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Gary Andrews delves into this year’s FA Cup, which kicked off with a pioneering move that offered free football streamed online (for adults only)

When Ascot United were drawn at home in the FA Cup’s extra preliminary qualifying round to Wembley FC, their board may have reasonably expected a gate of around 100. That would have been a wild underestimate. After 88 fans watched their midweek Hellenic League draw against Ardley United, a record crowd of 1,149 made their way to the Racecourse Ground.

Those punters weren’t the only ones watching the tie. On Facebook 27,000 tuned in to a live stream of Wembley’s eventual 2-1 victory, all of whom chose to stay in on a Friday and watch two teams playing five steps below the Football League. That’s more than the average attendances of eight Premier League teams. The reason can be summed up in one word: Budweiser. The all-American beer hardly seemed the most natural fit for the FA Cup when the sponsorship was announced in June. Since then, however, the brewer appears to have demonstrated a better understanding of the competition than previous sponsors.

At the ground, fans were offered cheap beer and free burgers, while corporate razzmatazz was kept to a minimum. Online, users had to become a fan of the beer’s UK Facebook page (providing they were over 18) then click on a bespoke widget on the page to view the match.

Instead of the usual jerky, slow video, the quality of the stream was high, and commentators Dan Roebuck and Stewart Robson had done plenty of research. There were no patronising asides to second jobs as binmen that often characterise ESPN’s and ITV’s coverage, while occasional pitchside swearing and one fumbled handover seemed in keeping with the occasion.

But for Budweiser and the FA, Ascot v Wembley was about more than bringing attention to teams in a round of the Cup that would usually attract next to no sponsorship. Viewed as an experiment, the Facebook stream can be seen as a success and several parties will be analysing the data with interest. Facebook has over 700 million members, meaning there is a large captive audience, both in the UK and abroad. Having “Liked” the Budweiser page in order to watch the game, all users will see the company’s updates in their Facebook news feeds. The benefits to the brewer’s marketing arm are obvious.

Streaming games legally online is not new. All major broadcasters offer online streaming of their live games, while sites like bet365.com have an array of rights to foreign leagues. ITV.com even streamed Wantage Town v Brading Town at the extra preliminary qualifying stage of the competition in 2008. Although ITV did an impressive job, viewing figures were low and costs high, and the extensive coverage was quietly dropped the following season.

With cricket’s Indian Premier League signing a deal with YouTube and organisations as diverse as Major League Baseball and film studio Miramax experimenting with Facebook broadcasting, it was only a matter of time before football decided it wanted a piece of the action. The FA and Budweiser have now shown the appetite is there – the viewing figures for Ascot were certainly more than some broadcasters’ Europa League streams and, you would suspect, Premier Sport’s Conference coverage (although Premier doesn’t release any viewing figures).

With ongoing uncertainty over TV rights, not least due to Portsmouth publican Karen Murphy’s case against the Premier League, leagues and clubs are already having to plan for the possibility of a different media world. Facebook itself has ambitions to grow into a major broadcasting player. Although the cost may be prohibitive for individual clubs below the Championship to produce their own broadcasts (at least of the same quality as Budweiser’s), it wouldn’t be unexpected if the Conference, or sponsors Blue Square Bet, offer live streaming via Facebook when their current deal with Premier expires, if the sums add up.

However, unless Budweiser does further matches, it’s difficult to tell if the figures were down to a one-off novelty factor or a wider desire to watch grassroots football. But a large portion of younger fans were unable to access the beer’s Facebook page due to the age restrictions, meaning the numbers could be even higher if the brewer can find a way around this.

In the short term, it’s hard to criticise Budweiser and the FA too much, as they pitched their initial stream perfectly. In the longer term, it remains to be seen if Facebook viewing can be sustained and, if it can, exactly what kind of broadcasting monster it may spawn.

From WSC 296 October 2011

Adam Bate believes getting the press onside is an important skill for any football figure, but they don’t all seem to realise this

“I wasn’t a great communicator. Things are different now because I’m trying to get into media work, but I didn’t speak to the press then and that maybe didn’t help my cause. The thing is that at Blackburn and West Ham, my performances were OK and spoke for themselves, but that wasn’t the case here [at Fulham].” Ian Pearce, 2011.

Pearce’s attitude is indicative of many professional footballers. They take the view that there is no advantage to be gained from speaking to the ladies and gentlemen of the press. The media are simply out to get them and the safest course of action is to steer well clear. But, as Pearce suggests, this belief can actually damage a footballer’s career.

