17/04/2008 by leo.

Following on from my Easter Saturday visit to Luxembourg, as reported in our last home programme, and before returning to Whaddon Road to see us beat Orient on the Monday, I was in Germany on the Sunday to see Mainz play Hoffenheim. German football loves initials and dates, so to be official, I saw 1. FSV Mainz 05 play TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, that is 1st Fussball und Sport-Verein Mainz 05 against Turn und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim. The dates 05 and 1899 gives dates of the foundation of the sports clubs (almost certainly sometime before they turned to football – generally the earliest possible date, as the clubs tend to be mergers at some time. Both Sport-Verein and Sportgemeinschaft basically means Sports club, while Mainz add the word Fussball, and Hoffenheim add Turn (meaning at one time, gymnastics were more their thing). In fact, one of the teams in the Mainz combination was founded as a football club in 1905 – quite early for football in Germany – although the use of the prefix 1, is taking a bit of a liberty – there was a club formed in 1903 as well which had gone bust before this one formed. I believe no club in Germany has 2. as a prefix. In Hoffenheim’s case, football was not played until 1921, which is when football was coming to the fore in Germany, and many athletics and gymnastics clubs were taking to the sport.

I have always thought of Mainz as a solid, second division club. This is because I started to watch football on the continent at the end of the 1980s, and Mainz were in the second division then, and managed to avoid changing divisions for 15 seasons. However, historically, that was not the case. Germany only formed a national league in 1963, and Mainz as a moderate team in the regional leagues before that date were not founder members. They did join the second division when it was formed in 1974, but despite two mid-table seasons, they pulled out on financial grounds. So in fact, when I first started to watch in Germany, they were new boys to the second division having won promotion in 1988, they were relegated as season later, returning for the long stay only in 1990. From then on they stayed at the level. I attempted to visit them in 1995, but it was one of those days when it was best to let fate decide. I struggled to achieve the speeds required in driving from the Swiss border in extremely wet weather, and decided to give up the idea somewhere near Stuttgart. I was not in a hurry, really – Mainz had been selected due to its proximity to the Airport, but I was not flying until Monday morning. So, instead of Mainz, I went to Reutlingen, a third division side (situated somewhere near Stuttgart). Oddly, as soon as I stopped the car, the weather front, which I must have been chasing up the motorway passed on ahead of me, and I saw a good game of football in good weather.

In 2004, Mainz surprised everyone and won promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time in their history. Visiting them now became very difficult, as they stayed in the top division for three seasons, and during this time, the stadium was full to capacity more often than not. This season sees them back in the second division, but now with plans to open a new stadium in the near future, I needed to make a trip if I was to ever visit the old one.

By comparison to Mainz, the name Hoffenheim would not have come up back in 1990 – they then played at the seventh level of the German pyramid. By the end of the decade, they had moved up two levels to the Verbandsliga Nordbaden – which meant they were in the listings book published annually by German groundhoppers. At about this time, Dietmar Hopp, who had made a lot of money in the software industry, decided to return to the club where he once played as a youngster. He immediately decided to build a new stadium, good for 5000, which must have been seen as something of a joke in the area – few clubs at that level exceed 100 fans. But Hopp was not content to see the Dietmar Hopp Stadium, (as he named it) lie empty, and he also financed the team, winning the Verbandsliga in 2000, and the Oberliga in 2001. The club had now risen to the Regionalliga Sud, the third division of German football, which is a good level, some teams being professional, others part time, and also including the reserves of some of the biggest top division sides. I went to a game there in 2004, and 2,250 people saw them lose to Augsburg.

Last season, the average crowd at Hoffenheim was about 3,500 and with Hopp’s money, they had a squad that finished second in the league and won promotion. The champions, last season were Wehen – from an even smaller town and also dependent on one man’s finance. Wehen have moved some 10km to Wiesbaden, where a new stadium was quickly erected, and they have played in front of an average just under 9,000 this season. This still leaves Wehen as the third smallest crowd in the division – Hoffenheim have increased capacity to 6,500 and are near full most games, while Paderborn who are also about to open a new stadium struggle at the bottom of the league table and attendance list.

The answer to Hoffenheim’s stadium, as the location of the Dietmar Hopp stadium is such that further expansion is not possible, is now a 30,000 seat stadium in neighbouring Sinsheim. Sinsheim is only about 3 km from Hoffenheim and is a larger town – at least it has a hotel, (I had to stay in Sinsheim when visiting Hoffenheim). You may even be familiar to the place if you have driven down the motorway in that part of Germany, as its transport museum includes some quite large planes parked next to the Autobahn. For Hopp, this is the go-it-alone solution, as other ideas, such as merging the club and moving it 30km to Heidelberg have been rejected. Whether this creates a solution remains to be seen. For the club to survive on its own, it surely needs to exceed 10,000 regular spectators if in the second division, and twice that if it wins promotion to the top league.

Which brings me back to Mainz, on a chilly afternoon which fortunately was dry but for the odd flurry of snow. Repeated phone calls in the week before had found me a ticket in the full stadium, (none were available on the day). The good news is that this costs only €17 (about £14). The bad news is I am in an uncovered corner stand, with the view inhibited by the supporting pillar of another stand. The stadium has clearly been drastically refurbished – but only one stand uses concrete in its construction. All the others, three sides and two corner fill in, are built on top of a maze of scaffolding poles. Only the corner sections have been left uncovered. Mainz are eager to return to the top division, and are third in the division behind leaders, Borussia Moenchengladbach, and visitors TSG Hoffenheim.

In Germany, colours and particularly scarves are still popular, even in the VIP sections, and before the game, everyone raises their scarf for that well known football hymn “You’ll never walk alone”. During the game, there is always a lot of chanting mainly coming from the far end, when they chant “F-S-V”, the rest of the stadium responds “Mainz-0-5”.

Hoffenheim were the stronger side in the first half, with the Ivorian striker Demba Ba being particularly impressive, but also prone to the over theatrical dive. Ba headed in from a corner after 37 minutes, but the referee found fault with it – I have watched the TV replay, but never found the problem, and ‘Kicker’ magazine said it was unexplained. Mainz did better second half, going ahead when a Gunkel took a free kick from the left. Although Spilacek beat Pekovic to the ball, his header went into the net as an own goal. Ba’s diving eventually got him a yellow card a few minutes later – by my reckoning, he should have had more than one, but he stayed on the pitch to turn and shoot low to level the scores after 83 minutes. Hoffenheim’s Hungarian international defender, Zsolt Löw received his second yellow card in the final minutes.

Posted in The European Game | 2 Comments »

31/03/2008 by leo.

Although Easter is not normally a good time to travel, with high prices all around due to school holidays, I found good enough prices to allow me to go to the airport at the centre of nowhere, Frankfurt Hahn. Flying out of a Saturday, back on a Sunday, I thought I might miss some of the high holiday traffic, but too many other people had similar thoughts; both Stansted and my plane proving to be as busy as ever.

Saturday was the day for the Coupe de Luxembourg. I love Luxembourg, few smaller places can have such a confused history. The country was once four times in current size, although not then properly constituted as a country. The French, Germans (or Prussians), and Belgians taking giant slices off it at various times, while Napoleon just claimed the whole territory for France, (it was the treaty after the defeat of Napoleon that defined the Grand Duchy, less the Prussian bits – Belgium snatched its selection a few years later, and even grabbed a bit of the German slice in 1919).

The major languages are French and German, but then there is always the local language, Luxembourgish sitting somewhere in the background. Added to this, the country’s position at the centre of Europe have drawn in other people from all over the EU and many from further afield. Fortunately for me, most of the locals speak English as well. Luxembourg has a single professional league of 14 teams, although with average crowds, one wonders if this is completely full time. The second division, known as Promotion D’Honneur (in French, anyway) is also a National division of 14 teams, while there is a small pyramid of more localised leagues below this. All the teams play in the National Cup, with the more senior clubs exempt from the earlier rounds. In February, all the top division teams entered and all were given away draws. Eight of them went through and of these, seven had away ties at Easter, the exception being the one all top division tie, there was also one tie which was only Promotion D’Honneur teams, (two lower teams had made it to this round).

My first match was at FC Mamer 32. The name tells you most of what you need to know about the club, it comes from Mamer (a small town, just West of the capital), it is a football club, and it was founded in 1932. In 2006, they won promotion into the top division, but had a miserable season, finishing bottom of the table and were replaced by PH champions, the rather over-named Rapid Mansfeldia Hamm Benfica. Hamm Benfica play in the capital, and have merged several different club names over the years, including FC Hamm 37, Manseldia Clausen, Rapid Neudorf, and from 1986, Rapid Mansfeldia. Playing for a while as Rapid Mansfeldia Hamm for a few years, they were ‘adopted’ by local fans of the Portuguese club Benfica two years ago. It appears that any connection between this club and the Portuguese giants is tenuous at most, although it may be part of a plot to take over Europe. There is already a Benfica club in London as well, although Sport London e Benfica (the Lisbon club’s official name is Sport Lisboa e Benfica) plays only in the Spartan South Midlands League.
In London, the Benfica club is linked to the local Portuguese population through its players, while its only support are friends and relations of the players; in Luxembourg, it is the supporters who are Portuguese, whereas the team is from a wide range of sources such as the Congo, Tunisia, France, Portugal and even Luxembourg.

