Utd vs Chelsea in Moscow?

People are still coming to terms with the disgraceful insistence that UEFA has no plans to move the European final, between Manchester Utd and Chelsea, from the Luzhniki stadium Moscow , rather than Wembley Stadium in London. UEFA’s response being that ‘ UEFA cares about the environment, about people and about football. We Firmly believe that the three go hand in hand.’ It seems that UEFA has not taken into account the logistics of this match.           

Each club will have been allocated 21,000 tickets. With an expected estimate of a further 10,000 tickets due to be snapped up by foolhardy fans, we could expect 50,000 English fans to ake the 3,000 mile trip from the UK. Then there are the envitable fleet of Sky vans which will be setup 7 days before the final, 30 cameras and 75 crew, nor the endless streams of Moscow buses needed to get supporters to and from the stadium. UEFA says its cares about the environment, ell they have a funny way of showing it.If that wasn’t enough there is the cost to the supporters of these clubs. Airline seats for a return are priced at £1,500 with similar prices on the black market, and this is before you even reach the city.

Moscow has long been recognised as the world’s most expensive capital, especially seems as hotels will charge the first figure which enters their head. With the report that there are not even enough hotel rooms to deal with the English invasion, apparently all hotels are fully booked, there is a high chance of problems occuring. UEFA could try and persuade the Moscow police to curb their robust nature when confronted by raucous and quite possible drunk English fans? Not to menton Moscow’s own football hooligans who might see this as an invasion or possible challenge?

The policy was best expressed when Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the premier league, responded to whether he would push for a late change of venue for the European Final. ‘Absolutely not. Imagine if a Champions League Final, or a major event, was scheduled to take place at wembley and twp Italian teams or Spanish teams got through’. Common sense Scudamore, thats if you have any left, would insist on the final being moved to Milan or Madrid.

There will be winners of course, discounting the eventual winning team, Russian bar owners , hotel chains, taxi drivers and dont forget our beloved British Airlines. So does making a profit prevail over a saner consideration, as saying the trip to Moscow will become a challenge for supporters is a massive understatement. It would seem so.

 Bill Shankly famously said: ‘football isn;t a matter of life or death, it’s far more important than that’. This is football you see, so to use the word disgraceful to underline UEFA’s decision to ignore the pleas of sane minds doesn’t even come close. Football is not alone in thinking about profits ahead of the supporters of their clubs.

So it seem that when it comes to making a choice between listening and caring about the interests of supporters and commercial gain, the latter it seems will always prevail.

 

Earth it seems for some is their Hell.

When news broke out about a family man in Austria, who had sexually abused and locked up his own daughter in a dungeon come cell, for 24 years and the fact she gave birth to 7 of his children was sickening behond belief. The man was Josef Fritzl has confessed to keeping his daughter, Elisabeth Fritlz now 42, in an underground soundproof cell since she was 18 years old. Fritzl also confessed to having begun sexually abusing his daughter since the age of 11 and the reason behind her imprisonment is believed to be that Elisabeth had threatened to leave home when she turned 18.

The soundproof cell was built beneath the family garden, which Fritzl eventually covered with flowers and lawn so it did not arouse suspicions amongst neighbours. The stroy Fritzl conjured up was that Elisabeth had runaway with a religious sect which were reinforced by letters sent from her, almost certainly under duress, stating: “dont look for me”.

Fritzl’s wife Rosemarie 78, was unaware of the prison which was only accessible through Fritzl’s private workshop, which eventually had to be expanded due to the rise in the size of the secret family being kept hidden away from the world. This case has certain parrallels with natascha Kampusch, a vienna school girl abducted in 1998, wo finally escaped from her captors in 2006. Below is a timeline of the horrific time Elisabeth and her children suffered and an accurate outline of what is now being known as the ‘House of Horrors’.

TIMELINE

August 1984 Elisabeth,18, is lured into her family home’s cellar by her father, Josef, who locks her away.

!988-1989 A Letter in Elisabeth’s handwriting tells Josef and his wife Rosemarie not to look for her. Rosemarie is unaware of what her husband has done. Elisabeth gives brith to Kerstin, the first of seven children, secretly born in the cellar. Her second child, Stefan, is born a year later.

