When Sunday Comes

There were a few football stories that caught my eye this week. Possibly the oddest one was comments by the English Premier chief executive Richard Scudamore who commented that Manchester United’s poor (by  their standards) season was harming the league. "When your most popular club isn't doing as well, that costs you interest and audience in some places." Really? I am assuming that this is related to far eastern audiences who want to buy the shirt of their chosen brand and are guaranteed seeing them win every week. If they want to do that they would be far better served by the German Bundesliga at the moment – or the Scottish league for that matter.

I think the problem with the likes of Scudamore is that they are too concerned with selling branded products and forget that they are actually marketing an entertainment industry. If I watch football I primarily want to be entertained and the English Premier League has been anything but for quite a few years – I can recall watching a Liverpool vs Chelsea game a few years back where the main action on the pitch was the grass growing. However, they do seem to be picking up and it is notable that there are currently two teams, Manchester City and Liverpool, who stand a very good chance of ending the season with over 100 league goals. I think you would have to look back to the pre-war period to find teams that are that prolific.

Also, for what it’s worth, the games I’ve seen Manchester United playing in have at least been entertaining. David Moyes may have inherited the league champions but he also inherited a painfully aging squad. They are going to have to rebuild and that may take a few seasons but actually watching young players develop is far more rewarding than simply winning at all cost each week. I’m just wondering if he is going to be given the chance to rebuild the squad. There was a pretty shameful incident yesterday whereby some “fans” with too much money and clearly too much time on their hands few a plane with an anti-Moyes banner on it. I have to say I do have admiration for the real fans inside Old Trafford who booed the plane. I expect the plastic followers who are making all the noise will switch to following Manchester City, Liverpool or Bayern Munich next season.

At the moment I am looking forward to the World Cup but I am desperately hoping that it  will be a brighter affair than the last one. In a way, I prefer internationals compared to club football because, despite some shenanigans with passports, the team selection can only be made on the basis of place of birth rather than which oligarch has been playing FIFA 2014 with real football clubs. I was intrigued this week to see that UEFA are proposing a “League of Nations” competition to run alongside European and World Cup qualification matches. What interests me in this is that the teams are likely to be reasonably well matched and unlike the current friendly matches there is something to play for. This isn’t due to start until 2018 and there appears to be opposition from the usual anti-Platini quarters but I can really see the benefit in this one.

Having just looked at the English league table, Liverpool are top and both they and Manchester City can win the league if they win all the rest of their matches. Chelsea must also be in with a shot although balancing this with European matches will be tricky. Regardless of this, of the 9 matches played so far this weekend, 5 have produced 4 or more goals. This doesn’t seem to be the exception any more either. For entertainments sake I would far rather be watching these games in the coming weeks than whatever is happening at Bayern Munich or Celtic. The only odd thing is most of these games arrear to be scheduled for a Sunday.