The town of Mamer seems small, quiet and mainly residential (and by and large, closed – as shops and bars all seemed to be closed), but when I drove a little further down the road, I found a hive of activity in the form of a major out of town shopping mall, featuring C&A and Habitat (there was a time where you could find something different in the shops by travellng). Returning back towards the centre, past a school named after Josy Barthel, Mamer’s only ever Olympic gold medallist (actually, Luxembourg’s only ever Olympic gold medallist), one finds the football ground. It is next to a sports hall and within a running track, and overlooks a field between here and the town hall. There is one small covered stand, clearly recently erected, probably in honour of Mamer playing in the top division last season.

The match ticket is €6, which thanks to a drop in the value of the pound is almost £5, there is no programme, but just an magazine giving an annual review of the club. I soon find out why Hamm Benfica were promoted and Mamer were relegated last season – the visitors are ahead after just three minutes, thanks to their Tunisian striker, Aoued Aouaichia. The score is three within 24 minutes, after which the game appears to be more of a training effort, with no pressure on either side, Hamm end up 4-0 winners.

From Mamer, it is only 12 km to Steinfort, the last village on the road before the Belgium border, (which makes the use of a German name, rather than a French one slightly surprising). Steinfort have also decided to go ‘Portuguese’, although not with much noticeable success. The club is now defined as Sporting Club de Steinfort, (which is really only a small change from last season’s Sporting Steinfort). By changing the name, which according to their magazine brings them within the family of Sporting Club de Portugal, they have gained a new badge (identical to the Lisbon club, except the name), and have switched from playing in red to green and white hoops. Unlike Hamm Benfica, who had a number of supporters wearing both their own colours, and those of their Portuguese namesake, there was no obvious connection among the fans. As it turned out, one member of each side’s starting XI for the match was Portuguese, while the home side could also both players from France, Belgium and Senegal, the visitors were, with that one exception, made up entirely of Luxembourg citizens.

The visitors here were Etzella Ettelbruck, who had finished as runners up last season. This allowed them to play their fifth European campaign, but they lost both legs of the tie against HJK Helsinki. In ten matches, Etzella have yet to win a single game in Europe, and have only three goals to their credit. The ground was tightly enclosed, with concrete paving only on the side where the entrance is. A shed like stand is set well back from the pitch, with a wide expanse of concrete between it and the barrier. This has a few rows of plastic seats, but these were widely ignored by the spectators, except for a group coming from Ettelbruck who considered this to be a good place to situate their crate of beer.

An unusual feature of the ground was that although the dressing room block formed a boundary to the ground, it has no entrances at all pitch side – the players have to leave the dressing rooms roadside, and enter the ground through the same gate as the spectators. Perhaps the walk from the dressing rooms is a feature of the division – at Mamer, the players changed in the sports hall facilities, and then walked along a path and across a small wooden bridge, which brooks the stream running between the hall and the playing field.

For the spectators, a small club room and bar is situated by the entrance and a traditional barbeque where German style ‘wurst’ was available by half time. The game was much more competitive than the earlier one, despite Etzella again being well placed in the league.
The game was far more competitive than the afternoon venture and the first half ended goalless, with Steinfort having the best chances. It was not until the hour mark that Etzella broke the deadlock with a goal from Alphonse Leweck. By this time the amount of beer being consumed was having an effect, and it became clear from chants that the visitors preferred the moniker Etzella, while the home support did stick to the town name, but not Steinfort as in the club name – they preferred Stegefort (three syllables, Steg-e-fort), which is the Luxembourgish pronunciation.

Steinfort level the scores from the penalty spot with just over ten minutes to play, and the game goes into extra time. Chief beneficiaries appears to be the bar, which is now doing a roaring trade, there being no ban here on drinking around the pitch and the visiting fans original supply being well finished. Along the side of the pitch, just inside the barrier fence, the area seems littered with empty bottles; even within a sliding tackle’s distance of the touchline.

Ten minutes into the extra period, Claudio da Luz put the visitors back into the lead, (despite the name, he is a Luxembourg international), and Charles Leweck added another soon afterwards to give Etzella a 3-1 final score. As it turned out, there was a run of away results, and seven of the final eight in the cup are from the top division. The only home win was in the all top division game, whereas the only survivor from the lower division is Sporting Mertzig, who won away at fellow Promotion D’Honneur club Muhlenbach, thanks only to a penalty shoot-out.

Posted in The European Game | No Comments »

26/03/2008 by leo.

My groundhopping trips are not all far flung foreign adventures. I also spend my time trying to keep up with the game at home.

Returning to visit clubs who have moved to new stadiums allows me to see again some significant rivals of old. Two successive days last month not only followed this pattern, but also gave me the satisfaction of once again having completed the visits to all grounds in the top four levels of non-League football in England.

The first club of the trip was Chelmsford City. The old ground in New Writtle Street was in the centre of town. It was especially well known for the atmosphere at night games, which then, as well as now traditionally took place on a Monday night. Cheltenham and Chelmsford had a long rivalry, with Chelmsford joining the Southern League in 1938, just a couple of seasons after us. They were Champions of the Southern League in their second season, and repeated the feat in the first post war season, then again in 1968 and 1972. They have, however always had a reputation for more ambition than their finances permitted. The 1970s was a period when non-League football on the whole lost was finding support hard to come by, with a drastic reduction in gates compared to a decade before. Chelmsford’s directors remained ambitious in this period, but ambition with dropping crowds, and a council set against other means of improving income (they rejected an ambitious bid to add office accommodation to the ground in the early seventies, and also the idea of using the ground for greyhound racing later in the decade) led to inevitable financial problems.

A drop in form through the seventies led to the club being relegated from the Southern League’s Premier Division in 1977, just two years before the formation of the Conference. Hence they were not among those applying for the new national league, and have been playing ‘catch-up’ ever since. The club returned to the Southern Premier when it was reformed in 1982, and almost made it to the Conference (then Alliance Premier League) when finishing second to Welling in 1986. This was a flash in the pan, though and Chelmsford were struggling more than successful over the following years, (and relegated for a singular season, 1988-9). The story almost ended in 1993, when a supporters club buyout saved the club from liquidation. Somehow the club limped along in the Premier Division for another four seasons before relegation. But worse was to befall them in that season. When the club went through administration, the ground was one of the few saleable assets, and with it sold by the official receiver; they finally found themselves without a home at the start of 1997-8 season.

The club found solace ten miles away as tenants of Billericay Town, (they later also shared at Maldon Town), and they should have won promotion within a single season. However their promotion bid fell foul of the Southern League. In what is seen by many people as a political decision as part of long running arguments between the Southern and Isthmian Leagues, the Southern League refused the accept the ground as suitable for Southern League Premier Division, even though it was graded to allow host club Billericay to be promoted that summer. In 1998, the Southern and Isthmian League’s set their own standards for promotion, but the inconsistencies between leagues was still showing last season when the Southern League graders failed the facilities for Evesham United, despite the fact they now share at Worcester City, playing at a higher level. Chelmsford had to wait another three seasons before promotion was again available.

Those here that remember the Southern League will remember a league with a footprint covering most of the Southern part of the country, but with practically no clubs in the London area – that being the domain of the Isthmian League. By the start of this decade, most of Chelmsford’s near neighbours were Isthmian League sides, rather than Southern. Chelmsford were therefore one of the winners when the FA finally managed to bring about a reformation of pyramid. The Southern League Premier area covers much of what we remember, but no longer includes any clubs in London, Sussex, Kent and Essex – the Isthmian League now had all of these, but has lost those clubs to the West and North of London, (some of whom have suffered since, as their travel bills have shot up). So Chelmsford are now one of the former Southern League sides that have moved leagues, and they are again on the up.

Two Views of Chelmsford’s new Ground

Last season, they returned to playing in their home town, (despite the name, Chelmsford has never been a city). The situation is not ideal, playing on an athletics stadium in a residential area some two miles from the centre of town. The ground consists of a main stand, with around a thousand seats, and raised well above ground level to allow reasonable viewing despite the track. A disabled section to the front of the stand is also raised, which made my viewing better as my friend Chris, who is confined to a wheelchair joined me for this one. Opposite this are a few more rows of seats, covered by a roof hung from an adjoining building – but this would be much poorer to watch from, lacking the height above ground. While most of the pitch surrounds are just level tarmac outside the track, behind both goals there about four steps of metal framed terracing – built up on the curve of grass inside the track – with walkways across the track defined by temporary fencing removed after every game. Apparently the ground has received a grading sufficient to allow it to be promoted to the Conference South, but the ambitions of the club must reach higher, and it is difficult to see how this can be achieved within the current surrounds.

