By Dapo Ajala

So Tottenham Hotspur have handed over a dossier to the Premier League (PL) to back up their complaint regarding Manchester United’s pursuit of star striker Dimitar Berbatov. Interestingly, the North London club are claiming a year’s worth of evidence has been handed over in an attempt to prove that United have contravened relevant PL rule(s).

I am not a legal expert and shall not pretend to be one but logic rather than a degree in Law is probably enough to make one’s mind up on the matter. The relevant sections and clauses within the aforementioned rules are as thus (stay with me as we trawl through this document please):

 Rule K3

“Any Club which by itself, by any of its Officials, by any of its Players, by its Agent, by any other Person on its behalf or by any other means whatsoever makes an approach either directly or indirectly to a Contract Player except as permitted by either Rule K.1.2 or Rule K.2 shall be in breach of these Rules and may be dealt with under the provisions of Section R.”

 Fear not, Rule K 1.2 basically says that a club has liberty to approach a player with a view to negotiating a contract provided the contracted player’s club has given written permission to the approaching club. Rule K2 applies where the contract of the player concerned is coming to an end, and is therefore not applicable to Berbatov’s and Keane’s case. Section R is about the punishment if rules are broken, let us leave that for now.

 So PL rules tell us that Emeka, who plays for Mushin United may be approached by Ipaja Rovers, provided Mushin United gives written permission to Ipaja Rovers. PL rules (K6) also prohibit Emeka and/or his representatives from (directly or indirectly) approaching Ipaja Rovers without a written permission from his current employers.

These were the same set of rules Jose Mourinho, Chelsea, and Ashley Cole fell foul of; leading to a financial rap all round for the accused by the powers that be.

Let’s not forget that an old boys’ culture exists in football where these rules tend to get circumvented but its ok provided no one has evidence. For one to be accused of “tapping” and suitably punished, you have to be caught with your hand inside the cookie jar rather than someone simply noticing that a cookie has gone missing. Humans will always attempt to bend the rules; it is in our competitive nature, it can even be fun at times to do so provided you don’t break the rules.

 Recent reports have irked fans all over but this is causing the uninformed football fan to be unable to discern between a manager saying he’ll like to add Dave to his squad and the manager actually meeting Dave in a pub car park without permission from Dave’s club.

Freedom of speech exists after all and despite what Sepp Blatter says, it is obvious to the sane man that that there is no slavery in football and people can express wishes as they like.

“Robbie is a great player. He’s sharp around the box and is a great finisher,” were quotes attributed to Liverpool’s Jermaine Pennant regarding Robbie Keane. “With Torres up front as well, it will be a great partnership. They could be as good as anything in the Premier League.” This is no worse than a manager uttering a similar statement regarding a player contracted to another club.

 Now let us consider recent shenanigans recently reported in the press and generally classified as “public courting”. Football’s well-loved gum-chewing OAP, Sir Alex Ferguson allegedly made comments reported in some of the leading British newspapers as “We have made Tottenham an offer on Berbatov and we have good expectations that this deal will go through.”

This came a few days after the Manchester club previously stated that they had “made a bid for one player who would enhance us a great deal”, saying he had “good expectations” a deal could be struck. Note the difference?

 Latest reports now reveal comments attributed to Alex Ferguson were apparently made during a routine “meet the fans” session. The Scandinavian supporters’ club put 2 and 2 together and assumed the old chap was talking about Berbatov, hence publishing the quotes the British press have bandied around and generally hailed as “cool confidence”.

 This could have been filed under the “general transfer gossip” section provided Ferguson has not now been accused of “sheer arrogance” and being “hypocritical” by Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.

Levy’s hurt and outburst can be understood since he’s representing a “smaller” club and effectively feels bullied by one of the big boys; hypocrisy charge of course is related to Real Madrid’s bullying of the Manchester hierarchy earlier in the summer.

To make matters worse, this has all happened in the same week where murmurs from Liverpool suggest that arguably the best front partnership in the Premiership (albeit for a team that struggled badly last season) is about to be destroyed in a manner not dissimilar to your big brother “accidentally” stepping on your best-ever favourite train set.

 In Levy’s case, the poor fella can see it coming and yet knows there’s nothing he can do about it, especially since the players in question have reportedly told the club of their wishes to move on to other pastures. He can only do what’s best for the club and make sure potential buyers cough up as much as possible.

