World Cup in December? Are they joking?

Editorial
Qatar World Cup 2022 to run during November and December

So we've heard some of the arguments for the Winter World Cup in 2022; the players will be fresher so may play better; it's bringing the WC to the world (but then TV does that much better I think!); it's too hot and so dangerous to hold it during the Qatari Summer....blah de blah, blah.....but where are the arguments against?

I've got a few....I can tell thee!

Let's face it, we all know exactly why the WC is going to Qatar, no matter what they say, and for me their arguments FOR the Qatar WC are puerile attempts at papering over the real reasons it's going there.  just tell the truth...."the WC is going to Qatar because FIFA is going to make a shitload of cash (that's if it hasn't already....if you know what I mean....) and doesn't give a flying fart for the disruption it's going to cause to European leagues."

There you see....it doesn't sound quite so horrific now you say it out loud Mr Blatter.

Erm.....that's not quite true.....I said out loud and it sounds pretty damn awful......but shhhhh!  Just don't tell Blatter or that perennial Premier League hater Platini (who I've got a few platitudes for...I can tell thee that as well!)

Now just think about that disruption for a minute.....I just don't see how it can be limited to a single season for a start.  If they overrun the season by 2 months then the 2022/23 season will spill over into the the following year with barely a discernible gap between the two.  So what do they do?  Start the 2022/23 season early, or the 23/24 season late?  I don't know.....

Another option; play the season as normal but teams that lose players to the WC will just have to field lesser sides.  That might work....or would it?  I'm not sure how how many players exactly each team is allowed to register with the PL before the start of the season, but MU this year I believe have a 28 man squad and by my count could expect to lose about 17 or 18 for example (if it were being held eminently, for the sake of argument) for the WC leaving them barely able to field a side.  So does the PL then say that with the commencement of the WC they can temporarily bring in another side?  But from where?  The obvious answer is the academy.  OK, again that might work, but in reality their crowds and hence, their revenue, may be halved or even worse.  Who wants to pay PL season ticket prices to see 16 year olds kicking the ball for half the season?  Not me!  As good as they might be.  But again, just suppose the crowds don't drop, but in the absence of the big players the team starts to play badly.  They go from top say (it is MU after all...and I can only hope) to 9th or 10th place.  Quite possible in 2 months if they lost every game.   And then afterwards the big players are too knackered to turn it around and they miss out on Europe as a result.  Now we're talking oodles of lost revenue with FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valckle confirming compensation will NOT be forthcoming for European clubs after all.  And this could happen all over Europe, though the disruption to the English PL will be greatest due to the fact there is no scheduled Winter break as a matter of course.  Imagine...the following year we could have a Champions League featuring ...I don't know....Swansea, WBA, Elche, Mainz and Freiberg.  As lovely as that might be for them, for the rest of us we miss out on seeing the best players in Europe in the best competition just because a few FIFA delegates couldn't keep their sticky fingers out of the money pot.

Ok, I know I'm being a bit alarmist...but bloody hell, someone has to be!

I'm going to be really interested to see how the PL and the rest of Europe are going to deal with this problem once these dates are confirmed, and they surely will be.  Seven years to sort it out might just do it.....we'll know soon enough.

And a Happy Christmas to you too Mr Blatter!




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Weekend Sports Review: Cycling and Football

Weekend Sports Report

with Negrito

After a short break I'm back with all your Sports news.  As usual it's been a bumper weekend and it's difficult to know where to start.  But Paris is as good a place as anywhere.  Yesterday saw the final day of the Worlds and Britain finished 10th in the medal table with 3 silvers, a long way off the achievements of the previous few years.  In fact this was the worst Worlds since 2001 for Britain and to read some reports online one could be forgiven for thinking that the roof of the world had fallen in!  But nothing so dramatic has occurred I'm afraid.  Shane Sutton, British cycling head honcho after the departure of Dave Brailsford last year, has had a tough time since taking over.  After the runaway successes of the past few years Sutton was always going to be batting on a sticky wicket and without a glut of golds in this, his first WC in charge, was on a hiding to nothing.  But was it really as bad as all that?  

Well, I don't think so.  In reality it must be almost impossible to maintain the elevated performance levels of the past few years.  At some point a period of rebuilding is going to needed.  Many of our top stars have now retired and for the youngsters coming through time and a bit of patience may be the key.  The Olympics are not for another 18 months or so by which time the picture may be much more positive.  Sutton has a long-term plan that is geared towards Rio and I'm sure many of the newbies will by then be pushing for medals.  For the more senior members of Team GB who didn't quite live up to their billing this time round, we need to again have patience.  For any athlete, whatever the sport, there are times when things just don't click; you work just as hard, train even harder, but for some unknown reason sometimes things just don't go to plan.  But with experience comes a degree of wisdom and those who haven't quite been on song this week, such as Laura Trott, Jason Kenny et al, will no doubt bring it back even stronger next time.