As for the game, visiting Carshalton Athletic are struggling in the lower reaches of the league, and never looked like a challenging opponent for league leaders Chelmsford, who won 3-0. The crowd was just over 1000, following 1190 two days earlier for the visit of Horsham. Since I visited, Chelmsford have consolidated their position at the top of the league, and the big result, a 3-2 win over AFC Wimbledon last Saturday (attendance 3201) means they are 11 points clear of their rivals with just seven games to play.

Another day, another game. After heading East on the Monday, Tuesday was North to Wakefield. Now you may remember at the start of the article that I was visiting old rivals of Cheltenham – but you may also say that Cheltenham have never played Wakefield. This is because of another tale of ground moves and obscure ground grading regulations. While Cheltenham have not played in Wakefield, they have been up on the moors above the town, where they played Emley in the quarter-final of the FA Trophy. Cheltenham won that afternoon, (a fraction short of 9 years ago) with a single goal from Neil Howarth, in front of 1239.
Emley started to make their name in the 1960s, when as a member of the Huddersfield League, they reached the last 16 of the old FA Amateur Cup and squeezed over 5000 into the Welfare ground when losing to Barking. They joined the Yorkshire League the season after that victory and won the title four times before the league became part of the Northern Counties (East) League which was founded in 1982. It took a couple of seasons before Emley found their feet, but by the middle of the decade they were one of the leading lights of the new league. Emley reached the semi-final of the FA Vase in 1987 and then the Wembley final a year later – losing to the well financed Colne Dynamoes by a single extra time goal. Also in 1988, Emley were league champions, but promotion was denied as the ground was considered not up to standard. Retaining the title a year later, they were now promoted to the Northern Premier League’s lower division. Two seasons later they reached the Premier, and also went on a run to the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy, losing to Kidderminster. More success followed, with a run to the third round of the FA Cup in 1998, beating Lincoln City in round 2. When they finished runners-up in the Northern Premier League to Stalybridge in 2001, 3708 people turned up for the final home game, when Stalybridge won 3-2 and ended up taking the title by just one point. Still, knowing that whatever happened, promotion to the Conference would be denied to Emley at the Welfare ground, the following season they moved in to share the Rugby League ground of Wakefield Wildcats. After a year the renamed themselves Wakefield & Emley (and later tried Wakefield-Emley), but this did nothing to help the club out of decline, and crowds have dropped season by season since the move. The club’s reserve team never moved away from the Welfare ground, and in 2005 they divorced themselves from the old club and joined the West Yorkshire League as AFC Emley, gaining election to the Northern Counties (East) a year later. Wakefield-Emley reacted to the change by dropping the Emley part of the name and moving again, from the rather oversized Rugby League ground, to the smaller confines of the what was a Rugby Union ground, until the club had gone bankrupt. They also suffered relegation at the same time. What they have gained is a neat ground, with seating for around 300 and some terracing each side of the stand. The badge on the stand is that of the old Rugby club, and in fact the name Wakefield Football Club is displayed. A small piece of cover has been erected, for no apparent purpose behind the goal furthest from the entrance. This consists of scaffold poles covered by thin plastic above three steps of terrace.

Wakefield in action on their new ground

Having narrowly avoided relegation last season, Wakefield have done a little better this time, and are currently in mid-table. I saw them lose a disappointing game to promotion challengers Curzon Ashton by 1-0. The crowd was just 98, close on the average for the season of 102 (the lowest in the division). Meanwhile, two divisions lower, AFC Emley are also in mid-table – but have average crowds of 121.

Posted in Travels in the UK | No Comments »

26/03/2008 by leo.

A Thursday night in South East London. The area around the Millennium Dome (to be more accurate, the O2 Arena is its current designation), is eerily quiet. Most of the area around North Greenwich tube station is given over to car parks, and the only life appears to be those people changing from the tube onto local bus services. The dome itself is lit up, with advertising for coming attractions, and behind the dome, one can see across the river where the towers of Canary Wharf are lit brightly against the night sky.

In the opposite direction, there is an inconspicuous building, what appears to be the curved roofs of two warehouses. As one gets closer, you can see that these are not standard warehouses, the roofs and upper walls are made of a fabric which rustles in the wind, and the logo on the end sections are that of a stylised footballer. The building is, in fact, the David Beckham Academy. A place where the youngsters of today have the chance to get a day’s football training for the not exactly paltry sum of £80. As a business venture, I am sure that it is going to be a success, (there are other similar ventures (without the icons name attached) running in London, and I am sure they will be hitting the rest of the country soon) – but this goes beyond just being a training facility. It provides two full size football pitches, (using the most modern of artificial surfaces) inside tents, and therefore protected from all but the worst that British weather can throw.

When the good people met back in 1863 to form the Football Association, they had in mind the ideals of amateur sport which has not survived the subsequent mixing with the real world. One can mourn the passing of these ideals, but had football not grown up; it would have stayed an elitist sport and something else would be the ‘game of the people’. There was one group of people that would have no truck with the introduction of professionalism, with the result that the Amateur Football Alliance split from the FA just over one hundred years ago. The split did not last long – the AFA returned to the FA fold as a County Football Association, with the ability to run its own competitions. Their game has developed since mainly in London and the South East based on old boys clubs and large sports clubs, (some of which are private, some company owned). It is not co-incidental that AFA members include the sports clubs of large financial institutions, (all the big banks, including the Bank of England and major insurance companies). While there is no absolute model, AFA clubs are typically on large playing fields with many pitches (and often other sports as well as football) and a large club house. The building of spectator facilities are minimal. These clubs do present a style of exclusivity that can make non-members feel unwelcome at first.

The two main leagues are the Southern Amateur League and the Amateur Football Combination. The latter was a merger of two leagues about 10 years ago and includes a large number of Old Boys clubs. The Southern Amateur League is considered to strongest of the leagues – until the FA introduced ground facility regulations, SAL clubs could compete in the FA Vase although they were never over successful.

It is another feature of the Amateur game that made the Amateur game of interest to the groundhoppers. This is their regular representative games. When I was first introduced to these, there was a regular series of games, although always organised on a slightly informal friendly basis – between the various leagues, the AFA itself, and representatives of the major Universities (Oxford, Cambridge and London only), the Civil Service and the Armed forces. Most of these took place on midweek afternoons, allowing the more crazy football supporter to run around and tick additional games. Although the Amateurs themselves may have been in it for fun, and selected their home venues as ones suitable to put on a ‘bit of a do’ for the old boys in blazers who run the AFA and followed these fixtures, some of their opponents had more serious events to build up to. For Oxford and Cambridge University, these matches were all about the build up to the Varsity game, and for the Services, it was in preparation for the inter-services competition each spring. The Civil Service may play games against the services and the AFA, but they never stuck to amateur players – I have seen players from Enfield (then the top non-League side in the country), Liskeard Athletic and Newcastle Blue Star playing together for Civil Service.

Until this week, I had not been to a representative game for 16 years. I think partly this primarily due to changes in my life, meaning I wanted to use my leave for other purposes. More recently, when I might have gone to a few, I have found the pattern of afternoon games has been lost in recent years, replaced by floodlit matches on standard non-League grounds.
But back to the David Beckham Academy. As well as staging its training courses, the Academy hires out its pitches every evening. One of its regular tenants is the London Legal League, which stages matches there most Thursdays. I would not consider the Legal League to be the pinnacle of non-League football, or even of the AFA game. I have never considered going to one of their league matches, and this is not likely to change. What attracted me to this match was the uniqueness of the venue. In this I was not disappointed, and as a bonus I got to see a half decent football match as well. The entrance to the academy is just like any other leisure centre, but one then walks down a corridor displaying mementos of the icon’s career – some of his England shirts, some shirts from illustrious opponents, and a series of boots.

The pitches themselves are below two curved fabric roofs held up by a steel infrastructure. The buildings have the feel of small aircraft hangers. The pitches are full size, and by that I do not mean legal minimum size for football, but suitable for league and international games. The curves of the roof are not very high at the sides (the supports come to the ground between the pitches) and the ball twice hit them during the game. The referee restarted with drop balls. The pitch is surrounded by inflated ‘sausages’ about three foot in diameter, and continually inflated with compressed air, like the outside of a massive bouncy castle. There are no spectator facilities as such, and a cafe area for parents use while their children are on the courses was closed.

