Football vs Futbol

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Accusations Of A Conspiracy? There's No Defense!

A week on from the incredible scenes at St James' Park you would think that people would finally have accepted what had happened and moved on. Sadly not. The conspiracy theorists are still at it.

According to the theories, not only does all of the blame for Arsenal's collapse against Newcastle lie at the feet of referee Phil Dowd, but this game is only part of a wider conspiracy against the total football approach of Arsenal by referees, the Football Association and anybody else who happens to wander into view. The paranoid element of the Gooner family are in their element. Are these fanciful claims of a group of fans still smarting from the disappointment of what took place, or is there no smoke without fire?

Arsenal's fans are not the first to claim unfair treatment at the hands of referees or the football authorities. All clubs have an element of fans who will look first to blame officialdom rather than looking closer to home for any faults. Claims of unfair treatment, bias, conspiracy theories and hidden agendas are nothing new in football. They are an integral part of post game banter in any pub as fans discuss the events on the pitch. Without complaints about refereeing decisions, football phone-ins and internet forums would be much less entertaining and lively. The sheer volume and persistence of the complaints coming from North London, however, indicates something taking place beyond normal football banter. Something, or someone, is fuelling a genuine concern that Arsenal are getting a raw deal in football.

The old adage that everything balances out over the course of a season may be a generalisation, but it is close enough to the mark to take care of most feelings of victimisation. All teams experience times when a number of decisions go against them. During these times fans may well feel justified in making claims that their team is getting the short end of the stick. Stoke City, the very antithesis of Arsenal's total football, began the season wondering what else could go wrong. Were referees punishing them unfairly for their practical rather than beautiful interpretation of how the game should be played? It certainly did seem for a while that Stoke were enduring a period of some very unfortunate examples of bad luck. Post game analysis showed a number of examples of decisions that fans had a genuine reason to feel hard done by. However, even the most blinkered Stoke fan would have recognised that the tables had turned in their recent game against Sunderland. The decisions in that game may not undo all of the bad decisions from earlier in the season, but they clearly showed that luck can travel in either direction. That is why, when decisions go against our team, we have a good old moan, feel hard done by, and then a week later move on and await the next installment in the soap opera of football. So why is this not happening with Arsenal fans?

From the outside it could look like a case of a successful team's fans adopting the philosophy that they have a right to win. Decisions are not allowed to go against their team that will prevent them achieving victory. Similar accusations have been thrown at Manchester United and Liverpool fans in the past. However, forgetting football loyalties, Arsenal fans have always come across as some of the more intelligent of football's connoisseurs. They are not the sort to fall for such blinkered and ignorant lapses in judgement. There has always been a thread of reason behind any widespread movement or cause from their fans. If Arsenal fans are feeling hard done by, then it is because they are not seeing football's natural balances in decisions leveling out. They are not seeing dubious decisions going for them as well against them in the same way that fans of other teams are seeing.

And therein lies the problem. They are not seeing the balances. That does not mean they are not happening. It would be easy at this stage to draw parallels with the Arsene Wenger's famous line about not seeing things that take place on the field of play. However, such a comparison would be a cheap shot. As annoying as it is to fans of other teams to listen to this line, we need to see it for what it is. Arsene Wenger is a French manager operating in an English speaking world. When he says "I did not see it" then it is simply his way of saying no comment. It may be annoying, and may set him up for a number of specsaver jokes, but I do not believe it is intended literally. It is a non-story, and is best left to the satirists to exploit.

The factor that is far more relevant in this discussion is that Arsenal, and its fans, genuinely do feel hard done by. The strength of feeling in this belief is preventing them from seeing what is really happening on the pitch and to their football club. Unless they are able to see it, accept it and deal with it they will be unable to enjoy the success that their brand of football deserves.

