This Is Why We’re Here

Tory Donors Benefit From The London Olympic Stadium ..
Look at what’s happening to the London Olympic Stadium we built for £537million.
In a deal between the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) and the West Ham board it’s being turned into a football ground.
The conversion bill of £272million is being paid by the taxpayer, with West Ham only being asked to cough up £15million, despite benefitting from the billions now pouring into Premier League coffers.
Surprisingly, we haven’t heard any complaints from West Ham’s joint-chairmen, Tory donors David Sullivan and David Gold, or vice-chairman Tory Dame Karren Brady, who no doubt passionately believe that tax-scroungers are the biggest threat to Britain’s prosperity.
Clearly, there are no mirrors in the West Ham boardroom.
( Brian Reade, 27.06.2015 )

Winning isn’t everything.
There should be no conceit in victory and no despair in defeat.
( Sir Matt Busby )

Please do not call me arrogant, because what I say is true.
I’m European champion, I’m not one out of the bottle, I think I’m a special one.
( Jose Mourinho on taking over at Chelsea in 2004 )

He’s one of the best headerers of the ball in the game.
( Ian Wright )

Tottenham have lost all their European quarter finals since they last won one.
( Clive Tyldesley )

Returning From The World Cup ..
The FA has been labelled sexist for welcoming back England’s women footballers from the World Cup with this offensive tweet: “Our Lionesses go back to being mothers, partners and daughters today, but they have taken on another title – heroes”.
They claimed it was taken out of context, which didn’t wash with the critics.
Maybe they should have claimed they have a similar one ready for our men when they return from the next World Cup.
Which reads: “Our Lions go back to their surgically-enhanced WAGS, being arrogant, overpaid, flash car-loving, grunting cavemen, but they have taken on another title – failures”.
No, hang on, that’s not sexist is it?
Just true.
( Brian Reade, 11.07.2015 )

Doping in English football is restricted to lager and baked beans with sausages.
After which the players take to the field, belching and farting.
English football culture is one of pure, intense competition, and that’s why I have always preferred it to Italy.
( Paolo Di Canio )

I want to build a team that’s invincible.
So that they have to send a team from bloody Mars to beat us.
( Bill Shankly )

Phil Dowd checks his whistle and blows his watches.
( Alan Green )

I think the next United manager is already at the club.
It could be either Ryan Giggs or Ole Solskjaer, who isn’t at the club.
( Mickey Gray )

Only Heroes Need Apply ..
Let’s be honest about this.
It is getting to the point now where if you want to be a referee, only heroes need apply.
You will be threatened and you will be ridiculed – on and off the pitch.
If you make a decision that meets with the disapproval of a manager who is trying to shift the blame for a poor performance, you will be hounded and you will be abused.
If we carry on like this, we’re going to have to start paying referees danger money.
You think I’m joking?
I’m not.
( Oliver Holt, 15,03.2015 )

Never change a winning team.
( Sir Alf Ramsey )

People want success.
It’s like coffee, they want instant.
( Sir Bobby Robson )

His brother-in-law is Scott Parker, so he’s got a good pedigree.
( David Pleat )

Manchester City are going to go and win the Premier League this year, as long as they can get their complacency right.
( Paul Merson )

A Fair Game Or A Drug-Promoted Fake? ..
Karl Marx got it wrong.
Religion is not the opium of the people.
Sport is.
Its personalities are demigods, loaded with honours and lucre.
And where big money comes on the scene, corruption is never far behind.
International athletics is probably riddled with it.
Cycling certainly was.
World football is under criminal investigation.
Who knows about all the other sports?
The public isn’t even getting a fair deal for its cash.
You can’t be absolutely certain that what you see on the box is a fair game or a drug-promoted fake.
( Paul Routledge, 28.08.2015 )

Players lose you games, not tactics.
There’s so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes.
( Brian Clough )

If you don’t believe you can win, there is no point in getting out of bed at the end of the day.
( Neville Southall )

It’s best being a striker.
If you miss five then score the winner, you’re a hero.
The goalkeeper can play a blinder, then let one in, and he’s a villain.
( Ian Rush )

It was a no-needful tackle from Danny Fox.
( Phil Neville )

The Special One ..
He must really think I’m a great guy.
He must think that, because otherwise he would not have given me so much.
I have a great family.
I work in a place where I’ve always dreamt of working.
He must have a very high opinion of me.
( Jose Mourinho on God )