The Legal League team are drawn from teams which in turn are drawn from the employees of the various legal firms in the city. The visitors, Cambridge University are students vying for places in the varsity game. The remains of the old amateur ethic is still present in two ways. Some uncompromising tackles, which would have David Beckham himself writhing on the ground for several minutes were not actually treated, and the referee was treated with respect, the only cards given being for fouls, not dissent. The first half was entertaining and even, with a number of chances going begging before the University took the lead from a penalty. The Legal League equalised with a powerful header from Rob Carter just on the stroke of half time, and the same player added a second early in the second half. But as the game progressed, the students were demonstrate ably fitter than their opponents and also appeared to benefit from having played together more. It was no surprise they eventually turned out 4-2 winners.

One final feature, and again one of those of the amateur game – as the crowd of 30 persons (all but one of them groundhoppers) left the ground, the Cambridge side shouted out “Three cheers for the London Legal League!!!”

Posted in Travels in the UK | No Comments »

13/03/2008 by leo.

I am not one to steal other people’s words as a general rule, but I hope no one minds a few quotes from Phil Hay’s report in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“In a community made famous by thoroughbreads, the inhabitants of Cheltenham are of irrepressible ilk…
“Cheltenham Town are not a national treasure in the way that their annual (racing) festival is, but tradition plays a less influential part in football than it does in racing.
Leeds and Cheltenham are in different leagues historically and, before this season, the clubs have never shared the same division.
But after a 2-1 victory at Elland Road which was more emphatic than the final score, the unfancied squard possessed by Keith Downing had the satisfaction of being the first to beat United both on home soil, and in the shadow of Beeston Hill”.

If anyone wonders what drives the football fan to take time off work and travel the length and breadth of the country, then this match is the answer. One cannot beat the shared elation of being in the crowd that has just seen their team pull of an unlikely vcitory.

As recently as 1997, Cheltenham were in the Southern League. Leeds were members of the Premiership until 2004, and have reached the semi-finals of both European competitions since Cheltenham joined the league. Even if the two teams play on the same field, there is still a difference between them - this game was the lowest crowd of the season at Elland Road, but it was near enough three times the figure for the best crowd of the season at Whaddon Road. It should not be a surprise to learn that that game also involved Leeds.

I don’t know if Cheltenham can build on this result - hopefully the team will use it to drive their push to maintain their league position in final nine games of the season - but everyone knows that when the dust settles the public of this town will not head through the gates of Whaddon Road on a regular basis.

But for the moment, let us forget about the people who were not there - let us remember that we were there on the day that Cheltenham Town won at Elland Road. This is what it is all about

Posted in Cheltenham | No Comments »

09/03/2008 by leo.

There may have been a time when the football authorities listened to the people they were supposed to represent, and had some agreement before they started making statements on changing competitions – but what on earth would be the fun of that? In the current world, leagues and associations make statements first, and discover the consequences afterwards.
The FA of Wales has always been a good one for this – the history of the league of Wales from its inception has demonstrated their inability to communicate with its own members. Until 1993, things were straight forward enough – the FA of Wales ran non-League football in Wales, the International team and the Welsh Cup, but the biggest clubs in the principality played in English leagues. All those clubs playing in English leagues, plus a few selected other would play in the English FA Cup, and by reciprocal arrangement some English teams would play in the Welsh Cup. When European competition came along, the Welsh Cup was considered important enough to enter a team in the Cup Winners Cup almost from the start. It was soon agreed that this team had to be Welsh, and could only be the winner or runner-up of the actual cup. This did not present a problem as except for a short period in the mid 1930s, there has always been a Welsh side in the Welsh Cup final. Wales’ first representatives in European football were Swansea Town, who lost to the East German team, Motor Jena. Oddly the next two seasons saw non-League teams Bangor City (then Cheshire County League) and Borough United (Welsh League North) in Europe. Bangor drew with Napoli and had to play a third game before they went out. Borough were the first Welsh side to win in Europe, beating the Maltese side Sliema Wanderers before losing to Slovan Bratislava. These were one-offs, as Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham took the majority of the places and it was more than 20 years before non-League football (Bangor, then Northern Premier in 1986, and Southern League Merthyr Tydfil in 1988) again qualified. Newport County, although in the Football League, played only once in Europe. This was of course a legend – they reached the quarter-final but like Swansea could not get past Jena (now known as Carl-Zeiss Jena).
The League of Wales was started in 1992-3 despite much opposition within Wales. The first champions were Cwmbran Town, who entered into the European Cup the following season, beating Cork City 3-2 in their first game, but going out on away goals. (In four returns to Europe since, Cwmbran have lost every game). The FA of Wales arguments for starting this league were numerous – creating a league that had European status was just one of the reasons, while another was to create a clear division between English and Welsh football at a time when they thought their status as a separate member of UEFA and FIFA was under threat. Although the idea of a combined British international team had been made on several occasions, it was mostly newspaper talk, and there was little international call for this to happen. In the early and mid 1990s, a large number of new footballing nations were emerging thanks to the breakup of post-communist Russia and Yugoslavia, while in other areas of the world, more and more smaller nations were joining the confederations. UEFA realised they needed numbers to keep them one step ahead in international terms of the growing Asian and African federations, and so they were not about to deny Wales their existence. By the end of the decade, they have even added San Marino, Liechtenstein and Andorra to the club competitions, despite the fact that all these cases, the territory’s most senior clubs play in another country. (All Liechtenstein’s clubs play in Swiss football, and as such the principality does not have a league, only a cup; AC San Marino play in the Italian Serie C2, while Andorra has had a club in the Spanish second division, even if they have now dropped down to a local Catalan division).
The next move by the FA of Wales, however was the worst one. In an attempt to improve their fledgling league, they withdrew their sanction for Welsh clubs to play in English non-League competition. They decided not to take on the league clubs, and to give Merthyr Tydfil a period of grace. This did not go as expected, as some of the clubs refused to tow the line, even though this meant a period of expulsion, playing in exile on shared English grounds before a high court ruling stated the club’s rights to stay in the English pyramid even with grounds in Wales. This led to the end of the exchange rule where some English clubs could play in the Welsh Cup in return for the Welsh clubs in the FA Cup. Meanwhile in England, the FA had made clear that although Welsh clubs continued to play in the English leagues, there was no chance of them qualifying for Europe through the League or FA Cup.
There has in fact, only been one occasion when a Welsh team could have qualified for Europe through the English game, and this was Swansea back in 1982. As it happened, they managed to qualify for Europe through the Welsh Cup, and this took priority over their league position. In 1995, the Welsh Cup final saw Wrexham beat Cardiff City 2-1, and Wrexham lost to the Romanian side Petrolul Ploiesti by a single goal in the following Cup-Winners-Cup. Since then, only clubs entered into Welsh completion have entered the Welsh Cup. Curiously, despite the FA of Wales abandoning their clubs to English football, they retain control of disciplinary procedures for these clubs, resulting in many accusations that the football league trio get an easy ride.
The League of Wales allowed more Welsh participation in Europe, but by keeping the league sides out, put paid to any positive results for the Welsh, apart from the odd win against some non-entity from Eastern Europe. (This season, The New Saints lost to Latvians Ventspils, and runners-up Rhyl to Finnish club Haka (both on away goals), while Carmarthen went down 14-3 on aggregate to Brann Bergen).
The FA of Wales have long recanted, and been trying to get their big clubs back into Europe, but have found that UEFA are now determined not to change the rules for them. The creation of a Welsh Premier Cup did not help as UEFA ruled it could qualify clubs for Europe. Had the FA of Wales made an effort to find a true champion of the country in the early 90s, when UEFA rules were in flux, then a place might have been found for a Welsh Champion, with the competition to decide it running in parallel to the English and Welsh competitions.
Earlier this season, the FA of Wales announced a new change to the Welsh Premier League (giving it its new title). The league would reduce from 18 to 16 teams and include the reserves from Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham. This was announced without consulting the administrators of the Welsh Premier League, any of the clubs, the League clubs or UEFA. It turned out the clubs did not fancy it, and UEFA would not sanction the idea, (if one of the reserve clubs qualified for Europe by this route, they would only be able to use players registered to the Welsh club, and there could be no dual registrations across the border). It is worth thinking though, that Cardiff City, the loudest opponent of the plan had suggested something very similar some time ago (different chairman), when they considered taking over one of the Welsh teams.
Another attempt will take place next month to get Michel Platini’s backing for a change in the order, (which even if successful would have to get full UEFA backing later). There is just a possibility that this might come to something if it was for a return of the exiles to the Welsh Cup, and a simultaneous withdrawal of the clubs from the English FA Cup (if they will accept that). This is similar to the situation where all of Liechtenstein’s clubs play in the Swiss Leagues, but they also play their own national cup, (and not the Swiss Cup). With FC Vaduz normally winning the cup and playing in the Swiss second division, Liechtenstein’s clubs now have a higher UEFA co-efficient than Wales! (Liechtenstein are 37th of 53, Wales are 48th, ahead only of the Faroes, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra, San Marino and new entrants Montenegro). Back in 1992, there were only 33 countries, but Wales were in 25th place. If UEFA were to accept the idea, then the FA of Wales may still find that the clubs may reject it. Indeed, it may be more interesting to clubs such as Merthyr Tydfil, who could get a serious shot at European competition, than to Cardiff City – whose run to the semi-final of the FA Cup has netted them £420,000 in prize money alone. I would estimate well over £1 million when additional gate money and TV fees are accounted for. These are not sums that can be equalled by clubs losing in the early stages of the UEFA Cup

Posted in The European Game, Political Footballs | No Comments »

17/02/2008 by leo.