Of course, in a very different way, Joey Barton’s recent outpourings on Twitter have challenged the relationship between footballers and the media further. In embracing social media with alarming honesty, Barton has not only served to highlight the anodyne contributions of his peers but also left journalists reporting information that many of the public have already accessed directly.

Lawrie Madden is a footballer-turned-journalist who now gives media training courses for the League Managers Association (LMA). At a Lilleshall seminar in July 2011, he said: “I still don’t think football clubs, players and agents fully understand the role of the media and what it’s there for. A lot of players want to deal with the media when it suits them, or when they’ve got a book to promote, but most of the time they don’t want to know. If you want to build a career in the media it’s a lot easier if you worked on that relationship when you were playing. It’s not rocket science but sometimes you’d think it is.”

It’s not just players that need to work on their relationship with the press. As Madden knows from his role with the LMA, managers could also do themselves a few more favours. He added: “Sir Alex Ferguson bans people from press conferences just to teach them a lesson. At any one point there might be three Premier League managers refusing to talk to Sky. Some of them are missing a trick because the media can provide a career beyond football – as long as a player or manager conducts themselves correctly.”

Perhaps it’s not so crucial for a man such as Ferguson – he celebrates his 70th birthday on New Year’s Eve and septuagenarians with knighthoods aren’t known for clogging up the dole queue. But while Fergie is working from a position of strength, others can be significantly helped or hindered by the press coverage they receive when the going gets tough.

Gordon Strachan is a manager who became infamous for his surly attitude towards the press. Richard Rae, writing in the Independent last year, acknowledged: “Plenty of journalists have been the subject of an acerbic put-down, which [Strachan] accepts probably doesn’t help when his managerial record is being analysed.”

In stark contrast, Harry Redknapp remains notorious for his tendency to court sections of the media. Birmingham Mail reporter Chris Lepkowski recently revealed on Twitter that when Redknapp’s Portsmouth defeated West Bromwich Albion in an FA Cup semi-final in 2008, one of the wags in the press room was heard to say: “Thank God the quotable manager won.” Of course, maybe he’s just that kind of guy. But it provided food for thought when Tottenham struggled their way through a difficult three-month period in the spring that brought just one solitary win in 13 games. While many Spurs fans were dismayed, the usually over-reacting tabloid press remained firmly in support of Redknapp.

Neil Ashton, formerly of the News of the World, demanded fans get off Redknapp’s back. Charlie Wyett of the Sun – a paper for which Redknapp has written a regular column – was particularly incredulous and appeared to be seeking vengeance. Wyett went so far as to suggest that the Spurs fans who had criticised the manager deserved for the club to be relegated the following season.

Contrast this with the treatment of Fabio Capello. The Italian endured an undoubtedly disappointing 2010 World Cup as England manager. However, when the Sun is producing back-page headlines labelling Capello a Weirdo and a Jackass, it is legitimate to consider the possibility that there are other elements at work. His refusal to interact with the media as freely as some of his contemporaries is a factor that perhaps should not be overlooked.

Don’t expect Capello to be tweeting the reasons for his team selections any time soon. But you can certainly expect the relationship, or lack of it, between players, managers and the media to continue to shape public perceptions for some time to come.

From WSC 296 October 2011

Steve Anders recalls Manchester United’s only season in the last 75 years in the second tier of English football, which proved to be a year remembered for hooliganism

The long-term significance
Hooliganism was becoming a major social problem. In the first significant trouble involving the English abroad, Spurs fans had rioted at the second leg of the UEFA Cup final in Rotterdam in May 1974. Three months later, a Blackpool fan was stabbed to death during a Division Two match against Bolton at Bloomfield Road.

Read more…

Dear WSC
My thanks to Phil Robbins (Letters, WSC 290) for pointing out the usual mistakes made about the identity of the Milan clubs. Another thing that really annoys me is the common error over the name of their shared stadium. It is not the San Siro. It is the Giuseppe Meazza. San Siro is the district it’s in. In England one would say the Boleyn Ground but never the Upton Park. That would be daft, wouldn’t it?
Gary Valentini, Leeds

Dear WSC
In his letter in WSC 290, Phil Robbins raised a good point about English commentators getting the names of the Milan teams wrong. He then went on to say that both Internazionale and Milan play at the San Siro, which is something that until recently I didn’t realise is technically incorrect. Brian Glanville put me straight in his World Soccer column. Although almost universally referred to in Britain as the San Siro, the correct term is simply San Siro, which is the name of the district the stadium is situated in. So calling it the San Siro is a bit like saying Liverpool are playing at the Anfield. On the subject of commentator mistakes, I’m sure Arrigo Sacchi would have been a little cheesed off had he known that during the recent Spurs v Milan game, Clive Tyldesley referred to Milan as Fabio Capello’s team. Although Clive is correct in recognising that Fabio enjoyed success at Milan, it was built largely upon solid foundations laid by Sacchi, who brought Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten to the club as well as winning back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and 1990. Small beans, of course, but still relatively important if you are peddling so-called expert views on television.
Emerson Marks, Southampton