Interestingly, no quotes have actually been attributed to Robbie Keane in this saga but we have constantly heard snippets from Berbatov’s agent throughout last season and it is no surprise his tactic is finally working in engineering a move away. Spurs fans will no doubt be disappointed, Robbie only just declared at the end of the previous season how much he loved the club…what a difference a summer break and a wedding makes.

 

The section referring to Public Statements (K8) is probably the bone of contention in this case:

“A statement made publicly by or on behalf of a Club expressing interest in acquiring the registration of a Contract Player or by a Contract Player expressing interest in transferring his registration to another Club (or club) shall in either case be treated as an indirect approach for the purposes of Rules K.3 and K.6.”

Simply put, Emeka making a public statement of his desire to transfer his registration to Ipaja Rovers would contravene rule K8, or would it? If only Man U did actually mention a name! It seems as long as no names are mentioned, you can say whatever you want.

Liverpool’s all-summer courting of Gareth Barry is another interesting situation but as far as can be postulated, certain forms of official bids and requests have actually been exchanged albeit mostly ending in Liverpool being told to get lost or pay over the odds. Fair to say that Liverpool have done nothing wrong (within the PL rules) in this instance.

Real Madrid’s open courting and disgraceful attempt to destabilise Cristiano Ronaldo all summer is beyond the remit of this article but would easily be filed under “annoyance and daftness” rather than be considered a case for tapping. How many times has the Spanish club been told that the boy is not for sale? Senor Calderon even went as far as publicly declaring that the boy just needs to say he wants to leave, and then Real can make the necessary steps to put in a bid.

What about the great one’s recent statement? “For Lampard, it will be easier to play with Chelsea until the end of his contract rather than break it now, all of a sudden,” the new Inter boss told reporters this week. “It seems to me difficult for him to be able to come here now, it’s easier that he comes next season.” Even if Inter were a PL club, Jose would not be breaking any rules since lardy Lamps has only 12 months left on his contract and as such clause K2 doesn’t apply.

My old tennis coach use to tell me to do to the other players exactly what I don’t like being done to me, which usually was someone testing my backhand groundstroke; it sure hurts more when you’re being beaten at your own game and what comes around goes around!

Based on the evidence on display in recent press alone, I can predict United and Liverpool will not be found guilty of any wrongdoing; especially if the bastion of one accusation is based on an inexistent quote

In my mind, it is simple; I would not send out my CV to other companies to seek better employment if the code of conduct I signed up to explicitly says that I should not consider such naughty ideas. If I do and get my hand stuck in the cookie jar then that’s obviously my fault.

Everyone knows the score - football needs to grow up and everyone should stop whingeing.

By Ted Phido

 

 

When I was in primary school, we used to get a magazine called Young Ones. It cost three naira in 1990, and used to come out once a month. It was great. It had all these little monthly features in it like Demi’s Diary and stuff like that. It also had this really cool comic about a talented boy who tries to become a professional footballer against the wishes of his father. I never did finish the story. I think the magazine folded just after the kid gave himself a concussion by attempting a bicycle kick and landing on his head. He wakes up in his coach’s house that night and goes “My dad will flay me alive!” Riveting stuff!!! Incidentally I spent the next ten or so years wondering what ‘flay’ meant.

 

The kid’s (I’ve forgotten his name) main problem was his father who would prefer he did something more productive with his time than play football. Like study for his school certificate exams for instance. It’s easy to see why his father did not support his football dreams. At the time the comic was drawn, it was probably around 1991 and football was still seen as a pastime by parents. No one could have predicted that in a few short years even the most average footballer could make a decent living from the game provided you play in Europe or in rare cases South America.

 

Our parent’s generation is full of cases like this. Our parents generally grew up in small communities. There was no PlayStation or Cartoon Network to distract them, so they played outside. Played till their thin black legs were covered in sand and dust; they played football amongst other things all day long. And then they grew up, and the skills were pushed aside for proper academia. No one over here made money from football in those days. So the talented midfielder became a banker, the goalkeeper who represented his region at the National University Games became a lawyer and so on.

 

If that football comic existed in Young Ones today, it would be markedly different. You get the feeling that his parents would almost be pushing him to be a footballer. “Studying…for what?”  “My friend, go and do 500 ‘keepy-uppies’ before dinner.” Especially if he had a coach who thought he was decent. Somehow, I don’t think Mikel Obi’s problem was sneaking off to play football; it was probably sneaking off to just have a break from kicking the bloody ball around. With clubs in Europe extending their scouting links to Africa, there is always the chance that you might impress a scout and hop on the gravy train.