For me the star of the show was Francois Pervis, the triple gold medal winner who successfully retaining the titles he'd won the previous year and appears to have taken over as track cycling's newest superstar, filling Chris Hoy's shoes with ease.  And finally special congrats to Australia's Anna Meares who won the Women's Elite Kierin, her 11th World title, amazingly putting her one title ahead of Hoy.   

Froome on his way to victory in the Ruta del Sol.
Pic. from Skysports.com

Outside of the WC's Chris Froome (Team Sky) sealed a dramatic victory on the final day of the Ruta de Sol, in Southern Spain.  A mountainous Stage 3 had Froomey's great rival, Alberto Contador (Team Tinkoff-Saxo), open up a sizeable gap of 27s for a week long race.  But Froomey remained unfazed and the very day he he took his revenge.  Aided by team-mates Roche, Kennaugh and Nieve, Froomey pulled away from an isolated Contador to reverse the losses of the previous day and then some.  This left Froome with a narrow 2s lead over Contador for the final day.  In the event Froome managed to hold on strongly after a largely flat stage finished with a sharp uphill sprint in which Froome put in a fine performance to finish 6th on the day, so sealing a solid early season victory over Contador.  

Whilst this victory will certainly give Froome confidence that his training regime is going well, as a long term pointer to grand Tour success later in the season, it is largely irrelevant.  Any win over a major rival is always welcome, but it's still early days in the 2015 season and the Tour contenders will still be hard in winter training and will only be looking to these early races as indications that things are going well.  Another month down the line, however, things may well be rather more imperative.  March sees several possible outings for Froome, though his presence at any, or all of these races has yet to be confirmed.  Mid-March sees the Paris-Nice, an 8 stage World Tour event and a race Team Sky always put out a strong team for.  The end of March sees the Volta de Catalunya, won last year by Joachin Rodriguez, and where there was perhaps the first indication that Froome wasn't going as well in 2014 as he had been in 2013 when he swept all before him.  But the Volta is always a really tough outing, with long, mountainous stages and weather that is often extremely inclement.  Last year the conditions were particularly tough and Froome didn't seem to enjoy it all.  Given that experience it wouldn't surprise me if Froome by-passed the Volta this year to go for either the Paris-Nice or the Tirreno-Adriatico, another week long tour, which he won in his all-conquering 2013.   

With Contador going all out this year, showing his hand early by announcing his intention to go for both the Giro d'Italia (in May) and the Le Tour in July, it is important that Froome gains as much of a psychological advantage over Contador as he can.  To be honest, it's a tall order for Contador and I doubt whether he will win both, the last man to do 'the double'  being the ill-fated Marco Pantani in 1988.  All 3 of the Grand Tours now are brutal events and I cannot see Contador recovering sufficiently well to be able to take on a fresh and fit Froome, Quintana, Valverde and the rest, just a few weeks after the Giro, no matter how well he might have performed.  

However, one writes Contador off at one's peril.  For me, he has been perhaps the best cyclist of his generation, maybe the best since Indurian, and if he is fit enough to be on the start line then he is always going to be there or thereabouts at the finish.  Having won both the Giro and Le Tour before, and having already announced his future retirement after the 2016 season, Contador will be looking to his cycling legacy and thinking about what he leaves behind.  Of course, like Armstrong, he has had his troubles with performance enhancing drugs and actually had his 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro wins stripped from him.  However, the circumstances surrounding Contador's ban for clenbuterol (a steroid), the same drug infamously taken by shamed sprinter Ben Johnson at the end of the 80's, were controversial and, (I believe) were it not for Armstrong, he may well have garnered a lesser ban than the 2 years he ended up serving.  I like to believe that Contador was a bit unlucky, but either way his cycling pedigree may now be forever linked with that of his contemporary, Armstrong, and that would be unfair and unwarranted. Contador's motivation to succeed one more time before he hangs his cleats up may well be further ramped up by a desire to win over ex-fans and perennial doubters, so don't be surprised to see him pushing hard to equal the achievements of Pantani, but perhaps more pertinently, to beat Froome and the rest.  Can't wait!

Moving on from cycling I have to have a quick word about this weekends footy.  In the Premier League (PL) Chelsea stayed top, but by only 5 points now, having drawn at home to struggling Burnley, with Man City closing the gap on the leaders with a ruthlessly efficient and highly entertaining 5-0 ass-kicking of Newcastle.  The Boss's team, Man United, lost poorly to Swansea, with LVG maintaining they played well and created many chances.  I admit, I didn't see the whole match, but from what I did see I have to wholeheartedly disagree with LVG.  This season MU are struggling.  Their play is too slow, too predictable and too easy to break up.  The cumbersome going forward, clumsy at the back and only where they are because of David de Gea who has saved them more times than can be counted this year already.  They need to move the ball quicker, utilise the space they create to put teams under pressure.  MU have lots of work to do and unless they change things quickly then I can only see them sliding down the table even further.

Back in the week with a mid-week report on the Champions League and we also take a look ahead to the start of the F1 season in just 19 days time.

See you then

Negrito