Dear WSC
Continuing the theme of daft phrases used by commentators and pundits, I’d like to point out my own personal favourite. Towards the end of each season we’re repeatedly told that the teams in the promotion frame are desperate to avoid “the lottery of the play-offs”. Like every other football contest the play-offs involve skill, pace, strength, tactics, concentration, commitment, along with a healthy slice of luck, and more often than not the best team wins. Quite often that team may not have been the better side throughout the regular league season but that’s a different issue. It’s interesting that the same term is never applied to other knockout contests. Since the two competitions use exactly the same format then surely we should also be discussing “the lottery of the Champions League semi-finals”. Unsurprisingly, I’ve never heard either ITV or Sky use that particular phrase when promoting their live coverage. However, if the pundits are right then perhaps we should seek solace in the randomness of it all. The next time England make their customary quarter-final exit, rather than descending into despair, the nation could take comfort in avoiding the lottery of the World Cup semis.
Karl Laycock, Mansfield

Dear WSC
I suspect that the concentration of youth players inw Premier League academies is already in full swing, if my club Leyton Orient are anything to go by. Currently having our best season since the late 1970s, it’s a niggling fact that none of our current first team come from our youth system. At least five mainstays of the team (Jamie Jones, Ben Chorley, Terrell Forbes, Jimmy Smith, Charlie Daniels) are youth-team products from Premier League clubs who have had to drop down the divisions to find regular football. Three current first-team players (Tom Carroll, Harry Kane, Paul-Jose M’Poku) are on loan from Tottenham, and have played vital parts in our season so far. The fact is, we and other lower-league clubs rely on youth players from wealthier teams to reinforce our squads. The issue seems to me not so much that smaller clubs are not properly reimbursed for training young players, but that the big clubs already have a powerful grip on the developing talent in this country.
Phil Laing, Chingford

Dear WSC
I found your article on British voices covering American soccer telecasts dead on (Losing the legacy, WSC 289). As a fan of the New York Red Bulls and the US national team, I can assure you that I find Red Bulls announcer Shep Messing’s Bronx accent and detailed knowledge of every player in MLS infinitely more enjoyable than hearing Steve McManaman ramble on without any knowledge of the American game whatsoever. I wouldn’t mind his accent, of course, if the former star had bothered to learn anything at all about the teams he was covering. His lack of interest in doing so showed a remarkable lack of respect for MLS, a league which draws well, is entertaining and has fuelled the development of the national team. While I certainly appreciate the game’s English history, having someone thoroughly ignorant of American soccer broadcast matches in the US is aggravating. The US is finally developing its own style of play and own systems of player development, yet it seems more determined than ever to “Anglo-cast”. Maddening.
William J Smith, Brooklyn, USA

Dear WSC
The WSC 290 Season In Brief about the Australian National Soccer League prompted happy memories of watching the Wollongong Wolves at Marconi Fairfield one winter’s night in Sydney in – I would guess – June 1998. After a goalless first half the visiting wolf mascot was doing the rounds, as mascots do, a few rows in front of me. Without preamble a man punched the wolf in the head. Even more remarkably, someone pointed out the attacker to a steward, who gave the guilty man a talking-to. Through the power of WSC, can anyone tell me what became of any of them?
Mark Rowe, Burton upon Trent

Dear WSC
I wasn’t around to see the Australian National Soccer League’s birth in 1977. But your Season In Brief brought back fond memories of the seasons that followed. For many years the NSL was a much-loved competition. It was passionately followed by those who knew what true football was, in a country dominated by other codes. We witnessed the formative years of some greats (Mark Viduka, Robbie Slater, Danny Tiatto and Brett Emerton, to name just a few). Yet as the article correctly describes, there was an inevitability about the league’s demise nearly 30 years later. It descended into a farce. Inept administrators, dwindling crowds, barren sponsorship and clubs stuck in old-world ethnic rivalries. At its nadir Peter Beardsley came out of retirement and played two miserable games for the Melbourne Knights. Sadly for some of us, the A-League is yet to fill the void. Crowds trebled in some cities and the breadth of support for the competition has clearly spread. Yet much of the substance of the game has gone. Matches are screened only on pay TV and freshly minted club supporters complain about the “touch judge”. When the A-League was launched in 2005 it was to much hope and fanfare. Since then two clubs have folded, finances have fluctuated and the games expansion has been put on hold. Now it would seem we’re not the only ones a little lost.
Dashiel Lawrence, Melbourne, Australia

