Posts Tagged ‘Disagreement’

Jury clears Gerrard of affray

• Liverpool star ‘unwise’ to get involved, judge says
• Fans gather outside court to cheer ‘Stevie G’ verdict

It took a jury less than 90 minutes today to clear Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard of affray even though he admitted punching a man three times in a bar.

Gerrard maintained that he had acted in self-defence during the brawl at the Lounge Inn in Southport last December, which was triggered by a row over control of music.

Gerrard, 29, had wanted to pick the music in the bar, but Marcus McGee, who was in charge of the CD player, refused his request. The trial was told that although McGee, 34, did not throw any punches, the player believed he was about to be hit.

Earlier in the evening, the England international and his friends had seemed to be in high spirits, singing and dancing as they celebrated a crushing victory over Newcastle United.

Minutes after he had been rebuffed by McGee, the footballer approached him as he sat on a barstool. John Doran, Gerrard’s friend, elbowed McGee in the face, making him reel backwards and forwards. Fearing that he was about to be attacked, Gerrard landed three uppercuts on his face.

During the trial, he apologised for what had happened. Around 100 supporters gathered outside court today and cheered as Gerrard left the building.

Gerrard said: “I would like to put this case behind me now and I am really looking forward to the season ahead and concentrating on football now.”

Judge Henry Globe, recorder of Liverpool, told Liverpool crown court after the verdict that the football player “could walk away with his reputation intact”.

The judge told Gerrard that in hindsight it “may have been unwise of you” to approach Marcus McGee following the trivial disagreement.

“However, that is far from saying you were criminally responsible for the violence that thereafter erupted.”

The judge said when the violence commenced the victim and his partner Gina Lond, who was standing nearby, thought that Gerrard had started it. Gerrard himself had initially thought McGee was the first person to deliver a blow.

“The CCTV evidence obtained later demonstrated conclusively that you were all mistaken,” the judge noted. The judge said the verdict was credible and the jury had demonstrably paid close attention to the full facts of the case.

Six of Gerrard’s friends, two of whom are Accrington Stanley players, will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to charges of affray or threatening behaviour in connection with the brawl.

Having twice rejected the lure of Chelsea’s riches, “Stevie G”, as he is universally known to the red half of Liverpool, epitomises the one-club player, the local boy made good who has tried to maintain his links to the Bluebell estate in Huyton, where he grew up.

During the trial he appeared to well up as a statement from Kenny Dalglish was read out in court. “He is a very humble man,” the former Liverpool star said, who was “not the archetypal footballer” and had “never forgotten his roots”.

But the England midfielder’s evident puzzlement, then anger, at the man who, in the words of the prosecution, dared to “say no” to Steven Gerrard betrayed the fact he could never be one of the lads.

Jon Holmes, the veteran football agent whose clients have included David Beckham, said: “Their relationship with their community and the world they’re from has changed enormously. The irony is that Gerrard is probably better connected to his community than others.”

Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin said that there have always been punch-ups and drunken incidents involving playersdown the years, but in the past they were less likely to make the papers.

“It existed when I was playing and probably before that. You had those whose heads were turned by the fame and the money, even when the money was just twice the average wage,” he said.

“You also have to think about the way society treats these players. They are treated like gods and they are ordinary people. If you treat them like gods you will be disappointed.”

Madrid unfazed by ongoing Ronaldo row

• Real confident deal will go ahead despite money wrangle
• Ronaldo may have to settle for £211,000 a week

Real Madrid were last night entirely confident of agreeing personal terms with Cristiano Ronaldo despite a disagreement over the player’s image rights. Sources at the Santiago Bernabéu remain adamant that the deal will go ahead and will not even be delayed.

Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, wants the Manchester United winger to receive a greater share of his image rights than the 50-50 deal that Madrid agree with all of their galácticos, their former midfielder David Beckham included. Madrid, whose determination to sign the Portuguese superstar owes much to his marketability, are reluctant to agree to a deal that is tipped in the player’s favour. Their president, Florentino Pérez, does not want to break with an economic model he insists has been successful.

Pérez remains unconcerned about the difference, however. Madrid have set a 30 June deadline to conclude negotiations with Mendes and formally complete the world-record £80m deal to take him from Old Trafford. That is the cut-off point agreed by the two clubs and, with two weeks still to go, Madrid believe that they are on track.

Although Madrid are reluctant to cede to Ronaldo’s demands, there is time to reach an agreement and they are confident that the rest of the package will be sufficiently attractive.

