Patrick Vieira is the recipient of the FWA’s annual Tribute award.
The former Arsenal and Manchester City midfielder, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, was honoured at a glittering dinner on Sunday Jan 24th at the Savoy Hotel in London.
Vieira admitted he was “deeply honoured” by the award and spoke of his relationship with the media throughout his career, initially as a player and now a manager, as he begins a new role with New York City FC
Essential Do’s and Don’t’s For Reporters Going to Brazil
(by Mike Collett, Reuters global football editor who has visited Brazil six times in three years)
There is no doubt Brazil is a beautiful country, but it is a country with a dark side. We all know it has wonderful beaches, samba music and a fantastic football tradition, but they will count for little if you are held up in broad daylight by some knife-wielding, wild-eyed scumbag lowlife demanding your wallet, mobile phone and laptop.
So to try and help you avoid becoming a victim while you are out there, I’ve put together a guide based on my own experiences with some tips that Reuters journalists have been asked to observe while in Brazil:
1) Most importantly do not resist a robbery attempt. Turn over your valuables quickly and without comment. To try to minimize becoming a target, do not carry or wear valuable items that will attract the attention of thieves. Try to dress down in public and avoid using your phone while walking around in the streets. To minimize your chances of being attacked, please try and follow these tips too:
2) Keep your wits about you. Do not wander around listening to music through your headphones. Do not relax in the street. As Shaw Taylor used to say: “Keep ‘em peeled”
3) Be very careful when withdrawing money from ATM machines as debit card fraud is very common in Brazil at the moment. Avoid ATMs in the airports. Many airport ATMS have been tampered with because so many foreigners use them and often don’t realize until much later their cards have been copied etc.
4) Apart from when you are collecting your accreditation, you should not have to keep your passport on you all the time. Carry a copy instead and leave your passport in a hotel safe or other safe location.
5) Don’t carry around credit cards you don’t need or an excess of cash. Have enough to pay your way for a day and to satisfy a robber if you are held up, and keep the rest somewhere safe. In fact keep a “second wallet” with just cash in it. Leave your main wallet in your hotel safe.
6) Be alert if you go out at night. Maintain control of personal effects like phones and bags in bars and restaurants. Try not to get too drunk !
7) Keep to the main roads: Wealth and poverty are intermingled in Brazil where some of the most dangerous slums are next to the most expensive apartment blocks, and taking a wrong turn can get you into trouble.
8) Try to take taxis from your hotel or from a taxi stand if you need one. Take official taxis at airports.
9) Be wary of pickpockets working a crowd or on public transport.
10) Try not to drive at night, especially long distances. Avoid driving on your own.
11) Don’t open your hotel room door until you positively confirm who is on the other side. Regarding hotels: you can ask whom you like back to your room, and without being silly or sexist about it watch out for this scam. You may meet a very attractive person and invite her back to your room. What you don’t know is that she is working in league with a gang, texts your room number to her accomplices downstairs and she lets them in to your room, so you end up with rather more than you bargained for.
12) Do not walk on beaches or in parks after dark.
13) Be careful about using public wifi. Brazil has the world’s second highest incidence of online banking fraud.
14) Do not use a laptop, iPad or iPhone in the back of a taxi as thieves on motorbikes habitually weave through traffic jams looking for robbery opportunities.
15) Take care in stadiums and in press tribunes in stadiums and keep watch over your gear – especially in media work rooms. Professional gangs may have managed to get accreditation or stadium passes, as they have succeeded at doing in many international sporting competitions in Latin America in the past few years. BE VERY ALERT TO THE POSSIBILITY OF THEFT IN STADIUM – IT IS A MAJOR PROBLEM in LATIN AMERICA.
Bear in mind that although we will be in Brazil in June and July, it is the Southern Hemisphere winter and with Brazil being so close to the equator, it gets dark very early in the evening, around 6pm in Rio …. and that makes for a very long , dark evening and night. It takes a bit of getting used to. It can be very sunny and warm with the sun high in the sky around 5.15pm or so, but gets dark and can get very chilly very quickly, so if you are going to be out late afternoon and into the evening, make sure you take some warm clothing with you.
