Date published: Tuesday 30th June 2020 9:31
Keep your mails coming to [email protected]…
…Just for the avoidance of doubt. The Theatre of Dreams was coined by Bobby Charlton when asked to describe Old Trafford.
Not dreamt up by marketing guys.
One of the nicest most respected guys in football. I’d say that has real substance.
…Yeah ok, “This Means More” is a completely bollocks sentiment, wanky marketing speak which makes me hate modern football. “Theatre of Dreams” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” also make me feel a little bit sick but they at least seem more organic in their origins – “Theatre of Dreams” being attributed to Sir Bobby Charlton, possibly as far back as 1978 (when United were about as bad as they are now).
But, Jesus lads, Liverpool have just absolutely shat all over everyone in the league this year, all they deserve now is praise and congratulations. Save the sniping for next year when they will actually be playing some competitive football again. Yes, a small minority of their fans haven’t covered themselves in glory in the last week but I’d rather a couple of thousand scousers cause some minor damage to their own city than hundreds of thousands of people descend upon and ruin beaches because “sunshine”.
Liverpool are the best run club, have the best manager and have just had one of the best seasons in football history (marginally better or worse than last year, depending on your perspective). And we all want them to be rubbish and replaced by our own team next year, of course we do but show a bit of grace dammit.
…So then Dave, Manchester……..Theatre of Dreams = harmless, This Means More = completely different case, the epitomy of arrogance which all Liverpool fans definitely embrace. This based on nothing more than your obvious, inevitably skewed dislike of Liverpool. Well, thanks for that.
Furthermore, re: arrogance and superiority of a club and whether that can be applied to its fanbase, imagine if there was a club whose fans had a well known banner that said, ‘M.U.F.C. – Not Arrogant – Just Better’, and regularly sang, especially its hardcore at aways, ‘We’re Man United, we’ll do what we want’, squeezed in amongst all those songs about Liverpool, scousers and Merseyside though obviously – even when we were shit!
And as for your comments on ‘Mes Que Un Club’ (which i’m sure others will write in on to point out your pitiful, misguided narrow mindedness) why bring Barcelona into it? Did they play you off the park in two Champions League Finals or something?
Looking at those numbers, it might be fair to ask why is the black community over- represented compared to national demographics in terms of Premier League players? There are likely two simple explanations:
1. The biggest clubs at premier league level are in big city locations where the demographics and cultures are more diverse – London has well over 20% black population and there are many top London premier league clubs, so it would make sense that that is reflected in player demographics, which it is.
2. Total demographic participation- 7.6% of the Black British population take part in football compared to 4.1% of the White British population (sport England survey)
At a lower league level, teams are generally located in smaller towns with generally white populations, so you would expect to see massive white majority squads, or at least white majority academy squads. Which you do.
So now let’s look at coaching demographics. It is rare for Premier League clubs to hire a foreign manager from a BAME background. This is a pertinent issue, because at Premier league level we should be thinking globally (since it’s a global league). This becomes an international issue in terms of hiring practices of all European clubs – e.g. why aren’t clubs hiring top coaching from African countries, or those from BAME backgrounds from other European countries? This gets pretty complicated pretty quickly and is beyond the scope of the FA or the Premier League. AAll credit to Nuno Espirito Santo for breaking the glass ceiling.
Let’s go back to the 14% BAME demographic. The percentage population from the East Asian and south asian community in the professional game is virtually nil – so one of the biggest questions is how to engage that 9% of the population, and develop professional players, and then coaches, from those backgrounds. Incidentally, the % grass roots football participation of those from a South Asian background is actually pretty large: 7.3% of the South Asian population take part in football, again, in comparison to 4.1% of the White British population (Sport England survey).
So, let’s look purely at black coaches. In terms of coaching at an elite level what you are really looking at is 5% to match the national demographic. Out of 92 Clubs, currently we have 5/91 managers in the football league of BME background (one spot vacant) so that representation is equivalent to the broader BME population. But is that a fair measure? After all, where do elite coaches come from?
We know that they don’t just come from the Premier League – top coaches come from many facets of professional football, and some from outside the pro leagues. Look at Eddie Howe, Mourinho, Van Gaal, none of whom top level players. Coaches come from a much much wider pool than just top level professional players – teaching, management roles in other fields, journeyman players, plus players who retired early through injury and already have years of coaching experience. This means you would expect to see a representation of something that reflects football participation levels at all levels in the UK.
Calculating in this way (using the Sport England participation figures and 2011 census numbers), we can crudely arrive at a figure of 8.5% coach representation that would be fairly representative of the BME community in the game. If we add back in the Asian community, we come to a figure of 19.83%, which would make a fair coaches representation of the BAME football community.
The next question is what the actual current number is, across all coaching positions at all League Clubs, as I don’t have those figures. But as demonstrated, in terms of managers there is certainly under representation.
John Nicholson: Football must come out to shun its greatest prejudice
The continuing trend of middle Eastern dictatorships interested in owning football clubs can only reverse any progress made by the likes of Stonewall. Their entire rainbow laces idea is totally undermined as soon as Manchester City’s players wear them. How can the public be expected to take it seriously when these players are happily taking a wage from a dictatorship they must know full well is homophobic?
I’ve read a lot about Raheem Sterling being a hero on here and other media outlets and whilst I like his stance on making a change in terms of racism, he should look closer to home if he’s actually serious about these issues. Sterling stars in a Gilette advert (which I’m sure he is handsomely paid for) where he talks about eradicating all forms of discrimination. He must realise the hypocrisy in this when he earns his money from a regime that imprisons homosexuals and commits many other human rights abuses. I cannot take anything he says seriously because of this, his whole philosophy seems to be “I’m anti-discrimination, but I’m not when discrimination makes me money”
Mails: Are Liverpool really Treble winners?
Read: Champions League qualification: why they will, why they wont…
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