As an example, to look at last Saturday's game, there were a number of debatable decisions in the game, and one that was clearly wrong. The irony is that the one decision that was clearly wrong went in favour of Arsenal. While there is no doubt that the second penalty was soft, it was a decision that could be defended to the letter of the law. It is also one that if referees implemented consistently would see five or six penalties awarded in every match. It is not difficult to see why Arsenal fans would feel unfortunate to have conceded it. Penalty decisions are often contentious, but any neutral fan can see that they do balance out over time. The decision to rule out a Newcastle goal for offside was the one decision that was not debatable - it was plain wrong. The fact that Arsenal fans are concentrating less on this than on other decisions shows where the real reason for their frustration lies.

No matter how many debatable decisions there were in the game, the one moment that has been the focus of complaints and discussion is the Joey Barton tackle on Diaby. While it would be wrong to say that opinions from non Arsenal fans on the tackle have been unanimous, the overwhelming consensus is that it was a hard but fair tackle. Judging from radio phone-ins and internet forums, it is this interpretation of that tackle that irks Arsenal fans most. There appears to be genuine disbelief that people cannot see this tackle as dangerous and worthy of a red card.Of course, it did not help that the tackle came from Joey Barton, a player that seems to provoke stronger feelings than most due to his dark past. However, if this tackle had been made by any other player the chances are that the non Arsenal interpretation of the tackle would have been far more unanimous. So why does it rancour so much with Arsenal fans?

Arsenal have been the unfortunate victims of a number of horrendous injuries in recent seasons. Many of these have been the result of some truly bad and dangerous tackles. However, others have been unfortunate and the result of tackles that many other times would not have resulted in injury. Football has rightly been clamping down on bad tackling. We do not want to see the game's star players put out of the game due to injury. However, neither do we want to see the art of tackling, including hard but fair tackles, being removed from the game. There is a balance to be struck. A number of Arsenal fans have quoted the law that says any tackle that uses excessive force, and which is likely to cause injury, to win the ball is illegal, regardless of whether the ball is won or not. However, they are applying their own interpretations as to what excessive force is. The tackle on Saturday would have been far more likely to cause injury to Joey Barton than the Arsenal player in normal circumstances.

Arsenal's fear of injuries is in danger of becoming both a vicious circle and self fulfilling. Players who go into any tackle half-heartedly are far more likely to get injured. The constant talk of the dangers of hard tackles is starting to affect Arsenal's players. This is affecting how they play the game and could well lead to a further serious injury as they do not commit fully to tackles. It is also affecting how they react to tackles as seen by Diaby's response to Joey Barton. Such responses will only encourage more teams to tackle harder when playing Arsenal.

I believe that a second reason for this response from Arsenal fan's is an increased frustration that their brand of beautiful football is failing to win trophies. This, of course, could become a moot point if Arsenal overcome Birmingham in the upcoming Carling Cup final. However, it is hard to imagine the frustration of watching a team play such good football and failing to see it translate into titles and silverware. Such frustration naturally turns into resentment of teams that achieve success with a less beautiful form of the game. Less beautiful does not necessarily translate into less skillful though. Football has always been as much about defense as attack, and as much about tackling as dribbling. One without the other would make the game less than it should be. Arsenal are a joy to watch when they are tearing defenses apart, as they were in the first half at St James' Park on Saturday. However, no amount of conspiracy theories can hide a deficiency in their play when they are forced to defend.

Arsene Wenger seems to be on a crusade to transform football into a beautiful, attacking artform. It is a commendable cause, and one that many Arsenal fans have bought into. However, buying into this cause should not blind fans to the core values of the game. One team cannot unilaterally change what football is all about, nor should they be able to. It is a testament to the respect Arsene Wenger has earned at Arsenal that so many fans now believe that football should be played the Arsene way, genuinely believing that hard tackling is not part of the game. However, it is possible to play attractive football while still maintaining a hard edge when needed. Barcelona probably play the most attractive football in Europe. They are no mugs when it comes to standing up to teams who look to dominate them physically. It is hard to imagine them folding in the same way that Arsenal did.

One advantage of this feeling of victimisation could be a siege mentality developing at Arsenal. Nobody likes us and we don't care! Such a feeling can often galvanise a team into success. However, to take advantage of such a mentality you need an element of steel. Arsenal appear to be lacking in this regard. Perhaps it is time for Arsenal fans to stop looking elsewhere when apportioning blame and recognise that there is a place for physicality in football. There is no conspiracy against them. Many football fans would love to see the beautiful way they play the game result in success. What we don't want is to see this at the expense of the game we love

What a week!!