The difficulty for groundhoppers visiting tournaments such as the African Cup of Nations is that we cannot always stay for the full tournament. The Cup takes three weeks, but has only four venues, so all can be visited, and all the teams concerned can be seen by taking a trip in the first week. So by the time the knock-out matches start, I am limited to seeing them on the TV. Having seen all the teams, I did have the measure of the quarter-finals; Ghana beat Nigeria with goals from Michael Essien and Junior Agogo – Yakubu had put the Nigerians ahead, while Guinea, still without the suspended Pascal Feindounou were never a match for Ivory Coast – Guinea collapsed in the second half and went down 5-0. Another super-strike by Manchester United bound Manuchno was not enough to stop Egypt progressing 2-1, and Cameroon got the better of Tunisia in a lengthy tie, finishing 3-2 aet.

Over the course of the week, we travelled around the country by a variety of transport methods. The inter-city coach is the easiest, with a fixed timetable (which is not always adhered to), and fixed prices, and a degree of comfort. The tro-tro, mini-buses than can seat 22 people lose any degree of comfort, and work on a fill up and go basis. This can mean an indefinite period waiting before the transport leaves. The prices are fixed, and by paying for two seats in order to give oneself more space, means paying more than the bus fare. The longest overland step of our journey, from Kumasi to Tamale was done on an overnight tro-tro taking 8 hours. The five members of our party took 11 seats between, firstly for comfort, and then to get the bus on the road. We left soon after midnight, but one could imagine waiting until daylight before the bus filled up. Air travel also has its problems – we had tried to book our one internal flight by internet from the UK, and had apparently made a reservation – but not paid. Payment had to be in cash, and had to be done locally. Fortunately we sorted this the day before travelling, when we found our ‘reservations’ were not on their list (but there were still enough spaces for us), and that the flight was to depart four hours earlier than the schedule quoted on the internet! For us, local transport within towns was by taxi, which were the same as most taxis, slightly decrepit vehicles being driven at too fast a speed. Most would give a sensible local rate quickly with negotiation. One of two tried their luck to up the rates for white men, but would then give up when challenged. Basically, you can travel anywhere in the capital for not more than £2, while half that will do in the other cities. At the end of my trip, our taxi was travelling too fast down a dual carriageway when another pulled out in front of it. Fortunately, the speeds were not so great that the lack of seat belts came into play, and only the taxis were dented.

We visited four cities on the trip, and it is fair to say that none of them are likely to become tourist centres in the near future, although there are areas of the coastline that could be developed as such. Accra is the capital, and although it has the busy, bustling activities of any major city, it also has many quiet districts in between. The stadium is based centrally, next to independence square and only a few hundred yards from the coast. It lacks a true centre, or any buildings or monuments of distinction. The oldest buildings are forts that go back to colonial days, when the country was the Gold Coast, although trade was more in slaves than gold. It is the people, the markets and the colours that make the city though – especially the joyous explosion of noise that fills the popular areas after the home team has won a match. All the other cities seemed quite small by comparison. Kumasi was our second port of call, and the one city other than the capital that we went to twice. The features here are some idiosyncratic statues, such as a man standing on the back of a lion – which sits just outside a colonial era church, which appears freshly painted in brown and white. Tamale is the most northerly of our ports of call, featured the Gulpke Na Palace – which turned out to be a series of connected huts, where any serious looking around might have felt like intrusion on those families who now live there. In Tamale, we also noticed another change in that while the other communities had Christian churches, the biggest building here was a mosque. Tamale was the dusty city – one did not have to go far to reach roads that were just red dirt, and the dust from these seemed to pervade everywhere. Finally we went to Takoradi, which is the bigger of a pair of cities, (the football actually took place in its little brother, Sekondi, 12 km away). Here the centre was a large roundabout/market, although having a hotel that fronted onto this turned out not to be a problem, as it was closed down before the football started, and was slow to start up in the morning. During the day, it was a mass of confusing colours, noises and smells. From my hotel window, one floor up, I could see beyond some of the colonial frontages into the interior of the 100 yard diameter circle – and it appeared the whole area was full of shacks with tin roofs.

Between the cities, the towns we passed through were of a similar type. For the most part, small single storey buildings with walls of wood, brick, or often dried mud, (or dried mud used as a plaster to cover other materials?), with tin or wooden roofing. Commercial properties always congregate towards the main road in an attempt to catch the eye of passing trade. It seemed a feature that many towns seemed to concentrate on a single main commodity, so as we passed one, we would see many stalls selling honey, whereas the next may only sell fruits. The land, even close to the villages appeared mainly uncultivated, either for crops or for the grazing of animals. One clear difference between life here, and those countries in Asia which are far more familiar to me is that where clearly many people live poorly, and subsistence farming and trading, there is far less ostentatious wealth here. While this could mean that here in Africa, the difference between rich and poor is lower – there may be other reasons. Do the wealthy of this part of Africa not display their wealth here, but instead move it north to Europe or America?

The other question one must ask, in Asia – any country with a large but cheap work force is exploited as a source of cheap labour by capitalist countries, (I won’t say Western, as the Japanese, Koreans and even the Chinese now run much of this). While some may question the morals behind these modern business methods, it does bring money into the countries concerned, fuelling the massive growth rates of the Asian tigers. As we travelled through Ghana, though – there was no sign of similar investment. Ghana is one of the most stable countries in the region, so where is the foreign investment? To the purist, this may present an idealised state, as not only do the industrialists fear to tread, but also there is no McDonald’s or KFC, (you can never escape Guinness or Coca-Cola though). Is it a fear of accusations of new forms of colonialism that keeps the international companies at bay? Does the instability of some African governments prevent investment in their neighbours? Or is it the fact that West African countries, including Ghana were at the centre of the slave trade that makes any type of exploitation an anathema in the current world?

We visited one stadium in each city, those in Kumasi and Accra having been upgraded for the tournament, while Sekondi and Tamale had brand new constructions. In a unique arrangement with the Shanghai Construction Company, the two new stadiums were practically identical, in what has been called the first “buy one, get one free” deal in stadium construction.

The National Stadium in Accra is known as the Ohene Djan stadium, after the first president of the Ghanaian Football Association, and first sports minister of the independent state. Over more than three-quarters of the circumference of the stadium, it is a two tier, basically concrete construction. The upper tier slightly overlaps the back of the lower tier, and this area is popular with the crowds, especially those whose seats are near the front of the stadium. Despite the lack of a running track, there is quite a distance from the front row of seats to the pitch, as with a ten foot clear plastic screen to contend with, viewing is poor near the front. Along the length of the fourth side is a two tier covered stand, which stands independently from the rest of the construction. This has a concrete cantilevered roof. Most of the VIP and press areas are in the lower level of this stand, and oddly, here too there is enough fencing and barriers to make many of the views disappointing. The uncluttered upper tier is better. The stadium of used by local clubs, including Hearts of Oak, which along with Asante Kotoko make up the ‘big two’ of Ghanaian football.

Asante Kotoko play their home games at the Baba Yaya stadium in Kumasi. This is actually a little bigger than the national stadium and is also used by the national team. Again, the main curve of seats surrounds most of the ground, with the main stand an almost separate entity. As at Accra, the seating comes right down to pitch level, and this time there is a running track as well, so those low level seats are again poor.

The other two stadiums, as I said are brand new and identical. A single tier of seats, but this time with the lowest seats raised about 10 feet higher than the pitch and its surrounding running track. The barrier that prevents people falling over the parapet though is positioned such that it interferes with the views for the lower three rows, and there are similar problems where the barriers are to keep the sections apart. Unlike the two older venues, the roof does cover the entirety of the seating areas, It is of the type made popular in Germany for the World Cup with a canvas like membrane stretched over a maze of scaffolding. It curves upwards towards the middle of stand on both sides, although this is just for effect, as the seats are no higher here than elsewhere. Anyway, the roofing if projected high above the seats, and yet comes forward no further than the seating, so protection against rain would be limited unless there was no wind at all, and everyone on the East side has the sun in their face at the 5p.m. starts for the games.

