My Sporting Weekend

My Sporting Weekend 7-8^th Of May 2011:

A Day At The Races

Warm-Up's:

Carneige Challenge Cup (Rugby League):

Leeds Rhinos V Crusaders RL, Crusaders had a strong start to the game, with Hep Cahill getting the opening try, on 6 minutes, after Ryan Hall lost the ball to Stuart Reardon after being put under pressure from a high kick. 6 minutes later Rhys Hanbury went over after collecting a good kick through from Elliot Kear, but Leeds then responded with consecutive tries from Paul McShane and Jay Pitts scored for Leeds to take the lead and on 32 minutes they extended their lead further when a couple of good offloads released Rob Burrow to speed through the Crusaders defence and get a try. Leeds started the 1^st half slowly, losing both Brent Webb and Danny Maguire in the first 15 minutes to injury, but they recovered well, scoring 3 tries, but they looked a bit shaky in defence after having to re-jig the team, due to the injurys.

Leeds got the 1^st try of the 2^nd half with Ryan Hall going over down the left wing, but they then lost their 3rd player of the game when Chris Clarkson had to be stretchered off after damaging his right ankle, and Crusaders then got themselves back in the game with Kear going over out on the left wing. Crusaders kept a bit of pressure on Leeds, but they went down to 12 men as Cahill got sent off for kicking out at Rob Burrow as he collected the ball from the full back position. Peter Luton got Crusaders 4th try on 69 minutes to bring them within 4 points, but from the restart Jarred Sammut knocked on, which gave Leeds good field position and Danny Buderus then went over from dummy half to virtually seal the game. Crusaders played well in patches, but just didn't get enough points on the board when they were on top as Leeds looked dangerous every time they got in the final 3^rd of the pitch.

La Liga (Football):

Athletico Madrid V Malaga CF, Relegation threatened Malaga had a really good game but Athletico looked as if they were already on the beach and not playing for a Europa League qualification spot for next season. They had no urgency in their game, for instance not closing down the Malaga defence, who are known for making mistakes, or either wingers trying to get around the Malaga full-backs, and during the 1^st half they only had 2 shots. At half time Malaga led 2 nil after both Rondon, on 29 minutes, and Julio Babtista, on 35 minutes, got on the end of crosses from the right to head past Athletico keeper David De Gea, and as they kicked off the 2^nd half they looked like they might be on the beach as they dropped back and allowed Athletico to have more of the ball. But Athletico still didn't look interested, and it took until after the 70^th minute, after Diego Forlan had come on, before they actually created some good chances, as well as winning a few free kicks around the box. But they still found it hard to get any shots on target and Malaga got their 3^rd goal, on 84 minutes, after a Baptista shot was parried by De Gea across his goal into Enzo Maresca's path who slotted in easily sealing the victory. After a run of 4 wins, as well as picking up 19 points from a possible 24, Malaga are now clear of the drop zone and should avoid relegation, and possibly finish in the top half, if they keep up their form, and if Athletico play like this for the rest of the season they are in danger of letting Espanyol go above them and claim the final Europa League place for next season.

WBO Welterweight Title (Boxing):

Manny 'Pac-Man' Pacquiao V 'Sugar' Shane Mosley, After beating Antonio Margerito last year at Light-middleweight level Pacquiao dropped back down to what is probably currently his natural weight, Welterweight, to face the 39 year old Mosley, going into the fight it looked like Pacquiao was a cert for the win and it was a case of when and how he was going to win, mainly due to his speed against the aged fighter Mosley.

