MAJOR TALKING POINTS FROM THE FOOTBALLING WEEKEND

I crave your pardon with regards to the delay in release of this article (the Manchester United versus Arsenal just had to feature).

The weekend was filled with football games all over the world, especially in Europe and Africa (no disrespect to other continents). While enthusiasts could not get enough of the games, football gamblers could not wait for the conclusion; to the delight of the bookmakers!

Here are a few talking points:

Nigerian Professional Football League kicks off with draws

True to the words of the League Management Company’s (LMC) board, the league starts on the exact day it was slated to (kudos).

However, the league reminds one of the saying in local palace, “at all at all na im bad pass”. Away wins are particularly difficult to come by; hence, away teams prefer to settle for draws instead of pushing too strong for a win and ending up defeated.

Out of a possible nine games played at the weekend, five draws were recorded and more interestingly, three of the games aired on TV ended up in goalless draws (coincidental, isn’t it?)

Laudably, the under-aged sides ensured good representation regardless, in their respective competitions, to the delectation of Nigerian fans.

Is Aston Villa on the road to resurgence with Tim Sherwood?

For a team breaking all the wrong records in England, it became important that the newly appointed Aston Villa coach got the team off the ground as early as he signed.

Apparently, he hasn’t done that but he has bought himself some time at the club with a win over West Brom at the weekend for the second time in one week. This ensured the team became the first to qualify for the semi-finals of this season’s FA cup, evident in their wild celebrations on the night. How Sherwood manages to keep them up from relegation remains to be seen!

Record breaking Messi helps Barcelona break into first position on the Laliga table

How boring it can be trying to accentuate Messi’s record-breaking exploits. However, it’s unavoidable.

Over the weekend, Messi scored a hat-trick in twelve minutes to hold the record of the highest number of hat-tricks in the Laliga. Equally, he appears to have formed a formidable partnership with in-form Suarez who nicked a brace.

By implications, Barcelona has leaped-frogged Real Madrid to the top of the league with a 6-1 trouncing of Rayo VAllecano. He probably has his sights on regaining the Ballon d’ oor!

Has Luis Van Gaal done any better?

Pundits have consistently questioned the tactics and on-the-pitch performances of Manchester United under Van Gaal. Man United currently lie fourth on the Premier League table. However, they have been poor in their style of play and more noticeably, their top players have produced average performances all through the season.  

On Monday, Manchester United lost to Arsenal in the FA cup quarterfinals at the Old Trafford and this has raised debates on the efficacy of Van Gaal, especially on the basis of his transfer dealings and tactics deployed.

Van Gaal like Moyes has deployed complicated tactics on the pitch, with players featuring in unfamiliar roles and positions and this has affected the team’s productivity.

Ultimately, it can be argued that, Luis Van Gaal is in his first season at Manchester United and England and could be learning the dynamics of the league. However, with a club as big as United and the free-hand with which he has been allowed to operate, he has got no excuse but to start performing!

The French League is one big joke

Apparently, the fight for the league trophy is some competition in France (we are made to believe). However, in truth, it is nothing but filled with laxity and inconsistencies.

Lyon, PSG and Marseille just get to churn up alike results every weekend, that even when one falters, the others connive to falter similarly.

Observably, PSG seem unable to replicate last season’s achievements and this has affected the complexion of the league. The earlier they get back to their best, the better.         

COMMUNITY FOOTBALL OWNERSHIP; A PRACTICAL MODEL TO ENSURING SOLVENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF CLUBS IN THE NIGERIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Football is a team sport that is passionately followed all over the world by fans. These fans are majorly interested in both on and off the pitch stories and get excited when they see their teams and favorite players regularly on the pitch clash with other teams. A win for their respective teams brings them joy and therefore, would not mind parting with their monies to see their favourite teams play regularly.

However, fans tend to be disappointed when their clubs become insolvent and indebted or when their clubs become associated with mismanagement and accountability issues forcing them to withdraw from competitions. This limits their excitements and passions as they begin to lose interest in these clubs and subsequently withdraw their participation in various forms. This withdrawal consequently affects the league and to a wider perspective, the nation’s football.

In Nigeria, majority of clubs are managed and owned by state governments and continually are plagued by the afore-mentioned problems of insolvency and sustainability, evident in club-players strikes, salaries of players being owed, withdrawal from competitions and issues of mismanagement and accountability. This therefore poses the imperative need for an alternative model of club ownership hence- community football ownership.

COMMUNITY FOOTBALL OWNERSHIP

Community football ownership is as old as football itself but has in recent times, become a widely implemented model all over the world in ensuring that clubs remain solvent, accountable and sustainable as well fans become actively involved in the decision making and viewership of matches of these football clubs.

