Omar's moving finger writes.....

I.F.A chief executive Howard Wells paid a visit to the Showgrounds last Saturday, he is reportedly in the process of visiting every Premier league club and it was our turn last week. He was, according to reports, suitably impressed by the old place and congratulated the club on their forethought. One of the questions put to him was, ‘How much of a percentage of gate receipts, do Linfield receive from the governing body for Internationals?’ This was a matter that had been raised at the I.F.A. annual general meeting, but couldn’t be answered as the figures weren’t available. A strange A.G.M. that must have been, no figures available, seems to me more like the person responsible was put on the spot and didn’t want to answer. So the United board kindly asked the chief executive if he could supply this information. Are you sitting down, because if you’re not, the shock could be too much for you? This year has been an exceptional year, what with the visit of England, Wales and last week’s friendly against Portugal, but it’s still a surprising amount, even taking these factors into account. The sum we are told is fixed at 10%, which works out at a staggering £200,000, yes two hundred thousand pounds, can you believe it. Just imagine the edge which this gives to Linfield in Irish league terms, at least half their wage bill paid up front, quite a leg-up from the I.F.A. No wonder Linfield fans are putting pressure on the I.F.A. to abandon the proposed International stadium at the Maze near Lisburn. If the ‘Norn Iron’ games were to be played away from Windsor Park, Linfield’s revenue would suddenly dry up and their habit of ‘poaching’ the best players from other league clubs would go down the tubes. How do Linfield keep the I.F.A. ‘sweet’ as regards International matches, I wonder? Surely Jimmy and the boys wouldn’t take any ‘perks’ now would they? One might speculate that our Governing body have been less than ‘circumspect’ in the past and where there’s ‘muck there’s brass’. Yes you might think hands are being ‘greased’ behind the scenes. You might think so, but I could never say it, now could I?

Omar's moving finger writes.....

Another great result (I almost said victory), for ‘our wee country’, firstly we beat the team who are suddenly going to win the World cup, back in September (aye, pigs will fly) and now we’ve drawn with the team, labelled the ‘best’ in Europe. But first a wee ‘gripe’, why did the I.F.A. deem it necessary to ‘hike’ the price, at least for the North stand anyway, up by 25%, to £25. Would it not have been fairer, to honour the dedicated fans, who buy blocks of tickets without fail, instead of getting into them for more money? But what am I saying, of course its Jimmy Boyce and company and at the end of the day all one can expect from them, is to get ‘shafted’. If I am wrong and the ‘extra’ money was needed to pay the match expenses, then I stand ‘pleading’ guilty. Now for my other observations and firstly I’d like to comment on the performance of the English referee, Howard Webb. Anyone who watches a lot of English football (personally I don’t, as I believe it’s the least skilful football played anywhere in Europe, except maybe for Scotland and the South of Ireland), can vouch for the indignation voiced by most commentators for players who try to influence the referee by, (1) theatrical dives and (2) urging the referee to caution an opposing player. But on Tuesday night we witnessed an English referee who was influenced by both. Every time a Portuguese player was fouled, we had the theatrical ‘dives’ and rolls worthy of the Olympic games and then we had the pleas of the players and their manager, for the referee to caution the offender. The referee made no allowances for the fact that the pitch was completely sodden after all the rain we’ve had and that any tackles were going to ‘look worse’ than they actually were. One of the ‘biggest’ offenders was Manchester United winger Christian Ronaldo, his theatrical ‘dive’ when caught by Norn Iron’s Craigan, was something to behold, not very ‘Christian’ in my book, worthy of a mark of at least ten points in the Olympics. While midfielder Boa Morte, fouled just prior to halftime, with his manager ‘ranting and raving’ at the referee, appeared to be fatally injured, of course this was nothing but ‘histrionics’. In fact for all the labels of a ‘dirty’ match not one player had to be substituted for anything but tactical reasons during the whole game. Unless I’ve got it wrong is it still not within the referee’s jurisdiction to caution players for ‘ungentlemanly conduct’ and what can be more ‘ungentlemanly’ than trying to get a player cautioned or influence the referee by diving. All referees would have to do was start booking the ‘divers and appealers’ and maybe we could eliminate this ‘gamesmanship’ from football for good. In closing I must praise the Norn Iron boys, who never once ‘asked’ for a player to be booked or tried to influence the referee in any way, well done lads, the match may have ended in a draw, but you won the ‘fair play award’ hands down!