This has, without doubt, been an incredible few days for sport. A record breaking day and weekend in the Premier League, three fantastically competitive six nations rugby encounters, a classic superbowl and the start of the new Nations Cup in international football. There have been so many talking points that it can only be described as a sports blogger's dream - that is unless you are a sports blogger who decided to take a few days off!

In my defense, it wasn't billed as an amazing weekend of sport. Busy, yes. Amazing, no. With the exception of the superbowl, all of last weekend's sporting action should have been no more than a run of the mill weekend. An ordinary round of Premier League matches, the opening salvos of the six nations - with only the Wales v England game expected to be anywhere near competitive - and the usual mix of other sports making up a normal sporting weekend. I didn't see this one coming. I don't think anybody did. And that is what made it such an epic.

There are certain weekends in the sporting calendar that we all expect to be special. The F.A. Cup Final, the US Masters, the British Grand Prix, the Grand National and the finals of Wimbledon are all billed to fill us with excitement and to be sporting spectaculars. Sadly, the build up is not always matched by the outcome. For all of the hype, the anticipation and the endless opinions and forecasts in the run up to these events, often they turn out to be very ordinary.

It is not that last weekend was without its hype. The debut of Fernando Torres, for Chelsea against Liverpool, certainly kept the sports pundits busy in the days leading up to it. The Superbowl, even on this side of the Atlantic, can always be relied upon to be hyped up - especially by whichever TV channel has managed to secure the broadcasting rights. But apart from those two, nothing else was getting a great deal of press or airtime. So safe in the knowledge that nothing overly exciting was going to take place, I took myself off to Worcester for the weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday, and to sample the delights of the Worcester nightlife.

Oh how wrong I was. This weekend was a sporting classic. It is difficult to know where to begin summing the action up, or even knowing if it can be summed up adequately. In the same way as Match Of The Day struggled to fit anything but goals into its airtime, any attempt at a summary of this weekend's action would fail spectacularly in capturing all of the significant moments. Best to stick to the scattergun approach and not dress it up as anything else.

The only title or silverware at stake last weekend went to the Green Bay Packers in the Superbowl, as the underdogs overcame the predictions on Sunday night. All of the action that preceded the Superbowl would see no titles decided, nobody gaining an unassailable lead in any championship, and nobody losing out to such an extent that there would be no way back. Nobody that is except Roberto Di Matteo. In a weekend of shocks and surprises, the transition of Di Matteo from West Brom manager to the ranks of the mass unemployed was up there with the best of them. Not many people saw his sacking coming. Perhaps it was down to the good start that the club enjoyed to the season, or perhaps just the way that West Brom were outperforming their previous visits to the Premier League, but their slide down the table had gone relatively unnoticed outside of the Hawthorns. However, in the cut and thrust of modern football it is results that count and Di Matteo becomes the latest managerial casualty.

The only other big losers of the weekend were the Fulham fans. Fulham? Yes, Fulham. Fans of all football clubs, outside of the big four or five, bemoan the number of times that their team appears last on Match Of The Day. Spare a thought for the Fulham fans. Fulham have appeared last on MOTD more than any other team this season, and going into this weekend's fixtures a run of three weeks in a row appearing last on the program had taken their tally this season to nine. At least as their fans left Villa Park on Saturday they could take comfort that four goals in an exciting 2-2 draw would see them safely further forward in the scheduling. That did not take account of the record 41 goals scored in Saturday's eight matches. The last game on MOTD this week? Aston Villa verses Fulham. At least they had no boring games to sit through as they waited.