Dear WSC
Like Alan Bunce (Letters, WSC 290), I too am driven to despair by the FA Cup draw. However, for me, it has become a real-life example of the proverb: be careful what you wish for, it might come true. Jim Rosenthal has taken to a new level the trend to throw in an inane comment after he reads out the team’s name when their ball number is called. I wouldn’t mind if he said something controversial, such as: “Manchester United, for whom Wayne Rooney will be available to play after getting away with a blatant elbow in the face yesterday.” What we actually get is inanities like: “Manchester United… a late winner at home yesterday.” I point the finger of blame at David Davies OBE, former executive director of the FA. I still remember how he used to add a little extra to the draw, supposedly for the benefit of the less well informed. The nadir was surely this: “Portsmouth… Pompey… from the south coast.” I’m a Southampton fan and even I was insulted, and I remember wishing they would put a trained broadcaster in his place. Well, they did. Enough said.
Tim Manns, Plymouth

Dear WSC
I must correct Dave Lee (Flood risks, WSC 290), who suggested that the FA was responsible for charging fans to watch Ukraine v England online in 2009. The FA didn’t own the rights to that fixture, they belonged to the Ukrainian FA, who originally sold them to Setanta. When they went bust, their agents Perform opted for the online model in lieu of, they claimed, any serious bids from another broadcaster. The FA have absolutely no say as to what happens with the TV rights for away qualifiers, Setanta just bought that one off their own back.
However you’re right to say that the FA did opt for online streaming of Under-21 matches, as well as additional FA Cup games, that were originally part of their contract with Setanta. The difference between the FA’s streaming and the Ukraine v England affair is that, as mentioned, the FA offers them for free.
Steve Williams, Cleethorpes

Dear WSC
In football it is an old adage that “a good player doesn’t become a bad one overnight”. This is certainly true of Fernando Torres – it has taken him the best part of a year.
Geoff Laidlaw, Newcastle upon Tyne

Dear WSC
In his letter in WSC 290 regarding who was overlooked for inclusion in the “Disappearing from view” section of Season In Brief, Tim Curtis seems to have misunderstood the inclusion criteria. As I understand it, those named are not necessarily players, teams or managers that have ended up furthest away from where they played in the season in question (like his suggestions of Barry Hayles, Andy Melville and Matt Jansen) but rather someone or something that reached the end of a glorious or noteworthy career during or around that season. Colin Calderwood was about to retire so his inclusion is entirely justified, while Tom’s suggestions all had reasonably significant careers after the end of 2000-01. Barry Hayles played three further seasons for Fulham, all in the Premier League, representing the highest level he played at before or since. Andy Melville retired in 2005 having also played in the top flight for the same three seasons for Fulham before a short spell at West Ham. Matt Jansen was only 24 in 2002 and, while a motorcycle accident in 2002 seemed to stall his promising progress, he continued with Blackburn and Bolton in the top division for a further five years. As for Ossie Ardiles, I’m pretty certain he would qualify as having disappeared from view after his sacking from Spurs in October 1994 – the following 17 years have seen short, largely unsuccessful spells at ten different clubs across the world. But he wasn’t managing in Division One in 2001 so he doesn’t really qualify for consideration for this particular article.
Fred Sullivan, Manchester

Dear WSC
Paul Knott’s praise of Ian Ashbee in WSC 290 was well merited. However, Paul should in future be more careful with his use of the word unique. In describing Ashbee’s feat of captaining his club in all four divisions, Paul would have been better advised to have used another descriptive term because it is certainly not unique. Ladies, gentlemen and WSC readers, I give you Don Masson. He not only captained Notts County in all four divisions but must surely be unique in as much as he also captained his country.
Mike Gyles, Alfreton

Dear WSC
In response to Keith Chapman’s letter in WSC 290, I can put his mind at rest. As a lifelong Newcastle fan (of the armchair variety in recent years) it pains me to say that I have reliable eyewitness accounts from St James’ Park of fans leaving the ground with the score at 4-0 to Arsenal, somehow unable to foresee the Gunners’ spectacular second-half capitulation. According to my source they numbered in the hundreds (probably about 30 or so accounting for excited exaggeration) and one hapless individual even volunteered to be interviewed by the local media in the days after the game declaring his misfortune at missing a stirling comeback by the Magpies. I can’t confirm that the individuals shown on MOTD were among those that actually left the ground, but I can with some confidence assure Mr Chapman that the BBC certainly didn’t “make it up about people leaving at half time”. Not this time anyway.
Paul Morrow, Newcastle upon Tyne

