The Sportsmanw

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sman

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June

201

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£4.00

for the serious sports fan

REVEALEDHow Seb Coe raced ahead in the Olympicpay stakes

EXCLUSIVETHE RED KNIGHTMeet the manwanting to oust the Glazers

#1 CONTENDERKell Brook: Britain’s next king of the ring

STRIKING IT RICHGlenn Hoddle

turns rejectsinto gems

THE

REAL VOLCANO

Lesley Vainikoloon tacklinggang crime

Where’s the Money Gone? 48We take a look at the accountsof the private company runningthe 2012 Olympic Games

FRONT COVER From Gangs to Gloucester 54Lesley Vainikolo’s remarkable journey from the streets ofAuckland to the pinnacle of domestic rugby

Scott the Steeler 60A professional’s view of life in the Elite Ice Hockey League

First Past The Post 64A preview of the Derby with The Times’ Alan Lee

Life in the Fast Lane 69Looking at the importance of money in motorsport with racing driver Jon Lancaster

Expected to Deliver 72The huge logistical operation behind the BBC’s World Cup coverage in South Africa

FEATURESProfessional Hazard 6A look at the modern strains on professional rugby players

A New Breed of Footballer 14We look at the Glenn HoddleAcademy in southern Spain

Sport Science 24What gives top athletesthat vital mental edge

WORLD EXCLUSIVEBest, BRICs and Beers 26We chat to the Goldman Sachs investment banker trying to buy Manchester United

Game, Set and Match? 30Why Britain is failing to produce top tennis players

The Masterplan 32How the Far East is financingManchester’s transformation

REPORTAGESteel City Soldier 38Boxer Kell Brook on fighting Manny Pacquiao. And we also visit the world famous Ingle gym

That Moment 10Pietersen inspires England

Gadgets 12We look at the latest Boys’ Toys

Comment 23Mark Duell on the IPL coverage

Letters 37Your news and views

Sports Technology 46Revolutionary Footwork

Business Profile 47Leisure Leagues

Sporting Holidays 59Your guide to South Africa

Lifestyle & Fitness 62The Abs Rules

Fashion 63Ian Poulter Design

Sports Calendar 74June’s major sporting events

The Last Word 78Robert Golledge signs off

CONTENTSWELSH WARRIOR: Gareth Delve has battled an injury- plagued career

SECOND CHANCE: The players thrown a lifeline by the Glenn Hoddle Acaemy

Pg.6

Pg.14

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The Sportsman for the serious sports fan

EDITORS’ LETTER

THE

Welcome to the very first edition of The Sportsman, the upmarket magazine for the serious sports fan. Here at The Sportsman HQ, our dedicated team of sport-mad buffs are each month determined to bring the best of sporting lifestyle, insider knowledge and exclusive reportage.

This month we’ve got an eclectic blend of hard news, insider analysis and uncompromising comment.

In our inaugural issue we’ve landed a World Exclusive interview with Jim O’Neill, the man attempting to buy Manchester United and oust the Glazer family’s hold on the club. Read how this son of a postman from the back streets of Manchester ended up with a £200million fortune.

Also inside is the story of Gloucester Rugby winger Lesley Vainikolo. He tells of his extraordinary journey from the gangs of New Zealand’s North Island to the West Country of England and his plans to work with troubled youths.

Of course, we haven’t forgotten about the fashionistas and alpha-males amongst you - check out our guide to Ian Poulter’s clothing range, our gadget round-up and The Sportsman’s total fitness guide.

So pour yourself a Peroni, dust off the deckchair and totally submerge yourself in The Sportsman magazine.

FOR THE SERIOUS SPORTS FAN

PAGE 12

PAGES 38-43

PAGES 26-27

PAG

ES 4

8-51

BBC WORLD CUP PLANS

An exclusive look behind the scenes to see how the Beeb will be delivering events from South Africa to our screens

PAGES 72-73

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The Sportsman

The SportsmanISSUE I / JUNE 2010

The Sportsman15 Soho SquareLondon W1A 7MC

020 7777 2435www.thesportsman.co.ukTwitter @The_Sportsman

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHRIS WARNE PRODUCTION EDITOR MARK DUELL INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR ROBERT GOLLEDGE CREATIVE DIRECTOR TIM LAMDEN FEATURES EDITOR COLIN JAMES

© THE SPORTSMAN LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION STRICTLY PROHIBITED. PRINTED BY ST IVES (PLYMOUTH) LTD. THE SPORTSMAN IS DISTRIBUTED BY COMAG LTD, TAVISTOCK ROAD, WEST DRAYTON, MIDDLESEX, UB7 7QE . INDEPENDENTLY AUDITED BY ABC

FIND OUT THE STORY BEHIND THE REAL VOLCANO, VAINIKOLO - PAGES 54-58

If you needed a demonstration of modern rugby at its peak, it was this game. An assortment of Britain’s finest players pitched against the world’s best side, in their backyard. When the dust had settled at Loftus Versfeld last June, many said they had witnessed the

greatest Test match of all time.The second Test of the 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour

to South Africa was one of the most dramatic contests in rugby history. The commitment and determination shown by both sides that day was breathtaking at times. The sight of Brian O’Driscoll colliding with Springbok Danie Roussow, in a thunderous tackle that left both men on their backs oblivious to what continent they were on, became the abiding image of the tour.

Bob Stewart was one of the physiotherapists looking after the Lions in Pretoria that afternoon and remembers it as a particularly gruelling day at the office. “It was horrendous because I wasn’t actually on the pitch,” said Stewart. “So when Adam Jones came off with a dislocated shoulder and Gethin Jenkins broke his cheek bone, I ended up taking those two guys to hospital.

“When we left the ground we were winning. By the time we got to hospital they’d kicked the penalty in the last minute to beat us. Then of course we lost O’Driscoll to concussion, Jamie Roberts to a wrist injury, Ronan O’Gara with a bad head knock and then Tommy Bowe did his elbow. There were five of them in A&E after the game.”

It was a match that veteran head doctor James Robson,

RUGBY UNION

By TIM LAMDEN

ProfessionalHazard

In the 15 years since rugby turned professional, the sport has been transformed. The drive for success has prompted a weightlifting culture that medics believe threatens player safety. In this generation of brawn, it is the English game that has suffered the most

CRUSHING COLLISION: British Lion Brian O’Driscoll receives treatment after crashing into South Africa’s Danie Rossouw

team doctor on the past four Lions tours, described as “one of the most distressing games I can remember”.

On finishing his duties in South Africa last year, he concluded that players had become “too big for their skill levels” and warned their bulk was becoming dangerous.

Robson’s warning was further stoked by the astounding injury toll endured by Martin Johnson’s England side in the Autumn. It was also a warning supported unequivocally by the statistics.

In a recent study, the Lions’ second Test meeting with South Africa last year was compared with the 1971 tour clash between the Lions and New Zealand in Christchurch. The results were illuminating.

The average weight of the players that faced each other in Christchurch in 1971 was 14st 1lb compared to their 2009 counterparts, who weighed in at 16st 4lb. The tackle rate was another remarkable indicator of change. In 1971, 57 tackles were completed in contrast to the 181 tackles made in 2009.

They are figures that correlate with an increasing trend of injuries in the modern game. It is a fact acknowledged in medical rooms across the Guinness Premiership’s 12 clubs that at any one time in a season around 20 per cent of each club’s playing squad will be unavailable through injury.

This is a reality that was only darkened by the findings of a recent study looking at the injury rate in the English

top flight. The England Rugby Injury and Training Audit revealed a 20 per cent increase in the number of injuries suffered by England’s top players during the 2008-9 season, compared with the previous season.

In the wake of England’s calamitous injury problems last Autumn, Simon Shaw attributed the gargantuan leap in the size of players and their consequent injury worries to an excessive emphasis on gym work. The 36-year-old England and British Lions lock argued that young players especially were expected to spend a lot of time on weight training, turning them into “gym monkeys” rather than rugby players.

Gloucester’s Henry Trinder, an England Under-20’s World Cup finalist last year, knows a thing or two about injuries, having managed only four appearances for his club this year after a string of leg problems. The 21-year-old centre acknowledges the excesses of gym work at times but explains it is all part of the modern rugby player’s psyche.

“In their mind every rugby player thinks ‘we have to be conditioned at the highest level to win’ and that’s drilled into you, giving you the mentality that you need

to put on size and continue with weights because that’s what is going to give you that edge,” said Trinder.

There is no doubting that it is the dawning of professionalism that has ushered in an unprecedented era of brawn and power in the game. Rugby at the top level these days is about putting food on the table. It’s no longer a sideshow leisure pursuit or hobby for men to vent their

frustration on a Saturday, after a week of nine to five.Former Gloucester captain, Gareth Delve believes one

player more than anyone helped to mould the game into what it is today. “If you look back at Lomu, he was a freak - he probably changed the game,” said the 27-year-old. “It was probably his ability to move that mass at the speed he was running that really forced everyone to say: ‘Right, that is the epitome of the new breed of rugby player’.”

It is the likes of Delve, a 6ft 3in, 18st 2lb colossus, who have had to suffer the consequences of the physical heights scaled by modern rugby. By the age of 20, the Welsh number eight had undergone two shoulder reconstructions and an operation to repair a damaged cruciate ligament in his right knee. They were injuries that blighted a career that promised far more than just the 11 caps Delve has earned for his country to date.

Director of Medical Services at the English Institute of

Sport, Dr Rod Jaques believes the game’s law-makers need to step in to help allay the damage inflicted on players in this era of high-octane collisions. “It is only a matter of time until a professional player in training or in competition will get a catastrophic head or neck injury,” said Jaques. “In fact,

7

“In their mind every rugby player thinks ‘we have to be conditioned at the highest level to win’”

“If you look back at Lomu, he was a freak - he probably changed the game”

“It is only a matter of timeuntil a professional player will get a catastrophic head or neck injury”

‘GYM MONKEYS’: England lock Simon Shaw

FREAK OF NATURE: All Black Jonah Lomu shrugs off two Italian defenders

it has happened already.”Jaques, a sports medicine physician who works part-time

with Gloucester Rugby Club, is referring to the likes of Matt Hampson, the England Under-21 prop who dislocated his neck five years ago in a training ground accident.

Hampson was paralysed from the neck downwards after becoming trapped in a collapsed scrum during an England training session. The same fate could well have met Scotland’s Thom Evans, who fortunately

escaped paralysis after breaking his neck against Wales in this year’s Six Nations Championship.

“I think the sporting world, particularly in this country, is riddled with reactions to things that have happened,” said Jaques. “No one was prepared to invest in all-seater stadiums until a whole load of people died at Hillsborough. The question is how many catastrophic injuries in rugby, or in any other contact sport, will be acceptable before there are rule changes?”

Jaques acknowledges that any decision on rule changes in the future rests with the game’s governing bodies, rather than its medical practitioners, but believes there are a number of options open to exploration. Without doubt the most controversial is Jaques’ notion of size limits. He believes limiting a team to a certain tonnage or stipulating a size limit, in terms of weight and height, for each position on the pitch could be looked at in the future.

“It would be very controversial and people would say it is prejudicial,” said Jaques. “They’d say you’re making it very difficult for big, strong people to play rugby. We are now entering the world of ethics, whether we can deny people the right to earn a living. There again, in the fashion world if you’re 14 stone and six foot you’re not going to earn a living as a female model, that just doesn’t happen.”

It is a contentious idea and one that Gareth Delve refutes

completely. “I think that totally goes against the ethos of rugby, because rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes, that’s what attracts people,” he said. “You’ve got your big kids in the playground who you stick in the forwards and the little whippets who will be pushed into the backs.”

For Delve, the issue of injury rate and player mass is clearer than most make out. “Nobody is going to say to the guys, you’re only allowed to spend a certain amount of time in the gym,” he said. “It’s professional now and it’s guys’ livelihoods. They’re going to do everything they can to become better players and if that means getting bigger, stronger, fitter and faster then that’s what they need to do.

“The only way you’ll help sustain a player’s career is to reduce the number of games in a season but for all the talk of player burnout, all it seems to have done is added games.”

In professional sport, as with all businesses, money is power and it is money that drives top level English rugby today. For the top English clubs the season consists of a

22-game Guinness Premiership fixture list, a battle for European glory in the Heineken Cup and the LV= Anglo-Welsh Cup, all interspersed with regular international weekends. Add on the extra game introduced to the LV= Cup this season, plus the lucrative Guinness Premiership play-off spectacle in May, and you have a marathon of a season.

With a salary cap to contend with, squad sizes in a lot of Premiership clubs just aren’t big enough to cope with the

8

“There’s a lot of Tarzans playing now - a lot who look like Tarzan but play like Jane”

COLOSSAL: Welshman Gareth Delve blasts through the Scottish defence during the 2008 Six Nations Championship

burden of such a swathe of games. Injuries mount up and teams are stretched to their limits. Inevitably standards suffer and with them so do results.

Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath is certainly familiar with this process. His side had to settle for a seventh place finish in the Premiership this season - disappointing for a club that has enjoyed top half success in the league for years.

While the number of games, squad sizes and injuries all concern Redpath, it is the standard of rugby that really concerns him in this current climate.

“There’s a lot of Tarzans playing now - a lot who look like Tarzan but play like Jane,” he said. “Some people gain confidence from their gym training but does it make them a better rugby player? No. It helps them but if you can’t catch and pass - if you can’t understand the game - it’s no good.

“The biggest problem nowadays for me is that there aren’t enough people who understand the game of rugby or can play the skill game of rugby. They get big and strong but they can’t actually deliver the game.”

It is a complaint that can be levelled directly at the national side of late. Johnson’s team seem to have run aground creatively, choosing to wear down teams (and spectators) with a battering ram approach that simultaneously sucks all life out of the match. The English club game is certainly more aesthetically pleasing but it still lags light-years behind the rugby prowess exhibited on the fields of the southern hemisphere.

The Super 14 has been undoubtedly the premium club rugby competition in the world. The intensity and skill level of the rugby played between the

South African, Australian and Kiwi sides is unrivalled - a standard of rugby marvelled by players at the opposite end of the globe. With the addition of new side Melbourne Rebels, the Super 14 is to become the Super 15 next season and with it the door has been opened for a couple of Britain’s first converts.

Gareth Delve and English poster boy Danny Cipriani have both put their international ambitions to one side in order to explore an environment that Delve believes will improve them both in the long-term. “For British players, the Super 14 hasn’t really been an option because it doesn’t coincide with the international season,” he said. “That’s a big decision that we’ve both had to make, that potentially we might not play for our countries for the next two years.

