Category Archives: Interview

‘INTERVIEWING SIR ALEX FERGUSON MAKES ME PROUDER THAN ANYTHING I HAVE DONE’ said Charlie Rose of PBS

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AS HE PREPARED for his hour-long interview with Charlie Rose of the American network Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Sir Alex Ferguson was aware that Rose had recently flown to Damascus for a broadcast with Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.

Tongue-in-cheek, Ferguson asked Rose: “So you’re interviewing dictators these days, are you?”

As manager of Manchester United, Ferguson could be a football writer’s best friend or worst enemy, giving more back-page lead stories than anyone else, but occasionally banning reporters for “crimes” such as headlines they didn’t write. Yet Ferguson was – and still is – journalistic gold, a manager with charisma to spare who gave PBS a global coverage other interviewees including al-Assad, President Barack Obama, Warren Buffet, Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo di Caprio could  not manage.

None can beat the Scottish pensioner for world-wide popularity and news appeal. The Emmy award-winning Rose said: “It’s amazing. I did not fully appreciate Ferguson in terms of how much he means to all the fans of football…how legendary he was. The Harvard people, for example [Ferguson spoke to students at the Harvard Business School last month]…I am told the response to what he did , how he outlined his own view of leadership, was one of the best things to ever come out of the school.

“He quickly became one of my favourite interviews. Speaking to someone [al-Assad] whose country perhaps stands a chance of being attacked by the United States has more consequence for the moment, but this was an interview that will reverberate and have a resonance for a long time. It certainly made me want to be more of a fan of your football than ever before.

“In preparing for him I had to learn as much as I could. It will be at the top of things that I am proud that I did. It was new territory for me and the more we talked, the more forthcoming he was about his relationship with the players…what they meant to him and how he tried to motivate them. This is a guy who can spend the rest of his life talking about what it means to be a manager in any environment…in business, universities…a whole range of environments.”

There was little opportunity for Rose, off camera, to expand on some of the more newsworthy parts of the interview such as the possibility of Ferguson joining Chelsea after Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club 10 years ago.

Rose said: “He didn’t say a great deal, but I know Roman Abramovich and I am due to see him at a conference I am attending this weekend. I wanted to find out [from Ferguson] if Abramovich made it so very, very attractive in a way that would be irresistible to most people and that would make him interested. He said he had thought about it and the answer was no.”

Ferguson and Abramovich – in fact, just about any manager and Abramovich – has a light-blue-touchpaper-and-retire look about it and Rose said: “Would they have been a good match? It’s hard to say, but a hell of a question. Clearly Ferguson is his own man, you all know that.

“He could never go anywhere else. His heart is too big and it would be too much for him ever to compete against United with another club.”

Ferguson will be back in the headlines soon when he starts a tour to publicise “Alex Ferguson – My Autobiography” which is on sale from October 24 (Hodder & Stoughton). The book was written in collaboration with FWA member Paul Hayward, the Daily Telegraph’s chief sports writer, who said: “His career is the story of English football over the past three decades. It’s a privilege for me to help him describe how he managed such huge change at Manchester United and to lay out his countless insights and anecdotes stretching back to his roots in Glasgow.”

THE FWA INTERVIEW: TONY HUDD

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BEING A LEYTON ORIENT FAN ALMOST A CRIME IN NORTH KOREA

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

THE broken biro was the clue. It would take a mind of Derren Brown proportions to guess someone who wanted to buy a new biro was a journalist, but for the, ahem, North Korean travel representative the two and two became a very uncomfortable four for Tony Hudd.

According to a recent survey a newspaper reporter was chosen as the worst job. In North Korea, a journalist – well, a foreign journalist – does not simply have a bad job, he is the enemy of the state. Hudd had been granted a visa to visit the world’s most secretive country on the premise that he was a retired insurance broker. His pen proved to be a mighty sword for the North Korean government officials, sorry, travel representatives who immediately suspected the long-standing member of the Football Writers’ Association’s national committee was a journalist.

Hudd realised his ambition to visit Pyongyang after his curiosity was heightened by M*A*S*H, the TV series based around the staff of an army hospital in the Korean war. Maybe he should have preferred Neighbours because unsurprisingly there were precious few laughs in North Korea, starting with his arrival at Pyongyang airport which makes up for its basic facilities with a new line of customs questioning.

“What’s this?”

“Shaving foam.”

“What?”

“Shaving foam.”

“What’s that?”

“For shaving.”

“How you mean?”

Hudd had to spread some foam over his cheeks and fake a mock shave for the benefit of the now satisfied customs official. One wonders how North Korean men shave though it is probably best if this remains one of the mysteries in the land that time seems to have forgotten.

“M*A*S*H was written by Larry Gelbart who was responsible for some of the best one-liners ever,” said Hudd. “Watching the series I became interested in the whole Korean peninsular. I never thought I’d go there, but when I saw details of a tour in a Sunday newspaper I put the wheels in motion. It was a party of 18, all Brits, we flew from Heathrow to Beijing and then Air Koryo to Pyongyang. I was granted my Korean visa by the travel company via an office in Germany. I hope I’ll still be able to enter the United States. It was an adventure, an ambition fulfilled. I wanted to see first-hand a country so diverse from where I live.

“We couldn’t take mobile phones or lap-tops. I did take a pen but when it broke they gave me the third degree. Why did I want a pen? Because I was writing a diary to show my wife when I return. They had their suspicions and immediately asked me whether i was a journalist, but I got away with it. My questioners were allegedly guides but were really government officers assigned to the party. There was another guy who filmed everything, claiming he was taking a holiday dvd of people on holiday. It was surreal, someone filming me while I was taking photographs  where I was allowed to take photographs.”

Talking to the minders about world affairs was futile. “They spoke good English, but would go off at tangents. It was obvious they had never forgiven George W. Bush for calling their country ‘an axis of evil.’ We were told that North Korea would crush the imperialists – ‘make no mistake.’”

The tour party’s day started with a slap-up breakfast of egg on toast and a cup of coffee (one cup was the permitted maximum).

“There was no free access,” said Hudd. “I couldn’t even walk a few hundred yards down the road unaccompanied. I was told that a Danish tourist last year feigned illness and stayed in his room when the party left for the scheduled trip and decided to go walkabout. He was immediately picked up by a soldier and there were all sorts of problems. The Dane had to write a formal letter of apology to the government for his actions before they would set him free. You have to realise when you go there, you do so on their terms.”