 

Seyi Adisa, out esteemed editor, suggested that I do a story on the crazy money in football. He seemed to look at it in a negative light. I don’t know what to say to that. Football is market driven; ticket prices are rising because people are willing to pay them. Clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool all have waiting lists and would probably still have them if the season ticket price doubled. They would probably be shorter though. In the same vein, teams like Blackburn and Bolton have had to reduce their ticket price to get fans back in the stadium.

 

As for transfer fees, they’ve always been high. John Charles moved to Juventus from Leeds for £65,000 in 1957. At the exchange rate of the age this comes to $182,000. A house in America at the time cost around $8,000, an average car around $2,000. Some food for thought when choking on your cornflakes as you read about Real offering 85 million for Cristiano Ronaldo. Again, in this case the sellers are in control. Man Utd don’t have to sell the Portuguese forward and in fact seeing as he just signed a new contract can demand a premium. It’s simple economics that even I can understand.

 

As for salaries, given that football is something that not everyone can do at the highest level, why shouldn’t they get paid for being special? It’s galling that a nurse gets paid a fraction and actually does some valuable work, but if there was a lack of nurses, you can bet the existing ones would earn loads. You either have it or you don’t. Regular jobs don’t need that X-factor and even when people have that X-factor, they earn lots of money in income and bonuses. For instance, I don’t need an X-factor to become a journalist, just the right amount of training and dedication. However, having it takes me to the next level like Christiane Amanpour for instance. Same thing with Nurses- there is nothing stopping any of us from being a nurse. It’s a hard job, but it’s not impossible to do. Being a top class footballer on the other hand is, if you don’t have the talent, and sometimes even having the talent isn’t enough.

 

Football today is a product of the world we live in. It’s a product, period. It’s not a pastime anymore, it’s a job. That’s why neither Ronaldo nor Barry has any loyalty. If you had a chance to move to another corporation that offers you more money or better career opportunities at the expense of the one which took a chance on you when you were a green graduate, what would you do?

 

Every time you buy a merchandised jersey, sticker, flask; every time you buy FIFA or Pro Evo; every month you pay dstv or hitv money so you can watch football from all over the world; when you come to this site or any of the thousand similar ones online or buy a sports newspaper; when you go to the games you’re driving the football market forward. If you have a problem with the high prices, then boycott football. Real Madrid will not offer to pay 85 pence for anybody if they had no revenue coming in.

 

However, in a world where people can kill each other over a game of football (which often times involves two teams from cities they have never visited before) a boycott seems less likely than Elvis crashing a UFO into the Loch Ness Monster. Wait till people have even more money to spend once the global financial crises pass.

You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Read the Rules.

It is obvious but do read the rules of the fantasy competition! In particular, what transfers are allowed (and when you can do them), how many players from each Premiership squad, the points scoring system and entry date (leave it late, if possible). For an example, if Defenders receive -2 points for every goal conceded then you should work out that it often won’t be sensible to use the defenders if they are playing away!

Want to do some Transfers?

Before choosing your new player, look at the fixtures for the next month or so. Things to look at are a run of home matches, or matches against out of form or lower half teams, or Sunday and Monday matches which may help your squad based team. Also consider doing the transfer after your outgoing player has played his Saturday match and before the incoming player plays his Sunday/Monday match. If you have a squad based game there is no point transferring a player in if because of the fixtures etc you will not pick him for the next round of matches - leave your transfer until you are actually going to use the new player.

Form.

Players that are on form are much more likely to score points for you time after time, particularly the better quality players, so always watch for a run of form by the top players - a run of form rarely lasts for more than half the season so watch for when to ‘get in’ and when to ‘get out’. Don’t worry about being late in buying an ‘in form’ player if he has already scored a hat full of goals recently - he is still probably going to score more goals than your other striker who hasn’t scored in 5 games! If you’re going to win the competition you need to ‘catch a wave’ when top quality strikers are on form and scoring freely. The same goes for teams who often have a run of games where they really ‘click’ together.

Misclassification.

Clearly strikers who are classified as midfielders and midfielders who are classified as defenders can score you more points than a normal midfielder or defender BUT don’t get carried away - if they are not a top quality player or are not ‘in form’ then they are unlikely to score as many points as a quality in form midfielder or defender. If they are on form then you may not be able to afford to ignore them.

The Defense.