In all the grounds, there is a cacophony of noise. You do not get the chanting and singing of a European match, but instead a continuous beating of drums and blowing of horns. While this beat seems unchanging throughout each game, and regardless of the score, there is always a further collective cheer whenever the favoured team starts an attack, and a massive roar whenever Ghana score.

By the semi-finals, Ghana and Ivory Coast were clear favourites. Certainly Ghana should have had big advantages against Cameroon – the visitors had played their qualifier 28 hours later than their hosts, played extra time and then had to travel to Accra on the following day. Cameroon overcame all this, and the crowd to win when Alain Nkong scored the only goal. Nkong, coming on as substitute for Joseph Desire Job, currently plays in Mexico, but has also played in Spain, Portugal and the USA. The least explaining incident of the entire tournament was in injury time, when Reading’s Andre Bikey decided to push over an ambulance man attending one of his Cameroon team mates, when the time wasted was, of course, in his team’s favour. The red card earned meant he missed the final. In Kumasi, Egypt had a slight ‘home’ advantage, as the match against the Ivory Coast was the fifth successive one they played there – the Ivorians playing their earlier games in Sekondi and Accra. Egypt, who had beaten their rivals twice in the last tournament (3-1 in a group match, and on penalties after the final finished scoreless) maintained their record with a 4-1 win.
Ghana won the third place play-off, also putting four past the Ivory Coast (4-2). The final, naturally was a closer affair, with a near full stadium despite Ghana’s fall. Egypt won when Mohamed Zidan dispossessed Rigobert Song and teed up the chance for Abo Trika. This was Egypt’s sixth title, the competition record. Eto’o, with five goals (all in the group games) was top scorer, but Manucho scored four as did three Egyptians, Abo Trika, Hosny and Amr Zakr.

The next tournament is in Angola in 2010, provisionally Equatorial Guinea and Gabon have been chosen to co-host in 2012 and Libya in 2014. The CAF are insisting that even beyond 2014, the competition will still be played in January – a time when the climate across the continent allows play in any area. Sepp Blatter’s statements are that a January tournament will not be permitted ahead of a June/July World cup in the same year. The probably compromise is that the next tournament after 2014 will be 2017, and then the two year cycle will be in odd years.

Posted in CAN 2008 | No Comments »

11/02/2008 by leo.

(This is part 1 of a two part Ghana summary - an extension of the report printed in the Cheltenham Town programme of 9th February. The second part, which will appear on 16th February will also be extended onto this site. Any programme editor that wishes to take items from this site is free to do so, so long as I am creditied and sent a copy of the programme - feel free to edit as you wish, or ask me for the shortened copy as used by Cheltenham).

Why does one travel? In my case it may be an attempt to broaden the mind, and hopefully not to broaden the stomach anymore? As you know, I always use the football as an excuse to define my travels across the world, but it is only an excuse - if there was no football, then I would just find some other basis for my travels.

Before this year’s African Cup of Nations, I had picked on four sides, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Senegal to top the groups and reach the semi-finals. As someone who does not see much about Africa between tournaments, I rely on the form at previous tournaments, plus the old adage – which says that the Arabic Africans of the North, and the Black Africans from south of the Sahara do not tend to fare well in each others lands. And so, despite the fact that both the last two winners, Tunisia (2004) and Egypt (2006) were from the North, I downplayed what was, after all home successes, and instead selected the home side, and some of its regional neighbours. By the time I had seen all the teams play once, including Egypt’s demolition of Cameroon in their first game, I made only one change to the last four prediction, replacing the extremely disappointing Senegal with Egypt. A week after leaving the country, my revised semi-final list was proved right. With the deadline for this article being before the semi-finals, I am expecting Ghana to play the Ivory Coast in the final, but whoever it is, it should be a good match. (Live on BBC2 tomorrow afternoon).

And so to Ghana, and the African Cup of Nations. This is my first footballing trip to sub-Saharan Africa, as the last two tournaments were held in Tunisia and Egypt. I travelled out and back with Ghana International Airways - a single plane operation (and that single plane has Icelandair insignia on the tail and winglets, and a warning that smoking in the lavatories is against Icelandic law), operating a daily flight between Accra and London Gatwick. It is a little different to other airlines (other than they have run out of earphones, and play the movie soundtrack in the PA), and saves £100 over BA, or changing in Amsterdam.

The flight actually arrived in Accra while the opening match was in progress. The inside of the airport buildings were quiet, except for a cheer that went up when the hosts scored the tournament’s first goal. Outside, there was no shortage of hassle though, two locals immediately took it upon themselves to guide as we moved from the international terminal to the domestic terminal (to enquire, not successfully about an internal flight) and back, looking for the car that the hotel had sent to pick us up. In the end, they asked for a tip of about £10, having failed to do the only thing we had actually asked (call the hotel to check the car was there). I was glad to find out that this was a one-off, and we were not generally asked for a tip every time we requested directions. In fact, most of the locals were extremely friendly and helpful, and one of the advantages of visiting a country where the culture of tourism is not so developed is that you are not seen as a walking cashpoint machine by the locals.

I did here a lot of stories of the visiting fans being targeted by criminals, although the crime was always of a ‘sneak’ nature, and I did not hear of one threatening incident. Certainly you had to be careful of your wallets and passports, (passports in particular being a favourite steal), and I made sure to always leave mine back at the hotel. Sadly, I did become a victim at one stage. I cannot be certain, but this was almost certainly more down to carelessness on my part – as it was my computer that went missing. It seems most likely I put it down in the stadium’s media centre and only thought I had placed it in my suitcase, as to remove the machine from the suitcase (nothing else was stolen) would have been difficult. Unfortunately, this problem was compounded by the failure of the locals organisation to communicate across its various branches, so while I was trying to get someone to head directly back to see if my computer was still in Kumasi, (I had travelled the 8 hours to Tamale before spotting its absence), it actually took 24 hours to get this message through.

Despite this setback, I never felt unsafe on the streets of Ghana. I never got the impression that there is much violent crime there. A couple of times when I said I was from England, there was a comment about ‘our colonial masters’, but it was always said without malice. I have rarely found, even in former British colonies, and resentment against the Brits, and it seems this is true even in what was once the heart of the slave trade.

There was an ancient kingdom of Ghana, which reached the height of its powers in the tenth century and practically disappearing 300 years later. Modern Ghana, though has no common territory with the ancient Kingdom, and was a name chosen more as symbolic when under Nkrumah, it became the first African colony to gain independence from European rule in 1957. The name of the area under European rule was the Gold coast, and the original colonists were Portuguese traders, who build a series of forts along the coast, and then traded for gold from inland, without ever taking control of the land. Over the years, there were many clashes between the Portuguese, the Dutch and even the Danes – the British arrived a lot later – at the end of the 17th century, and they were the first to exploit the area for slaves. (This was not because the Dutch or the Portuguese were innocent in terms of the slave trade, but they preferred to trade their slaves from Angola or Nigeria, concentrating in this area in trading gold). When the British arrived, they could not wrest the gold trade from Dutch control, so instead traded for slaves. For the next century, slaves were the main commodity of this area of Africa, and around one million people were transported through the ports of Ghana in this period. The European presence was still confined to the coastline for years to come, while the interior of the state was the preserve of African kingdoms, mainly the Fante and Ashanti who fought for power, with the support (as and when was convenient) of either the Brits or the Dutch. The Gold coast was made a British crown colony in 1874, although it then only extended inland for about 50 km. The rest of Ghana became British ‘possessions’ over the following 20 odd years, mainly to prevent them from becoming the territory of other European powers.

So when Ghana became an independent state, it was a combination of many different tribal lands bought together for the convenience of British rule, and not for that of its successors. This has been the way of the world not only for Africa, but for much of the world that was once colonised by the Europeans. Keeping a stable government in such conditions is not easy. Either the various groupings have to reach an (often uneasy) truce, or one group will take power by force. History has proved that with politicians only too willing to mark a slight by one group against another (in Ghana, even the names of the stadiums is a cause for debate), there are not so many things that act to bind a country together.

As with just about every other former colony in Africa, home rule for Ghana has not been an easy ride, with various coups, counter coups and dictators. Jerry Rawlings was dictator from 1982 to 1991, and then elected president for a decade; but then stepped down in line with the constitution he had proposed, which limited the president’s term in off – and allowing a peaceful change of leadership. John Kuffour’s tenure will end soon, and hopefully another peaceful change.

In lands with so many disparate forces pulling in different directions, anything that brings the people together has to be a good thing, and sport is one such thing. Everywhere we went, football was the first subject of conversation. This was not just because we were tourists and obviously there for the sport – the matches filled the front, back and centre pages of all the newspapers. European, and especially English football is popular, (although I am think live English football may be limited to satellite TV). At least two of the local football clubs (Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko) have their own daily papers, as well as web sites to spread their message.