“I just felt that at this time in my life it was a great chance to go there and play against the best players in the world.”

Greg Somerville spent nine years in the Super 14, and formerly the Super 12, before joining Delve at Gloucester in 2008. After two seasons in the English Premiership, the

9

“In New Zealand, youngplayers are learning how to play rugby better rather than just getting bigger”

most-capped prop in All Black history has decided to return to his old hunting ground, signing a deal to join Delve at the Rebels. It is a return to a standard of rugby that he feels supersedes England’s premier competition.

“I think it’s more enjoyable,” he said. “Defensively it’s more challenging, it’s quicker. The ball is used more and when you’re a kid it’s all about using the ball, passing it around and running with it. You’ve got that in Super 14

rugby and everyone wants to do it, that’s the fun part of it.”Asked why he thinks the English game suffers from such

a deficiency in comparison to its southern hemisphere counterpart, Somerville’s judgement sounds familiar.

“I look at some of the academy boys and they do a lot of weights - they don’t actually get to play that much rugby,” he said. “In New Zealand, we do weights, but not to the same extent as here.

“There’s a lot more emphasis on ball skills and position-specific skills. In New Zealand, young players are out there learning how to play rugby better rather than just getting bigger and stronger.”

Exactly 15 years since the game made its titanic overnight leap from amateur entertainment to commercial enterprise, English rugby appears to have reached the absolute pinnacle of professionalism.

Fixture lists have been stacked to the brim in the drive for profit and rugby players have been transformed into gym-driven athletes pushed to the limits of their physical capabilities. The players have suffered and with them so has the game.

In this era of excess, a balance must be met if the English national side are to consistently compete with their southern hemisphere opposition over the next 15 years.

‘TARZANS AND JANES’:Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath

KIWI STYLE:Greg Somerville makes a break for New Zealand in the 2003 Rugby World Cup

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: England coach Martin Johnson has a challenging time ahead

Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk for a full interview with Gareth Delve about his move Down Under and future with Wales

THAT MOMENT

8/5/2010: England’s Kevin Pietersen survives an LBW appeal from Mark Boucher as he returns to form with 53 runs against South Africa in his side’s ICC World Twenty20 match in Barbados

11

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Boys’ Toys GADGETS

A New Breed of Footballer

At the age of seventeen Ryan Burge seemed destined for stardom. He had just been awarded a three-year contract with Birmingham

City Football Club, and his dreams of becoming a Premiership star were edging closer to reality.

Two-and-a-half years later, however, and the youngster’s aspirations were left in tatters. Events at Birmingham

conspired against him and his contract was terminated by ‘mutual consent’.

Luckily for Burge, a former England manager was on hand to offer him an invaluable opportunity – the chance to resurrect his career at the prestigious Glenn Hoddle Academy (GHA).

“I got to my third year with Birmingham and everything was going well. I had been moved into the first-team for pre-season and I managed

to get a goal against Dagenham and Redbridge,” said Burge.

The talented left-winger looked to have a bright future ahead of him, but the departure of Steve Bruce to Wigan and the arrival of new manager Alex McLeish precipitated a change in his fortunes.

“Steve Bruce brought me into the first-team for pre-season,” said Burge. “He had high hopes for me. But when

LINING UP: Glenn Hoddle and the trainees bidding to revive their careers at his Academy

They have all suffered the heartbreak of rejection. Many were deemed either not good enough or not big enough for the English game. Discarded by professional football clubs, they were left staring into the sport’s abyss. But the ingenuity and faith of one man has given them a second chance. Rescued by the Glenn Hoddle Academy, these players are now being nurtured as a new generation

By CHRIS WARNE

FOOTBALL

he left he took his coaching team and the reserve team manager with him.

“I got injured at the same time all this was happening, and had to have a hernia operation, so I was back in the reserves. The head of the academy took over the reserve team and he didn’t really like me. He said my attitude wasn’t right and as soon as he came in he said he wanted me to go.”

Discontent, Burge organised a meeting with the club’s Chief Executive. “I felt I was getting messed around so I went to Karren Brady and said I wanted to leave. She wanted me to stay and tried to persuade me but I just didn’t feel comfortable staying.”

After leaving Birmingham in 2008, Burge played a handful of reserve team matches for boyhood club Cheltenham Town before securing a short-term deal with League Two side Barnet. But appendicitis blighted his time there and he made only one appearance for the club, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 4-0 home defeat to Notts County.

In January 2009, the then Barnet manager Ian Hendon told Burge he would not be extending his contract. Hendon expressed sincere regret at having to make the decision but, in the absence of a reserve side, said Barnet could not guarantee Burge the match time he needed to progress.

Resolute and still determined to forge a career in the game, Burge travelled to Japan a month later for trials with two J-League clubs. Despite signing for third tier side Machida Zelvia, he soon became homesick and opted to return home.

Back in England in July 2009, Burge appeared to be in the last chance saloon when he played in a pre-season friendly for Blue Square Premier side Forest Green Rovers. “I was training at Forest Green and they offered me a contract after I played a game for them but I wasn’t really happy there,” said Burge.

“I had applied online to the Glenn Hoddle Academy and Glenn gave me a call. He asked me to wait before I signed for Forest Green because he wanted me to take part in a trial for the GHA.”

The 6ft Cheltenham-born winger had submitted his CV online through the Academy’s website. With two-and-a-half years at Birmingham City, a spell at West Bromwich Albion before, and trials with Manchester United and Ajax, it’s not surprising the GHA elected to take a look at Burge.

“They interviewed me and had me go down to Warwick for a three-day trial. I must have

WORKING HARD: The players train rigorously under the Spanish sun

15

impressed them because they then picked me to play in a trial game against Shrewsbury.”

Burge shone against the League Two opposition, scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory for the GHA trialists. “I was substituted with ten minutes to go and Glenn took me over to one side and asked me to sign for the Academy. I was delighted, and I made up my mind quickly to sign for them. I saw it as a far better opportunity than playing for Forest Green,” he said.

Based at the lavish five-star Montecastillo Resort just outside the city of Jerez in southern Spain, the Glenn Hoddle Academy is the first

independent football academy. Its aim is to offer a route back into the game for those players who have fallen foul of the professional system.

Established in 2008, the ex-Tottenham midfielder managed to raise £4m, with the assistance of private investors, to fund his brainchild. Select players who have been released from Premier League and Championship clubs are granted full scholarships at the Academy worth up to £50,000, including food and accommodation.

“The primary goal of the Academy is to provide a lifeline or second chance for players who have been released from professional clubs for whatever reason,” said Neil Duncanson, commercial director at the GHA.

“Often the players coming to the GHA are released because they are too small. They may have the technical ability but just need a year or two to develop themselves a bit more physically.

“Professional football clubs are often

compelled to make a decision on a player’s future at the age of 18. Glenn has always maintained that age is simply too young, and that with a little more development, they could still become competent professionals.

“With regards to Ryan it is a little different. Things just didn’t seem to work out for him elsewhere. It’s clear he’s got the ability and the GHA is giving him the best possible opportunity to fulfil his potential and find a new club.”

Scouts are invited from across

Europe to take a look at Hoddle’s collection of players. The Academy is in essence a unique shop window, and accordingly it is run as a business, for profit, with stakeholders expecting a return on their investment.

Players are contracted to the GHA

and the money is made when they are sold on to professional clubs who pay a development fee. Cuts of future transfer fees and sponsorship revenue also contribute to sustaining the venture.

The business model is reminiscent of the one subscribed to by some South American football agents who own their players’ transfer rights. English football fans will remember the furore over Kia Joorabchian’s third party ownership of Carlos Tevez and Javier

Mascherano.But there is a clear distinction to

be made with the GHA. Unlike such agents, once the Academy has sold a player they no longer retain their transfer rights. Questionable ethics and murky dealings are not an issue with the GHA – quite the opposite in fact. Players are housed in luxury villas and have access to three swimming pools, a picturesque 18-hole golf course and a games room with Internet.

The Academy has enjoyed considerable success since its inception, and its biggest achievement to date was the sale of former Wycombe Wanderers’ striker Ikechi Anya to Sevilla. Anya’s sale was a major coup for the GHA in its first year. His move to the La Liga club boosted public awareness of the Academy and lent the endeavour vital credibility.

Anya’s story is not a one-off, however. Of the 27 players taken in by the GHA in its inaugural year, nearly half were sold back to professional clubs. The success rate validates Hoddle’s concept with the setting proving a perfect backdrop for fostering the return of young footballers to the professional game.

The triumphs can be attributed to Hoddle’s philosophy of pure football. The Academy places greater emphasis on a technical style of play and Hoddle has outlined a commitment to depart from the traditional English long-ball game.

He has stated his desire to create more technically astute, skilful players, and the setup and training at the GHA reflects this. The Academy does not participate in an organised league and instead arranges friendlies arbitrarily against the youth sides of professional Spanish clubs. Not constrained by the demands of a fixture list, the focus remains solely on player development with more time set aside for training and technical work.

Hoddle is involved on a daily basis and leads an elite coaching team that comprises the likes of Nigel Spackman, Graham Rix and Dave Beasant. They oversee a gruelling training schedule with sessions twice a day, an approach Burge has found refreshing. “The training is a lot more technical which I think is good. We do a lot more work with the ball and the Academy staff concentrate more on coaching.

“I have been to League One and League Two academies where you just play a game and everyone is literally fighting for the ball. That’s never going to help because you’re never going to improve with training like that. The training is a lot better at the GHA and

“The primary goal of the Academy is to provide a lifeline or second chance for players”

IN THE ZONE: Ryan Burge training at the Glenn Hoddle Academy

16

I definitely feel I’ve improved from it,” said the 21-year-old.

Players also benefit significantly from the Mediterranean climate. Perpetual clear skies and sunshine create the ideal environment for football. Training can continue through the winter months and Hoddle contends that in England the poor, capricious, weather can disrupt training and detract from players’ enjoyment.

The GHA represents an entrepreneurial yet virtuous tour de

force, with Hoddle et al making money out of giving young footballers a genuine chance to revive their careers. But to a certain extent, it is lamentable that a market for the project exists in the first place.

The concept has flourished only due to profound failures to develop gifted English footballers at grassroots and academy levels. Indeed, approximately 85% of trainees taken on by professional football clubs will be released.

It’s inconceivable that every single one of those players will not reach the required standard. The reality is that many young prospects do

have the potential to make it but are simply victims of English football’s financial structures.

With the Premier League awash with money, there is too much at stake financially for managers to

risk blooding inexperienced youngsters. Sir Alex Ferguson gambled on the likes of Beckham, Giggs, Scholes and the Neville brothers in ‘95. But in the current context

could Ferguson take a similar chance? It’s doubtful.

Managers have had their hands tied by the prevailing economic pressures. They are inclined to play it safe, purchasing established professionals rather than placing faith in their young prospects. The revolving door culture that sees

managers come and go, coupled with

the unequal distribution of television revenues through the leagues, further entrenches the deficiencies.

Deprived of the lucrative income from television, a shortage of financial resources

for those at the foot of the league hierarchy means a

dearth of investment in youth development and the absence of

reserve teams, which should

be present to offer trainees much-needed experience.

The constant lauding of the Premier League as ‘the best league in the world’ serves often to mask the inadequacy of the country’s youth setup. But the perennial problems are exposed by the consistent mediocrity of the English national team.

When you cast an eye over the number of indigenous players plying their trade in Europe’s top flight football leagues you realise the lack of home grown players in the Premier League. In the 2007/08 season, only 34 per cent of players starting matches in the Premier League were English. On average, that’s under four English

players in each starting line-up, whereas Spain and Italy see roughly seven native names on the team-sheets of sides playing in La Liga and Serie A.

It’s no surprise that England manager Fabio Capello has bemoaned this disparity. Other countries around Europe have vast reservoirs of talent from which to pick

“Players who do work their way up through the ranks tend to be of a high standard but often of a similar mould”

TRAINING HARD:Burge hopes to save his career

IDYLLIC SURROUNDINGS: The plush Montecastillo Resort in Jerez, southern Spain - home to the Glenn Hoddle Academy

17

their national sides, whilst in comparison England seem to have a shallow pond.

That is not to say this country does not produce quality footballers, however. Players who do work their way up through the ranks tend to be of a high standard but often of a similar mould. The recent winners of the PFA’s Player and Young Player of the Year awards illustrate this point.

Wayne Rooney, the PFA Player of the Year and James Milner, Young Player of the Year, were both 16 when they made their Premier League debuts. Rooney was the youngest player to score in the league when he netted from 25 yards against Arsenal in 2002

but intriguingly lost the record two months later to Milner who slotted home against Sunderland on Boxing Day.

The two players clearly have a lot in common and most striking is their physical maturity at such a young age. Both are robustly built and capable of enduring the intensive demands of the English fixture list. The award of PFA Young Player of the Year to 24-year-old Milner is actually somewhat deceptive when you consider he was actually playing in the Premier League for Leeds eight years ago.

To succeed in the Premier League, physical attributes are just as key, if not more important, to a player than footballing ability. This is not so true in other leagues in Europe and Hoddle frequently cites the victory of the Spanish national team at Euro 2008 to vindicate his faith in small, skilful players.

Hoddle’s ethos is commendable, but his chances of engineering a new mentality that embraces skilful, technical

football are remote. Football in this country remains steeped in a working class culture that champions the industrious workhorse of a player

and warms to the long ball, kick and rush style of play. Skilful players are often regarded with disdain and in all likelihood will continue to be dismissed as show ponies.

For Burge, a spell at the Glenn Hoddle Academy represents an opportunity he simply will not find on these shores. “I think the biggest highlight so far was playing against Dynamo Kiev’s first team. It was the same team who had played against Barcelona in the Champions League the year before,” said Burge.

“The only player who didn’t play was Andriy Shevchenko. We got beat 4-0 but they were awarded two lucky penalties and it wasn’t really a fair result. We had a lot of chances, we hit the bar and should have scored. I had a really good game and the coaches actually said Kiev were interested in a few of us.

“I’d say my other highlights up until now would be scoring against Real Madrid’s youth team and I also scored the Academy’s quickest goal after 11 seconds against a team called San Fernando.”