May 1993: A nine-month-old baby, now believed to be called Lise, is found outside the family home with a not from Elisabeth asking for the child to be cared for by its grandparents.

1994 Elisabeth gives birth to Monika, also left on the doorstep with a note.

1996 Elisabeth has twins but one dies within three days. The body is taken away by Josed who burns it.

1997 The surviving twin, Alexander, is moved upstairs – again after being ”found” outside the Fritzl home.

2002 Elisabeth has Felix. He is raised in the cellar with Kerstin and Stefan.

19 April 2008 Kerstin is admitted to hospital. Doctors advise police to ask mother to come forward.

26 April 2008 Police pick up Josef and Elisabeth near the hospital where Kerstin is being treated. Later, Josef confesses to incest and the abduction of Elisabeth, and to being the father of her children. The children, now aged between five and 19 years, are placed in care. Elisabeth begins to recive psychological treatment in hospital.

 

   

 

Sven is too Human for Shinawatra

To say I was suprised to hear of Sven Goran Ericksson being replaced at Manchester City, his first season with the club, as manager at the end of the season would be a massive understatement. Ok so you didn’t win the Premier League, FA Cup, Carling Cup or even the fairplay award which would have gauranteed a place in the UEFA cup but ask any City fan at the start of the season what their expectations were for the club, and I doubt they would have mentioned any of the above as what they expected the club to achieve.

It seems that even achieving City’s highest premeirship place ever was not good enough, nor the fact that you did the double over your archrivals Manchester Utd in the league for the first time since 1972. Even the supporters are bemused as they have seen Sven bring about a more attractive game to their club and higher qualty players such as Petrov and Elano to name but a few, so what Shinawatra is playing at has even pundits scratching their heads.

It must be quite a frustrating and embarrassing time for Sven as if anything he has overachieved at City this season. Then Sven finds out that the chairman, who looks like an extra from star trek, thinks you have underachieved is laughable to say the least. Since this story has come out endless managers names have been put into the hat, but be warned. Thaksin Shinawatra it seems is a hard man to please, but a fit and proper person according to the people who run the premier league, admist contradicting stories about his ignorrance of human rights.I hope Sven next time he decides apon a managers vacancy he has a good look at the chairman and does not seem to be squinting while watching the game, or that could be Shinawatra natural complextion. Maybe he was just annoyed that Sven ddint give him the number to his own personal optician, who’s to know for sure but for whatever reason farewell Sven Goran Ericksson. I just hope that the next manager lasts longer or Manchester city could become the laughing stock of Europe, not just Britain.

 

Turn that switch on upstairs.

They can fly; time travel and some even possess the power to read our minds. Unless you have been swimming the Atlantic for the last year you may not have been able to escape the tracks of the hype train that is ‘Heroes’.

            This show is a global phenomenon which is way it may surprise many that I am still rumbling through season one, season two has already started in America and has just begun on BBC 2 last week, but to those of you who have not popped your cherry yet, here are the pieces. The show centralises on groups of people who have special abilities, from a man who can paint the future to a person whose hearing is so acute that it makes Superman’s seem inept. As in most sci-fi drama’s they have chucked in the matter of a potential bomb destroying Manhattan, a super villain (Sila), other mysterious characters (some special, some not) and a web of entwined stories with the pieces of this jigsaw coming together. With a series centred on humans with ‘special abilities’ it is hard to find similarities between real events and one’s that are unfolding onscreen. This all changed though when I watched the latest episode, episode 19, ‘ Less than 0.7%’.             

The opening scene of this episode features two of the main characters of the series, a Mr Linderman and Nathan Petrelli, having a conversation about some of the artist’s ‘futuristic’ paintings. It didn’t seem meaningful enough at the time for me to put my brain on alert but then they came to discussing the painting depicting an explosion destroying Manhattan, and it seemed the dialogue had a deeper meaning all of a sudden. Call me paranoid, but isn’t the beauty of this world that we perceive things differently so much so that this could be one of those moments.