I know what it’s like to win things.
You need a certain type of player with a determination to win.
You see it in the eyes.
( Ruud Gullit )

Athletics supremo Lord Coe saying the appalling doping scandal is not keeping him awake at night.
Should we check the drugs that are getting him to sleep?
( Brian Reade, 14.11.2015 )

I won’t say we have to win.
I won’t put that pressure.
But we can’t lose.
( Jose Mourinho )

If that penalty had missed, it would have taken the keeper in the net with it.
( Jamie Redknapp )

Former Footballer Convicted Of ABH ..
Chelsea legend Kerry Dixon was jailed for nine months and ordered to pay £500 compensation on June 6, 2015, for a pub attack on May 15, 2014.
He was convicted of ABH.
The 53 year-old former striker knocked Ben Scoble from his bar stool before battering and kicking him as he lay on the floor.
The assault was caught on CCTV.
Dixon, who scored 147 goals for Chelsea, 34 in his first season, and won eight England caps, launched the attack in the Nag’s Head pub near his home in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
Mark Wyeth QC, defending Dixon, pleaded in vain with the judge to suspend the sentence.
He told the judge that Dixon has expressed several times that he felt ashamed and wanted to apologise to Mr Scobie.
Mr Wyeth also told how Dixon, who earned £400 a week in his 80s heyday, now lives in a rented council home and works as a labourer.

Behind every kick of the ball there has to be a thought.
( Dennis Bergkamp )

Football’s not just about scoring goals, it’s about winning.
( Alan Shearer )

When results aren’t good the manager gets the sack, that’s the game.
( Roy Keane )

Aston Villa have literally metaphorically had their pants pulled down.
( Dion Dublin )

This Is Slave Labour ..
As prime contender for the title of Man Least Interested In Football, I can’t get too worked up about FIFA on the fiddle.
Where there’s loadsa cash, there’s always thieves to steal it.
Hence the banking scandals.
For my money, the real FIFA outrage is not corrupt soccer “executives” or the delayed-action resignation of Sepp Blatter.
Rather, it is the appalling death toll among migrant workers building the stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
So far, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, more than 1,993 construction workers have died in the tiny, oil-rich monarchy since it won the bid to host the tournament five years ago.
On current trends, more than 4,000 workers will pay with their lives by the time of the first kick-off.
And that’s only the migrants from Nepal and India, the two countries that keep mortality statistics.
The true figure is much higher.
ITUC found men – some employed by British firms or their contractors – working in dangerous conditions in temperatures soaring up to 50C (122F) and living in cramped, unhygienic, disease-ridden conditions.
There were up to 10 crammed into bunks in tiny, squalid rooms, existing on poor food.
Under a system known as “kafala”, foreign workers are owned by the employers – who can refuse a change of job or an exit visa from the country.
The bosses control wages, employment conditions and the supply of ID cards.
This is slave labour.
Men are dying for the so-called beautiful game and FIFA has done nothing about it.
( Paul Routledge, 05.06.2015 )

Sorry to hear that FIFA’s suspended president Sepp Blatter is in hospital after suffering “a small breakdown”.
I wish him a speedy recovery.
So law enforcers can ask him for a “lengthy breakdown” of his financial arrangements these past 17 years.
( Brian Reade, 14.11.2015 )

As a professional football player, I have known perfectly well from the day I started playing that every day I have to fight for my place.
( Luis Figo )

People say it is part of the game.
You win some, you lose some.
But not for me.
( Ruud van Nistelrooy )

I saw a defeat coming when they went 3-0 down.
( David Pleat )

Condemning Exploited Workers To Death ..
FIFA isn’t just under investigation for alleged bungs when up to 4,000 workers could die in Qatar by the 2022 World Cup, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, with the bloody toll already exceeding the verified 1,200 figure.
Unofficial estimates add hundreds to the widely-quoted death rate so a separate Swiss probe into football’s governing body could prove a life-saver.
Swiss authorities want answers from Geneva-based FIFA after accepting a complaint that the game’s plutocrats allegedly failed to protect the human rights of migrants dying in the building boom linked to the tournament.
On a second secret trip to Qatar in two years, I found few improvements in the slave conditions when meeting workers with Unite leader Len McCluskey and Labour MPs Ian Lavery and Naz Shah.
Condemning exploited workers to death is a potentially fatal charge for FIFA.
( Kevin Maguire, 01.02.2016 )