Dynamo Kiev and Real Madrid are a far cry from Forest Green Rovers and not bad for a footballer who less than a year ago seemed caught in a downward spiral and heading for football’s wilderness. Bristol Rovers have already expressed an interest in Burge but it’s likely they’ll face competition for his signature. In the event of a move materialising, Burge will owe a great deal to the Hand of Hod.

“Football in this country remains steeped in a working class culture that champions the industrious”

A few of the success stories so far...

Ikechi Anya - Sevilla FC(Released by Northampton Town)

Chris Fagan - Lincoln City(Released by Manchester United)

David Cowley - Recreativo De(Released by Southend) Huelva

DREAM COME TRUE:Ikechi Anya and Glenn Hoddle at the GHA (above) and signing for Sevilla (right)

18

Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk to watch an exclusive interview

with Glenn Hoddle

We had to wait more than three decades for cricket to return to ITV. So it was unfortunately

something of a damp squib as Matt Smith and relatively unknown actress Mandira Bedi fronted coverage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2010 on digital channel ITV4. It’s number 24 on my Freeview box and is sandwiched in between Dave Ja Vu and Bid TV. Oh dear.

The demise of pay-TV service Setanta Sports paved the way for ITV to snap up IPL rights and enter the cricket market for the first time since the 1970s. With global rights jointly held by Sony and World Sport Group, who are in the middle of a $1.2billion ten-year deal, different broadcasters around the world snapped up domestic coverage.

But the fact ITV shifted it onto their website and a digital-only station that is way down the list on your satellite menu shows how much they valued it. The IPL deal was also overshadowed by a schoolboy error where they could only show 59 of the 60 matches because a Delhi Daredevils and Bangalore Royal Challengers game clashed with a British Touring Car race from Thruxton. Yes, you read correctly.

However, ITV’s acquisition of the IPL was only one part of this year’s action-packed cricket television rights scene. Even more interesting things were happening in the online market in January. Eyebrows were raised when YouTube struck a deal to webcast live IPL matches, which made it the first major sporting event to ever be streamed across the globe.

It was also the first major live sporting deal for the website and came after Ukraine v England was controversially streamed online by Perform to paying customers only, not in pubs or bars.

YouTube’s two-year deal with the IPL meant it could stream every game anywhere outside the USA. But the idea of watching sport on a laptop

doesn’t fill me with joy. God made sport to be viewed on the box, so you can watch it with some friends over a good pint of bitter each. Huddling round a laptop, even if only for 20 overs, just won’t do it for me. If we are given the option - ITV on television or YouTube online - the former is slightly better.

But saying this, there was a greatly improved experience from watching online rather than on the box.

An incredible 20 camera positions and the chance to pause or fast-forward coverage made it far more like sitting in the director’s gallery than the armchair. Forums, official stats and a video archive were also good distractions when the game slowed down or stopped.

The live and on-demand service reached an incredible 500 million - around one-in-twelve world citizens.

The major market for live sport online is whilst people are at work - which is why Wimbledon has been so successful on BBC Online. With IPL games generally starting in early or mid-afternoon, that is a good time to be catching bored office staff and getting them to watch your programming.

But back to ITV for one moment. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi claimed the

UK deal was a great success for them as it would improve competitiveness against Sky and start a new era for free-to-air cricket broadcasting.

He is naturally pleased the IPL will capture a much bigger market, even though it is still not on terrestrial television. This is fair enough, as it is unlikely to generate much of an audience on ITV1 during a daytime afternoon.

However, it was a great time for ITV to snap up cricket with the BBC not currently looking at taking back rights. ITV4 could be seen as something of a dream for sports fans without satellite or cable television. It has recently shown FA Cup and Europa League football, The Tour de France, Guinness Premiership Rugby, British Touring Cars and Isle of Man TT. It was one of the top-ten watched digital channels last year and is one of the only free-to-air digital channels to show live sport.

But I still feel any sport is shown on a digital-only station for a reason - it’s not going to be that great. And whilst the viewing experience on YouTube might have been better, I’d still much rather sit on the sofa or be at a pub, rather than getting my friends up to my bedroom to crowd round a 15-inch monitor.

That just won’t cut it.

TV COVERAGE STUMPS IPL FANS

Cricket had a 30-year exodus from ITV before it recently returned. But Mark Duell was unimpressed by what he saw

23

IPL WINNERS: The Chennai Super Kings

COMMENT

England will lose on penalties, Andy Murray will ‘bottle it’ at Wimbledon, there will be at least one English batting collapse and a Brit will flirt briefly with a chance of winning The Open before sliding inexorably down the leader board. Some things

are guaranteed this World Cup summer.Are we just a nation of losers?Not according to English Institute of Sport (EIS)

psychologist Chris Marshall.“We have some fantastic athletes who are doing really

well,” he said. “Look here [at the EIS]. We have Jessica Ennis and the disabled table-tennis team is doing well - we have four players in the top ten in the world.”

But chances are that this summer, the back-pages will be full of stories of players and teams ‘choking’ or bottling it.

Every time someone loses from a position of strength or expectation of victory they are branded a bottler, especially if it happens more than once.

And when the transfer window opens, football managers will talk of signing players with a ‘winning mentality’.

The perception that the English are somehow born nearly-men is common and understandable given some of the high-profile defeats.

Marshall rejects that theory, again pointing out recent successes in British sport.

“I don’t think we are a nation of bottlers. It’s a media

thing. If you go to Australia the papers there will say their athletes have bottled it, it’s the same in America,” he said.

“The media build people up and when they lose it makes a good story.

“It is down to the invividual. I don’t think someone has a particular mentality because they are English.”

The latest media suggestions of an Englishman losing because he lacked a winning mentality were raised after Lee Westwood’s Masters performance in April.

Westwood went into the final round with a one-shot lead over Phil Mickelson but could not hold on to win his first major championship.

“I don’t think he bottled it,” said Marshall. “His performance didn’t really drop all week and the American played a great final round to win. It’s not right to say Westwood bottled it.”

Westwood’s failure to win the Masters means he has finished third, third and second in his last three majors.

It does not quite compare to Jimmy White’s inability to pass the winning post, but it is something that must play on the Worksop golfer’s mind.

Mickelson was once the nearly-man of golf and he

reassured Westwood that if good enough the majors will come.

Breaking that psychological barrier to victory is crucial. People who make light of the physical outcomes of

psychological processes should remember that before Sir Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier, athletes and coaches suggested it was physically impossible.

In the 18 months after that famous run in Oxford, 16 other athletes matched the achievement.

Tim Henman was often accused of not being mentally tough enough to win Wimbledon but of his four semi-finals, only the 2001 three-day epic against Goran Ivanisovic could possibly be described as a choke.

The fact was that Henman was nearly always beaten by a better player.

When opponents are more evenly matched the battle of wits becomes important.

“When you get to the elite level we can generally say the people are of a similar ability and mentality can often be the difference between them.” Marshall said.

As sport becomes increasingly science-based, the importance of being in the right frame of mind to perform well and win is emphasised.

In the last decade there has been a huge increase in the consultation of psychologists by athletes and teams.

Glenn Hoddle attracted less than sympathetic media coverage when he hired faith healer Eileen Drewery to help the England football squad prepare for the World Cup in 1998.

Sven-Goran Eriksson admitted after the 2006 tournament that England might have done better if they had taken a sports psychologist with them.

In South Africa this summer we are sure to see at least one example of that most dramatic decider: the penalty shoot-out.

England are notoriously bad at taking penalties, so what techniques could they use to help them deal with the pressure?

“The key is routine,” said Marshall. “When someone is under pressure it is reassuring for them to have a routine they can stick to.

“Jonny Wilkinson has his routine and uses visualisation techniques which can be effective too. When that routine is broken you can lose control and things go wrong.”

Wilkinson decides where he wants the ball to go and then traces a path back to the kicking tee before visualising the ball travelling along the path and between the posts.

“We’re not a nation of bottlers - it’s a media thing”

WINNER TAKES ALLThere’s more to winning than talent. Sports psychologist Chris Marshall tells Colin James that mentality is just as important

“When routine is broken, you lose control”

SPORT SCIENCE

The technique has helped him become a World Cup winner and England’s leading all-time points scorer.

Psychologist Jeff Simons described a ‘quick-set routine’ that could be carried out 30 seconds before competition to increase focus or help recovery after a distraction.

There are some sports where routine is a very natural part of the game. The repeated actions in snooker, golf and darts lend themselves to a fixed process.

These closed sports, with their stable and predictable environments, are much easier to develop routine in than open sports where conditions are constantly changing, meaning movements have to be adapted.

Athletes have to give themselves the best chance of winning by preparing properly, being confident and relaxed isn’t enough.

“We work alongside the coaches to help that preparation” said Marshall.

“You have to put in the hours of practice required to be successful. It is important that training is structured with set goals rather than unstructured. Achievement equals talent plus preparation.”

Perhaps the England football team should practice taking penalties as much as possible.

Not only would it help to reinforce a routine but players would simply become better at putting the ball where they want it to go.

Where though should they be aiming and what about the goalkeeper?

An Israeli study in 2006 suggested that goalkeepers would save more penalties if they just stood in the middle of the goal.

The study found that goalkeepers who stayed in the middle of the goal saved 33.3 per cent of penalties in contrast to 14.2 per cent when they dived to the left and 12.6 per cent when they dived to the right.

Yet goalkeepers only stay central for 6.3 per cent of penalties and psychologists believe this is because they have an ‘action bias’.

Goalkeepers see staying central as ‘inaction’ and favour the action of diving to one side.

If a goal is scored despite a dive then goalkeepers believe

they have tried their best to save it.If a goal is scored and the goalkeeper remains central, he

negatively belives that he has not acted, rather than made a decision to stay in the middle of the goal.

The study showed that kicks to the goalkeeper’s left were saved more often than when they dived to the right.

If the goalkeeper dives to the left and the penalty goes that way he has nearly a 30 per cent chance of saving it. If he correctly dives to the right his chance of saving the penalty falls to 25 per cent.

But success still depends on the correct mental preparation which helps a player to kick the ball in the direction he intends to.

In competition, players who can stick to their routine when under pressure will be the most successful.

“Routine needs to be drilled into athletes through structured training with coaches,” said Marshall. “The better prepared it is the better it can be carried out under pressure.”

So there we have it.England is not a nation of losers but just needs more

penalty practice.

25

CLASSICSPORTING CHOKES

With a great summer of sport ahead, we look back at some of the worst examples of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

1999: French golfer Jean Van de Velde went into the last hole of The Open with a three shot lead. He hit the grandstand, found the water and then a bunker. The triple-bogey forced a three-way play-off but Van de Velde couldn’t recover and Paul Lawrie took the title

1994: Snooker legend Jimmy White had lost five World Championship finals already, including the last four. After levelling at 17-17 and only a simple black needed in the deciding frame, White missed by a mile leaving Stephen Hendry to clinch the fourth of his seven titles

1990, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006: England have gone out of five major tournaments on penalties. 1990 was the most painful of them all, with misses from Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce ensuring England lost a World Cup semi-final shootout against West Germany

“Goalkeepers save more penalties by standing still”

Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk to relive these howlers

Best, BRICs and Beers

Jim O’Neill is your archetypal Manchester United fan. He reminisces about Dennis Law, is still infatuated with Georgie Best, and describes Wayne Rooney as the best English player he’s ever seen grace the sodden Old Trafford turf.

A son of a postman, his father’s side of the family were publicans and his mother’s parents were farmers. He grew up in the deprived Wythenshawe estate, now synonymous with the TV series Shameless.

Football would govern his week in the playground and on Saturdays he’d play for both his junior school and Gately Cubs sides before scuttling off to watch United.

Very much an average Mancunian lad growing up in inner-city Manchester in the sixties.

But just like Manchester as a city and United as a club, O’Neill’s circumstances have changed beyond belief.

Now 45-years after an eight-year-old O’Neill watched the Red Devils share the Charity Shield with arch rivals Liverpool, he is leading a group of wealthy supporters whose aim is to buy-out the Glazer family as the club’s owners.

Enter the Red Knight.At 53-years-of-age Jim O’Neill needs to slow down:

The boy from Gately is now Goldman Sachs chief global economist with a personal fortune estimated at £200million.

“My current life ambition is not to do so much,” he said. “My life is kind of crazy these days. I often think I have the best economics job in the world. It is extremely demanding but hugely enjoyable, I am responsible for all our economists and strategists around the world. I also travel all over the World, and am involved in all the different

businesses that Goldman Sachs does. I feel very lucky. My life is very stressful but very enjoyable.”

O’Neill sure has an unconventional way of freeing up his time. Whilst the global money markets and international

economies were in utter turmoil he initiated a campaign to take over the country’s greatest sporting name, his beloved Manchester United. It is inconceivable why a man at the head of one of the world’s most powerful banks would embark on such project at such a tumultuous and enigmatic time.

Is it the same drive of ambition that took him from the backstreets of Gately to the World Trade Centres in New York, London and Frankfurt?

“I am really not sure! I never thought, or still today, think of myself as being ambitious. My main goals are to enjoy myself, try to keep my feet on the ground, remember all the people that I have enjoyed life with, and not get carried away by anybody’s status or perceived self importance,” he said.

In March the group of wealthy well-

Manchester United are arguably the world’s greatest sport brand, but currently £800million in debt at the the hands of the Glazer family. Robert Golledge finds out more about Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs chief economist and man leading the bid to reclaim the club for fans

WORLD EXCLUSIVE

REDS’ SAVIOUR?:Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill at work

“My life is kind of crazy these days - I often think I have the best economics job in the world”

FOOTBALL

connected United fans dubbed the Red Knights confirmed their intentions to take over the club.

“Following the intense media speculation overnight, we can confirm that a group of high net worth individuals, who support Manchester United, met in London yesterday. This group is supportive of current management but are looking at the feasibility of putting together a proposal to be put to the Glazer Family regarding the ownership of Manchester United,” a statement said.

The problem, as they see it, is that the Glazer family has used the club as collateral in their takeover, plunging the club into a debt of £800million.

In 2009 a successful bond scheme, overseen by Goldman Sachs, saw the club generate £500million to help service the debt.

Last year the Glazer family paid themselves over £20million from the club’s coffers for their roles as the club’s directors. Without the world record £80million sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, the club would have made a net loss of £10million.

This month the Glazer family said they’d already rejected bids of £1.5billion from Middle-Eastern investors, suggesting the Red Knight campaign had little substance.

As a youngster O’Neill’s life was dominated by football, playing at every opportunity and he even represented Manchester at county level, aged 17.