As is the standard for this type of competition, we started with four groups of four teams, each allocated to one city. Accra had the hosts, who beat Guinea in the opening match, along with Morocco who overpowered Namibia the following day. Soufienne Alloudi, who plays for Al-Ain in UAE scored a hat-trick within 28 minutes, but as Namibia started to suffer in the second half, they committed a series of fouls earning five yellow cards – Alloudi was the first to be substituted with an injury, and did not play again in the tournament. When I got back to Accra, the matches were a double header, with the first of the two games being the most interesting and vital. The star of this show, Guinea v Morocco was Pascal Feindouno of St. Etienne. Feindouno is also the captain of Guinea, and gave his side an early lead which stood through to half time. There was then a ten minute flurry of events early in the second half – firstly Feindouno got fouled, allowing Ismael Bangoura to increase the lead from the penalty spot. This did not last long, as Hicham Aboucherouane hit back almost immediately. It was Feindouno himself that restored the two goal cushion two minutes later, and it was a cushion that Guinea needed, as Feindouno then contrived to get himself sent off. With the man advantage, Morocco pushed, but only got on the scoresheet once more, in the final minute. The loss of Feindouno was felt by Guinea beyond this game, as he was suspended for two games, a lame draw with Namibia, and a tame defeat when the knock out games started. The match was followed by a nervy match for the hosts against Namibia, in which a single goal from Junior Agogo provided them with all points. My third visit gave me one more match – as Guinea and Namibia had decamped to Sekondi to play a simultaneous kick off. I saw Ghana needing just one point to be group winners finally live up to their potential in beating Morocco by 2-0. The power of the host side comes from the midfield, and the two goals in this match were by Essien, set up by Muntari, and then Muntari, set up by Essien. The forward line of Asamoah Gyan and Agogo looks to be the weak link, but Agogo has the knack of getting crucial goals.

My second series of matches was in Kumasi, a stadium which I visited twice picking up four games in all. None of these was better than the group opener, which saw the holders, Egypt playing Cameroon. It is generally thought that the holders would struggle in this game – the opposite was the case, as they took the game to Cameroon, scoring two quick goals, and despite two second half strikes by Samuel Eto’o, who is now the leading goal scorer in Africa Cups, Egypt ended up victors by 4-2. the second match was a straight forward affair, in which Zambia comfortably dealt with Sudan, winning 3-0 and raised the possibility that they would cause problems for Cameroon in the next game. This too was not to be, I returned to Kumasi to find that Cameroon had recovered their composure, while the Zambian defence was in a charitable mood, gifting the Cameroonians three goals of the five they scored. Sudan then reprised their role as easy to beat, losing 3-0 to Egypt. They also lost 3-0 in the final game to Cameroon, while Egypt, taking things a little easier, picked up the point to win the group with a draw against Zambia.

Group D in Tamale was the last to get going. The opening games in this group being my only visit – which is a pity as the drama here was in the second round of fixtures. I saw an entertaining game in which Tunisia took the lead against Senegal, but then got into trouble with an equaliser on the stroke of half time, seriously against the run of play, and a second goal putting Senegal ahead. Tunisia levelled the match with 8 minutes to go. South Africa against Angola was also a draw, 1-1 – but it was a point the South Africans did not deserve. The Angolan goal was down to some great play by Flavio, an Angolan striker who plays for Al-Ahli in Egypt, who brought the ball down and then made the short cross for the head of Mateus Alberto, aka Manuchno – the Manchester United bound striker who came across as one of the stars of the tournament. I saw the second round game on TV from Accra, in a small bar run by a coach on the staff of the Heart of Lions club. (Although Heart of Lions is from Kpando, about a three hour dive away, they train in Accra). Senegal scored first, but they were then eclipsed by the Angolans, with two goals from Manuchno, one from Flavio as they won by 3-1. Tunisia beat South Africa, by the same scoreline, which meant that when Tunisia played Angola, a draw would see both through – the teams did not look to collude from the start, but by midway through the second half, you could see no desire to disturb the status quo and the match finished 0-0. As South Africa and Senegal also drew, even this did not really matter.

That leaves Group B in Sekondi, where I missed the opening games, played on the day that Morocco beat Namibia – these were two hard fought 1-0 wins, with Nigeria losing to the Ivory Coast, while Mali beat Benin. In the second series, the Ivory Coast were just to powerful for Benin, winning by 4-1 while Nigeria against Mali which was the only truly dull game I saw on the tour ended scoreless. This left Ivory Coast needing only a point from the final game to be group winners, and Mali needing a point to end up as runners-up, but even the prospect of two French speakers ganging up on the Anglophonic Nigerians did not create collusion – The Ivorians beat Mali by 3-0, allowing Nigeria to sneak through with a 2-0 win over Bali.

Posted in CAN 2008 | No Comments »

04/02/2008 by leo.

THE CAPITAL - ACCRA

TAMALE - STADIUM

GULPKE NA PALACE - TAMALE

KUMASI

FANS

TAKORADI AND SEKONDI

Posted in CAN 2008 | No Comments »

02/02/2008 by leo.

From Kumasi, it is about seven hours by road to Tamale (and that is if you are lucky). One of our first ports of call was the bus station, where we were informed that the next day’s bus was already fully booked. The obvious course was to find a hotel and chance our luck on a tro-tro early in the morning - but we decided it may be better to chance our luck without the hotel, and start overnight.

So immediately after the Zambia-Sudan game, pausing only to get my computer connected to the internet and send in my last report, I met with the others and we found taxis, asking for the tro-tro station for buses to Tamale. We thought we were heading to a newly renovated station mentioned in the guide book, but instead we were ferried to rough car back not far from the stadium. Here a rickety minibus was pointed out, and tickets were bought for the long trip ahead. It was soon after 10 p.m. and we there were only three people on board before our quintet turned up. Three of us elected to take extra seats (in my case with the demand I got to ‘ride shotgun’ next to the driver), so half of the 22 seats had been sold. We waited and occasionally others would turn up – just after midnight, the numbers had increased to 19 – but still the bus would wait. Only when all 22 seats have been sold would it move. Under pressure, the last two of our party agreed to reduce their liability to DVT and buy second seats and then the five of us shared the cost of the final berth, to allow the bus to get away – without us, I imagine it would have been five or six in the morning before it made a move!

The ride to Tamale was not uneventful, although I am glad to say I managed to sleep through most of it. The road itself is generally in a good condition, and from time to time we would pass the wreck of a lorry or car that may have happened six months or six years ago, and just dragged to the side of the road. Then about an hour before the destination, we reached a bus that had gone over on its side. This wreck, sitting in the middle of the road was clearly new, and the vehicle was relatively modern as well. A few people were milling around the wreck, but I think these were unlikely to have been passengers, most of whom must have been transported away in search of medical attention.

We then had to find a hotel, the guide book recommending a couple of hostels to the north of the town centre, we arrived and found them full, but one sent us around to another place, which turned out to involve more than a mile of travel over unlit dirt roads, hardly a place where we could easily return after the game, or find a taxi to take us to the airport at six the following morning, fortunately, our taxi driver then made another suggestion, which was more conveniently within walking distance of the stadium and on a major tarmac covered road. The building was uninviting at the entrance, but for the local equivalent of GBP10, I got myself a room with a fan, a bathroom and cold water supply during the evening and morning.

There was even a plug to use my computer from, so I made to get it out of my bag, only to discover it was not there. I will never find out exactly what happened to it. My intention had been to deposit it within its own bag, and then put that bag inside my suitcase – but I do not have a clear memory beyond folding it closed and waiting for the light to go out, to make sure it had stopped correctly. I may have then put it down and only thought it was in the case, or I may have placed it in the suitcase, in which case someone managed to remove it during the journey.

As the earlier possibility was the most likely, I headed direct to the stadium in search of someone to report the loss to, someone who could call the Kumasi stadium and have a quick check made to see if the PC was still there. It took about an hour to find the phone number of someone to help, he said he would call Kumasi to get a check run on whether my computer was still there - but when I returned to the stadium in the evening, I found out (very slowly) that the person contacted was on the road to Tamale, it took until after the two games before I was given an actual name and number of someone in Kumasi, and this meant no check was made to see if my computer had been left until the next morning. Very annoying, as it seriously reduced the slim chance I had of recovering the machine.

By contrast with the other places we visited, Tamale can be described as the dusty city. With many dirt roads as soon as you reach the edge of town, the rust red dust from these soon gets on all your clothes, and it appeared impossible to remove it completely from any building. Overall, our visits to Ghanaian cities did not produce much in the way of sightseeing, as there are few old buildings in the country, and the most of the oldest are those from British colonial rule. The Gulpke Na palace in Tamale was an exception though - a series of small thatched huts joined together by walls. The fact that this was still being used as living accommodation by local families meant anything more than a cursory tour outside and a couple of photos may have been taken as too much intrusion. It shows the contrast between Ghana and countries where tourism is considered a major source of income, as if there was a regular stream of foreigners, this would have been a good place to fleece them of their money.