When in, do as and the party had to bow when they passed a statue of Kim Il-Sung (the great leader) and Kim Jong-Il (the supreme leader) and lay flowers in respect of the founding fathers of North Korea.

While Pak Du Ik, who scored the winning goal in the 1966 World Cup tie against Italy, is a rare idol in a society that is based on equality, being a Leyton Orient supporter is considered almost a crime.

“One of the party was an Orient fan and walked into a store wearing their shirt. He was immediately thrown out. Orient are sponsored by Samsung who are a South Korean company.”

A visit to the Demilitarized Zone showed that a little capitalism is alive and well in North Korea. “They had a thriving merchandise shop with T-shirts and all sorts of souvenirs.”

For Hudd, the most revealing – as much as was allowed – part of the day was when he sat outside his hotel and people-watched. “It struck me how well dressed people were, the men had fine suits and the girls wore modern dresses. Many of the children had never seen a Westerner before and looked at me as if I was from the Planet Zog.” Pyongyang was free of litter and less surprisingly, graffiti.

A pleasant surprise was the beer in Pyongyang. “Apparently, the old Ushers brewery in Trowbridge was bought by the North Korean government, dismantled it and reassembled it in North Korea. The beer was not bad at all.”

During his 10 days in North Korea there was no contact with the outside world. “In certain suites in the hotel you can tune into Al Jazeera and possibly the BBC World Service, but North Koreans have no idea what goes on anywhere else. They are told what happens which is rather different.”

Some cynics may say that certain areas of English football also follows this principle.

Tony Hudd spent  36 years working as the Kent Messenger Group’s chief football writer, covering Gillingham and then Charlton plus England internationals and now co-presents BBC Radio Kent’s Saturday afternoon sports show.

Brian Mawhinney: Why England’s World Cup bid failed

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Former Football League chairman BRIAN MAWHINNEY, who was deputy chairman of the bid to stage the 2018 finals, reveals…

WHY ENGLAND’S WORLD CUP BID FAILED

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

MORE than most people involved in football, Brian Mawhinney has been there, seen it and done it.

In 2003 he was appointed chairman of the Football League in succession to Keith Harris, spending seven years in the position. After one year in office, he oversaw a re-organisation of the League’s structure, including renaming the former Division One as the Football League Championship. A former Northern Ireland Sports Minister, he was deputy chairman of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Now Baron Mawhinney of Peterborough, he has also served as chairman of the Conservative party during his 26 years as an MP.

In his autobiography, Just A Simple Belfast Boy, he takes us behind the world of politics, football politics, giving a damning verdict on England’s failed World Cup bid and FIFA’s “unimpressive” behaviour as Qatar won the right to host the 2022 finals.

WORLD CUP BID

The choreography of our bid presentation in Zurich was rightly hailed as another success, but the voters were not impressed. They wanted more substance from the contenders. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister’s speech was dismissed by our team as too long, complicated and boring. But he addressed the members’ real concerns about Russia – infrastructure, stadia, travel distances and so on – in an impressive and reassuring way. Mr Putin understood what he was doing and what was being done in his name.

When it came to Qatar’s turn to present its case, the wife of the Emir cut through the tendency towards Hollywood hype. She asked a pointed, searing question. When did FIFA members think would be the ‘right time’ to hold the World Cup finals in an Arab country? Despite Qatar’s burning heat, the voters got the political message.

For our part we made legacy claims which simply were not believable and talked about how we would use football to change lives in a way that must have seemed like scratching the surface to those whose lives and countries literally had been transformed by the beautiful game. Our bid was polished, professional and very well received. Sadly its substance was not thought to match its presentation.

No country received better accolades from FIFA for its bid book and inspection visit. So why only one vote apart from [England’s FIFA ex-co representative] Geoff Thompson’s? In no particular order: we were seriously underfinanced; we got our strategy wrong; we created management and governance structures which were dogged by conflicting egos and football politics, too much of which stemmed from the senior ranks of the FA; we had little, if any, influence in FIFA; the British media had become the bête noire and the Premier League and its clubs did not flex their considerable financial and sporting muscle sufficiently on our behalf.

Geoff Thompson is an honourable man of genuine integrity. I count him a Christian friend; but not even his best friends would claim he commands situations, compels support or shapes outcomes. His judgment is usually sound but too low key for the brash world of FIFA football. And he was our one and only national representative among the FIFA elite. He told me he thought he had persuaded some of his friends on the executive committee to vote for us, presumably believing their word. In the event they let him down. Or, to be blunt, they lied to him. Maybe they thought, knowing Geoff’s sense of Christian forgiveness, that their lack of morality was relatively risk free.

FIFA’s behaviour throughout the process was unimpressive, to put it delicately. It had created a strong sense that its judgments would be objectively based on demonstrably fair criteria. This turned out to be nonsense. Qatar’s risk factor assessment was high, though not, of course, when it came to finance. The country was deemed to have insufficient infrastructure, no stadia (except on planning paper) and a temperature which would be around 45 degrees Celsius at game time.

And what notice did ExCo members, including Sepp Blatter, take of this risk assessment? None.

THE PRESS

My first press conference was a revelation. Two questions predominated. The first was, chairman – a politician? A Conservative politician? (in tones which parodied John McEnroe’s famous ‘you cannot be serious’). This was an early warning of football’s disdain for government and politicians. On that first day, the cream of English football reporting had great difficulty in progressing beyond the box labelled ‘politics.’ There was no recognition that I may have any skills – inherited or learned – relevant experience or personal commitment.

Indeed the continued use of the word ‘politician’ too often sounded as if it was accompanied by a curl of the lip. English football fans deserved something a little more analytical and, dare I add, more objective.

The second question was how many clubs I thought the Football League would lose by the end of the season. The reporters’ downbeat assessment was that six to eight clubs could go out of business. I told them I did not have a crystal ball and would not guess (‘speculate’ is the polite word).

Many football journalists are transfixed by speculation; perhaps because so much about football revolves around prediction, passion, prejudice, hope and injury rather than hard fact. To be fair, they have to explain a game where the past is never a reliable indicator of the future. Some journalists thrive on substituting ‘what-if or maybe’ in place of informed judgment. They talk and write as if feelings are a solid base for factual analysis – or indeed even for guesswork. ‘How do/did you feel’ has become the lazy substitute for proper questioning in football, as it has throughout the media. ‘What do you think?’ seldom gets examined.