The record audience for Match Of The Day were treated to highlights of Manchester United losing their unbeaten run at bottom club Wolves and Arsenal throwing away a four goal lead at Newcastle in a game that will go down, not only as the record comeback in Premier League history but, possibly also as the greatest ever game in Premier League history. If nothing else, at least it should lead to less viewings of Kevin Keegan slumped over the advertising hoardings at Anfield in what was regarded as the previous best ever game. We also saw a record number of penalties awarded (eight) and scored (seven). Goals, penalties, sendings off and controversies. It was a treat to watch.

It was not just the football though. In the rugby Scotland gave France far more of a game than they were expecting, scoring three tries in the Stade de France. In many other years three tries would secure a win.

Italy played their part too. The perennial wooden spoon contenders gave Ireland a real fright, and only a last gasp drop goal from Ronan O' Gara saw the Irish prevail. The first round of games in the Six Nations certainly indicate an exciting and competitive tournament ahead.

One final note. On the day of great comebacks in the North-East, it was not just Newcastle United who overcame unlikely odds to redeem a desperate situation. The Newcastle Ice Hockey team, The Vipers, went one better than their footballing counterparts. Trailing 4-1 with only fifteen minutes remaining, they scored five goals to beat the Nottingham Panthers 6-5 in a truly exciting finale. They may not have received as much coverage as the events at St James' Park, but their efforts highlight that it is not only the sports receiving good coverage that can summon up excitement and entertainment.

I have learned two big lessons this week. The first is that sport is alive and kicking in this country. It serves up excitement, thrills and heartache at levels that few other pastimes can match. The second is to take my computer with me when I go away, as you never know when sport will decide to remind us all just how exciting it really is.

Crazy Day. Crazy Prices. The World Has Gone Mad.

Who could have predicted what a crazy day the final day of the transfer window would turn out to be? Over £130 million of transfers were completed taking the total spend in this window to over £215,500,000 by Premier League clubs.

The day started quietly, but by the 11 o clock close of business the British transfer record had been smashed, not once, but twice. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the day's dealings is that hey did not involve either of the Manchester clubs or Arsenal. Less surprisingly, the biggest spenders of the day were Chelsea. They completed two big money signings. David Luiz signed for £21 million plus Nemanja Matic from Benfica, before the signing of Fernando Torres was finally completed for £50 million.

The other big spenders were Liverpool, swooping from nowhere to secure the signature of Andy Carroll from Newcastle United for £35 million plus add ons. Initially it looked like their approaches would be to no avail, until the Geordie striker handed in a transfer request. Despite having turned down two offers for Carroll, Newcastle reluctantly agreed to the move following the player's transfer request. As well as Carroll, Liverpool also finalised the signing of Luis Suarez from Ajax for around £23 million.

Add to all of this the day's other signings - Aston Villa (Bradley), Birmingham (Martins), Blackburn (Formica, Rochina), Blackpool (Beattie, Reid), Bolton (Sturridge), Everton (Vellios), Liverpool (Thomas), Newcastle (Ireland), West Ham (McCallum) and Wolves (Basso) - and it all adds up to an extremely busy day in the English transfer market. This does not include bids that were turned down, including £12 million from Newcastle for Wigan's Charles N'Zogbia and around £6 million from Tottenham for Blackpool's Charlie Adams. Crazy times.

There is still the possibilty that other last minute transfers may yet come to light, as happened with Rubinho and Berbatov in September 2008. However, even with the deals that we know about so far, people are asking whether any footballer can be worth these sums of money.

The simple answer to that is that today they were worth that much. The value of anything, or anyone, is the amount that somebody else is willing to pay. And today there were clubs willing to pay these heady amounts. You could just as easily ask whether a one bedroom house in London is worth over £1 million. If somebody wants it badly enough to pay that then yes it is.

Whether those players turn out to be good value for money, then only time will tell. The purchase of any footballer is a risk. Injury, loss of form or failing to adapt to a new environment are all factors that determine how well any transfer works out. What is certain is that all of the players moving clubs today have the ability and potential to be very good investments. The financial rewards for success at football far outweigh the sums paid today. Achieving that success is often harder than simply putting pen to paper though.

