Archive for November, 2009

Watford face administration threat

• Watford need £5.5m in three weeks to survive
• Championship club facing 10-point deduction

Watford have until Christmas to secure new funding or they could be forced into administration and face a 10-point deduction. The cash-strapped Championship club’s holding company revealed the severity of the situation yesterday, despite being loaned £1m by the club chairman three days ago.

Watford Leisure borrowed the money from Valley Grown Salads – which is controlled by the club’s chairman, Jimmy Russo, and his brother, Vicenzo – to meet immediate cash-flow demands, but had to announce on the London stock exchange yesterday that an additional £5.5m would be needed in just over three weeks if the club are to stave off administration until the end of the season.

“The November loan will only be sufficient to cover the company’s cash requirements until 22 December,” the statement said. “In the event that further funding is not available to the club before 22 December 2009, then the board would seek a suspension of trading in Watford Leisure’s shares pending clarification of its financial position.”

Watford, who sit ninth in the Championship table with 27 points from their opening 18 matches, have outstanding loans of almost £5m, the vast majority of which is owed to Russo’s Valley Grown Salads and secured against the club’s Vicarage Road stadium.

The manager, Malky Mackay, has exceeded most expectations so far this season following a summer exodus that saw his predecessor, Brendan Rodgers, leave for Reading after just six months in charge. Rodgers took the midfielder Jobi McAnuff with him to the Madejski Stadium. The striker Tamas Priskin joined Ipswich Town and last season’s top scorer Tommy Smith, along with the defender Mike Williamson, departed for Portsmouth as the Hornets tried desperately to cut their wage bill, which was estimated to account for more than three-quarters of their turnover.

There was some good news for the club on Sunday – from a financial, if not a football aspect – as they were drawn away to Chelsea in the third round of the FA Cup. The half share of the gate receipts from that tie at Stamford Bridge will provide a much-needed deposit to the club coffers, which are also boosted by the £489,000 the club receive in annual rent from the rugby union side Saracens. The singer Elton John, the club’s honorary life president and former chairman and director, is due to perform a fundraising concert at Vicarage Road at the end of the season.

Sid Lowe gives his verdict on El Clásico

The first clásico to be shown on the silver screen lived up to its billing, but Madrid were made to pay for some poor finishing

This time, Iker Casillas wasn’t wearing his Iker Casillas face, the one that says “you call that a defence?!” This time, his defence was a defence. He was, though, wearing the face of an idiot. Up the tunnel and through the plywood door, chapel to the left, dressing room to the right, Dani Alves was wearing the face of a grinning simpleton, all glazed expression and cheeky smiles. Xabi Alonso was wearing the face of the disappointed, dough-eyed and sad, Pepe was wearing the face of Stanley Ipkiss, and Cristiano Ronaldo was wearing the shiny but not particularly happy face of someone who applies too much lotion. It was hard to see what kind of face Carles Puyol was wearing but he was probably smiling behind all that hair.

Manuel Pellegrini, meanwhile, was wearing what the Spanish describe as a face of circumstances, skin dragged down as if an invisible weight hung from his chin. His side had just produced their best league performance in the biggest match – an intense, high-tempo display in the clásico. One in which he insisted: “we were better than them in just about everything”, in which Kaká showed flashes of his class, Alonso and Lass Diarra smothered Barça’s midfield, and Ronaldo looked dangerous; in which almost everyone played well, in fact. But still they had lost 1-0, despite playing almost half an hour with an extra man. Still they’d lost top spot; still Barcelona had secured their best ever start. Only two coaches had reached week 12 unbeaten before – Bobby Robson and Terry Venables.

Because while Madrid had been “better at just about everything” – and that’s highly debatable – one thing they weren’t better at was finishing. Because when Cristiano Ronaldo stepped into the spotlight, he fluffed his lines, AS’s cover showing his easy first-half chance alongside the headline: “there went the win.” Because Barça-baiting Tomás Guasch insisted: “if he had scored, Madrid would have won”, but if Barça-baiting Tomás Guasch’s tía had cojones she’d be his tío. And because while Marca’s cover declared that it “tasted like victory”, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter isn’t actually butter. Not even when you throw in complaints about the ref – Marca accusing him of missing a penalty on Ronaldo and AS’s mad Madridista Tomás Roncero attacking him for allowing Barcelona’s goal despite it being “nearly offside.”