It doesn’t matter who scores the goals so long as we win.
( Steven Gerrard )

Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win.
( Lionel Messi )

Any side in the world would miss Bareth Gale.
( David Pleat )

If QPR go into the Championship, the players will be like rats jumping over a ship.
( Mick Quinn )

Footballer’s Pay Explosion ..
The top weekly rate for footballers, introduced in 1901, was just £4.
But it was still almost five times the average working wage of 17/6d (87p).
By 1939 it had risen to £8, double the usual industrial wage.
And in 1960, when the wage cap was dropped, football stars were on £20, £5 more than the working man.
In 1961, England captain Johnny Haynes became the first £100-a-week player.
Premier League average pay is now £44,000 a week, £2.29million a year, compared with the regular worker’s £26,500.
Wayne Rooney is the Premier’s highest-paid ace on £260,000 a week.
( Daily Mirror, 15.01.2016 )

A lot of football success is in the mind.
You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.
( Bill Shankly )

That was totally against the runaway.
( Iain Dowie )

For sportsmen or women who want to be champions, the mind can be as important, if not more important, than any other part of the body.
( Gary Neville )

Berahino hasn’t been the best player on the pitch but he’s my man of the match.
( Owen Hargreaves )

Whoever Bought One Should Be Tarred And Feathered ..
Today’s football has many evil sights, but the whims of the modern fan and commerce collided to produce the most horrific sight at Old Trafford this week – the selling, and wearing, of Jose Mourinho/Man United manager scarves, when they already have a manager called Louis Van Gaul.
Whoever bought one should be tarred and feathered in half-and-half colours, have it tied round their necks and hoisted from outside a corporate box with a plastic flag stuck up their jacksey as they play Day Tripper on the tannoy.
( Brian Reade, 02.01.2016 )

In football you always get judged on your last game.
Whoever you are, or how amazing you are, it’s the last game that everyone has seen.
( Thierry Henry )

In football as in watchmaking, talent and elegance mean nothing without rigour and precision.
( Lionel Messi )

It’s all pumps blazing as we go to the wire.
( David Pleat )

You often see shocks in the League Cup, even when you don’t expect them.
( Jan Molby )

Sol Campbell Turns Tory Because Of Threatened Mansion Tax ..
The Tories’ latest celebrity ‘coup’ is ex-footballer Sol Campbell, driven into their arms by Labour’s threat of a mansion tax on his £25million home, saying he now wants to win them the next election by securing the black vote.
Good luck taking your message on to the estates, Sol.
Although I doubt you’ll find too many black faces on the Yorkshire estate owned by your wife’s family where these days you like to go shooting.
When I interviewed Campbell a decade ago, he painted himself as a man of the people: “I’m just the same working-class person I was. If I hadn’t been a footballer I’d probably be settled down with a woman in East London today. Money hasn’t changed me,” he said.
I think you’ll find it has, mate.
( Brian Reade, 25.10,2014 )

Football is a game about feelings and intelligence.
( Jose Mourinho )

Obstacles don’t have to stop you.
If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.
Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
( Michael Jordan )

Champions keep playing until they get it right.
( Billie Jean King )

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out.
It’s the pebble in your shoe.
( Muhammad Ali )

Remember this.
Hold on to this.
This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others.
This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting meaning.
This is why we’re here.
( Andre Agassi )

When Britain Topped The Olympic Medals Table ..
The fourth ever Olympic Games in 1908 were originally awarded to Rome, but sadly for the Italian capital, Mount Vesuvius had other ideas.
After the volcano erupted in 1906, mounting Italian financial problems led to Rome withdrawing and the Olympic organisers looking for an alternative host city with just 18 months to go.
Luckily for all concerned, the head of the British Organising Committee was the remarkable Baron Desborough.
Desborough quickly set about building a stage to make Britain proud.
By striking a deal with an exhibition that was planned for White City in 1908, Baron Desborough got a 66,000 capacity stadium built to Olympic specifications in double-quick time.
The new stadium was therefore ready for the first ever Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on July 13, 1908 – in which representatives from the 22 competing nations paraded flags in front of King Edward VII.
London 1908 was the first Olympic Games where the athletes – some 2,008 of them, including 676 from Great Britain – competed as part of a national team rather than as individuals.
Great Britain topped the medals table with 38 Bronze, 51 Silver and a staggering 56 Gold.

I hated every minute of training, but I said:
“Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion”.
( Muhammad Ali )