Predicting the days winners and losers in football terms is not an easy task. Initial reflections suggest that Liverpool may have done the best business. They have replaced an unsettled and out of form player with two quality strikers, and done so without a large nett spend. Whether these signings will be enough to help Liverpool make up ground and qualify for the lucrative Champions League remains to be seen. Chelsea have laid out an awful lot of money. If these new faces help them consolidate their place in the top four of the premier league and secure a champions league place then arguably they will have proved their worth. If they help Chelsea put a run together that sees them challenging for the title then there will be no question that they were good signings.

The big losers appear to be Newcastle. They have lost their main goalscorer without any obvious replacement. Much will depend on how the players left at St James' Park rise to the challenge of keeping the club in the Premier League. If they are still among the elite come May then it may prove that they have pulled off a shrewd piece of business as they will be in a strong position to strengthen their squad in the summer. That is, of course, if owner Mike Ashley re-invests all of the money received in transfers.

In non-footballing terms, the big winners are easy to identify. The agents who take a cut of the transfer fees, and the players who have seen a huge rise in wages and signing-on fees will be laughing all the way to the bank. They may well need to reflect on these windfalls as others question previous public commitments of loyalty to the clubs they left.

As for the fans? Well the fans of clubs who see an improvement in form will be happy. Those who see a downturn in fortunes will be left wondering what could have been. I guess that is the way it has always been, and always will be. There will be a new round of transfer dealings in the summer. Season ticket sales and shirt sales will help fund more moves. Fans of every club will be praying that those funds are spent wisely.

Can You Hear The Qatar Sing? No, But I Heard A Pin Drop!

As Qatar hosted its first major football tournament since the announcement that it had won the rights to host the 2022 World Cup Finals, you may have expected a certain level of excitement and optimism to be sweeping the country. On the contrary, the competition ended with a legacy of empty stadia and disappointed fans, in scenes that must cause concern for genuine football fans the world over as the implications for 2022 hit home. Have FIFA made yet another huge mistake?

The Asian Cup is not renowned for attracting massive publicity or huge crowds. However, group games played out in front of crowds equivalent to some non-league football crowds is disappointing even for this tournament. In the picture above, the only person visible in the stands appears to be a photographer. Is this what we have to look forward to in 2022?

China verses Uzbekistan (the game pictured) may not be the biggest draw in International football, but even the World Cup will have group games played out between nations of lower standing in international football than some. Will those games also be played out in front of empty seats and eerily quiet stadia? You have to wonder what harm may be done to the image of the game we love if this was the case.

It is one thing for group games to take place in front of crowds of barely 2000 fans. More worrying for organisers should be the fact that the final, in which Japan grabbed a goal deep into extra time to win the tournament for a fourth time at the expense of Australia, took place in a half empty stadium. China and Uzbekistan may not be a huge draw but you cannot argue that both Japan and Australia are anything other than fanatical when it comes to following sport. Something went wrong with the organisation.

More worrying still are the unconfirmed reports that up to 15,000 fans, with legitimate tickets for the final, were barricaded out of the stadium and unable to watch the game. Early reports are sketchy and as yet uncorroborated, but it appears that Qatar police prevented those fans entering the stadium claiming that it was already full (in total contrast to the evidence from pictures of the game). Not only were the fans locked out, but riot police moved in when the fans began to complain.

Riot police! This game was between Japan and Australia. Fanatical fans? Yes. Notorious for bad behaviour? Not at all. Can you imagine this had been a final between Holland and Germany or England and Italy? Can you imagine the scenes if those sets of fans had been locked out? I don't think the response would be on the same planet, never mind the same continent, as polite Japanese complaining. What would the Qataris do? Send in the army?

It is all very well for FIFA to be expanding the world game and moving into new frontiers. It must be done responsibly though. We have already seen questions raised over the timing of the event - questions that should have been answered before any bid succeeded. Now we are seeing serious concerns arising over the understanding of football and football fans in Qatar. These are concerns that need to be dealt with quickly and properly. If they can't be dealt with then FIFA must admit its mistake and look elsewhere for 2022.

2022 is a long way away. That is just as well when you consider how much Qatar has to learn about the latest toy it has decided to purchase with its oil billions.