There was one player, however, he idolised on and off the field.

“George Best. Not only was he awesome, but like many other teenage united fans, we wanted to be like him - especially his success with girls.

“I had a very enjoyable social life, hanging out with posh girls in Cheadle Hulme and Bramhall until I was ‘big’ enough to go into town after being 16, when it was the Oaks in Chorlton and Placemate, or Pips in town.

“I was really into Tamla Motown, but my mates had a bit more open and varied tastes than me, and we

used to go to a lot of Roxy Music/Bowie- themed places. I

was always into bitter beer until I went to Sheffield, where I learnt to drink everything.”

After leaving Burnage High School, the same school attended by Rodger Byrne (captain of the Munich air crash team), the Gallagher brothers and later Wes Brown, O’Neill studied Economics at the University of Sheffield.

“All in all I spent nearly seven years at university ‘studying’, most of the time playing football and having a good time,” he said.

“I loved it, arguably still the best four years of my life were at Sheffield. Most of my best friends, certainly many of my longest are still, people I used to hang out with there. I was a very naughty student, especially in the first and second years.

“I existed to play football, and have a good time. I think I probably stayed ‘in’ about three times in four years. We had some completely wild, some outrageous football club trips

away - highlight being to Newcastle University, where I believe our exploits made the national press.

“Sheffield had a great football team when I was there, and I managed to get into the first eleven as a fresher and

was in it, on and off the whole time I was there. Although in the MA year, they won the UAU cup against Kent, but I lost my place due to a broken foot, and one of my best mates took my place, and I couldn’t get it back again.”

O’Neill, married for 27 years with two kids, aged 19 and 22, lives in south west London, previously living in New York.

He made a name for himself six years ago when he coined the term ‘BRICs’ – identifying Brazil, Russia, India and China as the current emerging economies that would overtake many of the G8 countries’ status as global financial powers.

“I called them ‘BRICs’ for a reason - not that they always will play second fiddle to the West but that they will be the solid structures of global economics,” he once said.

Prior to the Glazer family’s takeover of United in 2004, O’Neill served as a non-executive director of the

club. It was during this time that he became close with Sir Alex Ferguson.

“I have had the pleasure of getting to know him. “It’s remarkable how successful he

has been, but he doesn’t forget where he has come from,” he said.

Equally remarkable is the story of Terrence James O’Neill, but will

we being seeing him as one of United’s owners?

“I’m afraid I’m unable to talk can’t talk about

anything Red Knights related right now,

not even to The

27

GOALSCORER:Manchester United prize asset, Wayne Rooney

“George Best, not only was he awesome, we wanted to be like him - especially his success with girls”

“I was really into Tamla Motown and bitter beer until I went to Sheffield, where I learnt to drink everything”

Sportsman.

GAME, SET AND MATCH?

British tennis is in a bad state. So why can’t we produce any decent players? Mark Duell spoke

to an academy training manager to find out

TENNIS

DEFEATED: Andy Murray shows his frustration as he loses the 2009 final of the Australian Open

Tennis is such a difficult sport,” said Martin Folger. He would know, being a professional coach with 38 years of playing experience.

“It always seems to have been one player that has come through, like Andy Murray. But when you talk about them representing their country as a team, sometimes the best players in the world don’t actually make the best team.”

Great Britain’s fifth straight Davis Cup defeat - to lowly Lithuania earlier this year - was a good example of this. It led to much soul-searching within tennis after captain John Lloyd resigned and was later criticised by Murray.

The poor performance in the Davis Cup seems so much worse when you consider that Sport England are distributing £26million of funding to the Lawn Tennis Association over a four-year period. This will not be cut by sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, despite an All Party Tennis Group report that said the LTA should be delivering ‘better outcomes than at present’.

Folger, who is tennis manager at the Sheffield Tennis Academy, believes we must be patient before things improve. “I think we’re more geared-up to developing tennis players in the future, but that takes time,” he said. “A tennis player doesn’t appear in a five-year period.”

He believes it takes about 10,000 hours to produce a player who may qualify for the first-round of Wimbledon. Folger said: “If you start playing tennis at six and you’re going to do 10,000 hours, that’s 20 hours a week over a 10-year period - or 1,000 hours a year. It’s a long and arduous road.

“We’ve produced tennis players to a very high world standard in juniors, and then the transition from the junior game to the senior game is where we seem to be breaking down. We’ve got Laura Robson and a group of players below her, but that jump to the senior game is such a giant step.”

One conclusion from the All Party Tennis Group’s findings was that the LTA is not producing enough quality players around the country. But Folger disagrees with this view. “Tennis is an individual sport,” he said.

“If you put Murray on a doubles court, he’s a good player, but not a doubles specialist. We are producing tennis players - just not doing well at team tennis. We seem to have always had one individual tennis player.”

Great Britain hasn’t produced a tennis player who has reached the

final knockout stages of a Grand Slam since Tim Henman, as Murray was trained abroad in Sanchez-Casal, Barcelona. Folger acknowledged that comparisons are often made with French and Spanish tennis training, but still rejects the idea that Britain is falling behind to its European competitors.

“We’re developing at the same rate as other countries,” he said. “We keep seeing players out of Estonia and Lithuania who are not world champions. They seem to be better than us collectively as a group, but they’re not in the world’s top ten individually. For a team event like the Davis Cup, ideally you need two very good singles players and also a doubles pair. Murray gets found out by doubles specialists, like Henman did, as it’s not their game.

“You’ve also got to look at the culture of British tennis. We haven’t got the climate of Spain and France and are a smaller country - they’ve got a bigger catchment area and more people are playing tennis. These sound like cheap excuses, but it’s always difficult to compete on a level playing field. Why doesn’t Jamaica have a bobsleigh team? Why don’t we get tennis players from Iceland? You’ve always got to look at what you’ve got.”

Folger is confident of a positive future for British tennis. “The structure is getting a lot better,” he said. “We have got a lot of good juniors coming through, which is very encouraging.

“But it’s about keeping the management process going, keeping them competing and making sure they get assistance to make that transition from the junior to the senior game.”

The Davis Cup defeat came after Dan Evans lost in the decisive singles match to hand Lithuania a 3-2 victory, and means Britain must beat Turkey in a July relegation play-off. The loser will drop into the tournament’s lowest tier, Europe/Africa Zone Group III.

“Things can flip very quickly,” said Folger, trying to look ahead. “People will see the Davis Cup as a negative, but what would happen in July if Murray lifts the Wimbledon trophy?”

Investment levels across all sports are currently a political hot-potato, but Folger says the issue now is not how much money there is, but - in the

words of the Financial Times - ‘How to Spend It’.

“I think there’s a lot of investment and now it’s being better used,” he said. “In the past there’s been quite a lot of money thrown at tennis and it’s basically gone into the wrong areas. If you’re going to develop a top-class tennis player, you have to make sure all the pieces are in place. You always want some funding for groups below the top level to push those above.”

Folger’s Sheffield Tennis Academy, part of the Lawn Tennis Association, is based at the Graves Tennis and Leisure Centre. It helps people across the city get involved in tennis and develop the performance of children from the age of four, right up to adults. The academy has six indoor and 12 outdoor courts that are also used for recreational tennis, lessons for senior citizens or ladies only and specialist coaching for the disabled and deaf.

“Here at Sheffield, we are bucking the trend,” Folger said. “There’s a recession on but the number of people coming onto our courses is increasing at a steady rate. So that shows people are coming into the game. Once you get them into the game, then you’ve got to coach them correctly and the broader the base, the more chance you’ve got of finding a champion.”

Folger started playing tennis as a 13-year-old and was trained by the mother of Sheffield’s Roger Taylor, who won six tour-level singles titles and nine doubles trophies during his career. Folger himself went on to become a professional tennis coach and manager. But something he notices in younger players is that they don’t have the same knowledge of the game’s professionals as budding footballers having a kickabout.

“If I go on court with a group of six or seven-year-olds and in July and I put it to them: ‘Who will win the Men’s singles final at Wimbledon’, there may be one or two who know. To them, it’s a game and a lot of fun. Certainly when they get a little older, you’d expect those answers to be forthcoming. You might see kids playing football in the park saying: ‘I’m Wayne Rooney’. But I don’t see tennis players saying: ‘I’m hitting the ball like Nadal’.”

So, roll on Wimbledon. It’s the time when the nation joins together in support of one man, clutching their strawberries and cream on Murray Mound in SW19.

Folger seems confident that the tennis training structure of this country is in good shape, despite coming in for heavy criticism recently. We can only judge our players on their achievements, and hopefully that ‘one guy every year’ will be everyone’s favourite Glaswegian this summer.

31

“It’s difficult to compete on a level playing field”

THE

BEACON:The City of Manchester Stadium dominates the skyline

MASTERPLAN

INVESTMENT

THEIt’s eight years since Manchester hosted the Commonwealth Games. But the legacy of the largest multi-sport event ever held in Britain continues. Manchester City FC recently signed a billion pound deal to develop the area around The City of Manchester Stadium. We examine if sport is leading the regeneration of a run-down post-industrial area

33

MASTER

Fifteen years ago it was one of the poorest areas in the country. Today it is at the heart of billion pound plans that will transform the area

and create a genuine world class sport and leisure complex.

East Manchester is being revitalised through sport with investment being led by the much maligned foreign money in football.

They have been accused of killing English football and spending immoral sums of money on players but the owners of Manchester City have plans that are bigger than the beautiful game.

The club recently signed a deal with Manchester City Council and regeneration company New East Manchester (NEM) that is expected to attract £1billion worth of investment from private backers and City’s billionaire Abu Dhabi owner HH Sheikh Mansour.

The project to create a top level sport and leisure destination around The City of Manchester Stadium will create thousands of jobs and help to regenerate one of Manchester’s poorest areas.

A luxury hotel, restaurants and shops plus a new training complex to rival AC Milan’s Milanello, which is arguably the best in the world, are expected developments in an area that was given a sense of purpose by the 2002 Commonwealth games and the sports facilities that followed.

At the other end of the football ladder, FC United of Manchester have announced the intention to build a

£3.5million, 5,000 capacity community stadium in Newton Heath, the birthplace of Manchester United.

In February work started on the world’s first purpose built indoor BMX track that will be completed in 2011 at a cost of £24million.

The arena, with a spectator capacity of 2,000, will be built next to the

Velodrome and together they will form the National Cycling Centre.

At the heart of the industrial revolution, east Manchester had one of the deepest coal mines in Britain and a busy manufacturing industry.

But, as industry declined, 60 per cent of jobs were lost in just ten years between 1975 and 1985.

Houses emptied and crime rose as the departing industry left in its wake a wasteland.

Manchester is an ambitious city. It lays claims to being the birthplace of the industrial revolution, the computer and communism with varying degrees of accuracy.

Its bids to host the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games were mocked by some as ideas above its station. At the time Manchester didn’t have a single five star hotel.

But when it won the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester could begin to build the biggest concentration of sporting venues in Europe.

And so the transformation of east Manchester could begin.

34

By COLIN JAMES

INNOVATIVE: Artist’s impression of City Street and the Halo

£24m: Indoor BMX Centre £3.5m: Planned FC United of Manchester stadium £1bn: Expected leisure complex investment

The area already had one top venue, the cycling velodrome, the home of British track cycling and its eight Beijing Olympic gold medalists, which had opened in 1994.

The area traditionally called Bradford became known as Eastlands, the location for Sport City the main base of the Games.

At the centre The City of Manchester Stadium would host the athletics and

rugby sevens and after the Games be converted into a football stadium - the new home of Manchester City.

Other new venues included the National Squash Centre, the Manchester Regional Athletics Arena, a tennis centre and the regional base for the English Institute of Sport.

Former athletes Seb Coe and Jonathan Edwards criticised the decision to convert the stadium for football use but the long term implications of that decision look great.

By the start of next season the first new improvements to the area around the stadium will be complete.

This includes a market-

place fan zone of shops and food and drink outlets to be called ‘City Street’ on Joe Mercer Way, the north approach to the stadium, and an iluminated blue halo on top of the club shop.

The club spent 14 months studying the world’s best sporting facilities and it has explored ways to increase the capacity of the stadium.

It is hoped that work on the longer term elements of the scheme - incorporating the site of the ditched supercasino and 59 acres of land bought by City’s owners - will begin within the next five years.

Sir Richard Leese, leader of the city council, said: “The City of Manchester Stadium has been a credit to the city and this further investment will enable local people who can work, to work, and will give our young people the best possible start in life and will make east Manchester a place in which to work, invest, live and visit.”

“A football stadium brings people in significant numbers maybe 30 days a year.

“We want a year-round destination that enhances the reputation of the city as a visitor destination and City want to build a global brand.

“The club has made it very clear that they have a long-term commitment to the area and its regeneration and part of the agreement we’ve signed enshrines that.

“We are very clear that we want activities on the site that create jobs for local people at a range of levels.”

City could be expected to lose touch with its traditionally working class

support base as it spends millions of pounds seeking a place among the elite of European football but chief executive Garry Cook is insistant that

the fans and local community are part of the future of the club.

He said: “Manchester City has been and always will be at the heart of the community it serves in the city of Manchester, the longer-term considerations for the area reflect the long term commitment of our owners to the club and the community it serves.”

Foreign investment in football has been heavily criticised, but those who gain employment as a result of the ambtious owners of Manchester City will very much welcome it.

The Eastlands club hope to become the best team in the world on the pitch, but whatever they achieve with the ball looks set to be dwarfed by off-field developments that could change the face of a city.

35

“The club has a long-term commitment to the area”“We want a year-

round destination and City want a global brand”

Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk to see more detailed plans and take an

interactive tour of Sport City

G

H

E

F

D

AC

B

EAST MANCHESTER

The new sport facilities that will be built on the east Manchester site:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

NEW DESIGN: How east Manchester will change

Regional athletics arena

Tennis centre

Squash centre

City Street Manchester City club shop with Halo

Leisure development

New East Manchesterland

Possible Manchester City training complex

Velodrome

Dear Sportsman,

As a qualified and experienced football referee, I am growing increasingly frustrated by the media’s lack of understanding of the laws of the game and their correct application.

John Motson, the supposed expert among experts at the BBC, is one of the worst culprits.

Can someone please tell him that ‘daylight’ is entirely irrelevant when it comes to the offside law?

I propose that anyone who is paid to talk or write about football should be forced to complete the FA training course and referee a few games for themselves.

