One of my favorite blogs was recently hacked, and ultimately shut down. That blog was Football is Fixed and its companion blog Football is Fucked. Two blogs that were written with the express intent of exposing the corruption and dark underworld of European football. As well as deviations into world politics, and economics. It is a blog that I had read with much interest, since I originally discovered it somewhere around 2007.
Lately, the blog had been writing repeated, scathing indictments on Mike Riley and the PGMOB. They were attacking the FA for allowing the corruption of English football to continue. They were attacking the Guardian’s football section, because they are believed to be purveyors of the “hyper-reality” as they called it. It was a fascinating read. With this in mind, I would like to take a look at something, critically, as a way to honor FiF.
As you may have read, if you follow English football at all, Harry Redknapp was found innocent of tax evasion, earlier this week. With ‘Arry’s name cleared, he is free to once again roam the sidelines for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. If I may offer a brief aside, if the Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were as serious about tax evasion as they are about winding up bankrupt football clubs, I would have little doubt that Redknapp would have been thrown in the Thames. As one who has friends who are Spurs’ supporters, I can only guess how happy they are that their club can maintain their focus on securing a Champions League spot with little outside distraction.
Likewise, in the land of “there is no such thing as coincidence,” the Football Association and Fabio Capello parted company. The speculation that ran rampant in the papers, or at least the ones I read, involved how Capello felt undermined by the FA over the handling of John Terry as captain. Fair play to Capello. As manager of a team, he had to look out for the potential cohesion of his squad. Likewise, fair play to the FA. As the body in charge the England national team, as well as the English football pyramid, it behooves them to make sure that they have a manager in place who can manage the egos, as well as produce favorable results. Did Capello fit that criterion? Some would agree. However, I suspect, most would disagree.
With that being said, Tottenham had a Premier League match, today, against Newcastle. At White Hart Lane, Spurs’ home ground. A match that I saw a good portion of the first half of, before I got bored of it and watched something else. What I saw was Spurs just utterly dismantling Newcastle. The Geordies were perpetually caught in their own end. And Spurs just looked killer in their attacking third. So much so, that I got to witness to fantastically scored goals. Unfortunately, if you are a supporter of the Magpies, you got to see your team down 4-0 on 36 minutes. And, with the addition of another goal in the second half, Spurs came away 3 ponts, via a 5 goal-scored clean sheet, at home.
To dig a little bit, prior to Fabio Capello being named as manager of England, one of the many names tossed around to lead the Three Lions was Harry Redknapp. It is a job that he has expressed a lot of interest in holding. It is a job, that Harry would be more than happy to leave Spurs for. But, Harry Redknapp has a colorful history. Between being arrested while at Portsmouth for financial shenanigans, and being accused of tapping up. I do not know that he would be the most savory of characters to take over the England job. Especially since it has been widely assumed that his arrest during his time at Pompey, directly led to his ineligibility to fill the vacant England managerial seat, following Steve McClaren being shown the door in 2009.
So what do we have? Well, we have an innocent Harry Redknapp strolling the touchline at White Hart Lane, while his Spurs squad absolutely makes a mockery of Newcastle. A 5 goal win margin, to me, is usually something to arouse suspicion. That just seems like an awfully unusual score-line. Especially against Newcastle, who were not too far below them in the table. Tottenham sitting on 3rd, and Newcastle were sitting on 5th. With that loss, Arsenal now moves into 4th over Chelsea who are 5th. It is funny that Spurs’ victory gave their hated rivals in North London, the opportunity to move back into the Champions League spots.
But I think there is more to that. The timing of this match. The timing of the result. The timing of Capello leaving the England job. All of it when taken in relation to Harry being acquitted of any wrong-doing by HMRC, makes for a very interesting picture. Is it possible that the FA, in conjunction with Mike Riley and the Premier Game Match Officials Board, may have fixed that match as a apology for previously denying Harry the job he so coveted?
We know that Mike Riley and the PGMOB lack scruples when it comes to referee appointment for matches. We also know that the FA and corruption go together like Sepp Blatter and dirty money. So it would be easy to draw linear conclusion connecting the three in some form. Especially with Harry being the front-runner, currently, in the race to replace Capello.