Back Off Premier League. It's Got F.A. To Do With You!

So once again the loonies are running the asylum. No, not Ian Hollaway - the half wits and hypocrites that run the Premier League. Time to show their true colours again.

It appears that their true colours do not include tangerine. Having taken a break for Christmas - it seems that even these idiots believe in goodwill to all men at yuletide - they have taken up where they left off in November and re-engaged in some Blackpool bashing, imposing a £25,000 fine for fielding a weakened team against Aston Villa in the game on November 10th.

The precedent was set last season of course when they also fined Wolves the same amount for fielding a weakened team against Man United. As much as I also disagree with that decision, especially when you consider that Mick McCarthy's team followed up their victory over Spurs in the preceding game with a win against Burnley in the next, if the situation is the same then you have to take your medicine and swallow it.

The problem is the situation is not the same. The Premier League have moved the goalposts. In fact, they haven't just moved the goalposts, they have picked them up and carried them to the park down the road.

This season all Premier League teams have been forced to select a 25 man first team squad. Only players named in that 25 man first team squad may be picked for games with the exception of under 21 year old players. The rational behind this rule change is at best mirky and seems to lie somewhere in the realms of encouraging home grown players and limiting Manchester City from buying every eligible player in the world. However, the crux of the matter is that the Premier League recognise that it is now a squad game. The days of numbers one to eleven playing for a season have gone.

Surely, having named a 25 man first team squad, it should be up to team managers to then choose which of those 25 first team players to play in any given match. As Ian Holloway himself said, he is the one working with the players on a day to day basis and he is the one who best understands their physical and mental condition, and their readiness to play in each game. At the time Blackpool were in a run of four games in a twelve day period. It is not just about who has the best footballing ability. It is about stamina, form and mental alertness.

At the risk of disappearing into a Hollowayism, to take the example of another squad sport, you don't ask your fastest sprinter to cover all 400 metres in the 4 X 100 metre relay. The other sprinters may not be quite as fast, but they will be fresher and complete the job faster than a tired runner doing it alone. It is the same with football and that is why we now have a squad system. The game is now faster and more demanding than ever before and each team must use its squad to compete at this level.

Squad rotation has been around for years now. The top teams do it on a weekly basis, and can afford to do it with minimum consequences because of their strength in depth. Man United or Arsenal changing two or three players per game is seen as prudent due to the quality of players waiting in the wings. If Ian Holloway chooses to carry out his rotation policy by making ten changes for one game rather than two changes over 5 games then that is his prerogative. After all, it is his job on the line if his rotation policy goes pear shaped. As one contributor on the BBC's 606 website has said - Ian Holloway should tell the Premier League to go and rotate on something very long and not very thin (and I don't think he was talking about Blackpool Rock).

Blackpool lost the game in question 3-2, conceding a goal with a minute to go from a corner. Ironically, that goal was conceded when one of the 'first team' players who had come on as a substitute failed to pick up his man at the corner. If Blackpool deserve to be fined then perhaps it would be more appropriate for them to cite the reason as being Holloway's introduction of this 'first-team' player. The whole thing is a nonsense. If playing a team that is not quite good enough to win a game is wrong then West Ham should be fined on a weekly basis!

We all know that Ian Holloway is bonkers. I think even Ian Holloway knows that Ian Holloway is bonkers. The thing is, no matter how mad what he says appears to be, somehow it makes sense. We don't always know why it makes sense, but we know that it does. Inside that crazy facade there is a football genius that each and every one of us can relate to.

We do not want to lose you from our television screens or from the Premier League Mr Holloway. Having threatened to resign if the club were fined we sincerely hope that you don't. We are not saying that the game needs you - football is bigger than that - but we are saying it will be a little bit worse off without you.

Blackpool have been a welcome addition to this year's Premier League. They are probably everybody's second team now. What is more, they are playing good football and showing that they are not out of place in the league. Perhaps that is what the money men at the Premier League don't like. As a club, Blackpool are about football and not money. They are not playing ugly to stay in the league at all costs. They have kept to their principles and continue to play exciting, attacking football. The idea of Blackpool in the premier league was a nice one. There is something romantic about the little guys showing they can make it up to the top table. Good PR for the Premier League.