Omars moving finger writes.....

The big news this week is that former Glentoran and Cliftonville player, Tim McCann (or should I say the injured Tim McCann), has parted company with United. The club and McCann, we are told, have come to an amicable arrangement. With 6 months of his contract to run, we are left to wonder how much money United had to ‘cough up’ in order to get Tim off the books. Let’s say for arguments sake that he’s earning £200 per week, with 6 months left he’d stand to lose £5,000, so I’m sure United had to give him at least £3,000, in order to pay him off. That’s a lot of money for a club like our own to find, who, although well run, are still ‘balancing on a tightrope’, financially. Wouldn’t it be much more prudent to have a clause in player’s contracts which states that after a player is out injured for 3 months, he goes onto half pay and after 6 months, the money stops completely? I know this sounds a bit harsh, but at the end of the day this is how it is done in the real world, the ‘world’ of business and we are after all trying to run football as a business. In fact we probably wouldn’t have to put it in as a clause in contracts, just make it a club policy and therefore it would be part of any future contracts automatically. In the 15 months that Tim McCann has been at the Showgrounds he’s made 15 first team starts and one as sub, total (16). To the best of my knowledge, our players are only paid during the playing season, so Tim’s 16 matches cost our club somewhere in the region of £10,000, which works out at an average fee per game of £625, not a bad wee wage is it? Tim of course isn’t United’s only long term injury victim, Darren Fitzgerald is at present out injured and United are not hopeful of his return this season. Darren has been on our books for almost a year, he has only played 11 games for us, which works out at approximately £700 per game. I realise that any new legislation would not save us the money for these players, but it would safeguard our club in the future, if not there may not be any future for us at all!

Omar's moving finger writes.....

I know it’s so easy to put the blame for a defeat on the referee and I try not to for he’s an easy target, but after the decisions made by that ‘love child’, Adrian McCourt, who refereed last Saturday’s game against Linfield, I’m afraid all my good intentions are going out the window. Firstly let’s look at the ‘first’ penalty decision, remembering that the referee must make a ‘snap’ decision. Now I’ve watched it a dozen times on the television replay and I can see no obvious contact. In fact if anything it was Kearney who committed the foul as he was behind the United defenders and threw himself forward in a vain attempt to get the ball and in doing so impeded United player Stephen Collins. Then in the second half, in the same penalty box United player Rory Hamill was fouled a good yard inside the box, but the referee gave the infringement outside. Why the discrepancy I wonder? If the referee could see an infringement, where there wasn’t one, how come he couldn’t see another which was right in front of his nose and that of his assistant, if he needed clarification, is beyond my comprehension? Has the time come for referees to be ‘drug’ tested? When I come to think of it, is that why John Ferry (the laughing fairy from Londonderry), always had a smile on his face. Maybe it also explains Davey Malcolm’s reluctance to give a foul against Linfield, in the infamous, ‘tiny testicles’ match. It wasn’t courage that was lacking; it’s just that his mind was miles away. In fact a lot of things could be explained away if referees were ‘high’ on drugs. Michael Ross for example is a prime candidate; look at his latest gaffe when United played Newry recently. Maybe he genuinely didn’t see Packy McAllister throw a punch at United’s Vinny Sweeney, as he was off on a ‘trip’? So many bad decisions could be explained away if we believed referees were drugged at the time. Or is it much more sinister than that, I wonder? Are referees after all only human and ‘err’ on the side of certain teams? Actually I think I prefer to think they’re drugged, otherwise I might think I was paranoid!