It was a pretty even opening round, but in the 2nd Pacquiao took control and got some good shots off, which got the Las Vegas crowd behind him and in the 3rd Pacquiao knocked Mosley down with a right shot, straight down the center, as he increased the speed of the fight. Mosley made it to the end of the round, as Pacquiao couldn't take advantage of the dazed fighter, who has never lost by a stoppage. Mosley seemed to recover over the next couple of rounds, bt was constantly backtracking as Pacquiao seemed to slow the fight down as he looked to land the big shot, instead of the fast flurries that can be so destructive. As the fight went on the crowd started to get frustrated with the lack of action for either fighter, as Mosley kept backing off Pacquiao, forcing him to take the initiative. In round 8 Mosley landed a couple of good shots, but he didn't build on this momentum as Pacquiao got off some of his own shots in the 9th. In the 10th Mosley knocked Pacquiao down, but it was more like a push and replays confirmed this, and an angered Pacquiao came back strong at Mosley as he picked up the pace and looked to end the fight, but the 11th and 12th round came and went with neither fighter making a good case for a knock-out. The fight went the distance and unsurprisingly it was Pacquiao that came away with a unanimous win on point. This was not the best fight with Pacquiao being too laid back and not making good use of his pace, to keep Mosley under constant pressure, who never looked like taking control of the fight, or even landing any shots that really trouble Pacquiao.

Main Event:

Battle of Britain 2011 (Banger Racing):

This was Startrax's big annual unlimited banger meeting at Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield, and as well as having the Unlimited Bangers on the bill, their was also 1600cc Rookie Bangers and Junior Bangers. I missed the 1^st Unlimited race but the remaining 3 races only contained 12, or so, cars on the track at once, and I think I only saw a one hit and after the final race their was meant to be a destruction derby. Now this consisted of all but 2 of the running cars pulling on to the infield, which is fair enough if they want to save their cars, but then why are they running in a race that is specifically a destruction derby, the other 2 cars then circled around to each other and did a head on, and that was it, day over. Now this was a very poor showing from the Unlimited drivers as their was virtually no action, now I don't profess to knowing inter team politics, but surely if another car is painted a different colour to yours you hit it. Also the Juniors, who have previously been quite good to watch, didn't have that good of turn-out with only 6 cars getting on to the track, and the cars soon spread out during the races, and their was virtually no opportunity to overtake.

Anyway the main reason that I was at the meeting was to see 1600cc Bangers, and more specifically my two cousins who were racing for the 'Green Army' team. Their was a big turn out of cars, around 50, and like the Unlimited's this was team racing, so 2 cars from each group of 4 were placed in the 1^st heat and the other 2 in the 2^nd, with any survivors taking part in the 3^rd and 4^th races. Both of the heats featured a lot of action, with some big hits, a car rolling and a lot of cars spinning out on their own due to the 2^nd turn being semi-flooded, but as it was meant to be nudge and spin some of the hits seemed to bit over the top, leaving most of the cars stricken in the in-field, or against the fence. Each heat ended with, at most, 6 cars running on track, and the 2^nd heat had to be stopped, and ended, after 3 laps due to the fence being damaged and fact that their was so few cars still running. The 3^rd race featured the best racing of the day, after a big pile up on the start line, the track was blocked causing the cars to detour slightly onto the infield, giving a different dimension to normal oval racing. But the best thing about race was that the marshal’s let the action carry on, without the need of red flags that blighted the 1^st two races, and the pile-up cleared itself up a bit. The last race had a disorganised end as it was meant to finish with a destruction derby, but the red flags were shown and the tractors started to clear the track. At this point I started to make my way round to the pits, and by the time I got their some of the cars seemed to be running again and I got to the pit gate to see the DD end with a final hit on a Green Army car. Realistically neither of my cousins did much and probably only completed 6 laps between them which was a bit disappointing on a personal level, but as previously seen in the past you cannot rely on going to watch a single driver and expect them to be involved in all the action.

Apart from the 1600's the meeting was pretty disappointing with the lack of action in the Unlimited's and Juniors (but they can't be faulted), lengthy delays fixing fence and the time taken to get cars off track. Also that fact that the tannoys on the corner terrace weren’t working and the walk way around to the pits were flooded, these things could have been easily sorted by stadium management, but obviously weren't. In the past it was probably a given that I would turn up to watch my family race at Owlerton, but in future it will probably be given more thought, with the outcome probably still turning up and doing the complaining after the meeting.