Fortunately there are outstanding exceptions to this slightly unflattering generalisation. Each of us will have his favourites. Mine include, but are not restricted to, Patrick Barclay, David Conn, Charlie Sale, Martin Samuel, Henry Winter and Jimmy Armfield.

CHEATING

So what is cheating? Other than physically endangering an opposing player, the cheating I find most unacceptable is the deliberate blocking of the taking of free-kicks by the refusal of one or more players to retreat 10 yards immediately a free-kick has been given against their side. The rule book says that is a yellow card offence. Instead what we see far too often is a deliberate and often apparently practised effort to prevent the taking of the free-kick by the team that offended. Shame on the guilty managers.

When you add to this the pervasive stealing of yards at throw-ins and free-kicks, players claiming advantage they know they do not deserve, or illegally trying to intimidate the referee, the deliberate illegal holding, often wrestling, of opponents in the penalty area, shirt-pulling of epidemic proportions, iniquitous diving, bad-mouthing referees, the feigning of injury (in an attempt to falsely damage the prospects of an opposing player) you are left wondering why managers do not, and do not even want to, exercise more control over their players and why club directors do not insist they do.

A flurry of yellow cards, as the laws require, would lead to player expulsions, is an argument against such punishment. There would be short-term mayhem. So what? Once managers understand that the change in attitude was permanent they would very quickly force a change of behaviour from their players. And the game – faster, cleaner, fairer – would be transformed for the benefit of the fans. But everyone opts for being loved rather than respected.

*Just A Simple Belfast Boy by Brian Mawhinney (Biteback Publishing, £25 hardback).

CHELSEA FANS HAPPY BUT A SECOND DIVORCE SEEMS LIKELY

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Fleet Street sceptical about the return of the Special One

WHAT IS undeniable is that Jose Mourinho’s return to Chelsea will make football writers’ jobs easier. Confrontation yes, but dull he isn’t. And we can expect to see the best side of Mourinho when he is officially unveiled at a press conference on Monday. The Special One will be the Charismatic One…the Smiling One.

Yet for many the phrase “charm offensive” will be more fitting for Mourinho who has the ability to charm and offend in frustratingly equal proportions. A coach who has been hugely successful at FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and, in the eyes of some, “only” successful at Real Madrid has made a habit, almost an art form, of making enemies among the press, his players, his clubs’ powerbrokers, opponents and referees (plus an ambulance service).

Explaining Mourinho’s departure from Stamford Bridge by mutual consent (plus an £18 million compensation cheque) in September 2007, Chelsea said: “The relationship been Jose and the club has broken down.”

When you split with a partner and attempt to get together again, the reasons for the initial split remain, so will it be different second time round for the Portuguese and the Russian? Will Roman Abramovich soften his hands-on approach to his managers? Will Mourinho accept the involvement of technical director Michael Emenalo?

Mourinho will undoubtedly be successful, most Chelsea managers are, and the Blues fans will be as pro-Jose as they were anti-Rafa Benitez.

Fleet Street reacted with guarded optimism as the least surprising managerial appointment of the summer became a reality, yet scepticism was obvious about this particular love being lovelier the second time around.

“What a lovely couple they make,” wrote Oliver Kay in The Times. “Jose Mourinho and Chelsea were always a match in heaven. So were Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, of course, but after their brief, turbulent second marriage they always longed for a third.

“It is only natural to regard the second union of Mourinho and Chelsea as the sequel to a tumultuous, doomed but riotously enjoyable love affair. It will surely end in tears given that both he and Roman Abramovich seem to be even more combustible and more impulsive than at the time of their acrimonious split in September 2007, but the issue is whether, like last time, they can bring each other gratification in the short term that makes every bit of pain feel worthwhile.”

Also in The Times, Matt Dickinson believes Mourinho finds himself back at Stamford Bridge as much because of Abramovich’s failure to tempt Pep Guardiola to succeed Roberto di Matteo and then Rafa Benitez. He wrote: “Chelsea fans rejoice now they have their Jose back and their joy is understandable…[but] it was the return that Chelsea did not want, either, until they got a little desperate. No one was buying into Mourinho’s guff about romance and a place in each other’s hearts.

“Roman Abramovich’s passion was Pep Guardiola. Mourinho wanted Manchester United. For two men so accustomed to getting their own way it must be disconcerting to be united in defeat.

“But let us not pretend this is where he, or Chelsea, wanted to be.”

Writing in the Daily Express, Mick Dennis leaves no one in any doubt that he welcomes Mourinho as much as a Norwich City defeat. He said: “Graceless winner, spiteful loser. He is back. Excuse me if I absent myself from the celebrations. There are countless examples of his nastiness. Many think none of it matters. They accept the euphemisms about what Mourinho is and what he does. With a chuckle they talk of him being ‘a character’…but the saddest excuse for the manner in which Mourinho discards the basic tenets of sport and decency is that ‘he is a winner.’

“Indeed he is. And if that is all that counts then he will be allowed to continue debasing the sport which rewards him so handsomely. Some of us just don’t want to celebrate such a depressing decline.”

Henry Winter takes a more upbeat approach in the Daily Telegraph. Under  the headline ‘Welcome back Jose. You have been missed’ Winter takes a romantic view of The Return as he writes: “It was the love affair that never ended. He left. They mourned, falling briefly in the arms of others, hot and cold. Now he is back. It’s Jose Mourinho and Chelsea fans, it’s Mills and Boon and it’s a special relationship that could spell trouble for others.”

But trouble is what Mourinho must avoid. Winter said: “He must heed the gentle warnings of those who respect him as well as basking in the unblinking love of the supporters. A serially shrewd individual, Mourinho needs to consider carefully every interaction. He has history with Premier League referees. He has had issues with Roman Abramovich…he needs to work with, not against, Michael Emenalo.

“Mourinho deserves to be welcomed back. He adds to the excitement. He is an outstanding manager. He will make Chelsea a genuine threat in the title race, arguably favourites. He will make some unpleasant headlines and will find English football is less forgiving this time round. But it is good to see him back.”