Dear WSC
While I wouldn’t want to defend the logic of splitting the SPL into two leagues after 33 games, there is certainly a logic and fairness behind preventing the seventh-placed team leapfrogging the sixth-placed team – in fact, unless there was a huge gap between the two after 33 games, you would expect it to happen. The sixth-placed team has to play against the five teams that finished above them, which is clearly a harder task than playing against the bottom five, as the seventh-placed team is required to do. I’d suggest that the SPL consider splitting the league between the top two and the bottom ten at the halfway stage, so that we can all enjoy the spectacle of Messrs McCoist and Lennon being banished to the stands on a weekly basis, but I fear they might take this idea seriously.
John Rooney, Bristol

From WSC 291 May 2011

With more live football broadcasted every season, should players and managers start showing more respect on and off the field?

FA Cup broadcasts are often introduced by a montage of winning captains brandishing the trophy. Liverpool’s victory in the 1992 final never gets shown, however, because their captain, Mark Wright was clearly seen to shout “You fucking beauty!” as he raised the Cup over his head. Wright was one of the more belligerent players of his era so it’s quite likely that this was a spontaneous outburst. It’s also possible that it was an in-joke, referring to the fact that a Liverpool team-mate, John Barnes, had shouted exactly the same thing – seen in close-up, on live TV – when his last-minute free-kick forced extra time against Portsmouth in the semi-final.

Neither incident seems to have triggered a reaction in the media. More live matches are now transmitted every month than were shown in the whole of 1991-92. There will be moments in every live game that the camera catches a player swearing, at a team-mate, an opponent, a referee or in a celebratory hug after a goal. If every oath had to be accounted for in the post-match analysis, there would be no time to discuss the game.

So it’s difficult to understand why Wayne Rooney’s outburst after completing his hat-trick in Man United’s recent win at West Ham should have become one of the most widely discussed moments of the season, one that, at the time of writing, seems likely to be punished by a two-match ban.

Rooney’s mental state has been the subject of intense speculation since the 2010 World Cup when he swore into a TV camera in response to boos from the England fans after the match against Algeria. That incident did further damage to a public image already dented by the tabloids’ forensic exploration of his private life. Rooney has appeared to be unsettled ever since, his sullen demeanour not lifted by a recent improvement in form. Someone on a basic weekly wage of £250,000 can’t expect to receive much sympathy but some of the derision aimed at Rooney by sections of the press seems to be rooted in resentment that someone from his background should earn as much as he does.

It’s been said that if leading a blameless life was a prerequisite for being England captain, hardly anyone in the current international squad would be eligible for the armband. But they are fêted as celebrities by the same media that routinely vilifies them. Rooney’s outburst at Upton Park was caught on screen because a cameraman followed him around the side of the pitch and stuck a lens in his face. Sky boast about their ability to make the viewers feel as though they are in the middle of the action but while TV is keen to be seen as a participant in football – as witnessed by its ceaseless lobbying for the introduction of technology – it is still only an observer. Swearing at a referee rightly earns a card; doing the same thing to a camera lens might look crass but it shouldn’t be actionable.

The FA’s reaction to the Rooney incident has been presented as a boost to the ailing Respect campaign which is due for one of its regular overhauls. There is little doubt that players are becoming increasingly disrespectful to match officials, who are further undermined by television’s intense scrutiny of every decision. Managers could take steps to curb their players’ behaviour. If they don’t it can only be because they believe that intimidating an official can have positive benefits.

The Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Scudamore, is to give evidence to a parliamentary select committee on football this month, at which he is expected to announce that a retooled Respect campaign will be in place for the start of 2011-12. But there is no reason to think that it would rein in Wayne Rooney’s boss, who is more disdainful of referees than any other figure in football.

Sir Alex Ferguson received a five- match touchline ban for suggesting, among other things, that referee Martin Atkinson was biased in his handling of a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in March. He seems unfazed by the punishment, saying: “I got done for what I considered fair comment.” Ferguson often seems to be beyond the control of the football authorities – his failure to speak to the BBC since 2004 is in direct contravention of League rules – but a more rigorous enforcement of the Respect guidelines would surely involve regular confrontations with him.

Scudamore should press for tougher sanctions against Ferguson whenever he oversteps the mark in his criticism of officials. Otherwise campaigns to boost referees’ authority will have no effect until their toughest opponent retires.

From WSC 291 May 2011