Community football ownership is a deliberate intention of a particular group of people who come together and part with their funds (usually a token), in a quest to co-owning a football club. The football club may be professional, semi-professional or amateur in status. They go about this quest by either entirely taking over an insolvent club or buying major shares of an indebted club. These fans actively or passively partake in the decision-making process of the club such as the appointment of coaches, administrators, salaries of staff, transfer and sales of players and charges for viewership of football matches. The membership works on a one member one vote principle; profits are reinvested back to the club and not distributed to shareholders with the club committed to being run as a viable business.

NB: The community maybe geographical or online i.e. via the internet, with an open and inclusive membership.

 

CLUBS THAT ARE SUCCESSFULLY RUN AS COMMUNITY-OWNED FOOTBALL ENTITIES

There are many football clubs that are run as community owned clubs either in its entirety or partially all over in the world. Some of these clubs are professional clubs, semi-professional and others amateur.

Community football ownership hasn’t really gained popularity in Africa with few clubs owned by fans. Mighty Jets of Jos in Nigeria is an example (limited data available). Europe seems to be the home of community football ownership with good number of clubs in England, Spain, Germany, Sweden and Turkey. There are a decent number of communities owned clubs in Asia and America.

In England, majority of supporter-owned clubs are run by Supporters Trust. Examples are AFC Wimbledon which is entirely owned by DON trust; a supporters Trust, Chester FC owned fully by City Fans United.

Other clubs owned by fans around the world;

Ebsfleet United FC (2008-2013) owned by myfootballclub based in England but open to anyone around the world. It was launched to take over a suitable football club rather than set up existing supporters of Ebsfleet united. The voting process was conducted via the internet on matters such as team selection and player transfer. Myfootballclub owned 75% of Ebsfleet and it became the first online community to fully run a professional sports club in history with over 50000 online members and 17368 financially active members.

Exeter FC of England- a community club owned by majority of the Exeter city AFC supporters’ society limited. It’s an industrial and provident society with over 3000 members.

Portsmouth FC- fully owned by Pompey supporters trust. The biggest fan owned club in English football history with the takeover completed on 19^th April 2013. They are presently in League 2 of the English football league

Real madrid and Barcelona of Spain are largely owned by fans. These fan-members have owned and operated the clubs since its inception.

All Swedish and Turkish clubs are entirely owned by fans. No other form of club ownership is allowed.

All Germany football clubs- except for some historic work teams are allowed to maintain their company affiliation, such as Volkswagens’s Vfl Wolfsburg and Bayern’s Bayern 04 leverkusen are required to have at least 51% member ownership.

Panthinaikos F.C of Greece- The Vardinoyiannis family has agreed to transfer its 54.75% stake in the Athens club to the ‘Panathinaikos Alliance group. Each member will have one vote in decision-making procedures, regardless of how many shares each individual holds.

Almost all Brazilian football clubs are voluntary associations of natural persons, but with external interference of investors through contract basis. Only some smaller teams founded in the last 20 years and playing in lower divisions have private owners.

Going by the above, it’s evident that community football ownership is a practicable and implementable model and would strive if allowed to stay in the Nigerian football league.

CONCLUSION: Community football ownership is not without its challenges in that its unlimited nature in terms of membership could be a problem as fans could want their diverse opinions and desires granted simultaneously. However, this can be curbed through a democratic voting process in decision making.

I think its high time community football ownership is encouraged and implemented in the Nigerian football setting  as it would go a long way in ensuring financially stable, solvent and Sustainable football clubs with increased participation of fans in the Nigerian football league.

WHY MANUEL PELLEGRINI SHOULD BE SACKED NOW

The saying “money answereth all things” could well be employed when analysing the recent rise to success of Manchester City. The advent of the Abu Dhabi group has ensured that they are now a club to be reckoned with, having gone on relegation in 1996 and 2001. The club has subsequently become one of the wealthiest clubs in the world.

In 2009, Roberto Mancini became City Manager, replacing Mark Hughes. Having spent over £100m on players purchase, in 2011, he was able to win them the FA cup title- their first since 1976 and qualify them for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1968. In 2012, Mancini also helped Man City claim their first Premier League title in 44 years.

However, in the following season, the team failed to win a title; losing in the FA cup final to relegated Wigan Athletic, coming second to Manchester United in the race for the Premier League title and getting eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League. Two days later, Mancini was sacked for failing to reach his targets for the season.

Primarily, Mancini was sacked because; it was imperative that the enormous money spent in the transfer market translated to picking a trophy every season and more precisely, making huge statements in Europe. His inability to achieve this meant that he had to be let go.

By implications, Manuel Pellegrini was appointed to help redeem that and laudably, he helped city win the league cup and regain the Premier League title in his first season.