            The focus of almost the entire scene is this painting, with Lindermann and Nathan discussing the aftermath or how to stop it from ever occurring. You see, to the majority of the characters embroiled in this story it represents death and despair, though Lindermann offers a different perspective on things:

            “People need hope but they trust fear. This tragedy will be a catalyst for good, for change. Out of the ashes humanity will find a common goal. A united sense of hope couched in a united sense of fear.”

            Does this particular speech have hidden symbolic meaning? It all sounds so familiar. Big explosion, loss of life and Manhattan as the setting of this catastrophe, my ears are being deafened by echoes of 9/11. The similarities are astounding throughout the dialogue as lines are dropped like bombs themselves as Lindermann explains further that, “Less than 0.7% of the world population is an acceptable loss by anyone’s count…. ”, All this is apparently for a brighter future. It’s chilling to read, even more so to hear and see someone saying it.         The conspiracies of the attacks of 9/11 have always been there, maybe, just to give us a different perspective on things but who’s to really know for sure. Maybe its because of the lack of trust we have in our government, because without fear and the promise to end fear imbedded into us, the government might not be as powerful as it seems to be today.  The ‘common goal’ as it is put to us is the war on terror, which only gathered steam after the tragic events of 9/11. It is true that without films such as Loose Change, which brought about the conspiracy idea, I would not have such a strong opinion or maybe this heightened sense of paranoia. In such a precarious world you would have to look at these possibilities.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Didn’t we as a race used to question the information we received? Did we not have our doubts? It seems that we now simply believe what information we our now granted for hope of hiding our scepticism, so for now the light is staying on upstairs.  

                  

 

 

Grand Slam Champs to Chumps.

So another season and another Heineken cup has come and passed our Welsh regions. The Blue’s and Ospreys both made the quarter finals for the first time in their short history, their was optimism amongst their supporting fans that off the back of an unexpected Grand Slam, that this could be the year a Welsh team would have their hands firmly grasped on the Cup for the first time, how wrong it seems we all were.

Going back to their regions after bringing about the unexpected Grand Slam glory, the returning players from the Welsh squad were said to have brought with them the confidence and high team moral that had carried them through a tough 6 nations campaign. If so then I must be going blind as yesterdays performance, from both regions, was little more than abysmal. Ok so Cardiff were not expected to succeed in southern France against Toulouse but a 41-17 defeat is not what their travelling fans deserved, the Blue’s were the masters of their own downfall. More suprising to fans, neutrals and pundits alike was the defeat of the Ospreys by Saracens.

So where to begin? Two weeks ago the Ospreys had demolished Saracen’s 30-3 in the EDF semi-final and yesterday they met again, to fight it out to earn the right to face Munster in a mouthwatering semi-final. The game was so poor of any true quality that it is hard to understand how both sides managed to score a try, let alone get to double figures on the scoreboard. The Ospreys seemed derived of ideas with Hook again demonstrating, that by playing 10 at the highest level, he still has alot to learn as his control off the game at times was laughable. This match was meant to be the banker game for the 2 Welsh regions and yet they came up short again. I am just thankful  that the opposition were not of a higher quality as the final score would have been more emphatic than 19-10. Remember this was an Osprey team that fielded 12 players who had taken to the field and ended a 20 year drought for Wales at Twickenham just 8 weeks ago, and were the backbone of the eventual 6 nations success. This is not to say it is all over for the Ospreys, as next week they can try and make amends by defeating Leicester in the EDF final, and avenge last years 41-35 defeat at the same stage of the competition. If this does not happen, then im afraid Lyn Jones will have alot more free time on his hands to take up surfing down the mumbles. Why? with all the financial backing the region has been given the board expect to be reaping higher rewards than an uncompetitive Magners League title.

So Standind alone, holding aloft the hopes of the Celtic nation is Munster (AGAIN!) who by powering to a 16-3 win at Gloucster, showed what it takes to succeed in this toughest of competitions ( on the club circuit anyway). I just hope now by being a neutral, Munster send Saracen’s into the abyss and Toulouse truimph against a very ordinary London Irish side, which would set up a showpiece final between the two aristocrats of European rugby. It could have been so different but it seems the Fields of Athenry will be sung around the streets of Cardiff again come the Final. If this is not proof of how much work Gatland has still to do to turn Wales into a true world force come the 2011 World Cup, then I think a trip to specsavers might be his best bet.