James Lawton in The Independent suggests the love affair is a more of a one-way street. He wrote: “In the joyful ceremonials of his resurrection as Chelsea manager we should not for a moment forget that Jose Mourinho is living, swaggering proof that when you fall in love with yourself there is every chance it will prove a life-long romance.

“We should also recognise that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, having been rebuffed by the likes of Pep Guardiola and Juergen Klopp for the most impeccable of reasons, has made his best possible appointment.”

The Sunday Times’ Jonathan Northcroft, speaking on Radio 5Live, thinks it is imperative Mourinho has complete control over team matters, notably transfers. He said: “It was interesting to hear him say he was willing to marry again and it does feel like a couple getting back together. They’ve missed each other, they remember the romance first time round but maybe have forgotten some of the bad times. Let’s remember when he left in 2007 it was because he felt Abramovich was starting to interfere in transfers like Andrei Shevchenko and Mourinho felt he wasn’t able to pick the team…or at least from the squad he wanted.

“Emenalo is in there as Abramovich’s man. He’s been managing transfers for the last couple of years. I think he will have to take a step back. I think the key to it will be Abramovich allowing Mourinho to get on with it because if it [interference] happens again Mourinho’s reaction will be exactly the same.”

Back in the Daily Telegraph, Paul Hayward harbours similar reservations about the second coming of Mourinho. He wrote: “With all this [a multi-talented team] in his favour Mourinho must be confident he can keep Abramovich off his back with rapid progress. A summer splurge by [Manchester] City could alter the rosy picture, but Chelsea are unlikely to hold back either. But there will come a day when Mourinho feels the oligarch above him is exceeding the bounds of acceptable involvement and is messing with his team.

“On that day, blowing kisses to the fans would not save him from Abramovich’s ruthlessness or whims.”

Mourinho has signed a four-year contract which would be unchartered territory for manager and owner if completed. The Guardian’s Owen Gibson wrote: “The odds on Mourinho making it to the end of his four-year contract must be long. The smart money must be on a rollercoaster ride that takes in significant silverware before spectacularly derailing with serious collateral damage.

“The professed aims of stability, youth development and profitability appear almost as far away as ever. But it is a deal most Chelsea fans are only too happy to sign up for.”

In the meantime some dedicated members of the Football Writers’ Association will be leaving their families next month to cover Mourinho II as his return gets underway in Thailand.

FWA Interview: Geoff Shreeves

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‘My job is to ask questions – nobody is interested in my opinions’ – Geoff Shreeves

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

SIR ALEX FERGUSON may not have allowed Geoff Shreeves the last word on his final game at Old Trafford, but the Sky Sports interviewer always has the first word.

A familiar face of the station, Shreeves has been with Sky Sports since 1992, the first season of the Premier League. It can be a thankless task, a no-win job. Ask soft questions and you are accused of avoiding the main issue, ask about a manager’s future and it’s insensitive. Criticised for telling Branislav Ivanovic he was suspended for the 2012 Champions League final, it was hardly Shreeves’ fault the Chelsea defender was unaware of his number of yellow cards.

Shreeves would not have survived 21 years at Sky Sports without being very good at what he does and would-be football journalists and especially players moving into the media world could learn a lot from his interviewing technique and attitude. Some presenters, especially ex-professionals, offer their views and ask: “Do you agree?” Shreeves is old school and does not indulge viewers with his own thoughts. He said: “With all due respect, what do I know? I was schooled well in journalism by people I worked for in that my opinion is of no interest to anybody. I genuinely believe that. It’s my job to ask questions. I enjoyed being on the FWA Live panel and mixing it with an audience, but you will never hear my opinions on matters of football, skill or tactics [on television].”

Football writers appear regularly on television and radio yet none has made the move that Guillem Balague, featured regularly on Sky Sports’ La Liga coverage and the excellent Revista De La Liga show, has managed. Shreeves said: “We are in an interesting period in the media where the job is merging into one. We have Guillem Balague, I love his writing and he is so knowledgeable that he is an accepted pundit on Spanish TV stations. That would never happen in this country [with domestic football] which I find interesting.”

A trap some interviewers fall into is to stick too rigidly to their pre-prepared list of questions when in fact the best questions invariably follow on from an answer. And never make questions longer than the answer. Shreeves said: “If you talk to budding football writers and ask them the most important thing about a question they usually say ‘it should be clear and concise’ or ‘angled towards the person.’ No. It’s in the answer.

“My question could be: ‘So, Sir Alex, you have won Manchester United’s 20th title and seen off the financial challenge of Manchester City and Chelsea…could you encapsulate the importance of this victory and its wider meaning for football and the social world of this country?’ Or I could ask: ‘What does this mean?’”

When your job is also your hobby it can be difficult to switch off and Shreeves said: “Like everyone in our game, I do masses of research and in fact you are effectively researching every time you go to a game…you see someone, meet somebody…the football media is always working. We joke that we are awake 24/7 and sleep with one eye open, such is the pace of the media now.”

Shreeves has built up a close relationship with the leading managers and players in the Barclays Premier League, yet any friendship does not prevent him from asking a question about a red card or a manager’s future. “It doesn’t bother me remotely. There are times when someone who is a good friend is on the end of a question that is not going to do him or his employment any favours. However, I enjoy the challenge of phrasing those questions correctly.

“You have to look at what makes a good interview. The relationship is key. If there is mutual respect they will accept you have to ask certain questions or take a certain line and not hide behind ‘oh my producer told me to ask this.’

“They know you have a job to do, but you have to be respectful and don’t go hunting headlines. In the final reckoning, when a team, is relegated no one cares whether it’s Geoff Shreeves or whoever asking the questions, nor should they be. They are interested in the answers.”

Shreeves has no ambition to leave the after-match interview area and move inside to present a football chat show or a live broadcast. “It’s a different skill, one that I don’t have. I wouldn’t want to do it because I get a real buzz from talking to people as I do. I love nothing more than interviewing people, listening to them, asking them questions…”

Waving the FWA magic wand, if Shreeves could interview any football personality for 30 minutes with no editorial control…no question off-limits, every question answered, no public relations person ready to quash any controversy… who would it be?

“If they agreed to answer any question openly and honestly it would have to be Sir Alex, the most successful manager we’ve ever seen and the most important figure in my lifetime.”