Choose defenders and goalkeepers who play week in week out for the teams that should finish in the top half of the league. Penalty takers are a bonus but really defenders are less individualistic than midfielders or strikers so try and follow the better teams for defenders - there is nothing worse than your strikers scoring loads of goal but finding your goalkeeper let in 6 goals. Obviously you need to choose the right balance in your fantasy team without overspending and having to end up going for the cheapest goalkeeper just to have the costliest striker in your team. For squad games think carefully before playing a defender whose team is playing away to a high scoring club. Also in squad games consider having your two goalkeepers from clubs based close to each other (e.g. Aston Villa and Birmingham) - generally only one club will play at home on any day.

Squad Game.

If you’re using a squad based system and have to pick your team each weekend then firstly sit down with the fixture list for the weekend and decide what the results are likely to be. For example, look for clean sheets (e.g. playing at home against a team that do not score many goals or who are without key attacking players) or teams that are likely to score (e.g. their main striker is on form or their opponents are missing the main centre back). Once you have your predictions for the weekend, then decide which of your squad deserve to be picked.

End of Season Run In.

Be careful when coming to the end of the season where teams have little to play for or are saving players for Cup finals or European matches etc - second string players often come in to try and prove themselves to the manager which is frustrating if he’s dropped your top player to make room! Might be an idea to move to those teams that still have something to play for in the league?

Assists & Appearances.

If the fantasy football game gives points for assists then corner and free kick takers can boost your score. Players that play week in week out for a team are also an advantage.

Latest Player and Team News.

With most fantasy football games, it pays to keep up to date with injury, suspensions and international call ups news and form guides.

Focus On Your Team(s).

Do keep your eye on your fantasy teams and don’t overstretch by entering too many teams in too many different competitions - choose a reasonable number and choose the competitions that appeal to you most - otherwise you will lose out to other competitors who are more focussed on their team.

Get In Front.

Sounds obvious doesn’t it but it is so damn difficult to catch teams once they have a lead on the rest of the league. Most near the top tend to make the obvious moves for players that are in form so it is quite easy to build up similar teams near the top making it harder and harder to catch the guy in top spot. A number of leagues are won by the person leading at Christmas.

Also if you’re looking to get a clean sheet for your defenders, a home match often helps, unless it is against Man Utd who rarely do not score. Also most points will be scored at home matches rather than away matches.

Picking Your Team.

The crucial time to pick your fantasy soccer team is at the start of the season so watch for those players in form during the pre-season friendlies. Also why not pick your top 20 on form, quality players at the end of one season, so you can refer to that come the start of the next? Top quality strikers with one or two Man Utd midfielders and defense based on top teams should always give you a good base.

Who to Spend Your Money On.

In many comps, strikers are usually the most important component to your fantasy team (goals win fantasy competitions), then defenders (full backs ahead of centre backs) and goalkeepers and finally the midfield (excluding some stars). Naturally this is not always the case but most fantasy games allocate high points to goals scored and clean sheets. Look at last season’s stats and if the Midfielders score more on average than Strikers then pick your Midfielders first. Very recent years (up to 2007) have shown that midfielders in the Premiership have become more attacking and not having the likes of Ronaldo, Gerrard and Lampard in your team may mean you’ve ruled out your chances before the season has started.

Christmas.

The Christmas break means that, weather permitting, teams play 4 games in a week i.e. one month’s football takes place in one week! It is very important to make sure your teams are set up properly before these games kick off as so many points are at stake. Also bear in mind that the 1st round of the FA Cup takes place the first week in January so don’t go making lots of transfers when you are very nearly through the Premiership Xmas programme.

Miscellaneous.

When a manager makes wholesale changes to his squad it generally takes a while for the team to play well.

Watch out for teams where the penalty taker has left. Also a new star striker may insist on taking penalties rather than the previous incumbent. Same applies for the free kicks/corners.

Generally wait a while for a new signing from overseas to settle at the club before bringing him in i.e. wait until after he’s either scored.

The top teams generally provide a lot of the fantasy football points (more goals and more clean sheets). You’ll probably need some of the players from the top echelon of teams if you are to be competitive.

Beware that Managers involved in European matches now seem to believe that resting star players or rotating the squad is the best tactic.

Consider the Managers’ records as well.

Adapted from FISO

With so many players moving clubs, one is left to wonder if one would do better as a manager in the transfer market. Now here is your chance to name your squad based on the current crop of players still playing.

Name your dream football squad?