since the initial fighting talk that united Wigan, Fulham and Sheffield United in their pursuit of justice Fulham and Wigan’s attention’s became somewhat of a distant memory once they had both secured their Premier League status. Sadly, for United, they were left to fight their own battle.

And so they did, eventually forcing the Premier League to hand out an unprecedented £5.5 million fine for West Ham’s illegitimate registration of both Mascherano and Tevez and, perhaps more importantly, to concede that this ultimately resulted in the relegation of the The Blades.
In all of this, and a view that Warnock has vehemently aired on occasions, is the fact that the one man who is, ultimately, accountable for one of the biggest oversights and amateurish dealings in world football, let alone English football, still maintains his job as chief executive of the Premier League; Richard Scudamore.

Nobody wants to see anybody lose their job, especially at a time when jobs are more valued now than they perhaps ever have been, but there are some obvious exceptions. If the lay person were to do anything similar to that of Scudamore, within context, then they’d be extremely lucky to find themselves still in that job. It is an absolutely absurd situation which was further underlined when the tribunal’s report effectively confirmed that Sheffield United were unjustly relegated.

How wrong we all we were to think that this out-of-court settlement was the end of the 'Carlos Tevez affair', it’s merely the tip of the iceberg and for West Ham United and the ever-evasive Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, it could be an iceberg of Titanic proportion; especially given that Ken Bates, the Leeds United chairman, has hinted that he is also seeking legal advice for his right to compensation following the failure to secure contingency payments from Rob Hulse, Matthew Kilgallon and Ian Bennett as a result of Sheffield United's relegation.

When key decisions are to be made, and not the decisions involving a potential money-spinning ‘39th fixture’ abroad, about the legitimate ownership and registration of players then the Premier League knows who not to call upon but, unfortunately, that person happens to be the one person responsible for maintaining the integrity of the Premiership.

The Walkers Bowl...

Just out of interest, how many packets of Walkers crisps would it take to fill Leicester City's home stadium, the Walkers Bowl?