Because, in short, while Madrid took home plenty of positives, the bottom line, grumbled Casillas, is that Real Madrid lost. “I don’t care about playing well,” the keeper said, pulling on his George W Bush mask. “I leave here wearing an idiot’s face.” As for Barcelona president Joan Laporta, he was wearing the face of a very smug man indeed. “That,” he declared, “is why we signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic.” That being what one paper described as a “homicidal zambombazo” – the wonderful side-footed volley that won the game.

It was a telling remark, revealing of the pressure on Laporta. When Barcelona swapped Ibrahimovic for Eto’o, most people thought they were completely off their heads. They’d sold the man who had scored more La Liga goals over the last five years than anyone else. They’d given Inter the man who always does it when it matters, the man who twice hit the opening goal in the European Cup final, and taken the man that never does – the striker Arrigo Sacchi described as “strong against the weak and weak against the strong.”

Ibrahimovic didn’t suit Barcelona’s style – something that seemed confirmed when they pursued David Villa first. And although Eto’o is a difficult character even Guardiola’s infamous remark that there was a lack of “feeling” between him and the Cameroonian didn’t convince. “He doesn’t need to have feeling with me,” Eto’o responded, “I’m not Penelope Cruz.” Last season, they won the treble together, after all, and Ibrahimovic is hardly the most accommodating character either. As if all that wasn’t ridiculous enough, Barcelona had driven a huge truckload of used €500 notes round to Inter’s house too. It didn’t make sense.

Only it did. Sort of. There was a financial and contractual imperative too; the board pushed for Eto’o to go as well. More, even, than Guardiola did. Forget the truck of cash, Barcelona considered the deal a straight swap. Eto’o’s contract was due for renewal. He wanted €10m net, a four-year deal, and no longer qualified for the 23% tax band. From Barcelona’s point of view, his salary would suddenly leap to €14.5m a year; more than €20m extra over the duration. Then there was the signing on fee, at around €10m. Barcelona didn’t see Eto’o’s departure in terms of a loss so much as an act of good housekeeping, enabling them to secure Ibrahimovic below €50, the limit they’d set and the price at which they baulked over Villa. They’d offloaded a problem too.

Besides, height and presence has long been an obsession for Barcelona and, having lost out on Villa, Guardiola wanted a tactical plan B – something Marca’s Roberto Palomar accused Pellegrini of lacking when Madrid had to chase the game last night A big fan of Patrick Kluivert as a player, someone who privately speaks highly of Peter Crouch, Guardiola wanted an inverted pivot – someone to offer a more direct option, bring over people into play and score goals. Ibrahimovic did so; fabulous footwork provided assists against Zaragoza and Getafe, five goals in the opening five games was the best start in Barça’s history.

But there were doubts. Barcelona appeared slower, more ponderous with him; there was less of that asphyxiating pressure, less of the pathological will to win with which Eto’o drove his team-mates on. He had missed a great chance against Inter, hit the post against Rubin Kazan and last week Barcelona produced their best display this season in destroying Inter without him. Last night, the doubts were blown away; last night, Ibrahimovic became a hero. The winning goal in the biggest game on earth, the bitterest rivalry, the most expensive match ever played. A gloriously precise volley. Five minutes after coming on. When injured. “Who says he doesn’t do it in the big games?” cheered Sport. “Viva Ibrahimovic!” shouted El Mundo Deportivo. Zlatan, said Guardiola, “was marvellous.”

Modest, too. For now, at least. Maybe he’s finally found a team he considers worthy of his talents; maybe he’s just the new boy still on best behaviour. Speaking in Italian with the occasional English word thrown in, Ibrahimovic insisted that “the credit for the goal goes to Alves.” He had a point. His first two crosses travelled a combined distance of 769 miles, but it was Alves who delivered the inch perfect ball for Ibrahimovic’s volley, just as he’d provided the second against Inter, he slipped an impossible pass into Leo Messi only for the Argentinian to blow it, and in the 89th minute, one up against their biggest rivals, when everyone else was bricking it, football’s Sonic the Hedgehog was still steaming up the wing like a hyperactive kid.

Not that Alves was alone. While Ibrahimovic is splashed across the cover of every single paper, it was Barcelona’s back four that really shone. Ibrahimovic’s goal came from Gerard Piqué tackling Ronaldo yet again, striding up the pitch, laying it off and continuing into the area, leaving the Swede free. And Eric Abidal, Barcelona’s usually ignored left-back, almost finished their best move. Above all, though, last night Barcelona’s defenders did something most people thought Barcelona’s defenders couldn’t do. Defend. And none more so than Carles Puyol.

