Some football's happening tomorrow. I had quite forgotten that the season was still with us, and had all but forgotten that Capello and England any longer existed. But they do, and they're playing Switzerland. Has the FA's favourite gnome of Zurich, Sepp Blatter, been invited along for the prawn sandwiches, do you suppose?
Actual games of football no longer seem to matter. It's all the other stuff that is so entertaining, and some of it is in Spain. Take Real Mallorca. A team that can contrive to almost be relegated on the last day of the season, having spent the entire season in mid-table obscurity, takes some beating.
Dottiness is never far away from Real Mallorca, and now the club is seeking to become the Brentford of La Liga; major shareholder and vice-president Llorenç Serra Ferrer possibly taking over the coaching reins. Serra, the Ron Noades, chairman/team manager, of Spanish football. To be fair to Serra, he is actually a coach; Ron just lived his own odd dream.
Real Brentford, once described by Sid Lowe of "The Guardian" as "rubbish" and having no fans, charges which revealed that there were indeed some fans, as they leapt to the club's defence, has, despite nearly clutching relegation defeat from the victory of staying in La Liga, been honoured in Sid's annual Sids. Just. Two players, Nunes and De Guzmán, are on the subs bench for Lowe's team of the season. And De Guzmán's an interesting character. Is he Dutch, is he Jamaican, is he Canadian? What is he exactly? Owen Hargreaves with his knees still intact.
Far, far more interesting, however, are the shenanigans at the Banana Republic of FIFA, and its own Spanish connection. Blatter has proved, like Iran's Ahmadinejad and Belarus's Lukashenko, that a touch of pretend democracy can go a long way in keeping a dictator in power. The delegates walked up, two by two, entering the ark above the flood that never really threatened to wash Sepp away, and dropped their voting slips into the box, watched on by Sepp muttering, "there, now, you know you're doing the right thing".
Among the members of the FIFA "family" who turned on the bleating black sheep Bernstein of the English FA was another interesting character. Spain's very own Sepp: Ángel María Villar Llona, the president of the Spanish football federation. Villar Llona's been in power even longer than Blatter has. He's carved out his own fiefdom. And like Blatter, a certain amount of mud has attached itself to his hands and knees.
Back in November, a judge formally archived charges that had been open against Villar Llona for several years. Despite, I quote, "abominable management in accounting for trips, expenses and purchase of foreign currency" as well as various other criticisms, the judge found that the president and other directors of the federation should be absolved of charges of impropriety.
On being re-elected, yet again, as president in 2008, the head of La Liga said of Villar Llona's re-election that this would mean "the union between all the families of football". Football certainly is a family game, and "allegations", that "beautiful English word", as Villar Llona taunted the FA with, should not be made about families.
In the 2008 election, when he was unopposed, Villar Llona polled 87% of the votes, a bit short of the 92% Blatter secured in Zurich, but pretty good going after 20 years. There was clearly no problem for him in that, two years before, he had managed to stun delegates at a UEFA conference by arguing that too much attention was being paid to racism in football.
It should have come as no great surprise that Villar Llona joined the queue to give the FA a good kick in the shins in Zurich. During the gathering to divvy up the spoils of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Villar Llona, rounding on those accusing FIFA of corruption (i.e. the British media), said: "FIFA is clean and does things with honesty. All of you (members of FIFA) are honest and hard-working and are concerned only for football".
Ah, the beautiful game, the beautiful family game, adorned by Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Guardiola's wonderful Barcelona. But even Barça can't avoid being dragged in. Villar Llona has spawned a word. "Villaroto". José Mourinho has used it, the Madrid football papers have used it. It refers to the alleged bias of the Barça-supporting president against Real Madrid.