They’d soon discover what a difficult job referees have and by learning about the laws (note to Mr Lawrenson: they are not ‘rules’), they may start to make fewer idiotic comments.

What they don’t realise is that football fans look to them for insight and believe what they say.

So when it comes to Sunday morning and The Dog and Duck versus The Red Lion, their ignorance is repeated verbatim by angry hungover players and managers.

This makes the job of the referee even more difficult.

If Andy Gray or John Motson are reading I’d be delighted to show them the ropes myself.

Sam Tyler, Ealing

HAVE YOUR SAYSince we launched www.thesportsman.co.uk, we have been inundated with your views: some sensible, some not so sensible. We’ve selected the best of them for you to enjoy

37

Dear Sportsman,

What is happening to the development of young English cricketers?

There doesn’t seem to have been a significant English breakthrough since Stuart Broad. Instead there appears to be an increasing number of foreign imports pulling on the Three Lions.

For a long time we have had players from overseas representing England at cricket. There have been nine post-war captains born outside the UK.

However, many of those were unable to play for their nation of birth. Tony Greig, born in South Africa, was given the opportunity to play cricket for England whilst his native country were excluded from the international game. Others, like Nasser Hussain may have been born abroad (India) but grew up in England.

It seems to me that qualification rules are being used by players for the good of their careers and bank balances. Would Jonathan Trott have made it into the South African team? There’s no doubt that the money Pietersen has made over the last five years eclipses his potential earnings had he stayed in South Africa.

These players are not an invading army demanding to be selected. Geoff Miller and his selection team pick them because they believe they are the best available cricketers.

Changes to the qualification system do need to be made but they would

only weaken our team. The real issue is the development of young cricketers and the ECB identifying talent early enough to develop it properly. Until we sort that problem out we’ll be stuck with a pick and mix team of foreign players who make a mockery of international sport.

Malcolm Fletcher, Henley

Dear Sportsman,

The dispute over drugs testing between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao raised an important issue.

Because of the divided nature of boxing it has been difficult to implement consistent doping regulation.

Professional boxing is lagging behind other sports when it comes to testing fighters for banned substances and there are strong rumours that drug use is rife in the sport.

Amateur boxing is policed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which carries out regular random tests on fighters.

It is time for professional boxing to

sort itself out.Fans are constantly frustrated

by promoter politics preventing anticipated fights from happening.

And this latest dispute between arguably the two best fighters in the world highlights the fact that we must unify the sport as much as possible before it loses all credibility.

When a dinosaur like Evander Holyfield can claim to be a world champion it is clear the sport has lost its way completely.

Ian Bishop, Manchester

EMAILletters@thesportsman.co.ukPOSTThe Sportsman15 Soho SquareLondon W1A 7MC

PUNCH UP: Mayweather v Pacquiao

OVERSEAS TALENT:Craig Kieswetter

LETTERS

REPORTAGE

IN TRAINING: Brook goes for an early morning run near to his home in the Wincobank area of Sheffield

KELLBROOK

He is one of British boxing’s hottest properties. Fresh from winning the WBO’s Inter-Continental title, the Sheffield Welterweight talks about his status as number one contender to fight Manny Pacquiao, his dreams of an ascent to boxing’s pinnacle, and the obstacles that he’s still to overcome

Steel City Soldier

39

As a young boy he pretended to be Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Now, as a grown man, his childhood fantasies of combat have been realised.

Kell ‘Kid’ Brook is a real life fighter and an immensely talented one at that.

He has conquered all of his 21 opponents in the boxing ring and the Welterweight division’s rising star believes he will one day be the sport’s pound-for-pound king.

On March 12 this year 24-year-old Ezekiel Brook, nickname Kell, defeated Polish pugilist Krzysztof Bienias to claim the World Boxing Organisation’s (WBO) Inter-Continental title. The Yorkshireman proved too much for the resilient visitor and the referee halted the bout in the sixth round to spare Bienias further punishment.

The fight, at Liverpool’s Echo Arena, was Brook’s first test on the international circuit and he passed it with flying colours, preserving his undefeated record. More enthralling, however, was the fact that the victory propelled him to the top of the WBO’s rankings and installed him as number one contender to face the majestic seven-weight World Champion and reigning WBO World Champion Manny ‘Pac-Man’ Pacquiao.

Brook, who started boxing at the age of nine, is the latest in a long line of boxing prodigies to surface from Brendan Ingle’s world-renowned and revered St Thomas Boys and Girls Club. As a hyperactive child his father,

a property developer, first took him to the gym so he could expend a little of his excess energy.

At the gym, founded by Ingle in the Wincobank area of Sheffield, Brook came to train alongside one of the Irishman’s most famous protégés ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed. “I remember when Naz used to come in here to train, the whole gym would go silent and everyone would stop and watch him,” said Brook.

“I used to love watching him sparring and on the bags. He really made an impression on me and made me think I want to be that good. Naz achieved so much in the sport and hopefully I can go on to do the same.”

Sheffield-born Brook idolised Hamed and admits he still has to pinch himself every time he talks to the former World Featherweight Champion. Unsurprisingly, comparisons

between the two boxers have become commonplace with commentators drawing parallels between their unorthodox, switch-hitting styles.

Sadly, Hamed became notorious for his unruly behaviour outside of the ring. He served four months of a 15-month prison sentence for dangerous driving in 2006, after crashing his £300,000 Mercedes supercar head-on into another car at 90mph. The collision left a male victim in the other vehicle with every major bone in his body broken.

Whilst Brook will hope the critics do not have cause to extend their analogies with Hamed beyond the pair’s respective boxing abilities, the powerful right-hander has already experienced problems outside of the ring. Rumours surrounding his diet and a reported fondness for Wagon Wheels have cast a question mark over his commitment and fight preparation.

Eyebrows were also raised in some quarters when he broke away from the Ingle gym, switching his trainer to Dave Coldwell, the current head of boxing at Hayemaker Promotions. Despite winning the British Welterweight title under the guidance of Coldwell, Brook was floored in the opening round of a contest against relative journeyman Karl David, whom Brook recovered to knock out in the third round.

According to Brook, who is reluctant to dwell on his past, those difficulties are now behind him and he prefers

By CHRIS WARNE

“There are a lotof good fighters out there in the Welterweight division but I believe I’m the best right now”

WORKING THE JAB: Brook demolishes Krzysztof Bienias to win the WBO’s Inter-Continental title

40

to concentrate on his return to the Wincobank gym, which has coincided with tremendous form in the ring. Since Brendan Ingle’s son, Dominic, took over as Brook’s coach the young Welterweight has knocked out each of his four opponents, defending his British title three times in only six rounds of boxing.

One of those impressive performances came on away turf in Glasgow against Kevin McIntyre who had been stripped of the British Welterweight crown after pulling out injured of a previously scheduled fight

I’m number one contender at the moment so if they make the fight with Pacquiao it’s got to be done and I’d do him

with Brook. The matchup was billed as one of the biggest British fights of the year but Brook made light work of McIntyre, knocking him out in the first round and flooring the Scot three times in the process. When McIntyre was dispatched to the canvass for a third time the referee waved the fight off.

There is certainly no doubting Brook’s pedigree. The man, who has his boxing trunks embellished with ‘Special Kell’, won the prestigious Boxing Writers’ Club young boxer of the year award in 2009, pipping light-heavyweight Nathan Cleverly to the prize by one vote in the closest

ever ballot. Past winners of the prize include Brook’s childhood hero Naseem Hamed, as well as Barry McGuigan, Nigel Benn, Joe Calzaghe and Amir Khan.

Brook’s receipt of the Geoffrey Simpson award corresponded with a general consensus in boxing circles that he was beginning to fulfil the potential he first demonstrated from an early age when he won two Amateur Boxing Association of England titles. Under the tutelage of Brendan Ingle, Brook enjoyed a highly successful amateur career, which saw him compile a record of 31 wins from 36 fights.

With Dominic Ingle now in his corner, Brook is showing a growing maturity that should allow him to scale the upper-echelons of the sport. He trained on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day for his last fight with Bienias, a sign of his dedication and intent, and his trainer firmly believes

Brook is on the road to glory.“It’s in his hands. He’s certainly got the ability to win a world

title and compete at the highest level. It just all depends on how badly he wants it. If he continues to show the hunger

that we’ve seen over the past year and a bit, he’s got every

chance of equalling what Naz did and going on to achieve more,” said Ingle.

Former World Cruiserweight Champion and fellow Ingle trainee Johnny Nelson shares this view. Speaking on Sky Sports after Brook steamrollered over Krzysztof Bienias, Nelson said Brook regularly produced “magic” in the gym and was a “truly special talent” with “amazing potential.” A belief echoed by Naseem Hamed who has backed Brook to

CHAMPION: Brook poses with his British and Inter-Continental Welterweight belts

41

“

”

go on and win a World title. When asked about the manifold

temptations that naturally accompany sporting success at such a young age and which could inhibit his progression to boxing’s zenith, Brook admitted he found it hard to remain disciplined at times. “There’s food, there’s women, and there’s going out with your mates,” he said.

“It’s not easy but I know I’ve got what it takes to be in those super fights and, if I keep my mind on it, I know I will reach the top.” Brook’s countenance is calm, but a steely determination is unmistakable. Providing he can do what another British Welterweight Ricky Hatton failed to do over the last decade and limit his indulgences, there’s every chance he will accomplish his ambitions.

Although Brendan Ingle believes Brook “has a great chance of making a fortune”, the prizefighter appears unlikely to suffer delusions of grandeur. Indeed, what is perhaps most conspicuous about Brook is his down to earth persona – a trait that was patently absent from Naseem Hamed’s character.

The charismatic Brook, who harbours dreams of one day sharing a ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr at Madison Square Garden, is under no illusions of the sheer enormity of the task facing him. But the young Northerner is supremely confident he will achieve his lifelong goal of winning a World title.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work,” he said. “There are some big names in the Welterweight division at the moment; Mayweather, Pacquiao, Cotto, Mosley, Berto, but I’d fight any of them.

“I want to be World Champion by the end of the year so whoever they put in front of me now will get beat. In your mind you have got to think you are going to win every fight. If you’re a little bit negative you’ve got no chance in this game.

“There are a lot of good fighters out

there in the Welterweight division but I believe I’m the best right now. I’m 24 years old and when you’re at that age you have got no fear when you get in the ring. I’m used to winning so when I get in there I expect to win.”

On a fight with Manny Pacquiao, who Brook is theoretically entitled to a shot at if the Filipinio ace refuses to vacate his WBO title, Brook said with a grin: “I’m number one contender at the moment so if they make the fight with Pacquiao it’s got to be done and I’d do him.”

Brook, is at ease throughout our conversation and he speaks with a warm, heavy South Yorkshire accent. Relaxed and frequently sporting a wide smile, he sits comfortably atop the grimy apron of the boxing ring inside the Ingle gym.

As we chat it soon becomes clear that Brook’s grand declarations are not motivated by arrogance but by a genuine self-belief, an attribute which is certain to serve him well in a game where confidence can be so crucial.

“You have got to be confident and talented which I am. I know I have got the ability to do it at the highest level,” he said.

Not only is Brook blessed with irrefutable prowess, but in the Ingle gym he also possesses the perfect environment to hone his skills, and sparring sessions with stablemate and former WBC World Light Welterweight Champion Junior Witter have helped Brook attain his polished performances of late.

After the emphatic triumph over Bienias, Brook’s promoter Frank Warren was quick to stoke the idea of an encounter with Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan – a prospect Brook relishes. “Everyone asks me the same question. Will I be fighting Amir? And I always give the same answer, yeah. Amir’s a good fighter and it

would be a great British fight but he’s got a glass chin and I know I’d expose him.”

Unfortunately for Brook, money makes fights and at the moment he’s simply not a big enough draw. With Khan also unlikely to step-up to the Welterweight division any time soon, you’d be foolish to hold your breath in anticipation of the fight.

But if the pair do cross paths down the line, Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle predicts his fighter would be too powerful for Khan and envisages only one winner. “I’m not slagging Amir off but I’m not impressed with him. Sooner or later he’ll get found out and I think Kell would crush him,” he said.

For now, talk of mega fights with the likes of Khan and Pacquiao are premature, even if Brook does insist he’d ‘do over’ the latter. Brook’s next assignment will be against Michael Jennings, the man who tried but failed to defeat Miguel Cotto for the WBO’s World Welterweight title, which the Puerto Rican Cotto subsequently lost to Pacquiao.

A victory over Jennings would represent a tying up of the final loose end on the domestic scene and also provide an indication of how Brook stacks up in relation to the division’s protagonists.

Frank Warren is highly protective of his fighters and unlikely to risk damaging an asset as valuable as Brook by throwing him straight in at the deep end, but if Brook can dismantle Jennings quicker than the five rounds it took Cotto to do the job, it would signal he is primed to mount an assault on the world stage.

Tune into the fight on July 3 and you may just witness the birth of British boxing’s next superstar. If Brook can floor Jennings early doors, the impact is sure to generate tremors in the boxing world felt across the Atlantic.

“I want to be aWorld Champion by the end of the year so whoever they put in front of me now will get beat”

GUARD UP: The Steel City’s son poses after a media workout

43

Former WBO Cruiserweight World Champion Johnny Nelson once described the gym as “Brendan’s school of hard knocks. It smells

like it looks. Forty years of blood, sweat and tears hang heavy in the air.”

It’s certainly a far cry from the glitz and glamour of boxing Mecca, Las Vegas. The exterior of the building is in a state of decay. The wooden door marking the entrance is splintered and ecru paint peels from the brick walls.

In the street outside faint thuds of leather gloves on leather bags are audible. As you enter, walking through the first blue door, the thumping becomes louder. Opening the second red door and moving inside, the pounding is incessant and the stifling humidity strikes you, overwhelming your senses momentarily.

Dozens of youngsters launch their fists forward and weave in and out of punch bags that swing like pendulums. At the back of the hall two men wearing protective headgear occupy a boxing ring. They engage in combat, pummeling each other and delivering punishing blows. In a corner, to the left of the ring, a bald, brawny, middle-aged man is sat down barking instructions to the fighters. His elderly father stands just before him, tying the black string on a 12-year-old’s glove.

The father is Brendan Ingle and the son, Dominic. This is the world famous St Thomas Boys and Girls Club, the birthplace of some of Britain’s greatest

boxers. Three World Champions, nine European Champions, and a dozen or so British Champions have all emerged from the gym since its establishment in the 1960s.