SO WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO THE INCREDIBLY OIL-RICH, POWERFUL QATAR IN THE FIRST PLACE?
AT THEIR two-day meeting in Zurich on October 3/4, FIFA’s executive committee will make the decision to change the timing of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from summer to winter. It is item 25 on the agenda: “2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar: period of the competition.”
FIFA were warned about the dangers of the searing summer heat in Qatar before votes were cast, but in December 2010 the exco still voted in favour of Qatar, who beat the United States 14-8 in the final round of voting. The 2022 World Cup will either be held in January of that year or in November/December. Whenever it is played, there will be widespread disruption to most European leagues with around 15 fixture postponements for Premier League clubs.
Christopher Davies spoke to Martyn Ziegler, chief sports reporter for the Press Association, about the exco meeting.
WHY DID THE FIFA EXCO VOTE FOR QATAR IN THE FIRST PLACE?
The majority of them voted for it with a combination of football political alliances and self interest. Spain’s FIFA member and the South Americans all voted for Qatar in a sort of quid pro quo with the Asians voting for Spain/Portugal for 2018. Nobody denied that was happening. If you believe Michel Platini, he did it because he thinks the World Cup should go to the Middle East as it has never been staged there. Other people did it for, let’s say non-football reasons.
SO HOW DID QATAR WIN?
There is a famous line from Mrs Merton: “So what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” For Qatar it could be: “So what first attracted you to the incredibly oil-rich, powerful Qatar in the first place?” For example, Qatar had picked up the bill totalling millions of dollars for hosting the African Confederation Congress in Angola. That was deemed to be fair play [in the bidding process].
SEPP BLATTER WANTS THE WORLD CUP MOVED FROM SUMMER TO WINTER. IS THERE ANY CHANCE HE WON’T GET HIS WAY?
No. All 54 national associations in UEFA agreed it could not be played during the summer. So it will either be switched to winter or it gets moved from Qatar and no one close to FIFA thinks for a second that will happen.
THE REASON FOR THE PENDING CHANGE – THE HIGH TEMPERATURES – WERE APPARENT AT THE TIME OF THE VOTE…
FIFA have got themselves into all sorts of difficulties about this. Blatter probably never envisaged Qatar was going to win.
ONLY AROUND HALF OF THE CURRENT EXCO WHO WILL VOTE ON THIS WERE PART OF THE ORIGINAL 2010 PANEL. SOME HAVE DEPARTED IN CONTROVERSIAL CIRCUMSTANCES…
I still think a lot who remain would still vote for Qatar, so if there was a re-vote they’d still win.
FEW PEOPLE HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH RUSSIA WINNING THE VOTE FOR 2018…
Russia are the last big football country in Europe never to have staged the World Cup. They also have a very powerful president [Vladimir Putin] who knows how to play the game. FIFA saw how much money they had committed to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and Putin will ensure the money is there is needed [for 2018].
DO YOU AGREE WITH THE CONCEPT OF ROTATING THE WORLD CUP BETWEEN THE CONTINENTS?
To an extent but when it went to South America in 2014 Brazil were the only candidates. No other country came forward so in this respect there is no competition. I don’t think it should be strict rotation, it should be Europe, where club football is focused, every third World Cup.
GOING BACK TO THE EXCO MEETING, WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE?
Blatter will tell the committee that their medical chief thinks the 2022 World Cup should be moved from summer because of the risk to fans. They won’t decide exactly when it will be – November or January – but the committee will be asked to vote in principle for a winter World Cup. Possibly the only dissenting voice will be Sunil Gulati of the USA who thinks it is too early to make such a decision even in principle. Gulati is in a difficult position as he was the leader of the Americans’ rival bid for 2022
WHILE BLATTER IS CORRECT TO SAY FOOTBALL DOESN’T EXIST JUST IN EUROPE, IT THE FINANCIAL POWER OF WORLD FOOTBALL AND A SWITCH TO WINTER WILL CAUSE CHAOS FOR MOST EUROPEAN LEAGUES…
It will cause problems in England especially. In countries where there is a winter break it will cause less disruption. That’s why there hasn’t been quite the same opposition as there has been from the Premier League.