However, in his subsequent season, the team has particularly regressed from a stellar last season- they have been knocked out of the FA cup in ridiculous fashion, failed to defend the Capital one cup (obviously now with Chelsea), are five points behind Chelsea on the Premier League table and are in need of a miracle to avoid being knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona. The possibility of clinching a title this season is as slim as Bacary Sagna scoring 20 goals a season.

Pellegrini has done poorly with regards to the sale and purchase of players. Pellegrini working alongside Txiki Begiristain (City’s sporting Director) has made acquisitions in excess of £150m on players and sales of just about £40m which has generated sanctions for a breach of the Financial Fair Play rule. Unfortunately, these arrivals have hardly lit up the Etihad stadium and it is safe to say that the spine of Pellegrini’s side which won the Premier League last season was made up of players signed under Mancini.

The Chilean’s campaign in Europe hasn’t been overly different from Mancini’s. He has struggled to qualify from the group stages and while he has is on the brink of elimination for a second consecutive season. His qualification has been anything but easy.

Holistically, Man City has had a particularly poor season by their standards and if the trend of hiring and firing of coaches by the board is anything to go by, Pellegrini’s job is by no means guaranteed.

Conclusion: While I opine for his sack on the grounds of inconsistency and failure to meet targets, there aren’t many top-quality managers available to take on the job. Patience is rather a great virtue!

FIVE MAJOR TALKING POINTS FROM THE FOOTBALLING WEEKEND

This weekend, football ensured that football enthusiasts had a lot to ruminate upon. The exciting football matchups staged both in Europe and Africa helped to forget that the second leg of the round of 16 UEFA Champions League does not come up until the 10^th of March.

Here are some of the major talking points:

The golden eaglets are not yet ready – Manu Garba seemed to raise the bar very high having gone on to win the world U-17 championships in the UAE. Amunike was a part of the winning team as his assistant. However, Manu Garba has been drafted to the U-20 cadre while Amunike manages the U-17 side.

The 2015 U-17 African championship has been concluded with the Amunike-managed team coming fourth; a far cry from the second position achieved by Manu Garba two years ago. Also, the team has lacked goals and expression relatively. Now, with the world youth championship in Chile looming in the next few months, it is evident that there is a lot of work to be done by Amunike if he is to replicate the feat achieved by Manu Garba. Good job! But could be better…

No campaign against Chelsea for the Capital one cup title – If any coach is addicted to titles like a cocaine addict is addicted to the substance; then it is Mourinho (1 in every 35 games). Over the weekend, the Portuguese added the Capital one cup to his cabinet of trophies. Mourinho has never lost a final as a Chelsea Manager and yesterday’s wasn’t an exception. With Chelsea having to battle against Tottenham for the title, the 5-3 defeat of Chelsea in the New Year always came to mind. However, Mourinho ensured it was a comfortable win, further establishing himself as the big man for the big moments.

This is Mourinho’s first trophy with Chelsea in his second spell, coinciding with the first trophy he won in his first stint at the club. This title makes it Mourinho’s seventh as Chelsea Manager (including the community shield).

Poor officiating fast becoming a trademark of the English Premier League – Poor officiating is fast becoming synonymous with the EPL and once again raised its ugly head at the weekend. This was precisely witnessed in the game involving Manchester United and Sunderland, where the referee incorrectly sent Wes Brown off for a foul committed by Oshea.

This incident was first experienced this season in the Chelsea versus Arsenal game early in the season, where Gibbs was sent off for a Chamberlain-hand ball. Incidences of this nature put the league in a bad light and establish money (TV rights) as it’s only positive.

Is Manchester city regressing? – Unfortunately, it appears that Man City isn’t improving holistically; they tend to take one step forward and two steps backwards.

After winning the league cup and the title last season, it was expected that they would compete on all fronts this season, especially in Europe. However, with the recent queue of results; missing out on the league cup, almost out of the UEFA Champions league and just over the weekend appeared to have handed Chelsea the Premier League title with a shocking loss to Liverpool (they are now five points behind with a game in hand). This has on the other hand confirmed the genius in Brender Rodgers and the importance of Philipe Coutinho in the Liverpool setup.

Mohammed Salah was never meant for Chelsea – Salah endured a torrid spell with Chelsea (still a Chelsea player) being a fringe player with two goals in 19 appearances.

However, with his loan transfer to Fiorentina in the winter as a part of the deal that brought Juan Cuadrado to Chelsea, he has become an instant hit, scoring four goals in his first six games. This therefore confirms that he was never going to do well in Chelsea since Mourinho did not have faith in the Egypt international. Vincenzo Montella does and should push for a permanent contract for the 22 year old.