Herol ‘Bomber’ Graham, ‘Prince’ Naseem Hahmed, Johnny Nelson and Junior Witter are the most famous and successful products to date. They are the sweetest fruits of the intense and tireless labour exerted within the walls of this former church hall.

Brendan Ingle founded the gym almost five decades ago after the vicar in the Wincobank area of Sheffield asked him to help sort out misbehaving local youths. The 69-year-old, who turns 70 this June, boxed professionally when he arrived in the Steel City from Dublin aged 18 and he saw the sport as the perfect remedy for troubled youths.

On one side of the gym, a dusty

white sign emblazoned with black letters outlines his philosophy: “Boxing can seriously damage your health but teaches self discipline and gets you fit. Smoking, drinking and drugs just damage your health.”

On the other side of the room a notice board is covered with newspaper clippings. Some articles highlight the gym’s triumphs and display pictures of boxers with beaming smiles and belts. The other cuttings, recounting tales of local gang violence, stabbings and shootings, have been pinned up in deliberate juxtaposition. The stories illustrate the two contrasting routes members at the gym can choose to follow.

Wincobank and the surrounding areas are plagued by crime and social deprivation. The gym is situated in the Sheffield Brightside constituency, which has the highest unemployment rate in Sheffield, and for the majority of kids trained by the Ingles boxing becomes an alternative to a life on the dole, behind bars, or worse.

“Some of these lads could easily have ended up dead if they continued down the path they were heading,” said Brendan. “You read in the papers that there are stabbings and shootings out there so if we’re keeping them away from gangs and that type of thing then we’re doing a good job.”

Boxing represents an escape route from relative poverty, and a genuine chance of achievement in life, for many of the boys and men who attend the

A Sweet Science

“Some of theselads could easily have ended up dead if they continued down the path they were heading”

FATHER AND SON: Brendan and Dominic Ingle coaching their fighters as a team

Brendan Ingle’s dilapidated den has fostered some of our brightest boxing talent. Chris Warne paid the gym a visit

BOXING

overwhelming sense of equality, which, as an Irish immigrant, stemmed from his experiences in a foreign country. Brendan embraces multiculturalism and his notion of equality manifests itself in every aspect of his treatment of the club’s members.

The stars he nurtures continue to train alongside the club’s kids, who benefit immeasurably from watching their idols and picking up tips from them.

Nelson was fortunate enough to train with his childhood hero Herol Graham, a man widely considered as one of the best British fighters never to win

a World title, and a man from whom Nelson learnt a great deal.

These days Brendan takes a backseat with regards to training fighters. He was awarded an MBE in 1998 for his services to boxing and community work and he prefers now to concentrate on the latter, working with youths from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Brendan remains a near permanent fixture in the gym but his training mantle has been passed on to his son, Dominic, who now hopes to emulate his father’s glory as a world-class coach of boxing.

Ingle gym. Those who denounce the sport as morally reprehensible fail to grasp this.

Brendan, who lives opposite the club, maintains that the discipline conferred by the sweet science ensures participants keep on the straight and narrow.

“If we can get kids in here, we can keep them off the streets, out of trouble, and give them something positive to focus on,” he said.

Johnny Nelson, considered by Brendan as his “biggest success”, was a self-confessed troubled teenager before the Irishman took him under his wing. “Nelson came in seven days a week, even though he had to catch two buses to get down here,” said Ingle.

“People used to say to me: ‘You’re wasting your time, he’s no good, he’s not going to end up anywhere.’ And I used to tell them: ‘He’ll finish up a world champion, just you wait and see.’”

Ingle’s prophecy came to fruition and Nelson reigned supreme as WBO Cruiserweight World Champion for almost six and a half years. Nelson’s assiduous nature and dedication combined with Ingle’s innovative training techniques saw ‘The Entertainer’ flourish in the ring.

The great emphasis Brendan placed on dance and footwork was initially derided in boxing circles, but his subsequent success soon silenced the critics.

The distinctive style he pioneered has proven consistently difficult for opponents to get to grips with over the years. His fighters’ low guard and ability to switch from an orthodox to a southpaw stance will often bamboozle their adversary.

Nelson also benefited from Ingle’s

BIGGEST SUCCESS: Johnny Nelson gets his gloves tied by trainer Brendan Ingle

45

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WATCH VIDEO CONTENT OF KELL BROOK IN ACTION

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TRAINER BRENDAN INGLE

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The makers say they will revolutionise your game. They redefine speed and defy logic. Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexandre Pato all helped to develop this technology. It is one of the latest in a long line of creations. We decided to have a closer look at Nike’s most innovative football boot to date

Nike Mercurial Vapour Superfly II

There is a pressure-activated stud in the forefoot of the Superfly that extends when you need it, giving you grip and acceleration

Nike Flywire technology has enabled a cable structure that has been re-engineered to provide a more dynamic fit without compromising durability

A lightweight perforated sock liner ensures an overall weight of just 185 grams but with strong support, while reducing stud pressure for comfort

£275

Revolutionary Footwork

SPORT TECHNOLOGY

Leisure Leagues is Europe’s longest-established and largest provider of five-a-side and six-a-side football leagues.

Based in Warwickshire, it’s supported by Gordon Brown and David Cameron, with strong links to councils, schools and sports centres around the continent. The company has now been running small-sided leagues for more than 30 years.

They have gone on some journey - from sports halls with wooden floors, painted goals on brick walls and sponge balls, to astroturf and proper equipment. There has also been a huge expansion in membership.

Alex Zielski, Leisure Leagues liason officer, said: “Since the formation of the organisation, there has been a substantial growth, with Leisure Leagues now operating around 300 leagues across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

“There has been a noticeable shift from 11-a-side to small-sided football on a national scale.

“It has been recognised that a number of players are either switching to five and six-a-side football, or playing this as well as either Saturday or Sunday league.

“It has been known that a number of professionals have played at Leisure Leagues. We cater for all standard of

players, and even the best can’t resist a game with us.”

‘Leisure Leagues’ became a description in the 1990s for small-sided leagues in the Midlands, before it expanded across the UK and Europe.

Their business plan is about putting all surplus profits into good causes, and at the same time running a profitable business out of amateur football. This makes it more of a community venture than a business to some extent. “Leisure Leagues strive

to support the local community and national charities,” Zielski said.

“We feel that it is important to provide something to the community, and make frequent donations to organisations such as Cancer Research UK, The National Blind Children’s Society and The Dogs Trust.”

To find out more about Leisure Leagues phone 0845 230 2340, visit their website at: www.leisureleagues.net or email: info@leisureleagues.net

The rapid growth of five and six-a-side football across Europe shows no signs of stopping. Mark Duell finds out

how it’s all founded on a successful business idea that ploughs some of its healthy profit back into the community

BUSINESS PROFILE 47

FAST GROWTH:The Leisure Leagues team now organise 300 leagues across the UK and Ireland

FIVE-A-SIDE: Amateur footballers compete at a sports centre in Leominster, Herefordshire

Where’s the Money Gone?The Sportsman Investigation

More than £9billion of public money is being fed into the London 2012 Olympic Games. Millions of sports fans are due to descend on the capital in two years time - bringing a welcome boost to the economy and generating millions in ticket sales and merchandise. With legacy being the buzz word of the London Games, we find out what is happening to the billions of pounds of private sponsorship and merchandising costs

OLYMPICS 2012

Where’s the Money Gone?The Sportsman Investigation

STRATFORD: The Olympic Stadium is costing the taxpayer a huge £537million

49

Nestled 14 floors up in the City’s proverbial ivory tower a close-knit team of shrewd businessmen, Olympians and advisers

gaze over their expanding empire. Looking North East from the reflective metallic walls and smooth ceramic floors of Canary Wharf tower, double gold medallist Lord Sebastian Coe shakes the hand of Paul Deighton, the CEO of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited (LOCOG).

They’ve got reason to be happy. The venues are nearing completion, public opinion ratings are soaring and the International Olympic Committee has awarded London a nine-and-a-half out of ten rating for the host’s progress.

Yet three times over budget with a colossal cost to the public purse, the London 2012 Olympic Games resembles a financial Pandora’s Box.

When the IOC awarded Coe’s team the Games six years ago in Singapore the estimated cost was put at a £3billion. It now stands at £9.325billion.

Owing to the global recession and a major shortfall in sponsorship, only £900million of a £2billion contingency fund remains - two full years before the Games.

Both Blair and Brown’s governments were forced to raid the National Lottery of £2billion, take £150 off each working person in the country, and hand Londoners an additional

£1.175billion tax bill to pay for the Games.

The taxpayers’ £9billion is funding the building of the venues, security and transport infrastructure - security alone will cost £838million. It is administered and overseen by Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and a team of public workers at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), who take

sanctuary alongside Coe’s team in Canary Wharf tower.

LOCOG – the privately-funded company headed by Lord Coe and Paul Deighton – are tasked with the running of the Games.

Coe’s team are also responsible for generating and spending £2billion through lucrative sponsorship, merchandising and ticket sales. This was envisaged to pay for the Olympic Village, Media Centre, the opening ceremony and 17 days of Olympic and 12 days of Paralympic action.

Cast your mind back to 2004 and Singapore, where one word was repeated again and again. It was even uttered from the mouths of David Beckham, Kelly Holmes and Tony Blair. Legacy.

That was the plan, the dream. But the reality is very different.

When analysed it is clear that the public purse is paying for the venues and infrastructure. It’s the public purse that will pay for a radical new transport system. It’s the public purse that paid out to the tune of £5million per gold medal won at Beijing 2008.

The Sportsman has concluded through detailed analysis of LOCOG’s financial accounts that it seems the Games will not be for the good of sport or to the taxpayer.

By 2009, five years after LOCOG’s inception, the company failed to attract enough private sponsorship to pay for the Olympic Village and Media Centre. The contingency had to be raided

THE VIEW: What Lord Coe and his team can see from Canary Wharf Tower

50

£9.325bn

£2bn

£90k

The total taxpayer contribution

Target amount of private investment

The pay rise given to Lord Coe, LOCOG chair, taking his 2009 pay to £375,000

By ROBERT GOLLEDGE

In contrast the country could pay up to £838million for security costs.

And sports based outside the London area are suffering too. Last month saw both Welsh and Scottish nationalists claim their grassroots sports clubs had missed out on £30million respectively over five years due to Lottery funds being rerouted to the Olympic Games.

Similarly questionable is the lasting legacy of the £1.3billion spent on the Olympic venues.

It’s looking increasingly inevitable that the £537million Olympic Stadium will have to be rented or sold to West Ham United – rather than become a national centre of athletics as originally envisaged.

The longevity of the specially-built Basketball Arena on the Stratford site is also questionable. The organising committee decided the sport would be housed in a purpose-built £90million arena despite suitable venues including Wembley Arena, the ExCeL centre, Earls Court and the 02 Arena. This decision looks like an unaffordable luxury, especially in the middle of a recession.

Meanwhile the British Olympic

to rescue the project at a cost to the public purse of £785million.

As a result there is now very little headroom for further setbacks as the contingency is running ominously low, prompting auditors to warn the ODA that it may have to be bailed out with further government aide.

LOCOG said that with the Media Centre and Village becoming publically-owned, taxpayers would see a significant financial return when the property is sold following the Games. As it stands the land value has fallen by £150million in a year and the property market in the area is ailing.

Questions also remain on whether LOCOG will even turn around a profit for the Games.

For the last two years the company has operated on a deficit – even though it has attracted £500million from national corporate sponsors and its key executives have been taking out a sizeable sum in salaries and bonuses.

In 2008 CEO Paul Deighton was paid £557,440 in base salary and fees. In 2009 his package was £453,440 with over £700,000 worth of deferred bonuses due to him. He is eligible for an annual bonus of 75% of his salary for each year until 2012.

Meaning after the completion of the Games, Deighton could have pocketed around £5million.

Despite the economic downturn, the company’s chair Lord Coe saw his pay packet rise from £285,000 in 2008 to £375,000 in 2009. He is eligible for bonuses of up to 10% of his salary each year.

To put these pay packets in perspective, David Higgins, Chief Executive of the ODA, which is tasked with building the venues and infrastructure, is in charge of £9billon of public funds (as opposed to Deighton’s £2billion), and earns around £200,000 a year.

With the taxpayer funding the Games’ infrastructure and venues, they can be forgiven for feeling aggrieved when Coe’s private LOCOG company is taking such a large slice of the millions they will attract from sponsorship, merchandise and ticket sales. The taxpayer is likely to see little if any of these millions whilst paying for the Olmpics to go ahead.

Of the billions invested in the Games only £290million has been earmarked for elite and grassroots sports. Paralympic investment will be £66million.

£400,000The amount spent on the much-ridiculed London 2012 OlympicGames official logo

£5m

£557,440

Total amount LOCOG CEO Paul Deighton (right) could receive including bonuses and base salary

Paul Deighton’s 2009 salary. He is entitled to an annual bonus of 75% this. He currently has around £700,000 in deffered bonus payments owed to him

What will be the Games’ legacy? Spending on infrastructure and security dwarfs that of sport

£1.175bnof extra tax contribution made to the Games by London residents

51

teams have already had £50million slashed from their 2008 budgets in the run up to the 2012 Games, and the cash-strapped government is certain to target the Olympic’s generous coffers when seeking ways to boost the nation’s dire finances. Meanwhile the British Olympic teams have already had £50million slashed from their 2008 budgets in the run up to the 2012 Games.

The pertinent question is: how is it justifiable that a private company, paying private sector wages, administers and absorbs financial gain from the Games whilst the taxpayer foots the £9billion bill?

Yes, the Games has brought an unprecedented level of investment to East London with a welcome boost to the construction industry and employment sector.

But with the financing for infrastructure dwarfing the spending on elite and grassroots sport, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the Games’ legacy will match the extravagant promises made when we won the bid in a glow of national ecstasy back in 2005.

FAREWELL: Vainikolo thanks fans at Odsal Stadium after his final appearance for the Bradford Bulls in 2007

RUGBY UNION

FROM GANGS TO GLOUCESTER

Rugby league icon to overnight union success. This is only a fraction of the Lesley Vainikolo story. Little is made of the Tongan’s path as a teenage gang member and his ambition to help troubled youngsters when his playing days end

Protection is something you imagine Lesley Vainikolo could probably manage without. Super League clubs could have done with some during his 149-try tenure at Bradford Bulls, a record achieved in just 152 games. As could Leeds

Carnegie on the advent of his switch to union, Vainikolo ran in five tries on debut for Gloucester away to the Premiership newcomers back in 2007.