Cool-Down's:

On Sunday night BBC 2 aired a programme where Lord Alan Sugar looked at Premier League football and gave his insight into how the teams could improve their financial situation with his 'Blueprint'. All of his points had some merit but no one in the programme would ever take any blame for any financial problems of football clubs, and realistically none of his points would be taken on board as neither UEFA or the FA are strong enough to implement real changes to curb over spending at all levels of the game.

1: Control Player's Wagers, I cannot see a salary cap coming into force due to the amount of mega-rich sugar daddies, like Roman Abramovich from Chelsea or Sheikh Mansour from Manchester City being involved in the game, as they would veto the idea. But maybe a gentleman's agreement of a % of turnover that can be spent on wages between certain clubs, ie middle to lower end could work, if only to stop clubs over spending with money they don't have or have no realistic chance of earning it in the future, but again any club with a over ambitious chairman would break this and spend what he wants.

2: Borrowing To Build, Not To Buy, Again a good point but if you buy a house with a mortgage you put yourself in debt and are classed as being in the red, even if you keep up with monthly repayments, which is what is happening at Manchester United, also the loans will be secured against the owners personal assets so there is risk for the owners in this situation, as shown with Hicks and Gillette losing the money that they did with Liverpool. Also I think that Arsenal's and Manchester United's debts are completely different and should not be compared, especially as Manchester United already have the facilities Arsenal put themselves into debt to build.

3: Tougher Penalties For Financial Failure, All football clubs should be run as proper businesses, but clubs have previously gone bust and have had to reform, Aldershot Town for instance, and this has made no impact on how clubs are run now. I think that if a club goes into administration it should be automatically relegated at the end of the season (giving a team that finished in the highest relegation place a reprieve), and if they also happen to finish in a relegation spot, they then drop down 2 divisions for the following season (for instance in a Premier League club goes into admin and then finishes in the bottom 3 they drop down to League 1), this would probably cause chaos for a couple of years, but it would even out when clubs get their finances sorted and they know the consequences.

4: End the Football Creditors Rule, Now this current rule is a joke why should football run by different rules to the rest of the business world, every creditor should be treated equally, but this will never happen as football will always look after football, also the PFA would make a big issue out of it, and would probably get their own way. This could change though if a company was to take a club to court over unpaid debts, even if they reform with a new PLC name, but trade under the same club brand.

5: A Football Trust Fund, This is quite a daft idea as you are telling a club what they can spend the money on and are taking away the responsibility of balancing, building a team and paying wages, as well as improving infrastructure, which are major business decisions and just leaving them to deal with paying players. Also will certain clubs lose out on money because they have invested in certain areas in the past, for instance Manchester United and Arsenal who already have top class facilities because of good investment would lose money, whereas teams like Blackpool or Burnley who don't have top class training facilities or stadium would receive extra money for not previously investing in those areas.

It would have been more interesting if their was more focus on teams from the lower leagues, especially as they have had the knock on from higher wages, but don't receive that much in TV rights, so have to charge extraordinary admission rates to help meet cover costs. Also I find it quite funny that he thinks ITV upping their bid for the 1^st TV rights deal for the Premier League was a 'Dirty Deed', but he then went to Sky and told them to up their bid, surely this is defiantly a conflict of interest and also a form of insider trading as they were probably sealed bids originally.

The main problem is that football will never change because people are unwilling to take any blame, football, like other sports always acts in house and will always look after its own and also the fact that people like Peter Ridsdale and Harry Redknapp, and other, are still involved when they have being involved in several clubs that have had financial problems, and have gone into administration, but play dumb and claim ignorance when questioned.

My Sporting Weekend

Monday, 9 May 2011

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