Vast Ocean!

Believe or not there's no great distance in miles between Norn Iron and the U.K. mainland, in fact it's a short crossing over the Irish sea, but in referee terms it's more like a vast ocean. Our dear neighbours from Coleraine got away with 'murder' at the Oval last week, when their midfielder/winger, Carson, blatantly elbowed a Glens player and in his follow through stamped on him as well. The Glens player quite understandably kicked out at his opponent and for his 'sins' he got a red card, while Carson escaped with a caution. Referee Davey Malcolm, explained his 'miscarriage' of justice by saying that he sent the man off for retaliation, seemingly alluding that a deliberate elbow is no longer a sending-off offence, in his opinion anyway. In a high profile match in England at the weekend, Manchester United's Christian Ronaldo, deliberately kicked out at an opponent, the referee took no action whatsoever. Which was the correct action? In truth I think both are wrong, if you kick out or retaliate at an opponent, a mandatory yellow card should be given, while elbowing should still carry the mandatory red card. These are of course my opinions and they don't carry much weight, just like my pleadings against the ridiculous league format we find ourselves playing in this season. Depending on the results over the closing games Ballymena could face the prospect of having just one home game in the final five matches when the split occurs and no-one can convince me that that, is progress. Also depending on results and points gathered half a dozen teams could find themselves with nothing to play for, well out of the relegation zone and/or with no chance of progressing up the league table. They've tried it in Scotland and are not happy with the format, so why we have gone for it is beyond me. Surely this can not be good for football in Norn Iron and will in fact be the beginning of the end, killing the game off with apathy!

Utter Farce!

The I.F.A. is trying once more to pull the 'wool over our eyes', by ludicrously suggesting that Linfield and Glentoran will not be allowed to play each other on a Public holiday again. They've also been fined the ridiculously low sum of £1,000 each, in other words chicken feed to either of these two clubs. The two clubs are of course going to appeal against these terrible sanctions and we all know what the outcome will be. The fine will be reduced to £500 each and the football ban will be lifted. This is after all just a 'paper' exercise, the I.F.A. (who are to all intents and purposes Linfield anyway), are just trying to look like the mighty overlords that they should be. Last season Linfield manager David 'the fat controller' Jeffreys, falsely accused Ballymena fans of chanting sectarian abuse at his players, which of course was complete lies. The I.F.A. promised a full inquiry and said that Jeffrey would be made to issue a public apology, we, Ballymena United, are still waiting for that apology, as the gutless I.F.A. didn't enforce the issue. Glentoran reportedly are threatening a breakaway league if the punishment isn't lifted, yet another daft idea. Do these people live in a dream world? Our game is dying before our very eyes, one only has to look at the 'paltry' crowd of fans that 3rd placed Crusaders brought to Ballymena for last week's cup game, to realise the apathy that exists within the local game. Fans are just not turning up in the same numbers for average games, yeah you still get a decent crowd for the big matches, but on average I'd say crowds are down over the last 5 years by 15% and that my friends is a trend that looks likely to continue. Never mind a breakaway league, we'll be lucky in ten years to have any league!

Prairie Fever!

According to legend during the early years of American history, prairie fever was quite common among the settlers as when they arrived in the wide open prairies their closed minds just couldn't take in the open spaces, or the heat etc. To people coming from sheltered backgrounds like ourselves that is understandable to a certain extent, as we do live a sheltered sort of life, in a small country, one in fact where you're never more than two hours drive from the sea. Bearing that in mind can some-one tell me how Raymond Kennedy, a native of this country, could come up with the ludicrous idea of switching to summer football? It's one of those 'red herrings', similar to the campaign for 'Sunday football', which has proved to be a non-starter, 8 months into the season and only one game played on a Sunday so far. Raymond (who is to brains, as freedom is to prisons), says this would solve our fixture backlog. Maybe Raymond (in fact there's no maybe about it), needs to be reminded that one of the reasons for our fixture backlog is that we lost two games at the start of the season, one due to a strike by referees who now get paid a minimum of £100 an hour (not bad if you can get it I must say)and the next week most games were wiped out due to torrential rain. This of course didn't happen in the middle of winter, but in supposedly high summer, 16 August. Another reason for the fixture pile-up is that last season the minimum number of games played by any team was 38(here I'm assuming teams played in the Shield and not the North west or Bob Radcliffe cups), this year thanks to the superior knowledge of Raymond and his fellow bunglers, each team must play a minimum of 42 games, four more games to fit into an already packed schedule and we've had the worst winter for over forty years to boot. So let's not hear any more 'Prairie fever' talk, sort out the fixture schedule, if you must do something, but only panic when it's necessary, it's much too early for that yet!

Dunder Heads!

Of course it was bound to happen, I am of course referring to the so called Irish Premier league, it has unsurprisingly blew up in their faces. The promises made to clubs at the start of the season of how this was to be a big step forward and how much sponsorship money it was going to bring in, what a joke. Here we are more than halfway through the season and suddenly one of the teams has announced it won't be competing in the 'big' league next season. What a farce and what a farce that they were ever there at all. Surely anyone with a bit of gumption would have given Portadown a bit of leeway when they missed the deadline and included them from the outset. Bangor it has to be said, have done quite well from a playing perspective, but they have brought nothing to the game. Their ground hasn't progressed since the nineties, there fans are as scarce as 'hens teeth' and now they're bankrupt. So where does that leave the rest of us, will there in fact be no relegation now that one team is dropping out? Once the first division winners are promoted, rumour has it that the team finishing bottom this season will play off against the next best placed team who have the necessary licence, providing of course there is anybody in that position. If, as looks likely, Portadown win the first division and qualify automatically, we could be waiting on this miracle stand that is going to spring up a Celtic Park out of nothing. Take my advice boys, go back to the 16 team league before the whole thing collapses round your ears. You've had your go and it hasn't worked and I won't be surprised if another couple of clubs drop out before the seasons out. So it's time to cut your losses, as we all know you couldn't run a raffle, it's not your fault, you're just thick heads!