Standing at over six foot and carrying close to 18 stone, the Tongan-born winger powered himself to cult hero status among the Odsal fans during his five years at Bradford, earning a place in the Bulls’ Team of the Century.

Just nine games and nine tries into his professional rugby union career, he was drafted into Brian Ashton’s England squad, playing in every game of the 2008 Six Nations Championship.

The 31-year-old powerhouse, dubbed ‘the Volcano’ during a remarkable rugby league career, was not always a figure of such invincibility.

Having moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of six, a teenage Vainikolo found himself caught up in a

gang culture that had persisted in the Mangere district of southern Auckland for almost two decades.

Navigating his way through this volatile environment, the young Tongan relied heavily on the guardianship of his uncles.

“When I was young I used to be one of a gang, I was blessed that most of the leaders of the gang were my uncles. So I was pretty lucky to have security,” Vainikolo

recalls. “Where I lived in Auckland there was a cop killed by islanders five doors down from me.

“There were crips and bloods [rival criminal gangs originating in America] back in the late seventies and early eighties, through to the nineties. It was the Tongans and Samoans, they hated each other. It was real bad.”

Looking back, Vainikolo concedes losing his way amid the ongoing clash of Polynesians that engulfed him growing up: “I got in trouble when I was younger, just from fighting.” But he warns of far worse than just fisticuffs and scuffles occurring on the streets of Auckland today: “There’s stabbings and drive-bys, you name it. It’s probably because the kids don’t have a role model.”

It is on this issue that Vainikolo is determined to make a difference once his playing days are over. “I’ll probably go back to New Zealand and aim to help these

kids. Just to keep myself out there speaking to people.

“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do because I experienced being in gangs when I was young. These kids get into a lot of trouble and they are often kids who you know could go further. You need to sit down and reach out to them. It’s who you hang about with.

“I see a lot of guys that I grew up with and they

“Where I lived in Auckland there was a cop killed by islanders five doors down from me”

55

By TIM LAMDEN

vv

“When you do everything in one sport, you like to challenge yourself in a different sport”

could be with me, or they could be in France, they could be the best players in the world.”

It is the tragedy of wasted talent that seems to bother Vainikolo most. But whilst those he knocked about with in Auckland back in the ‘90s may not have achieved half the success their talents portended, his is a story of great promise duly fulfilled.

Hitting almost 16 stone by the age of 15, Vainikolo demonstrated his prowess on the rugby league field from an early age, with powerful displays for Auckland’s De La Salle College. He was also astonishingly quick, running the

100 metres in 10.6 seconds to qualify for the 1998 World Junior Athletics Championships, beating future All Blacks winger Doug Howlett along the way. Gifted with both speed and power in abundance, the youngster was torn between athletics and rugby league.

Fittingly, in a remarkable twist of fate, it was a rugby league icon who first inspired a young Vainikolo to take up the game that helped make the decision which would ultimately propel a 17-year-old Tongan from Auckland into rugby

league’s history books.

“I had to choose out of athletics or rugby league,” says Vainikolo. “And then my idol came down, his name was Mal Meninga. He was coaching Canberra Raiders and he came and visited me at home in ’97 and said he wanted me to come over and play for him.”

Without hesitation, Vainikolo followed the Kangaroos goal-kicking great to Australia and in his first season was named Raiders’ Rookie of the Year. The same season he was picked for New Zealand, scoring an eventual 14 tries in 12 appearances for The Kiwis, including nine tries in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.

In 2002, he left the Raiders for Super League and the

Bradford Bulls, a move which would see him become arguably the deadliest finisher in Super League history.

After a short period of adjustment to the British game, Vainikolo emerged with the Super League try-scoring record in 2004, managing 36 tries in only 26 appearances,

THE VOLCANOTHROUGH THE YEARS

Having turned 31 this May, we look back on a momentous decade for Lesley Vainikolo

NOVEMBER 2000: Vainikolo scores one of a hat-trick of tries for New Zealand against Wales on the way to the final of the Rugby League World Cup

OCTOBER 2005: The euphoria is visible as Vainikolo crosses for Bradford’s winning try against Leeds Rhinos in the 2005 Super League Grand Final

FEBRUARY 2008: Vainikolo apprehends Shane Williams with Gloucester teammate Iain Balshaw during his England debut against Wales in the 2008 Six Nations

JANUARY 2010: Vainikolo celebrates scoring his 20th club try for Gloucester in their Heineken Cup pool match at home to Biarritz

TRY TIME: Vainikolocelebrates an England try with Matthew Tait

56

“If I can get one out of 50 kids off the street then I’ll be happy”

including five hat-tricks.In 2007, at the age of 28, Vainikolo crossed codes and

joined Guinness Premiership side Gloucester on a three-year deal.

“When you do everything in one sport, you like to challenge yourself in a different sport,” he says. “I looked at rugby union as an opportunity for me to open another chapter in my book. Gloucester were really keen for me to come and try it and I did. I made the right choice and I’ve never looked back since.”

Tussling at the top of the try-scoring list for much of his debut season in the Premiership, it was hardly surprising when England came knocking after only nine outings for his new West Country side.

Vainikolo views proudly what was an instantaneous yet short-lived international dalliance. “The challenge is to play different sports to the highest standard and I made it. It was an honour to pull on that white jersey.”

With only five caps to his name, Vainikolo’s ambition appears resolute when the prospect of further appearances is raised.

“I’m trying to get back in that England team, that’s my biggest goal. But at the moment, I’m just concentrating on Gloucester and performing week-in, week-out. I think that

will be the best for me, my performances must do all the talking.”In the 13 years since Lesley Vainikolo signed his first professional rugby contract, it is certainly his work on the field of play that has spoken for him. The big kid from the

hard streets of southern Auckland became master of his innate abilities and gained worldwide acclaim along the way.

Asked whether it is the same kind of success he hopes to bring to the troubled youngsters on the streets of Auckland today, the man known affectionately as Big Les is somewhat philosophical.

“I want to help them in whatever they want to do. They could be an art or English teacher. Or a maths or sports teacher. Anything, to get them off the street and get them on the right road. If I can get one out of 50 kids off the street then I’ll be happy.

“I just want to let them know that the people around you, they may say they are your friends, but will they be there at the end for you? If you’re in trouble, will they be there? Because I experienced it. When I got into trouble, where were all my friends?”

Wise words and an earnest cause. Two decades have elapsed since an Australian hero of the oval ball, himself a descendent of Polynesians, introduced the world to Lesley Vainikolo.

In the next ten years, will the Tongan idol emulate Meninga and pass on the baton to Auckland’s next great rugby son? If you take his word for it, it won’t be anytime soon. “I think I’ve got at least another five years in me - you haven’t seen nothing yet.”

THE FLYING TONGAN: Vainikolo dives over the Kingsholm try line

57

“I think I’ve got at least another five years in me - you haven’t seen nothing yet”

ON THE CHARGE: Vainikolo offloads to Mike Tindall for Gloucester in a Premiership clash with Northampton

Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk to watch five of the best Vainikolo moments from the past ten years

Often the forgotten brother of South Africa, Durban is a city that epitomises the country’s 21st century credentials.

A walk along the harbour will reveal the yachts of Roman Abromovich, Arcelor Mittal and the Qatari royal

family.If you’re staying

for several days check into The Westville Hotel. It’s been around since 1800 and brings personal service to an all new level with your own concierge as standard.

The in-house restaurant and

cocktail bar are also a delight.

Joburg needs no introduction. The city will play host to the World Cup

final and will set one of the most stunning scenes in the tournament’s history. Berlin it ain’t.

The Sportsman reader should try the La Colombe restaurant. Head chef Luke Dale-Roberts fuses classic French cuisine with tradition east-Asian elements with flair and care. It is at the higher end of the price range but the exuberance is worth it.

With this summer’s FIFA World Cup heading to Africa for the first time, The Sportsman sent Robert Golledge to sample the beaches of Durban and the fine wines of Cape Town

DURBAN

JOHANNESBURG

CAPE TOWN

The gushing turquoise waves of the Atlantic Ocean crash against the idyllic shores of the Western Cape.

From Table Mountain to the Cape Peninsula you find yourself absorbed into the dramatic backdrop of the the Mother City.

If you want to make the most of this retreat try the luxurious

Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa where earth, sea and sky meet to provide total relaxation.

And the wine? My advice: drink them all. After a couple of hours in this sun-drenched city you simply won’t give a toss as any of the region’s marvellous stock will compliment the blazing orange sunset.

59

DESTINATION AFRICA: (clockwise from bottom) Downtown Johannesburg, Durban beach, Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, zebra in the African sun, the view from the Twelve Apostle Hotel & Spa in Cape Town

WORLD CUP HOLIDAYS

SOUTH AFRICA

TRAVEL

SCOTT THE STEELER

Scott Basiuk seems a fine chap. But the Canadian is not the type of person you would like to meet in a dark alley, especially after he’s just lost

an ice-hockey match. The 6’2” Shef-field Steelers defenceman weighs more than 15 stone and is well-known for his physical approach on the rink. Although the Elite Ice Hockey League crowds love a good fight, Basiuk is still cautious when it comes to dropping his stick and laying into somebody.

“You never really enjoy the fights,” he said, sipping a pint of Heineken in The Cavendish pub on Sheffield’s West Street. “I’m a bigger guy than most players so I’m expected to play physically. I’ll do it but it’s not something I get excited about. It’s a little scary - you’re pretty much trying to punch a guy in the face until he’s not moving. That’s the basic rules of the fight.

“I tore my shoulder fighting last year, so that’s probably something I won’t do now because I can’t afford to get hurt again. I like hitting, shooting and playing strong - and I’m good at it thanks to my size. It excites me and the crowd too. There are usually more fights at the start of the season as you’re establishing yourself as a player. If you’re a pushover in the first few games against the same team, people are going to be more physical against you. You need to let them know early on that you’re not the guy to mess with.”

Basiuk started his career in New York at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before moving up to the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) for South Carolina and later Portland in the American Hockey League (AHL). He then went back to the ECHL to play for Dayton, Bakersfield and Utah. The AHL and ECHL are the next levels below the National Hockey League (NHL) in North America, which has a similar structure to the English Football League.

The 29-year-old decided to head for Europe in order to speed up his career progress. He said: “I finished college aged 24 and I knew if I didn’t

play well every night I wouldn’t get noticed, as the top teams would rather take a younger guy than me. The ECHL is pretty rough. You get the young guys that play hard every night. After you’ve played in it for a couple of years and you don’t move up anymore, you realise it’s time to change. You used to be able to make more money in the UK when the pound was nice against the dollar, but over the last few years the poor exchange rate has meant a 30 to 40 per cent pay cut.”

“At 26, I knew I probably wouldn’t get called up full-time in the US, so I decided to see what Europe could offer me. The UK’s league doesn’t pay as well as mainland Europe but it’s a way of getting your foot in the door. Play well here and you can get a job in Europe. It’s a good league and it’s got better every year that I’ve been here. My team takes care of my car, apartment, furniture and insurance - so I don’t have to bring or buy any of that stuff.”

Basiuk landed at Manchester Phoenix before moving to the Steelers in 2008. He is now studying for an MBA at The University of Sheffield - part of a partnership that gives two of the Steelers’ players scholarships every season. “It’s a good draw for the Steelers to get players in who are willing to take a bit of a pay cut,” he said. “That’s what I’m doing. I didn’t go to mainland Europe because I’d rather get the MBA here. You never know how long you’re going to be playing for - I’ve already had a four-month injury this season.”

It’s clear that his MBA has made Basiuk think more about the business side of ice hockey and why it is less popular in the UK than across the pond. He said: “Football is ingrained in

society here and you don’t really have ice outside. Ice hockey is something you just can’t play outside here - but in Canada you can play outside for four months every year. That’s the reason for ice hockey being less popular in the UK – it’s the society, the weather and what you’ve always done.

“The crowds here like the action, the hitting, the intensity. But it would be nice to get more younger fans and families along to games, because it is a good family environment. We are always talking about what we can do to bring in more fans. It’s tough. Nottingham Panthers seem to have got it right and draw lots of people, but you can’t take their business model to Hull because they don’t have the money, arena, people or history. One successful business model can’t necessarily be copied everywhere. You need to take each market on its own.”

The Elite Ice Hockey League only has eight teams - Sheffield, Nottingham, Coventry, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Belfast and Hull, and the highest paid player in the league is on an annual salary of only £50,000. Basiuk argued that Edinburgh, currently in financial trouble, must take more risks in order to improve crowds at their games. He believes fans will only come if their side increases spending on big players. “Edinburgh don’t put any money into it,” he said. “They don’t want to spend money as they don’t want to lose money, but you have to spend money to have a good team.”

The Steelers play their home games at the Sheffield Arena, which costs around £10,000 a game to hire out. It’s not cheap and the team only breaks even with average crowds of around 3,500 paying customers. “For Sheffield, it comes down to the owner [Bob Phillips] spending money, which he doesn’t really want to do sometimes,” Basiuk said. “He expects a lot from us, and wonders why we’re not drawing in crowds and not playing in a good style - but it costs money to bring exciting players in. You’ve got to be willing to spend money on it and in the long run it will be more popular.”

Mark Duell speaks to ice hockey star Scott Basiuk at the end of a long, hard season for Sheffield

“You’re pretty much trying to punch a guy until he’s not moving”

ICE HOCKEY

Basiuk clearly enjoys playing ice hockey, and in the 10 years before this season racked up 50 goals in 428 appearances. Not bad for a defenceman. But now he is looking at what the future holds - and playing next season is seeming ever more unlikely. “It’s getting to the point with my injury and the way the pound has gone that you start to look at life after ice hockey,” he said. “That’s a little sad - but I still feel in shape and like to play. It’s just whether you can afford to play. I’ve got a wife and bills to pay back home and for the first time I’m wondering if I want to carry on playing.”

Basiuk worked as an assistant coach at Manchester Phoenix before leaving to enjoy an immensely successful season with the Steelers in 2008-2009, when they won the league and play-off titles under coach Dave Matsos. In fact, it is the coaching side of things that might tempt him back into the game. As for being a media pundit, he was quick to rubbish that idea. He said: “I see these former hockey players on ESPN in America and I just think, ‘Oh my God, shut up!’ Especially goaltenders. They sit in the net, don’t actually play the game and drive me crazy when they are commentating.”