BALE HUMBLED TO JOIN FWA “LEGENDS”

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Photography: Action Images

Scroll down to watch a video of 2013 Footballer of the Year Gareth Bale or Click Here for more exclusive FWA video content

Tottenham midfielder Gareth Bale revealed he felt humbled to have taken his place among the “legends” of the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.

The Wales international, 23, topped the poll of journalists for 2012/2013 with a narrow victory over Manchester United forward Robin van Persie, who was last year’s recipient when at Arsenal.

Bale’s 25 goals in all competitions have helped take Andre Villas-Boas men into the quarter-finals of the Europa League and kept them in the race to secure a return to the Champions League via a top-four finish in the Barclays Premier League.

The FWA accolade has been running since 1948, when Sir Stanley Matthews was the first recipient of a long list which includes the likes of England World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore, the Charlton brothers, George Best through Kevin Keegan, Eric Cantona, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Christiano Ronaldo.

“When you look at all of the past winners, the legends of the game, this is a massive honour, and to be on the list with them now is a massive privilege,” Bale said as he received his award from FWA chairman Andy Dunn, chief sports writer for the Sunday Mirror ahead of a gala dinner at the Lancaster London Hotel on May 9.

“You always dream of things like this, whether they come true or not is another, but now that it has, it is a massive achievement for me, but one I could have not done without my team or my manager.

“The team has been fantastic this season and we have played some very good stuff, it is always easier to play in a really good team.

“The manager has been fantastic for me, playing me in different positions where I am able to find the space and actually show my stuff. “I have really enjoyed my football and been able to play well.”

Bale was also named Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers’ Association.

“Hopefully there is a lot more (to come),” the Wales forward added.

“I have only just started in my new free role in the middle, so there is still a lot to learn in that position for me, I still need to kind of figure out a few things which is important.

“As I say to myself every season, I want to improve again, there are still things I need to improve, there are things which need working on in more areas than others, and I can do that.”

Chelsea’s Juan Mata was third in the journalists poll, with Bale taking the first place with 53% of the votes ahead of Van Persie. Bale becomes Spurs’ first winner of the FWA award since David Ginola in 1999, and the first Wales international to be selected for English football’s oldest individual trophy since Everton’s Neville Southall in 1985.

Tottenham head into the final two games of the Premier League season still hopeful of securing a top-four finish.

 


Bale said: “Everyone at Tottenham still believes, we know it is not in our hands, but there are a lot of funny things which can happen in football.

“The main thing is we need to concentrate on ourselves and hope that little bit of luck goes with us.”



Click Here to read & watch what Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas had to say about Gareth Bale, the 2013 FWA Footballer of the Year.



 

FWA Chairman Andy Dunn, of the Sunday Mirror, felt Bale was a deserved winner of the 2013 Footballer of the Year trophy.

“In a contest for votes which took so many late twists and turns, this young man’s penchant for the spectacular captured the imagination,” he said.

“Gareth is a player who is rising inexorably towards thte rarefied levels of world stars such as Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo.

“Twice the PFA Player of the Year and now, still some two months before his 24th birthday, the 2013 FWA Footballer of the Year.

“Let’s hope he lights up the Barclays Premier League for many seasons to come.”




Gareth Bale: Footballer of the Year 2013


Words: Jim van Wijk, FWA National Committee

Michael Calvin on Millwall and FA Cup Violence

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What distresses me is that people had taken their children to Wembley for their first big game and the kids were so terrified they don’t want to go to football again – Michael Calvin

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

NOBODY saw it coming, not least Michael Calvin who spent a year virtually living with Millwall to write “Family – Life, Death and Football.” Families may argue, but fight?

The images of violence at the FA Cup semi-final against Wigan Athletic at Wembley were a chilling reminder that while improved stewarding, policing, all-seat stadia and CCTV have done much to make English football safer, hooliganism is still bubbling below the surface. What Pele called the beautiful game showed its ugly face over the weekend with 12 Millwall “supporters” arrested plus 29 at the Newcastle v Sunderland Tyne-Wear derby.

Calvin refuses to call those who disgraced the club, the FA Cup, English football and the sport in general “fans” or “supporters”. “They don’t deserve that dignity,” he said. “They are louts.

“It is wrong to even attempt to defend the indefensible. The starting point for any debate must be to condemn the behaviour of those in the Millwall end who chose to fight among themselves, before rounding on the police. As we can assume that Wembley has almost as many CCTV cameras as the CIA headquarters hopefully it should be a relatively simple process to identify the troublemakers.”

Millwall’s history has given the club an image that will be difficult going on impossible to change despite the sterling efforts of the club. South-east London, where I grew up, was the last part of the capital to be modernised, a hard-nosed area with the Old Kent Road and Walworth Road still stuck in a tenement time-warp.

“It’s a very complex club,” said Calvin. “It’s tribally driven and in many ways it’s a generational thing. The people who formed Millwall’s reputation during the Seventies and Eighties are now fathers and grandfathers who take their sons and grandsons to matches.

“Millwall’s attraction to me as a journalist was its very nature, it’s a proud working-class football club in an area that is slowly becoming gentrified. The reputation does attract a certain type of person. The images of fighting, terrified children and baton-wielding policemen are damning and demoralising for everyone who has a genuine feeling for the club.”

There have been inevitable calls for Millwall to be punished by the Football Association and Calvin said: “My early journalistic training taught me perspective boils down to the man on the Clapham omnibus. What would that reasonable person make of a libel case, or something like this? Reasonable people would surely say Millwall, as a club, did everything they could. I don’t believe they are in denial. Sadly, the majority have once again been tainted by the minority, perhaps as few as 50 people.”

Millwall’s average attendance at The Den is around 11,000, yet 35,000 followed them at Wembley. Calvin said: “Where did the extra 20-odd thousand come from? The statistical probability is that some of those had absolutely no affinity with Millwall at all. They were mates of mates or whatever.”

Football can no longer accept sponsorship from tobacco companies, though alcohol, the product that is responsible for making so many people turn to violence, still promotes itself through football, even the FA Cup. The early evening kick-off allowed more refuelling time than usual, the official Football Association Twitter site, unfortunately but blamelessly tweeting an hour before the kick-off of Saturday that 75,000 pints and 50,000 bottles of Budweiser will be sold at the two semi-finals over the weekend.