Barça, more than a club. Football, more than a game. I nearly forgot, there's one on tomorrow.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Sid Lowe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sid Lowe. Show all posts
Friday, June 03, 2011
Monday, August 18, 2008
Basket Case
You may have noticed that this blog has been an Olympics-free zone, though yesterday's finishing offer might have given a clue that today we would be wandering a bit further than the local Chinese. Of course I could say that I had intended that the blog would remain five rings short of an Olympic logo if only as a personal minor crusade against the whole pompous farce that the games have become especially in the hands of the Chinese who have elevated their political dimension beyond anything Hitler had in mind or also the Stasi with its steroid-fed East German athletes. By the way, if any of you are interested, I can relate the story of one such athlete who told me the whole tale of the discovery of steroids in his food, the consequent heart problems and the period during which his father "disappeared", but it's probably not for this blog.
Well I could say all that, but I won't.
Unlike other major events, notably the international footy championships and of course Eurovision, which have adorned the blog in the past, the Olympics in truth seemed to offer little in the way of a Mallorcan or even Spanish dimension, apart from the odd cyclist being caught in a doping scandal or some such or Rafa Christmas winning the tennis; nothing new there. But then, damn me, along come both "The Bulletin" and those old scoundrels of Spanish basketball to spoil the silence. In the case of the first-mentioned, they have been making play of the fact that the entire British Olympic squad (Team GB if one must), or at least that's how it seems, has in some way been trained in Mallorca, thus meaning ... er, well that they have trained in Mallorca. Actually to be fair I think it was just that girl who can swim a bit and that Bilbo Baggins bloke who rides a bike and who has presumably been one causing potential traffic flashpoints in and around Pollensa. Anyway, this was not really the point of bowing to pressure and finally raising the Olympic flame over the blog. Oh no; it was and is of course the Spanish basketball teams and Sid Lowe of "The Guardian".
In case you have missed all this, Lowe, who lives in Madrid and works not just for "The Guardian" but also Spanish media such as the La Sexta TV channel, unearthed an advert featuring the Spanish basketball teams and penned a short piece that appeared in the newspaper. Just goes to show that even small items in the press can cause one hell of a fuss. Now Lowe, who knows a fair bit about Spanish culture as well as its sport, is nevertheless not one to necessarily stint in taking the piss, especially out of football, or to keeping schtum when it comes to more sensitive issues. This despite his taking the Spanish media shilling.
The advert that has caused the rumpus shows the men's and women's basketball teams doing a slitty-eyed gesture. Personally I don't find this offensive. Puerile yes, but I can see why some might find it offensive, the Chinese for instance. So Sid duly pointed out that although no offence was intended it might have been taken and that the advert should be considered in the context not just of Madrid's desire to stage the 2016 Olympics but also Spain's recent well-publicised racism in sport allegations - Lewis Hamilton, the England football team and the Aragones Thierry Henry remark. At this point the "mierda" started to hit the fan. I won't bother to go into detail as you can read the link for yourselves, but Lowe was right to defend himself by saying that nowhere had he accused anyone of racism. One does suspect, as so often with these things, that no one bothered to actually read the original or if they did to understand its tone.
The story has been interesting to follow on the blogs, no more so than one from "The New York Times" which has offered some further insight into the whole matter. While it reports that the Spanish basketball team was booed in Beijing, it also points out that the team has a long-standing sponsorship arrangement with a Chinese footwear company (Li-Ning) and that the ad was a sort of gesture that was "appropriate and affectionate" - "a wink of the sponsor", as it is described.
Appropriate or not, one suspects that the matter has been blown up out of all proportion. As Lowe admits, it partly reflects the hyper-PCness of the British, something that the Spanish don't quite get, and for which - quite frankly - we should be grateful. But how many Brits can say they've never done a slitty-eyed gesture? I know I have. There again, apparently the Chinese have not taken offence, or they hadn't until up popped Rod Liddle in "The Sunday Times" to say that the advert has not gone down well in Beijing. He did rather steal my thunder as I had been lining up this piece with a conclusion about the fact that Spain and its basketball teams have form - i.e. the 2000 Paralympics gold-medal winners being found to have ten out of twelve players who were fully mentally able. Well that's how I've still decided to conclude it. And that was a disgrace. This little carry-on? I leave it up to you to decide.
Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/11/olympicsbasketball.olympics20081
(The original article with the advert.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/15/olympicsandthemedia.pressandpublishing
(Lowe's response to the rumpus.)
http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/spanish-ad-spurs-charges-of-racism/
(New York Times blog.)