To describe the new stadiums of Tamale and Sekondi (which we visited later) separately would be a waste of words, in a unique, buy-one, get-one-free offer from Shanghai Construction, the two stadiums have been build to exactly the same specification. They have a track around the playing field, but the stands are built up so as the lowest seat is about 10 foot higher than the playing surface. This elevation provides much better viewing than those with stands dropping to ground level. A single tier of seats curves all around the stadium, and the whole thing is covered at some height by a roof. The roof is made of the canvas material favoured by the Germans for the last world cup, and is supported by a complex scaffolding of metal tubes. It is one of those that rises above the centre portion of the seating area, but the reason for this is not clear, as the seating does not go any higher of deeper in this area. The roofing did not appear to extend further forward than the front row of seats around the stadium, and with it being raised well above the seating, one imagines that if it was wet and windy, all the spectators on one side might get wet. Meanwhile, starting the match in the heat of late afternoon, the roof provides no shade at all to the Eastern side of the ground.

So starting in the heat of said afternoon, our first game in Tamale saw Tunisia take on Senegal. Tunisia used four players from the local league in their team which included players from the German, Swiss, Russian, French and English Leagues in a 4-3-3 formation, while Senegal were split with five players from each of the Premiership and the French League, with a single representative from the Portuguese League. Issam Jemaa gave Tunisia the lead in the 9th minute, and it the 2002 winners looked the best for most of the first half, but they were surprised when Senegal levelled on the stroke of half time. The second half started with Senegal on top, and Tunisia looking out of the game. Desperation appeared to set in early as the Japanese referee booked Dos Santos for a dive which certainly would not have graced the Olympics. The normally dependable Niang should have put Senegal ahead just before the hour mark, when receiving a cross from Mendy on the left wing. This was the last action before Mendy was replaced by Henri Camara - a good move for the team as he added pace and guile to the forward line, helping cause confusion in the penalty area from which Diomansy Kamara put Senegal ahead. As the game went on though, the pendulum was swinging back to Tunisia - still it took a great long shot from Medji Traoui to level the scores. This was the last goal of a really entertaining game, far better as it turned out than the one that followed between Angola and South Africa. South Africa have failed to impress in recent African Cups, and this was to be no exception - for most of the game they were overshadowed in every department by the Angolan side. Playing up front for Angola was the partnership of Flavio Amado, who plays in Egypt for Al Ahli, and Mateus Alberto of Petro de Luanda in Angola. Flavio looks like a really skilful player, and the way he controlled the ball and set up the goal for Alberto. Alberto on the other hand looked like a real predator. It is common with players in Portuguese speaking countries such as Angola that they can take a name other than their actual name. Mateus Alberto is better known as Manucho and has been signed by Manchester United. South Africa were lucky to come out of the game with a point, when Elrio Van Heerden scored late in the match.

If getting into Tamale involved a long hard ride in a tro-tro from Kumasi, returning from Tamale to Accra involved as much luck as judgement - and no little cash as well. Knowing that our longest trip within Ghana was best done by air, we had researched the flight companies before leaving, and even made a ‘reservation’ on the local companies web page. Although this allows us to print off a reservation - the system leaves payment until you get to Ghana. We had asked, when arriving at Accra about our reservations, and we were told they were OK, but that no one could take out payment at the time (too busy watching the game on TV). In Tamale, though we got a different story. Not only were our reservations imaginary, but the flight was actually four hours earlier than the time we had been given. Fortunately, when our boys got to the office, only 27 of the 34 seats on the flight had been reserved, so we managed to get our quintet on board, for the minor sum of US$150 each.

Of course, this was another day, so it also means another two games. We were back in Accra, and the first of the four groups had to undergo their second games. First up was Guinea against Morocco. Guinea had lost to the hosts in the opening game, while Morocco had thrashed Namibia by 5-1. The star of the show was Pascal Feindouno, as St. Etienne midfielder who has been rumoured to be wanted by Liverpool. His record was to open the scoring in the 11th minute with a splendid curling free kick from the left, and then delivered a perfect through ball for Ismael Bangoura to increase the lead just before the hour. Aboucheroune pulled one back for Morocco almost straight away, but then Guinea won a penalty and Feindouno was again on hand to score. At 3-1, the Guinea skipper must have felt like a break, so he kicked out at a player holding him, and picked up the tournament’s first red card. This did not matter much in terms of the match, with Morocco only pulling the score back to 3-2 in the closing minutes, but the lack of the inspiration he provides to side made them look flat in drawing with Namibia in the final group game, and the suspension means he also misses the first knock out game against the Ivory Coast.

The main game was Ghana against Namibia, with the home fans hopeful of a hat full against a side that did so poorly in their opening game, but it was not to be. The game was nervous and flat, and Namibia were determined to prove that the opener was not their real game. They succeeded in frustrating the home side most of the time, while both in this game and their next group game against Morocco, I felt that while the Ghana midfield, especially Michael Essien and Sully Muntari were excellent, the forward line of Junior Agogo and Udinese’s Asamoah Gyan were not up to the job. As it was though, Agogo scored just before half time to give his side a 1-0 win.

Never people to stand still, the next day we were off to Takoradi. Takoradi is the major part of a two city conurbation, with its partner, Sekondi about 12 km away containing the football stadium. From Accra, the bus service takes you to Takoradi, and it is the easier to get way from, so that is where we went. On arriving, we settled into a small, friendly but rather less than clean hotel in the very centre. This was the most interesting stop of the trip, with a very colourful market immediately outside my window.

Always among the favourites, the Ivory Coast had a 1-0 win over Nigeria in their opening match, and were now up against outsiders Benin. Although Benin put up some good resistance in the first half, they were eventually brushed aside. Didier Drogba rushed onto a through ball to score the first just before half time. Yaya Toure quickly added to it, and Abdul Keita and Aruna Dindane added more. The Ivorians relaxed after this, and Benin got a consolation in the final minute. It was followed by the dullest game I saw on tour, and the only game without goals as Nigeria played Mali.

Having managed to expand our group of five to nine for the next leg, we managed a private hire of a minibus with driver for the next leg, and travelled in relative comfort. This made up in some way for the fact that over 20km of the road between the second and third biggest cities in the country was just dirt, with no sign of tarmac for miles. We got back to Kumasi, found a small hotel (the cheapest on the trip at under £10, the only one without en-suite bathroom, but at least cleaner than Takoradi or Tamale, and again with friendly and helpful staff). I quite like Kumasi, despite the loss of my computer there, and I was happy to spend some time wandering around and admiring the rather odd statues. Outside the main church, there was a man standing on the back of a lion - the question being, how to dismount? (very carefully?).

Cameroon were beaten 4-2 by Egypt in their opening match, so they needed redemption against Zambia. The Zambians, by virtue of their 3-0 win over Sudan were in a position where progression was quite plausible, if they could get something out of this game.

As it turned out, the Zambian defence turned out to be the most generous charity in the country as they gifted three goals to Cameroon, and ended up defeated by 5-1. Egypt followed this up with a comfortable 3-0 win over Sudan. I did not return to Tamale, so my last but one day in Ghana was my only football free day of the tour. We used the bus to return to Accra, and I talked for a while with a research worker who was studying the economy of the coffee growers in some small village. He told me a little about the villages, which exist without running water or power, although foreign aid has provided them with diesel pumps, which is a step better than hand pumping water. Only one person in the village has a car, and although they may want to follow the football, they have to do it without the aid of a TV.

The arrival back in Accra was not as easy as I might have hoped. Somewhere during the journey, my stomach had turned, and I wanted to get back to the hotel quickly. The taxi driver thought he knew somewhere to buy tickets for the next day’s game, so we made a short stop at a radio station (it turned out to be an unsuccessful stop). Then on returning to the road, we started to speed through along the dual carriageway when another taxi pulled in front of us, and we smashed into its back. Still, like certain Martini’s, we were shaken but not stirred by the incident, and with a change of taxis, we managed to get to our hotel in one piece.

At least back in Accra, we had the benefit of a TV in order to watch the second round of Group D games. The feature of this was the eclipse of Senegal by Angolans. Back in 2002, El Hadji Diouf and Papa Bouba Diop had been stars as Senegal had beaten France in the World Cup. Now the same players were ordinary also-runs as Senegal themselves were beaten. Manucho and Flavio were again the stars for Angola. Less surprisingly, the match was followed by Tunisa beating South Africa, by the same scoreline 3-1.

Posted in CAN 2008 | No Comments »