GERMANY HAVE A WINTER BREAK STARTING AROUND THE SECOND WEEKEND IN DECEMBER, WITH A NOVEMBER WORLD CUP IT WOULD IN EFFECT MEANS A BREAK OF THREE MONTHS IN THE BUNDESLIGA…
Most of the Europeans want in to be in January. That would cause a problem with the Winter Olympics so FIFA would have to ensure the World Cup is over before the Games started.There is a view that the 2022 World Cup could be played in April/May but that would affect Cup finals, Champions League finals and so forth.
THERE MUST BE A TWO-WEEK BREAK FROM THE END OF DOMESTIC FOOTBALL AND THE START OF THE WORLD CUP. WHERE WOULD TEAMS PLAY WARM-UP GAMES FOR A JANUARY WORLD CUP?
That is one reason why FIFA won’t make a definite timescale decision yet, though they will want to get it sorted before the World Cup next year. Jerome Valcke, the FIFA general secretary, will get together with people such as Richard Scudamore and heads of national associations to discuss the best way round the switch.
THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE WILL NOT BE AFFECTED, BUT WHAT WILL PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS DO DURING WHAT WILL AMOUNTS TO A SIX- OR SEVEN-WEEK BREAK IN DOMESTIC FOOTBALL?
Good question. This is something else for the agenda.
FIFA WILL EVENTUALLY SAY THE 2022 WILL BE PLAYED FROM THIS DATE UNTIL THIS DATE. THEN NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS WILL SOMEHOW HAVE TO STRETCH OR CRAM IN THEIR DOMESTIC PROGRAMME AROUND THE WORLD CUP…
FIFA have influence over the international calendar so they can scrap dates for friendlies. The FA may have to scrap FA Cup replays for a season, everyone will have to give something. Clubs will probably have to play from June through to July
WILL FIFA GIVE UP THEIR CLUB WORLD CUP WHICH IS HELD IN DECEMBER?
They may have to for one year.
BLATTER WANTS THE VOTING PROCESS FOR FUTURE WORLD CUPS TO BE CHANGED, THE DECISION BEING MADE BY THE 200-PLUS FIFA NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS RATHER THAN THE 24-MEMBER EXCO…
Will that be a good thing? I’m not convinced. In some ways it may be better, in others it may be more challenging. The whole bidding process…who votes, the rules, everything…needs looking at. What has happened with the 2018 and 2022 bids can never happen again.
HECTOR NUNNS on a gun at Loftus Road…losing his bottle at Reading…and the House of a Hundred Beers.
Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
Yes. Started life as a trainee bean-counter in the City, but hated it, and then worked in hospitality, most enjoyably based at Sandown Park racecourse selling the boxes for the Esher track, Epsom Downs and Kempton Park. Survived having to work on Whitbread Gold Cup day and missing the last ever game at the Goldstone Ground. Just. Had an epiphany over breakfast one day (dodgy Shreddies), pitched and got a football column from the sports editor at the West Sussex County Times, and went to do a journalism course.
Most memorable match?
Professionally, it has to be the QPR v Sheffield United match in 2005, when it emerged that the police had arrested several men for allegedly holding a gun to the head of Rangers’ director Gianni Paladini during the match. A subsequent Crown Court case saw all those charged found not guilty on various counts, but the day and experience was a stark reminder to take nothing for granted as you head for the ground. As a fan, two. The Hereford v Brighton draw at Edgar Street that saw Steve Gritt’s side stay out of the Conference only on goals scored. Having just lost their ground, I am sure Brighton would have gone out of business had they lost. And the five-penalty farrago at Crystal Palace in 1989 (although their four, of which they missed three, were all nailed-on penalties while the Brighton one probably wasn’t). Good old Kelvin Morton.
The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
I’m a sucker for World Cups, love everything about them even if England aren’t involved. The 1982 version had already seen the classic Italy 3-2 win over Brazil and the West Germany 3-3 semi-final penalties win over France, before a superb final, with Marco Tardelli’s frenzied and passionate goal celebration the defining moment.
