Category: Latest

VARs: The Final, Final, Final Word

VARs: The Final, Final, Final Word

Posted by | Mar 5, 2018 | ,

I have been unable to spell my reactions to the latest Video Assistant Referees (VARs) palavers, on and off the field. The non-swear words, anyway. Tottenham’s FA Cup-tie against Rochdale, we shall consider in a moment, stopping for now just to apologise to those with whom I had a twitter conversation on the non-VAR-related chapter in the curious case of the Son Heung-Min penalty in the night (a conversation made more curious still by Fernando Llorente scoring every time I tweeted). But first, Fifa President Gianni Infantino. Those of you still awake AND caring may know that the International...

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The FA Cup (Briefly?) Shines Again

The FA Cup (Briefly?) Shines Again

Posted by | Feb 20, 2018 | ,

Taking the world’s oldest football tournament and smacking it over the head with a rubber chicken has become something of a national sport in itself in recent times. With the FA broadly as silent as ever and no sophisticated media machine drip, drip, dripping us into believing that This Is Important, it’s become a punching bag, a useful outlet onto which anybody with an opinion, regardless of its value, can express their hopes or fears for The State Of Things. Time does move on. We can all agree on this. But while many, many people are satisfied to look...

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Rangers’ Transfer Window

Rangers’ Transfer Window

Posted by | Feb 19, 2018 | ,

Three types of ‘normality’ conflated in Scotland last month to construct a lunatic world; Glasgow’s football media, Rangers FC’s public relations (PR) operation and the parallel universes occupied by Rangers and non-Rangers supporters. It is public knowledge that Rangers need at least £7.2m additional funding to meet financial liabilities to July 2019 as they fall due, with the “first tranche” due last November. Chairman Dave King and independent auditors Campbell Dallas both said so, in Rangers International Football Club’s (RIFC) annual accounts, to June 2017. RIFC’s “forecast cash flows” assumed that “future transfer payables will be met by future...

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Dagenham & Redbridge: Flags & Financial Incontinence

Dagenham & Redbridge: Flags & Financial Incontinence

Posted by | Feb 13, 2018 | ,

Last Saturday evening in front of the television cameras of BT Sport, Dagenham & Redbridge entertained Aldershot Town in a National League match that may be now be considered to have been of greater consequence for the visitors than it was for the home team. The revival of Aldershot over the course of the last couple of years has been one of the more understated achievements of the National League. Following relegation from the Football League in 2013 and a spell in administration that was accompanied by three consecutive seasons during which the club had one eye over its...

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An Unspoken Battle For Football’s Future

An Unspoken Battle For Football’s Future

Posted by | Feb 6, 2018 | ,

At least, we might reflect, last night’s match between Watford and Chelsea passed off relatively without incident, unless we’re talking about the defending champions’ supine surrender to a distinctly mediocre team that is currently battling against relegation from the Premier League. It increasingly frequently feels these days, however, as though no football match can pass by without some form of accompanying refereeing “controversy”, and the extent to which we’ve all become conspiracy theorists on this particular subject has gone into overdrive this season to such an extent that it is starting to feel, to me at least, that this...

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