The 31-year-old feared that, like Eto’o, his days at Camp Nou were numbered but signed a new deal on the cheap and produced the display of his life, launching into lunatic, last gasp tackles to deny certain goals. Not once. Not twice. But three times. He was simply immense. Last night’s clásico was the first ever match to be shown on the silver screen and boasted the greatest cast in history, a collection of superheroes to rival the best cinemas with the stickiest floors. Six candidates for the Ballón d’Or, the last three Fifa World Players, over €350 worth of signings. And yet the star was the man who plays with his hair in his eyes and his heart on his sleeve. Superman’s fine but sometimes what you really need is Captain Caveman.

Results: Sporting 1-0 Villarreal, Valencia 1-1 Mallorca, Sevilla 2-2 Malaga, Valladolid 3-3 Tenerife, Getafe 5-1 Xérez, Racing 0-1 Deportivo, Almería 1-4 Athletic, Zaragoza 0-1 Osasuna, Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid, Atlético 4-0 Espanyol

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Ireland asked to be 33rd team – Blatter

• Fifa president admits Irish were victims of ‘a cheating handball’
• Extra match officials could be used in South Africa

The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has revealed that the Football Association of Ireland asked to be included in the World Cup as an extra team following the Republic of Ireland’s controversial play-off defeat to France.

The Republic lost in Paris after Thierry Henry appeared to deliberately handle the ball in the build-up to William Gallas’s decisive late goal. Blatter said that while Ireland would not become the 33rd team at the World Cup, the incident could have long-term implications on the qualifying process, and lead to the use of additional officials at next year’s tournament in South Africa.

“We received a delegation from Ireland at Fifa and they were naturally absolutely unhappy at what has happened. They know the match cannot be replayed and the decision of the referee is final,” said Blatter. “Naturally they have not asked for any sanctions to be given to any player or the referee, but they have asked, very humbly ‘Can’t we be team No33 at the World Cup?’ They have asked for that, really. I will bring it to the attention of the executive committee but if we do that, we will also have to bring in Costa Rica.”

The Costa Ricans believe they too were eliminated unfairly – this time by an offside goal scored by Uruguay – but Blatter’s tone suggested it was inconceivable Fifa would add any more countries to the 32-team finals next year.

The FAI later confirmed in a statement that the issue was discussed at a meeting with Blatter in Switzerland last week. “The Football Association of Ireland today confirmed that it attended an hour-and-a-half meeting, at its request, with Mr Sepp Blatter, President of Fifa, on Friday in Zurich.

“A lot was discussed at the meeting and at one stage the FAI asked if Ireland could be accommodated into the World Cup 2010. Other suggestions were also made to mitigate against further occurrences of such incidents, including the use of additional goalline assistant referees for Fifa international matches, further use of video technology for matches at the highest level, stronger provisions to discourage players from engaging in such blatant breaches of the Laws of the Game and provisions to strengthen referee selection for such important matches.”

Sources in Ireland privately acknowledged that they are not expecting their request to be successful, but said they have also asked Fifa to consider compensating them in some other way in future, perhaps by seeded them in the draw for the 2014 finals.

Blatter, who was speaking on Monday at the opening of the Soccerex business conference in Johannesburg, said that the possibility of fielding additional referees would also be debated by the executive committee when it holds an emergency meeting on Wednesday. The idea is known to have powerful support from within the game, with the backing of, among others, Uefa’s president, Michel Platini. If Fifa’s executive committee is convinced of its merits, the proposal will go before football’s rule-making International Board in Zürich in March for a final decision.

“There is a lack of discipline and respect in the game by the players because they are cheating,” Blatter said, “This is human beings trying to get an advantage and this is not good and we have to fight against that. We have only one man on the field of play who shall intervene in this matter. He has two assistants for the time being, perhaps more in the future. He has to make an immediate decision. He has only two eyes. So match control is now on the agenda. How shall we avoid such situations as we have seen in this very specific match?

“It’s possible we will make additional officials for the World Cup but we have to see if it is feasible or realistic,” he said. “How can it happen that all over the world, through TV cameras, we have seen through a cheating handball that a pass was given for a goal? Everyone is asking what is and what isn’t fair play. The highest crime in football is touching the ball with the hands.”

Blatter insisted that he had not changed his stance against the use of technology or video replays to assist the referee – “We have to maintain the human face of football and not go into technology,” he said – but he added that Fifa would reconsider the organisation of the qualifying competition for future World Cups, and could end the current play-off system that possibly gives the team playing at home in the second leg an unfair advantage. “On one match it is decided if you are in or out and this is not the spirit behind this World Cup,” he said. “We must have a look at this. There is so much at stake.”

Fifa confirm Ireland request

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