Blackpool are not following the script though. They are in serious danger of staying up and keeping bigger teams with larger travelling support out of the league. This may not sit well with the money men. It sits well with football fans though. Just like Ian Holloway's ramblings, the Blackpool story is not what we expected, and we're not sure where it is going next. And just like his ramblings, even though we're not sure where it is going, we are enjoying watching the journey. Long may it last.

Forget Keys? You're Locked Out Andy!

Unless you have been locked in a nuclear bunker or Newcastle United's trophy room, then you will have heard all the hullabaloo surrounding Andy Gray and Richard Keys' 'off-air' comments.

Richard Keys may have resigned over the affair, but his buddy Andy Gray was not given that option having been unceremoniously booted out of the Sky Sports organisation 24 hours earlier. Opinion appears to be divided over whether the pair's comments regarding Sian Massey, and her ability to be officiating at the Wolves vs Liverpool match on Saturday, warranted the fuss they have caused.

It is certainly true that the comments were no different than many that could have been heard throughout sports bars up and down the land as punters waited to watch the game. It is also true that, in its insatiable quest to take over world sport, Sky seem to have a track record of an overly zealous ruthlessness when it comes to rooting out anything that may alienate or offend potential paying customers. You need look no further than the example of Rodney Marsh and his 'toon army' joke to see that Sky has form when it comes to this sort of situation. So was it fair?

In many ways, the answer to that question has to be no. Conversations along the lines of the one that Gray and Keys engaged in are repeated in work places everyday of the year. You can't even say that because the conversation took place within the confines of a television environment that the rules should be different. Not that I ever watch it, but any episode of Loose Women probably contains far more sexist content, albeit aimed the opposite way around. It is hard to imagine anyone matching that collection of menopausal women for gender bashing antics.

The conspiracy theorists have been out in force claiming that the fact that a second example of Gray's inappropriate behavior came to light less than 24 hours after he had been warned over his comments showed signs of a vendetta. There may well be something behind that. It does appear somewhat coincidental that as Andy Gray gets embroiled in a legal dispute with News International that all of a sudden BSkyB fell out of love with him. There is no doubt that the comments he made to Charlotte Jackson about helping him place a microphone inside his pants were inappropriate (see below). However, before any of us get holier than thou over all of this, perhaps we should take a moment to consider any flirtatious comments we may have made at work. Most of us have said worse.






There is no doubt that both Andy Gray and Richard Keys can claim to be unlucky. There is no doubt that they can claim that it isn't fair. There is no doubt that they can claim that they did not deserve to lose their jobs. There is also no doubt that they are wrong - just not for the reasons everyone else seems to be listing.

Andy Gray brought all of this attention on himself because he is an attention seeker. He seemed to find it impossible to see his role as a sport pundit as anything other than an excuse to be the centre of attention. He forgot that the show was called 'Monday Night Football' and not 'Monday Night Andy Gray.' Its about the football Andy - not you!

He also brought the added severity of his own words back upon himself. In the pubs up and down the land where other men were expressing similar sexist comments in everyday banter, it was a case of people expressing opinions. In the course of his 20 years on Sky Sports, Andy Gray had forgotten that the words passing from his mouth were only opinions. His tone, his demeanour, and the way he attacked anyone who dared to disagree with him, all showed that he saw himself as an oracle of fact. He positioned himself as an authority on football. What he said mattered. Well so be it Andy, you got your way.

Most of all, he deserved to lose his job - and by association his sniggering companion - because he wasn't very good at it. His inability to hide his dislike of certain teams, or his embarrassing love-in with Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, was compounded by the fact that this 'voice of football' was so often just plain wrong. None more so than on Saturday. As most of us slowly sunk our heads into our pints on seeing the replays of Liverpool's 'offside' goal, I wonder what thoughts were going through the head of football's oracle of fact? Perhaps he was wondering where he will find work again?

Goodbye and good riddance Mr Gray!