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Marx Brothers. Here is the first part of the film; others are available as links - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJgPCNzt5E. Today's title - American rock group, partly a colour.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Well I could say all that, but I won't.
Unlike other major events, notably the international footy championships and of course Eurovision, which have adorned the blog in the past, the Olympics in truth seemed to offer little in the way of a Mallorcan or even Spanish dimension, apart from the odd cyclist being caught in a doping scandal or some such or Rafa Christmas winning the tennis; nothing new there. But then, damn me, along come both "The Bulletin" and those old scoundrels of Spanish basketball to spoil the silence. In the case of the first-mentioned, they have been making play of the fact that the entire British Olympic squad (Team GB if one must), or at least that's how it seems, has in some way been trained in Mallorca, thus meaning ... er, well that they have trained in Mallorca. Actually to be fair I think it was just that girl who can swim a bit and that Bilbo Baggins bloke who rides a bike and who has presumably been one causing potential traffic flashpoints in and around Pollensa. Anyway, this was not really the point of bowing to pressure and finally raising the Olympic flame over the blog. Oh no; it was and is of course the Spanish basketball teams and Sid Lowe of "The Guardian".
In case you have missed all this, Lowe, who lives in Madrid and works not just for "The Guardian" but also Spanish media such as the La Sexta TV channel, unearthed an advert featuring the Spanish basketball teams and penned a short piece that appeared in the newspaper. Just goes to show that even small items in the press can cause one hell of a fuss. Now Lowe, who knows a fair bit about Spanish culture as well as its sport, is nevertheless not one to necessarily stint in taking the piss, especially out of football, or to keeping schtum when it comes to more sensitive issues. This despite his taking the Spanish media shilling.
The advert that has caused the rumpus shows the men's and women's basketball teams doing a slitty-eyed gesture. Personally I don't find this offensive. Puerile yes, but I can see why some might find it offensive, the Chinese for instance. So Sid duly pointed out that although no offence was intended it might have been taken and that the advert should be considered in the context not just of Madrid's desire to stage the 2016 Olympics but also Spain's recent well-publicised racism in sport allegations - Lewis Hamilton, the England football team and the Aragones Thierry Henry remark. At this point the "mierda" started to hit the fan. I won't bother to go into detail as you can read the link for yourselves, but Lowe was right to defend himself by saying that nowhere had he accused anyone of racism. One does suspect, as so often with these things, that no one bothered to actually read the original or if they did to understand its tone.
The story has been interesting to follow on the blogs, no more so than one from "The New York Times" which has offered some further insight into the whole matter. While it reports that the Spanish basketball team was booed in Beijing, it also points out that the team has a long-standing sponsorship arrangement with a Chinese footwear company (Li-Ning) and that the ad was a sort of gesture that was "appropriate and affectionate" - "a wink of the sponsor", as it is described.
Appropriate or not, one suspects that the matter has been blown up out of all proportion. As Lowe admits, it partly reflects the hyper-PCness of the British, something that the Spanish don't quite get, and for which - quite frankly - we should be grateful. But how many Brits can say they've never done a slitty-eyed gesture? I know I have. There again, apparently the Chinese have not taken offence, or they hadn't until up popped Rod Liddle in "The Sunday Times" to say that the advert has not gone down well in Beijing. He did rather steal my thunder as I had been lining up this piece with a conclusion about the fact that Spain and its basketball teams have form - i.e. the 2000 Paralympics gold-medal winners being found to have ten out of twelve players who were fully mentally able. Well that's how I've still decided to conclude it. And that was a disgrace. This little carry-on? I leave it up to you to decide.
Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/11/olympicsbasketball.olympics20081
(The original article with the advert.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/15/olympicsandthemedia.pressandpublishing
(Lowe's response to the rumpus.)
http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/spanish-ad-spurs-charges-of-racism/
(New York Times blog.)
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Marx Brothers. Here is the first part of the film; others are available as links - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJgPCNzt5E. Today's title - American rock group, partly a colour.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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