Calvin said: “High risk league games are invariably played at lunch-time. Television, understandably given the money they pay, want FA Cup semi-finals to kick-off at a time when then can maximise their ratings. What we have is a commercially driven kick-off time, but the fact remains the likelihood of that sort of trouble would have been significantly reduced had it been played at lunch-time. Also, had the semi-final been played earlier the Wigan fans would have been able to take a train home afterwards.

“Saturday was the car crash, the worst case scenario, a game watched by a massive global audience and it developed into a media frenzy. I don’t criticise anyone for writing the story, but some of the comments, calling for Millwall to be thrown out of the FA Cup, are just knee-jerk, intellectually flawed nonsense.

“What particularly distresses me about the whole scenario is that last Sunday, four or five people contacted me to say they had taken their children to Wembley for their first big game. The kids were so terrified they don’t want to go to football again.

“To say it was an internal squabble almost dignifies it. Those responsible were a bunch of drunken invertebrates fighting among themselves. It just happened to be at a football match. It could have been in a pub car park, a street brawl…anywhere. But football attracted them on Saturday and the fact they had been drinking all day compounded the issue.”

Ticket restrictions should ensure only verified supporters can buy them, though those who can remember easier access to watch a game will bemoan a society that must now be segregated.
The trouble involving Millwall followers could hardly have happened at a more high profile occasion, but there is a worryingly amount of football-related violence that is not reported nationally. Wembley and Tyneside were far from the only scenes of violence over the past year.

In February, 10 fans were arrested during and after the Crystal Palace v Charlton Athletic derby. Several rows of seats and the toilets in the away end were damaged while troublemakers smashed cars and damaged residents’ property as they made their way home. Chief Superintendent Adrian Roberts, who led the operation, described their actions as “mindless destruction.”

Six men were arrested on suspicion of affray thought following violence that erupted in the city centre after the Newcastle v Chelsea game on February 2.

Police made 19 arrests when Sunderland and West Ham supporters clashed before the game on January 12.

Last month 87 people were arrested in the build-up to the Blue Square Bet Premier match between Nuneaton Town and Lincoln City.

Thirty one arrests were made following violent scenes in Huddersfield on May 19, 2012 – the day of the Championship play-off final. The trouble continued in the railway station before spilling on to the tracks. Several men chased each other through the platforms and eventually down the track towards Deighton, causing 61 trains to be delayed and seven to be cancelled altogether. The disruption caused nearly 15 hours of delays and cost thousands in lost earnings.

Calvin said: “Occasionally football holds up a mirror to who we are and what we have become. This is England, our England. Every Friday and Saturday night pubs and night clubs can become battlegrounds. Wembley was a manifestation of the society we’ve become.”

*Family – Life, Death and Football by Michael Calvin (Icon Books, £8.99)

‘Those who work for Millwall must pull their hair out at times at the way the club are depicted’

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TOBY PORTER on the public perception of FA Cup semi-finalists Millwall

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

NO ONE may like Millwall, but Toby Porter certainly does care about how others view the club.

Porter is the sports editor of the South London Press and has covered Millwall for 11 years. Millwall have a stigma, mostly outdated and based on events from 30 or 40 years ago, but it is an image that the club will find difficult to shake off even though they have done everything to eliminate violence and racism with success.

As the Lions prepare for their FA Cup semi-final against Wigan Athletic at Wembley, the perception most have about Millwall does not affect the way Porter goes about his job, but on a personal level it is a different story.

He said: “In the first season I covered Millwall there were 187 arrests for football-related incidents. Since then there have been no more than 20 or 30 [a season] and consistently lower than that. Basically about a tenth of what it was.

“The 2002 playoff semi-final against Birmingham City [at The Den], where there was a lot of unrest, was significant in Millwall moving forward, making a decision to ensure anyone with a criminal background was not allowed in the ground or allowed to go to away games with the club.

“The reality is that the violence is much less than it was. There are still some elements drawn to Millwall because of the past, but the club could not have done more to eradicate violence or racism. Those who work for Millwall must pull their hair out at times at the way the club are depicted in a quite out-of-date manner by lazy journalists.

“Millwall’s main claim to fame was the 59-game unbeaten home run ended in 1967 [by Plymouth Argyle]. Most people would not have heard of the club apart from the bad stuff.

“For the media, there is no other hook to hang on Millwall. It doesn’t affect my job in any way because I know what the truth is. But inaccuracies should hurt any journalist and it affects me personally when I see the club depicted in an unfair manner, though that’s an emotional reaction.”

Bradford City of League Two reached the Capital One Cup final on the crest of a media wave with most neutrals hoping the Bantams would add Swansea City to their list of Barclays Premier League scalps, underlining the British affection for the underdog. Should Millwall overcome Wigan they are unlikely to enjoy such support, even against Chelsea or Manchester City, whose Russian and Middle Eastern financial backing causes such resentment.

Porter said: “The crucial period for Millwall’s reputation was the Panorama documentary in 1974.”

Millwall had invited the TV cameras into The Den for a programme about their supporters. Over the previous three years there had been a considerable drop in hooliganism, which was rife in English football at the time, and the club hoped the programme could show the benefits of responsible stewarding.

It backfired spectacularly with the BBC concentrating almost exclusively on the alleged thug element that followed the club. When Millwall and the police saw a review of the show they implored it should not be broadcast. Denis Howell, the Minister for Sport, met with Sir Michael Swann, chairman of the BBC, because of fears that the programme would succeed in encouraging rather than discouraging unruly behaviour. And so it proved.

The horrendous scenes at the 1985 FA Cup tie at Luton gave Millwall a scar for life and it is the image many people still have of the south-east London club.

That was then. When Millwall reached the FA Cup final nine years ago, there were zero arrests among their fans at the semi-final against Sunderland at Old Trafford or in Cardiff where Manchester United won 3-0 at the Millennium stadium.

Millwall are no strangers to Wembley in recent years – they made their debut in the Auto Windscreens Shield final in 1999, losing 1-0 to Wigan, the Lions cheered on by an estimated 47,000 of the 55,000 in attendance. They also reached League One playoff finals in 2009 (losing to Scunthorpe) and 2010 (beating Swindon).

This is their first FA Cup semi-final at English football’s headquarters and Porter said: “It means more to the older generation because for them Wembley was a long wait. Millwall have now been to Wembley four times in the last decade and a half whereas there had been none previously to that.”