They are offering to make Ronaldo the best-paid player in world football on a salary that could reach ¤13m (£11.1m) a year after tax.

Any image rights deal would cover endorsements that Ronaldo signs only after he joins Madrid, meaning that the Portugal international would continue to receive 100% of existing deals with sponsors such as Nike and the Portuguese bank Banco Espiritu Santo. And Madrid say that not only does their earning potential increase with Ronaldo, his earning potential increases by being at the world-renowned club.

Madrid are building a package in which Ronaldo would earn approximately £211,000 a week during the course of a six-year deal. The figure dwarfs the ¤9m Madrid are understood to be paying the Brazil playmaker Kaka, their recent signing from Milan, and is more than double the ¤6m a year earned by the club captain, Raúl – the same figure paid to all of the galácticos during Pérez’s first stint as president.

Marina Hyde: Football awards are worth sweet PFA

Giving a toss about the Player of the Year shortlist is down there with repeating TV catchphrases and using smiley icons

To the list of things in which no one over the age of 16 should in all conscience indulge, let us hereby add “giving a toss about who does or doesn’t make the PFA Player of the Year shortlist”. This decidedly infra dig activity must take its place alongside the likes of repeating TV catchphrases in company, and using smiley icons in any form of electronic communication.

And yet tosses have been given. Among many aspects of the matter to draw complaint is the fact that players are polled in early March because they’re all in Dubai 10 minutes after the season has finished or something … but please put all this irrelevance from your minds. The Electoral Commission is not thought to be on the point of launching an inquiry into how so many Manchester United players made the list, and while I have not sought to disturb any eminent psephologists in the writing of this article, I would venture that their august opinion on the matter would run along the lines of “awards are all bollocks, innit”.

There is of course disagreement as to the most compelling argument for this sentiment. Most would cite Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel peace prize. Others might point to the fact that in 2005, Crash won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

But all awards are nonsense really, and no matter what imperfect system is being used, sensible folk surely concur. Famously, Woody Allen declined to attend the Oscars for years, despite being nominated repeatedly (and winning three times), preferring instead to play jazz clarinet at a New York bar.

It seems vaguely inconsistent that so many would deride events which rely on human judges – gymnastics, say – as not proper sports, but would fail to see the PFA award as similarly flawed.

And anyway, most football supporters are a cussed bunch. An FA Cup giantkilling provokes far more widespread delight that the big club has lost than it does joy that the little club has won. People love to rally around a bit of vitriol. A few years back, the one thing upon which you could get agreement from nearly everyone, including a cheerily indifferent Robbie Savage, was that Robbie Savage was the most hated player in the Premiership. Robbie has since surrendered his title, and there might be more dispute now as to who would deserve it this year, but a shortlist of most hated players would be far less contested than a Players of the Year equivalent.

How to enliven the tedium? Given the PFA vote is anonymous, perhaps next year it could be extended to a whole host of categories designed to elicit genuinely interesting peer reviews from players. Awards like Worst Dive and Most Morally Bankrupt Tackle. Then add some more arcane categories to get attendees through the lengthy dinner – Most Outrageous Footballer Home Improvement; Best Use of Danielle Lloyd in a Nightclub Setting. It would provide far more enlightenment and merriment.

I mention the dinner because the only thing to remember about most awards ceremonies is that they are an industry – a revenue-gathering scheme whereby you convince “stakeholders” to pay way over the odds to eat an unpleasant supper. Hence the genuine existence of events such as the British Parking Awards, which venerates wheelclampers among others. Then there are the World Billing Awards, established to celebrate excellence in billing practice. My favourite is the Awards Awards, which was inaugurated in 2004 to recognise the finest awards shows of the year. They had a ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel on London’s award-show-underwritten Park Lane.

That said, there was a Football Writers’ one a couple of years back at which I was treated to a lively Sam Allardyce explaining why a woman could know precisely nothing about cricket – and with his good self not merely unable to recall the name of Muttiah Muralitharan in the course of one peroration, but apparently under the impression that Shane Warne bowled off-spin. As I filled in some of the gaps for him, I noticed that Sam’s dinner jacket had leather lapels. It was a magical night.

But for all the obvious nonsense, British life (newspapers included) remains bizarrely in thrall to awards. Our only hope is that the latest PFA uproar/row-confected-by-dullards might usher in a new era of ironist press releases. Cross your fingers for: “Phil Jagielka regrets he will be unable to attend this PFA awards as he will be playing jazz clarinet.”