Best stadium?
St Etienne’s Stade Geoffroy-Guichard is what a football stadium should be like. Four good stands, close to the pitch, cracking atmosphere when packed, and infused with a proud history. In England, Villa Park feels like the closest equivalent.
And the worst?
The kid in me still loves going to football and knows this job is a privilege, and I can find something good and hidden charm in every ground. Even Selhurst Park, though I’m hearing a facelift is well under way.
Biggest mistakes?
Not going into sports journalism straight after university. And attempting a quick single playing cricket this summer (ruptured Achilles). People of a certain age and build should deal in boundaries only. And opening a fridge door at the Madejski this season, resulting in a bottle-smashing incident that almost wiped out Joe Lovejoy.
Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
When Chris Evans was doing his TFI Friday show there was a slot about people who looked like fat version of someone famous. Pals at the time reckoned I could pass for a ‘Fat Alan Shearer’, and that was years ago. He wasn’t great at interviews either.
Your personal ‘tech’ disaster?
The worst one wasn’t even new-tech, and there have been plenty of those (the word ‘dongle’ means different things to different people, but for me it was a small white thing that didn’t work at The Valley on deadline). My first ever match report for the WSCT, on which in my eyes a whole future new career rested, I took one pen and it ran out after 10 minutes. Spent the next 80 pressing hard into a pad and then for two hours painfully re-traced the imprints in the pub afterwards. An early and salutary lesson.
Most media friendly manager
Hard to think of a more courteous current manager than Gianfranco Zola at Watford.
Best ever player?
Paul Gascoigne in his pomp at Spurs is the best English player I have seen playing live. That should be how he is remembered, sadly it may not be. Also loved watching Eric Cantona, Zola and Dennis Bergkamp play in their time here.
Best ever teams (club and international)?
Barcelona team of recent years but also loved the Manchester United class of ’94: Schmeichel, Parker, Bruce, Pallister, Irwin, Kanchelskis, Ince, Keane, Giggs, Cantona, Hughes. More a devastating 4-2-4 than 4-4-2. Internationally, the swaggering Brazil of the early 1980s, the words ‘technical ability’ just don’t do it justice.
Best pre-match grub?
Usual beat is the Championship in the south-east, so the Amex is pretty good. The day Waitrose stop doing the food at Reading will also be a sad one.
Best meal had on your travels?
A proper Eisbein in the superbly named ‘House of a Hundred Beers’ just off Potsdamerplatz in Berlin.
And the worst?
Some dodgy herring in Copenhagen.
Best hotel stayed in?
As a cost-conscious freelance I have a Travelodge season ticket. But best hotel stayed in by a mile (for a travel piece) was Vila Bled on Lake Bled in Slovenia, a former residence of Tito. Beautiful.
And the worst?
Pub in Sheffield. Lock-in karaoke until 4am. Right beneath my room. It’s what Fenerbahce fans might do to a foreign team visiting Istanbul.
Favourite football writers?
James Lawton and Martin Samuel.
Favourite radio/TV commentator?
On radio it was Peter Jones, so many Saturday afternoons and midweek evenings spent listening to his reassuring tones. On TV, Brian Moore. Outside football, Sid Waddell – a genius who hated blandness, and made knowledge and learning cool.
If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?
Most press officers are helpful, and it is probably better in the Championship. Would like to see a few handlers spend a week with a minority sport, where it is a fight to get it in the papers, to better appreciate their position. Failing that, an outward-bound style bonding day building rope bridges. One (overseas) press officer this season even instructed me what comparisons I could and couldn’t make on a proposed piece. That cramping of the imagination didn’t go down well.
One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
An England cricket tour of the West Indies.
Other sports covered
Snooker has ended up being a big work area ever since 11 years ago being thrown the Crucible accreditation form by departing colleague John ‘Tex’ Hennessey at the Daily Express with the words ‘Here you go, you might be needing that’. Has got me to all the great world cities: Beijing, Berlin and Sheffield.
Last book read?
Dipping into the Times History of the World at the moment. Should be up to the 14th Century any day now.
Favourite current TV programme?
