BBC's football (soccer) site had video of highlights of the FA Cup match between Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough. I figured such a match would offer about five seconds of highlights so I clicked on the link. I overestimated by about three seconds.
***
George Steinbrenner is no longer the worst owner in professional sports. That dishonor goes to a guy named Roman Romanov who owns and runs the Edinburgh soccer club Heart of Midlothian (known as just Hearts).
The Scottish Premier League is one of the least competitive sports leagues in the world. Major League Baseball's American League East has NFL-style parity by comparison. The two big Glasgow teams known as the Old Firm (Rangers and Celtic) have 90 Scottish championships in 116 years. The two have won every championship since 1986. In fact, no other team has even fiinished in the top two since 1994.
So Romanov, this Russian tycoon, bought the club and poured money into. Surely not as much as the Glasgow giants have but a lot by non-Old Firm standards. Romanov hires the well-regarded George Burley as manager. Burley does a great job and the team after ten games, the team is still undefeated and in first place.
But then Burley dramatically left the club. Whether he actually quit or was fired is unclear, but he complained that Romanov was meddling too much, buying players without the his input, trying to tell him who to play, etc.
Hearts cooled down a little under new manager Graham Rix bit but were still doing well. This is great for Scottish soccer because it brings a little excitement back into the game and makes the SPL an actual competition again.
But then reports surfaced that it was actually Owner Romanov and not Manager Rix who was choosing the starting lineup on matchdays. A few weeks later, Rix was also sacked. Romanov claimed it was because Rix had underperformed in his whopping 19 league matches in charge of the club. Hearts are still are odds on favorites to finish second (their highest finish since 1992) and to qualify for the very lucrative Champions League (something they've never done), which you'd think would thrill the businessman. In reality, Rix was fired because he or someone else in the clubhouse went public about the degree to which Romanov was interfering in day-to-day team affairs.
As The Scotsman's Barry Anderson reported: Rix was told several times by Romanov [the owner] in the build-up to the meeting with Rangers that midfielder Julien Brellier - a Burley signing - was not to be played under any circumstances. Not only did the Frenchman play, he was voted man of the match.
The columnist added: What is not up for debate is this: Hearts are rapidly becoming an eastern European club in every sense of the word. Almost incessantly in turmoil, owner interfering in footballing matters, manager changing every few months. As a consequence, Tynecastle presently has all the stability of a paper aeroplane in a hurricane.
Not only has the megalomaniac gutted what was the best chance in a generation of a non-Glasgow winning the championship, but all the instability he's provoked may ruin a rare opportunity to give hope to the minnows and turn the SPL into a truly competitive league.
***
I wrote last week about Chelsea's insufferable manager Jose Mourinho. He would call critics jealous but one only needs to look at Barcelona's Frank Rijkaard or Juventus' Fabio Capello to prove that one can be a winner AND have class at the same time.
I wrote that essay after Mourinho sniffed about a handball call against forward Didier Drogba... Mourinho's crybaby antics coming AFTER he admitted the referee made the correct call in that situation.
This weekend, Drogba committed another handball infraction before scoring a goal except this time, it wasn't caught by the referee. When commentators complained, Drogba whined that people pick on him and Chelsea unfairly.
Additionally, he admitted he dove to deceive refs and then quickly retracted his admission. Of course, his first comment was the truth, which is why he quickly took it back. Drogba is about the size of a central defender, but he often falls down faster than Kate Moss being tackled by Lawrence Taylor.
Not surprisingly, Mourinho rushed to defend his cheater: ""Sometimes he is a player who doesn't get what he deserves..."
Like a yellow card?
Let's be honest. Players dive. Diving, as a plague, can not be separated from its evil twin shirt pulling. They're two sides of the same coin. Diving is how attacking players cheat. Shirt pulling is how defending players cheat. Aside from bufoonish players screaming at referee every 0.92 seconds, diving/shirt pulling is the worst plague in the game today. Everyone may do it, but I refuse to have sympathy for anyone who does.
***
It's a sad time for the Beautiful Game.
Last year the US first division Major League Soccer's pathetic playoff system allowed the 9th best regular season team (in a 12 team league) to be crowned its 'champion.' It's all the more farcical when you realize that only 8 MLS teams make the playoffs.
But that's small potatoes compared to what's happening in Europe. Cheaters in England. Hooliganism in Italy. Racist chanting in Spain and in Slovakia. Match fixing scandals in Germany.
In England, practioners of thug soccer (Bolton or Blackburn) may conquer the prominent fourth Champions League spot ahead of Arsenal or Tottenham, who try play skill soccer. Dourly efficient Chelsea will win the English championship and Juventus the Italian version. A collective yawn will ensue.
In practically every league in the world, you have the pathetic spectacle of players collapsing to the ground as if shot any time a fan in the upper deck (Row Z) sneezes.
In practically every league in the world, you have the disgrace of 11 furious players virtually assaulting the referee when he gives a penalty even Ray Charles would've awarded.
In practically every league in the world, you have the constant obnoxiousness of players beseeching the referee to show a card every time someone steps on their shoelace.
Sure, you have the occassional sublime sides like Ronaldinho's Barcelona or (on a good day) Arsenal. They are the rare side that gives you hope for the game but in the back of your head, you fear they are but a false dawn, the exception that proves the rule.
Sportsmanship is virtually dead. Brilliance is rare, class rarer still.
And they wonder why attendances are plumetting in the most prominent leagues. Who wants to take out a second mortgage to watch dour efficiency?
But it's not all bad. A Reuters article points out that, contrary to popular belief, there is actually some pretty compelling soccer being played outside Western Europe.
And MLS' eleventh season starts on Saturday with mighty New England visiting (undeserving) champion Los Angeles in a rematch of MLS Cup 2005. Maybe this year, the league will manage to crown a champion who merits the title. After all, the Beautiful Game needs some good news.
Update: This piece from The International Herald Tribune also reminds us that western Europe is not the be all and end all of the soccer world.
No comments:
Post a Comment