Porter and the South London Press have enjoyed a close relationship with Millwall over the years and it would be difficult to find any football writer with a complaint about manager Kenny Jackett’s commitment to the media. “They give me all the co-operation a journalist needs,” said Porter. “It’s a very good, positive relationship and works best that way.

“Kenny is a considerate man. He likes to keep his cards very close to his chest when it comes to giving out information on the club purely because it makes his job more difficult if this becomes public. I understand that even though as a journalist I want every bit of news possible.”

Porter will be writing the bulk of the eight-page supplement ahead of the Wembley match which should boost sales of the SLP. “Since I joined the paper the only time sales increased drastically and were sustained was in 2004 when Millwall reached the FA Cup final.”

To paraphrase Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Wigan are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. They are as likely to score three goals as concede three, though Porter does not see a goal-feast at Wembley.

He said: “In recent games Jackett’s made it hard to score against Millwall. They have had five clean sheets in the last seven matches and I think they’ll be difficult to break down. Wigan have some very talented players and I think it will be close.”

ELECTRONIC MEDIA CANNOT COMPETE WITH THE THRILL OF A BACK PAGE EXCLUSIVE

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Sunday Mirror sports editor DAVID WALKER on how the internet is affecting newspapers

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

IN THE very old days spectators were told the half-time scores from other games when someone placed numbers along the touchline of one side of a ground. By “A” – say, Arsenal v Chelsea – the numbers “1” and “1” or whatever were placed, the key to the letters in the programme.

In the not quite so old days supporters would wait at a station for the Saturday Pink Un or Green Un to arrive an hour after the final whistle. These papers were essential reading, not just for the results and up-to-date league tables, but for a report on matches played that afternoon and football columns. The demise of the Saturday 3pm kick-off and the continuing technological advance of new media have seen the downfall of these papers – the Birmingham Mail’s Sports Argus, which used to be the biggest selling Saturday sports paper in England, ceased publication in May 2006.

These days fans are aware of goals, red cards, results…everything…courtesy of Planet Internet which has, in many respects, proved to be a football writer’s best friend though progress too often comes at a price.

David Walker, the sports editor of the Sunday Mirror, spoke to footballwriters.co.uk, his views personal and not necessarily those of Trinity Mirror, about the effect of the internet on the more traditional world of newspapers. The times, definitely, are a-changing and Walker said: “Just about every local paper in every city or town ran a Saturday evening special. They were a vital part of the journey home for fans. For journalists, they were an integral part of any paper’s output. That whole market was huge and it has been wiped out.

“The next issue was the power of a closed-shop union regarding the minimum salaries in some national newspapers.”

When Walker started on his first national paper in 1982 his salary was £16,900. That equates to £51,000 now, and there are many football writers who would love to earn, let alone start on, that wage.

“Salaries have gone down and so has the number of people being employed in the industry, yet the work-load has increased with the biggest development being reporters having to write across the board, from newspapers to the electronic media.”

While the older generation remains faithful to buying a daily and Sunday newspaper, the growing influence of the internet has seen sales of national papers drop by 16 per cent over the last five years, three per cent more than the European average.

A recent survey claimed that in the UK only 18 per cent of the total population read a daily newspaper compared with 53 per cent in Germany, 21 per cent in France and nearly 70 per cent in Norway and Switzerland.

“People in their twenties are not the avid newspaper buyers their parents are,” said Walker. “They get their media fix in a different way, not least the free access to most newspapers’ web sites. The one hope I have is how good some of the apps are looking, particularly newspaper apps which are based on the design of a page, with advertising and content which makes it the nearest the old school will get to the actual feel of a newspaper on a screen.”

The internet does not affect Walker’s weekly plans for the Sunday Mirror sports pages though the football writers are expected to contribute opinion columns for mirrorfootball.com and help with breaking sports news stories.

The desire for newspapers to break stories on their web sites rather than holding them for the following morning’s paper is a progression that particularly worries football writers who are responsible for the majority of back page stories.

Walker said: “Are they protecting stories for the newspaper or, as is increasingly the case, putting them on line to get as many hits as possible for the site? The Daily Telegraph were one of the first to break a good story on-line with the row between Kevin Pietersen and [England head coach] Peter Moore about the England captaincy. They put the story on their site around tea-time which meant every other paper could pick it up.”

Fleet Street had previously been very protective of exclusive stories at the front and the back of the paper. A big transfer scoop would be kept out of the first edition and held for the last edition so no one else could lift it. The ultimate satisfaction for a reporter has always been to pick up his paper and see an exclusive story that is immediately followed up by all parts of the media. The new generation, weaned on electronic media, have a different time schedule, rather than wait for the morning’s paper they often try to beat rivals by minutes by putting a story on line first.

“If we have a really big story we’d still try to make it so people would have to buy the paper to read it,” said Walker. “For me, breaking an accurate story in a newspaper remains the greatest thrill, be it football, news or politics. A newspaper’s greatest strength is to publish a really good exclusive story. Perhaps reporters in their Twenties may have a different view.”

But should newspapers give away for free on line what is in their print editions? The Mail Online has become the world’s biggest newspaper website with one recent month’s figures showing 90,309,252 unique browsers. The BBC’s web site has an estimated world audience of 150 million unique monthly browsers.

News International led the way in the UK with a paywall. ABC figures in 2012 for The Times were 393,187 and 955,248 for The Sunday Times. Combined with 130,751 digital subscribers, it meant a total paid audience of 523,938 for The Times. The Sunday Times had 126,989 digital subscribers and a total paid audience of 1,082,237. Obviously the on-line subscriptions makes money for NI even though the figures are minimal compared to the free sites.

On-line advertising yields far less revenue than that for newspapers and we have yet to see how significant profits can be made from electronic media.

Walker said: “The game used to be that newspapers had a cover charge for the newspaper, advertising was sold, the circulation was known and you could work out your revenue per day. For their web sites, newspapers are looking for sponsors, advertising…but can they protect material that is behind the paywall? Can others copy what is on a site and pass it on?”

Despite the emphasis being placed on the internet Walker does not see a time when a newspaper will have their own football correspondent writing exclusively for the web site. “That would be pigeon-holing a writer which is not what newspapers want. They prefer journalists to write for the paper and the net, which from an accounting viewpoint is staffing as many areas as possible with the fewest number of people.”

