Aehso’s Output

The FAI (not the national team or their manager) are a disaster, in denial and accountable to nobody it seems. They have turned me off Irish international football games to the extent that I now have no interest in paying anything (tickets or tv) to watch the national team play anymore.  It really is impossible to support a national institution like the Irish football team when they are governed by an organization that crows about earning 10million in TV rights for a single game but refuse to admit that their whole approach to managing the national team is wrong.

Screw this ‘rebuilding for future tournaments’ guff.  Reality check: professional footballers are payed by and contracted to clubs, not their countries.  Therefore international football associations should hire managers that have a proven ability to

1. manage resources that are only available on an short term basis.
2. choose systems and tactics that utilizes the available players on a game by game basis.

Neither of these are skills that one will learn ‘on-the-job’ in what is in effect a part time position.  The future of our national game looks bleak while the existing policy remains in effect.

P.S. Software geeks out there could relate this to the waterfall vs agile development models - I think that’s pretty appropriate.  Speaking of the waterfall model, here’s another good read from Alex…

FIFA have appointed Sir Seb Coe as the first independent chairman of their new Ethics Commission. Sepp Blatter’s comment on the appointment is telling:

He has total integrity and will have total independence. To have someone from outside of football means he has no links with the football family and he has an ethical approach to sport.

(emphasis mine)

Of course, this committee will not be investigating The Beautiful Bung. No, that’s a existing investigation and perhaps a little too close to Mr Blatter to allow an outsider to look into…

This morning’s statement by Chelsea Football Club is worth reading, the text is hilariously childish and vindictive. Seriously, who wrote that statement, the press officer’s son?

(The follow up discussion on CFCnet (unofficial Chelsea fan website) message boards is also worth a giggle or two.)

(from themovieblog.com via darrenbarefoot.com)

Are PaddyPower taking bets on when Martin O’Neill will lunge across that glass table at Gary Lineker (or Ian Wright the next time he is on)?

With the regular look of distain on his face for the comments from Lineker, Hanson & co, they should be - almost as entertaining as watching Dunphy when he got going on Keane!

This can’t be real but it’s worth watching anyway - a handheld video of Ronaldinho trying out a new pair of boots

If you don’t know who Ronaldinho is, errrr, I could link to a Wikipedia article on him but really, you’d have to watch him play for Barcelona.

Nice to see professional international footballers keep everything in perspective - an interesting assertion from Rid Ferdinand (intellectual monster) on England qualifying for next year’s World Cup:

It would be one of the biggest disasters in sports history if we blew it and we must make sure it does not happen.

Of course it would Rio, it’d be right up there with the tragic sports disasters of recent times.

Muppet.

Top flight football has transitioned from a sport into an entertainment industry, but someone needs to coach their employees on how to promote their product subtly. Frank Lampard thinks the title race is wide open and Wayne Rooney says he doesn’t think the league is getting boring . Well duh lads, you kind of have to say that.

People definately seem to be turning away from football in the same way they got bored with Formula 1 during the mid ’90s - the cause is obvious. The illusion of competition could only ben maintained by the media (predominately Sky) for so long - eventually people realise what they are watching (hint: it is no cooincidence that the three wealthiest clubs finished in the top three positions last year).

Domination achieved in a league through commercial wealth just isn’t interesting. Which is why I’m getting all curious about the new A1 Grand Prix circuit that starts this weekend. The World Cup of Motorsport they’re calling it and Ireland have entered a team. All teams get the same cars, all of which have identical Zytech V8 3.4 litre (540bhp) units. Zytech have a history of supplying performance engines - they have supplied the Formula 3000 circuit for a number of years now

The only thing is Sky have the TV rights…

L.J.’s LIVE Football is a very useful football schedule site. Never again wonder what upcoming domestic/european matches will be shown on what TV channels (no matter where you are in Europe!)

I’d heard of this boys death at home a couple of weeks ago (my mum know his folks) but I wasn’t told of the cause - Patrick Robinson died of a massive heart attack while watching the penalty shootout in the Campions League final. Patrick was just 20 years old.

YNWA.