My daughters love Masterchef in all forms for some reason, so that, The Newsroom, and Sunday Supplement.
Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
Think it through from every angle about how you can be most useful to the people who pay you. And then work ceaselessly going and doing it.
Hector Nunns is a regular on the Championship beat for Sunday Express, Daily Mirror and Daily Star Sunday.
JACQUI OATLEY of BBC Radio 5 Live on when she made Wenger lose the will to live…laughing at a guest’s name…and cold cabbage in Donetsk
Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
Yes, I accidentally fell into intellectual property. I did a German degree before travelling round the world for a year, expecting to know what I wanted to do by the end of it. But I still had no idea. I didn’t realise that a career in football was a realistic option. I moved to London and, via a language agency, became sales and marketing manager for an intellectual property software company, later becoming key account manager protecting clients’ brands on the internet. But when I dislocated my knee cap and ruptured the ligaments playing football, I was told I could never play again. During my 10 months on crutches the football fires burnt inside me, so I researched the prospect of working in sports journalism. I started doing hospital radio, took evening courses in print journalism and radio production, followed by several months of full-time unpaid work experience (I’d given up my flat and job and was sleeping on friends’ floors) before moving up to Sheffield to do a one-year postgrad in broadcast journalism and freelancing as a non-league reporter for BBC Radio Leeds. I loved every minute of it.
Most memorable match?
I’m lucky to have been to so many top football matches, including major tournaments around the world. It’s incredibly difficult to pick out one match but commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live at the World Cup in South Africa was a real career highlight. I had to pinch myself that I was there to work, especially as it was in the country of my mother’s birth and I’d been there several times to visit family. My first match was England’s Group C rivals Algeria v Slovenia in Polokwane – a fantastic experience – and I followed it up with several more commentaries in different cities around South Africa, including the beautiful Cape Town. Another highlight was the 2012 Olympics and Team GB women’s victory over Brazil at Wembley in front of 70,000 people, demonstrating how far the game had developed both on and off the pitch.
The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
So many to choose from but I’ll go for Gazza’s wonderful goal for England against Scotland at Euro 96, but I’d start watching a couple of minutes earlier when Gary McAllister’s penalty was saved by David Seaman (justice was done as Tony Adams had won the ball cleanly from Gordon Durie). Cue wild celebrations all over the country.
Best stadium?
I loved both the Allianz Arena in Munich and the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, the latter because it looks like a spaceship at night. For old school charm you can’t beat Craven Cottage by the Thames. Their fans by the press box are always up for a friendly chat.
…and the worst?
That has to be Amstetten in Austria where England’s women played a World Cup qualifier in 2005. The venue was more of a community ground than a football stadium and my ISDN line, which I needed to report for 5 Live, was in the main building’s office about 50 yards away from the edge of the stadium. I could barely see any of the action, let alone the four goals England scored. The England women have had to play in some dreadful grounds over the years…
Your personal new-tech disaster?
The only real nightmare I’ve had, touch wood, was a lovely interview Arsene Wenger gave me for 5 Live before Arsenal’s final match at Highbury. This was in the days when he did separate interviews for radio, TV, written press, etc. A Capital Radio reporter and I had plenty of time with a relaxed, friendly Wenger as he waxed lyrical about the history of the famous old ground and the magical feeling he had when he walked into the Marble Halls to see the bust of Herbert Chapman. To my horror, I discovered afterwards that there had been a technical problem with the equipment and it hadn’t recorded properly. To compound matters, the Capital Radio lad had a hiss on his recording so neither was usable. Around 45 minutes later, after he’d completed several further rounds of interviews on the same subject, I persuaded a tired Arsene to give me a couple more minutes. It was a generous gesture from one of my favourite interviewees, but of course he was losing the will to live by that point and the interview was very different. A stressful day.
Biggest mistake?
Being unable to contain my laughter when I was presenting a non-league segment on BBC Radio Leeds in my early days of broadcasting. My telephone guest had an unusual name which still makes me laugh to this day. I was paranoid that I’d laugh when I introduced him and that’s precisely what happened. I was in bits while trying to sound normal and had to pretend we’d lost the line and move on. Embarrassingly unprofessional in hindsight, I just lost it.
Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
The tea lady in the Old Trafford press room. I’ve been mistaken for Juliette Ferrington a few times and she’s had the same, seeing as we’re the only regular female football reporters on 5 Live. Outside of football, I’ve been mistaken for both Anthea Turner and her sister, Wendy, but not for a few years.
Most media friendly manager?
As I mentioned, Arsene Wenger is great to interview. He’ll hardly ever snap at a reporter or refuse to answer a question and gives fully considered answers. Although I was at the pre-Bayern Munich press conference last season which shocked a few of us. He was angry about a newspaper headline that day. Roberto Martinez is a gem – such a nice, calm, friendly man who treats reporters with respect.
Best ever player?
Difficult to tell as I didn’t see enough of Pele, and tragically nobody got to see enough of Duncan Edwards, but Maradona was the greatest when I was little and remains so. Messi may well become the greatest ever but not before he’s won the World Cup, or at least come close.
Best ever teams (club and international)?
This would be easier to answer if I were 100 years old. Barcelona around 2011 were phenomenal, although it’s impossible to say they were the best as football has evolved so much in different ways since Manchester United in the 60s, Ajax in the 70s and AC Milan in the 80s. Then there’s the United side which won the treble in 99, they weren’t too bad. In terms of international teams, I’ve seen videos of the Brazil 1970 team and the likes of Pele, Jairzinho and Tostao could play a bit. Wow. Although so too can Xavi and Iniesta and they’ve won three major trophies in a row.
Best pre-match grub?
It’s between Arsenal and Chelsea…..I’ll go for Chelsea because of the variety on offer. Salad, hot food, sandwiches, etc.
Best meal had on your travels?
A restaurant in Shanghai, China, at the Women’s World Cup in 2007 with other media folk. I remember being starving for the entire tournament as we were travelling and filming so much between matches, plus I was working for radio too, so was always on the go. We could never just find something quick and easy to eat so often went without.
…and the worst?
My hotel breakfast in Donetsk after a Spurs match the night before. It was more of a youth hostel than a hotel. I slept on a mattress on the floor and there were no windows, no power sockets and the shower didn’t work so you could imagine the standard of breakfast. I was famished as I couldn’t get late dinner the night before and found there was cold cabbage and other similarly unappetising offerings for breakfast. Again, I went without.
One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
I’ve always wanted to go to the Masters golf at Augusta. That course always looks stunning so to see a British winner there, preferably Justin Rose or Luke Donald, would be perfect. I’d also love to see England win an Ashes Test at the MCG in Melbourne. I’ve seen an Aussie Rules match there and I’ve watched England beat the Aussies at Lord’s, but an Ashes victory at “the G” would be lovely, thanks.
Last book read?
“Footballer” by Kelly Smith, England’s greatest ever female player. It was frustrating to read about the struggles of such a richly talented footballer growing up in an era when women’s football wasn’t respected in England. She had to go to America to become a full-time professional where her talent was recognised, although she suffered with several injuries as well as alcoholism. A very good read.
Favourite current TV programme?
In terms of football it would be Football Focus. I don’t get much time to watch non-sport programmes but I do like Location, Location, Location, usually while hanging up the washing and entertaining my toddler at the same time. Have I Got News For You is another long-standing favourite. I love satire.
Your most prized football memorabilia?
Not one item in particular apart from signed shirts from my own club. I also have signed Fulham and Blackburn shirts from my first ever Match of the Day commentary which evoke mixed memories.
Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
Work extremely hard and treat people well. It’s a very tough profession to make a living out of so when you’re starting out you can’t afford to pick and choose which days you fancy working around social commitments. You have to be prepared to travel to where the work is, maybe move to another part of the country or beyond and work all the anti-social hours going. Oh, and you may have to do it for very little pay, if any, initially. Those with an aptitude for the job and the confidence to make contacts and ask for phone numbers will progress, those who don’t fancy working too many Saturdays and moan about their lot won’t get very far. Also, a sense of humour definitely helps in this business.
Gareth Bale says he is honoured to be voted Footballer of the Year by the FWA
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