PATRICK BARCLAY looks at England’s 2014 World Cup qualifying ties against San Marino and Montenegro

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WIN in Montenegro and England are favourites to qualify

LOSE and there’s an international crisis

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

The preparation to the week that will go a long way to shaping England’s 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign could hardly have started worse. Instead of the focus being on an improving and dangerous Montenegro after the lesser demands of San Marino, Riogate has dominated the build-up.

Whatever the rights and wrongs surrounding Rio Ferdinand’s England  call-up and withdrawal, wherever your sympathies or any perceived agendas regarding the 34-year-old Manchester United defender, it has not been the ideal start to the next games on the road to Brazil.

“It’s going to make England seem a little incompetent with poor lines of communication,” said Patrick Barclay, columnist for the Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard. “This may be a little unfair. The start of all this was Rio’s rather impetuous statement that he’d be ready to pack his bags at a moment’s notice. There was an asterisk missing with ‘medical advice permitting.’

“But it is a poor beginning to what is an absolutely vital game [against Montenegro] because of what England are playing for.”

Montenegro lead Group H after four games with 10 points having beaten San Marino twice, drawn at home with Poland and a 1-0 victory in Ukraine. England are second with eight points after a draw in Poland, a home victory over San Marino, an away win in Moldova and a 1-1 draw at Wembley against Ukraine.

In the Euro 2012 qualifiers Montenegro draw 0-0 at Wembley, with Wayne Rooney sent-off during the 2-2 draw in Podgorica. Montenegro may be relatively new to FIFA as an independent team having joined in 2007, but Barclay said: “They are a solid, experienced well-knit side. At Wembley they were extremely well organised, a good all-round side with a quality player up front in Mirko Vucinic of Juventus.

“If you offered Roy Hodgson four points from the ties in San Marino and Montenegro he’d be tempted to take it. It will be very important for England to keep their discipline and not have anyone sent-off again because it will be difficult enough with 11 players.”

Ideally Hodgson’s team would be one with regulars playing well for their clubs in the Barclays Premier League. That will not be the case and Gary Cahill’s absence through injury for the San Marino leaves England with a problem in the centre of defence already without Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott no longer a first choice at Manchester City. In attack Danny Welbeck did a fine job for England last year, but has scored only one goal in 22 league appearances, many as a substitute, for Manchester United.

Barclay said: “It seemed like a good idea for England when Chris Smalling left Fulham for Manchester United because he was such a promising defender, a right-back we thought. He’s started fewer than half of United’s games this season with injuries compounding the problem.

“I was sorry to see Michael Dawson pull out, most of us thought he was worth another England chance on his club performances. Steven Caulker shows potential for Spurs, yet if you put him in you’d have to keep your fingers crossed.

“Welbeck stamped his authority on the European Championship as a real player, but he goes back to United and has to fight for a place with Robin van Persie.”

Against Montenegro, Hodgson will probably choose Cahill, if fit, and Smalling who played together in the 2-1 win over Brazil last month. The midfield against the 2014 hosts was Theo Walcott, Steven Gerrard, Jack Wilshere and Tom Cleverly though Wilshere is injured.

Barclay said: “Gerrard’s form for Liverpool this season has been a big plus for England. He has found a way of conserving his energy and in this respect the arrival of Philippe Coutinho has helped. The Brazilian has taken a load off Gerrard’s shoulders in midfield while the return of Lucas has also been a bonus.

“Gerrard is not a worry. Michael Carrick is in good form, so is Cleverly…it’s a question of getting the balance right. I don’t think England have had a completely balanced midfield since Owen Hargreaves became unfit. Every top country in the world has a holding player, a ball winner, except England. For me, when he was fit Hargreaves was the first name on the team-sheet. I don’t think England have replaced him.”

Before the challenge of Podgorica there is the inevitable victory over San Marino in the Serravalle Stadio Olimpico on Friday. True, San Marino made history in November 1993 scoring after 8.3 seconds which remains the fastest World Cup qualifying goal though England went on to win 7-1.

In the FIFA rankings nobody is below San Marino, the third smallest state in Europe after Monaco and Vatican City and who have never won a competitive game (with only one friendly victory, against Liechtenstein).

Barclay said: “I have no problem with the likes of San Marino and Andorra being in the World Cup, but they should have to pre-qualify, as in the Champions League. I don ‘t agree with those who say it would lessen these countries’ chances of progressing. You would find they will build confidence with matches at a level closer to themselves and that could be carried on into the next stage.”

There are nine European groups with each winner qualifying for Brazil 2014. The eight best group runners-up will be paired into four home-and-away playoffs. If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked by:

1.     goal difference in all group matches

2.     greater number of goals scored in all group matches

3.     greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams

4.     goal difference in matches between the tied teams

5.     greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams

6.     greater number of away goals scored in matches between the tied teams if only two teams are tied.

Barclay does not believe Hodgson should rest key players against San Marino, despite the risk of injury or a red card. “It’s important at international level more so than at club level to keep the understanding between players,” he said.

England last failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in 1994, but in a tight, competitive group with, in many respects, little to choose between England, Montenegro, Poland and Ukraine there is no room for error. Barclay said: “All World Cups are important, but this one in Brazil has a little more stardust. If you could use a cricketing analogy it’s an Ashes series…you want to be there more than ever.

“I am nervous for England. If they win in Montenegro the whole nation will breathe a sigh of relief because England could consider themselves favourites [to qualify]. I think this is a potentially exciting era for England coming up. I don’t necessarily think they will win the World Cup, but if they can build a team – and Hodgson is doing that – then at Euro 2016 in France…if they can get a team and not just 11 players it could be a really thrilling European Championship for them.”

And if England lose in Podgorica? “There is no question a defeat for England would be extremely damaging. People will be asking if Roy Hodgson is the man to take them forward. At the moment most recognise we have the right man in charge, what’s more he’s an English manager and that’s important. Should England lose, suddenly there’s an international crisis, that’s how big this game is.”

Group H

                             P  W  D  L  F  A   Pts

1 Montenegro   4   3  1  0  12  2   10
2 England         4   2  2  0  12  2    8
3 Poland           3   1  2  0  2  5      5
4 Moldova         4   1  1  2  2  7      4
5 Ukraine          3   0  2  1  1  2      2
6 San Marino    4   0  0  4  0  16    0