Something else that concerns Basuik is the effect playing is having on his body. “By the third game in four days you’re tired and by the fourth game you’re exhausted,” he said. “After a recent run I could barely walk as you’re so tired from all the games and training. But when the next game comes around you feel great again.

“It’s different to football in that you play for a minute, then get a break, then go back on. The pressure is on your legs, arms and shoulders taking the hits on the boards.”

Despite the injuries and worn-out joints, it would probably still be a bad decision for anyone to challenge him to a game of fisticuffs anytime soon.

FACTFILEName: Scott BasiukBirthplace: Saskatchewan, CanadaDate of Birth: 4 August 1980Lives: Gleadless, SheffieldTeam: Sheffield SteelersPosition: DefencemanWeight: 215 lbs Height: 6’2”

61

MY FUNNIEST MOMENT

WELL-TRAVELLED: Basiuk has played ice-hockey across North America and the UK. He was at Manchester before joining Sheffield

Go online to: www.thesportsman.co.uk to see what happened when Basiuk punched another player and ended up knocking out a referee

The Abs Rules

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Every month we’ll exhibit striking, stylish and sophisticated attire from one premier designer. This month we highlight a selection of truly trenchant garments, brought to us courtesy of world class golfer and fashion icon Ian Poulter. A contemporary feel combines with Poulter’s characteristic flamboyance to produce a range that many club golfers will naturally come to consider essential etiquette

63 FASHION

When I met with Alan Lee in early April the British flat season had only just commenced with an inaugural meet in Doncaster around a week before our rendezvous. Yet even then, the country’s

racing press had already decided on Epsom Downs’ Derby winner and the season’s ultimate victor.

Aidan O’Brien-trained St Nicholas Abbey would accept in his stride the mantle of successor to last season’s all-conquering Sea The Stars, now a colt of legend from John Oxx’s Currabeg stables. Johnny Murtagh would emulate Michael Kinane’s achievements in the previous season and ride St Nicholas Abbey to victory, first in the 2000 Guineas and then in the Derby, before clinching all manner of other titles. This was the narrative racing’s newspapermen had written for St Nicholas Abbey. It was a done deal.

Fast-forward a month and the reality looked quite

different. St Nicholas Abbey never looked in the race at the first Classic of the year, finishing a sluggish sixth in the 2000 Guineas on the opening day of May. It was the 33-1 shot Mafki that claimed the flat season’s first bragging rights with an impressive ride from Frenchman Christophe Lemaire. “Maybe he can win all the best races, Royal Ascot, the Epsom Derby, we have to go race by race,” said the winning jockey in the aftermath. How quickly predictions and expectations in racing can change.

At our meeting in April, Alan Lee had warned against the hyperbole and

First PastThe Post

Epsom Downs will play host next month to a racing spectacle revered worldwide. The Investec Derby returns in June for its annual dose of historic equine drama. To mark this year’s race, Tim Lamden spoke to senior racing journalist Alan Lee about St Nicholas Abbey, the Epsom course and the decisive month of May

CHAMPION: Sea The Stars races to victory in last year’s 2000 Guineas

CHALLENGING TERRAIN: Horses tackle the difficult contours at the 2008 Epsom Derby

HORSE RACING

65

expectancy that had swamped St Nicholas Abbey.“By the time your piece comes out St Nicholas Abbey

might have been blown out of the water in the 2000 Guineas and we’ll be looking at a load of different horses,” said The Times’ chief racing correspondent in a moment of prophecy. “I can’t emphasise enough how many sparkling two-year-olds, once they turn three, are big disappointments and you’ll normally know the first time they run as a three-year-old.”

There was certainly no doubting St Nicholas Abbey’s ability as a two-year-old. Progeny of Ballydoyle’s king stallion, Montjeu, sire of two previous Derby winners, the colt powered to victory in the Racing Post Trophy last October and immediately collected odds of 3-1 for a win at this season’s Derby.

But Alan Lee was weary of jumping to such immediate conclusions. “The thing about flat racing which separates it from jump racing is that the Classics are for three-year-old horses that may only have run once or twice as two-year-olds, some have never run at all as two-year-olds. So you’re clutching at small pieces of form and you’re clutching at pedigrees.

“Over jumps, you see form develop over a period of years. So St Nicholas Abbey might be a world beater or it might be that he hasn’t ‘trained on’, he hasn’t developed from two to three. There’s also the question of stamina. He’s bred to stay the mile and a half of the Derby but there are many horses that don’t.”

It is the deviating shape of the Derby track at Epsom racecourse that Lee believes provides one of the most demanding flat races in the world.

“The first Derby I covered, I walked the Derby course

at Epsom the day before the race and I couldn’t believe, because it’s not clear on TV or even when you’re at the course, that the first half mile is steeply uphill. You see horses that are basically knackered and out of the race by the time they get there, there are some who just don’t handle it.

“Then you turn steadily left-handed and you come downhill at a rate of knots and then there’s a sharp turn at the bottom to come uphill again. That’s where the agility of a racehorse, as well as its stamina really counts. Racecourses are not built like that anywhere else.”

The physical demands of a Derby winner are no doubt

great but then so too are the rewards. Described by Benjamin Disraeli as the “Blue Riband of the turf”, the Derby, first run in 1780, is considered by many to be the greatest flat race in the world. Undisputedly the most prestigious of the country’s five Classics, it is Britain’s richest horse race, with winnings of £1.25 million.

The Derby will run for the 231st time on June 5, a date that will persist regardless of Alan Lee’s objections.

“I think if you started now with a blank sheet of paper you wouldn’t be running your greatest race in the first week of June,” said Lee.

“It’s the highlight of an eight month flat season and it comes after two months. Normally you would have your highlight as a climax at the end. But it’s never going to be shifted now, that’s where it’s always been historically and that’s where it will stay.”

Looking back on the Derby’s illustrious history it hasn’t been afraid of change, as Lee pointed out.

“What is fascinating about the Derby is how it has evolved on a Saturday, because it always used to be on a Wednesday. There was a great outpouring from traditionalists who were horrified when it was moved to Saturdays.

“But the fact is, on the last few Wednesdays nobody went, it was dire, because the world’s moved on, people don’t just take days off in the middle of the week.

“It’s now been built back up so that on the Saturday Epsom Downs is absolutely covered. The infield as you call it, there are 100,000 people there. It is an extraordinary sight. The Derby has been reborn.”

Sitting across a table in Cheltenham’s Hotel du Vin, I asked Lee if he had a tip for the hordes that will coat Epsom’s infield come June.

“You couldn’t, you just couldn’t at this point. It would be mad to even contemplate it,” he said.

A month later, after the 2000 Guineas, the sound of heads being scratched at Newmarket was deafening, and not exclusively from the O’Brien camp.

St Nicholas Abbey, regardless of Lee’s rational scepticism, was flat racing’s hottest prospect, only to be usurped in his biggest race to date by five horses deemed incapable in comparison. Of course, there’s nothing to say that he can’t still go on to win the Derby and become the great horse so many have predicted.

But his fate is certainly more uncertain now - as is the outcome of next month’s Derby.

“To the real aficionados of flat racing, the beauty of it is that it unravels so late in the day,” said Lee. “You have this month of May where everything becomes clear, and in those few weeks you approach the day with everything crystallising before you.

“There is so little to go on, but it becomes clear during May because all the horses will come out and run. It’s almost unheard of for a three-year-old to go to the Derby without a run that season.”

So as the month of May unwinds so too does the destiny of this year’s Investec Derby. But for all the forecasts and predictions, no one can ever be certain in this game.

“There’s a great deal of guessing. Guessing and hunches in flat racing,” said Lee.

The Post “St Nicholas Abbey might be a world beater or it might be that he hasn’t ‘trained on’”

“Racecourses are not built like that anywhere else”

“There is so little to go on, but it becomes clear during May because all the horses will come out and run”

GREAT PROMISE: St Nicholas Abbeypulls away in the Racing Post Trophy last year

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The Sportsman

The Sportsman

The Sportsman

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

69

He travels around some of the most glamourous destinations in Europe driving fast and very expensive cars for a living, but Jon Lancaster is not the playboy stereotype with the million pound yacht and apartment in Monte Carlo.

The Leeds based 21-year-old has his feet firmly on the ground.

He’s currently competing in the World Series by Renault (WSR) Formula 3.5, which is just one step below his target of Formula One and the chance to compete against Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Though on the face of it British motorsport looks blessed with a strong stable of talent, Lancaster belives not enough is being done to help young drivers up the ladder.

“There’s not enough support for drivers,” he said. “In

France they have an organisation that helps you raise money and get backing and help with training. We don’t really have anything like that.”

The cost of competing has increased to such an extent that two seasons ago F1 drivers discussed taking industrial action in protest at the rocketing cost of the super licence they must buy in order to race.

The FIA responded by lowering the fee but it is still estimated that this season the total cost to a driver including specialist insurance and the licence could exceed £200,000.

It is not just at the top level where the cost of competing is cause for consternation.

“It costs the most money for the licence in England - it costs £900. It’s ridiculous,” Lancaster said.

By COLIN JAMES

The last two Formula One world champions are both English and now they are team-mates. But according to Jon Lancaster, one of England’s top young drivers, money is as big a factor as talent in the race to the top

REVVING UP: Jon Lancaster accelerates at MotorLand, Aragon

MOTORSPORT

a career out of his hobby.In 2006 after much success in

karting he got his chance to move into single-seat formulae racing.

Starting with a couple of races at Silverstone in Formula Ford he moved on to the Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series.

“It was quite difficult to adjust from going 70mph low down to a big car which obviously isn’t as nimble and light,” he said.

“I was up against drivers three years older than me and much more experienced. We did well though and we got a few podiums.”

It is telling that Lancaster continually attributes success to the teams he is part of, in particular the father-son team that has stayed together.

The year 2007 was his most successful season to date. Competing in the Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0 Championship, he won five races and finished as runner-up.

Lancaster’s talent has not gone unnoticed and the British Racing Driver’s Club (BRDC) honoured him as a ‘Rising Star’, a title previously awarded to Lewis Hamilton.

“It gets you into places like the Grand Prix where you can meet people,” he explained.

“Sadly they don’t give you a cheque which would be nice, but it’s good recognition really - it’s all about the honour.”

Lancaster spent the 2008 season in the Formula 3 Euroseries where he won superbly at Nurburgring.

Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Sebastian Vettel all excelled in the division before moving on.

In 2009 Lancaster made the last logical step below F1 by joining WSR with Comtec Racing.

And he won a race in his debut season at that level taking the checkered flag in Portugal.

After a difficult winter in which

he was let down by several teams, he signed with Fortec Motorsport in Northamptonshire.

He backed himself to take the drivers’ title but the season hasn’t started as he hoped due to technical problems and what he claims is sheer misfortune.

“It’s a lot of bad luck. People use luck as an excuse but unfortuntately qualifying has been a problem,” he said.

“Spa was a track I didn’t know. It was wet and I cut the chicane three times but didn’t gain any position. They said I’d gained time and Greg Mansell, son of Nigel, protested and he won the appeal.”

It would really take something special for Lancaster to recover from this point but he remains optimistic.

“It’s quite a busy lifestyIe. I have to attend lunches, meetings, dinners - I have a charity auction coming up,” he said.

“It’s not quite the F1 glitz and glamour everyone sees. We’re always looking for sponsors and attending meetings and talking to people - that’s how you get along.”

Other sportsmen would complain at having to fulfil such commitments off the field or out of the ring but Lancaster seems happy enough to do it if it will help his career.

“You do what you have to to get to the top and in this game it really is about who you know, so the more people you speak to the better,” he said.

Lancaster is determined to reach F1, but should he miss out, his well-grounded attitude will see him right.

70

“I have seen some good drivers who don’t make it purely for money reasons. You need money if you’re not rich. I’m not rich but I have some good sponsors, even though we’re always looking for more.”

The cost of motorsport is prohibitive to many people but others have an easy ride. A young man backed by wealthy parents can get a long way before his talent is truely tested.

“It’s all about money and who you know. There’s lots of people in motorsport who just have the money to get in there and there’s a few people who get there on ability rather than who they know. I like to include myself in that,” said Lancaster.

His passion for racing was sparked when he was given a go-kart as a Christmas present at the age of nine.

Dad Charles, a karting enthusiast, took him to the track at Wombwell, Barnsley, and that is where Jon first got behind the wheel.

“It went really well. As we progressed into races we started doing alright and it went from there,” he said.

“It was just me and my dad going karting driving round in a Transit van. When you’re starting you have no team behind you.”

As he entered an ever increasing number of races Lancaster’s school studies started to take a back seat.

“When you’re 14 you don’t have much of a school life. I was doing a maximum of four-day weeks or three usually,” he said.

“I often had to stay on at night until five to catch up. You have to make the decision: your education or your karting.”

Lancaster had no trouble convincing his father that it was the right decision to focus on his driving rather than his education.

“My dad is my manager really so he backed me. He takes care of everything in a similar way to Lewis Hamilton and his dad, but we haven’t fallen out like them” he joked.

It was when he was picked up by Milan’s Birel Motorsport, one of the biggest teams in karting, that Lancaster really started to believe he could make

“Some good drivers don’t make it purely for money reasons”

PRIZE: Lancaster (right) celebrates third place at Aragon

“It’s not quite the F1 glitz and glamour”

71

F1: The Season So FarThe 2010 season was eagerly anticipated by both fans and competitors. It promised three new teams, five new drivers, a raft of new rules and the return of a legend

Jon Lancaster Formula 3.5 driver

“This is a good season. Red Bull have made a couple of mistakes but they have definitely got something in their cars that’s very quick.

Jenson has done fantastically. It’s going to be a very close year but I could see Vettel and Webber running away with it if they drive well.”

Bahrain, March 14

Not the start everyone hoped for. After the race there were complaints from spectators and drivers that overtaking was too difficult.

Michael Schumacher managed sixth on his return but it was his old team Ferrari who were celebrating after Vettel blew a spark plug gifting Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa a 1-2. Lewis Hamilton took third.

Australia, March 28

A thriller. Rain before the race meant that everyone started on intermediate tyres.

Going into the first corner Button spun Alonso who barged Schumacher off the track.

The safety car had to come on after Kamui Kobayashi’s front wing failure sent his BMW Sauber rebounding off the barrier into the path of Nico Hülkenberg and Sébastien Buemi.

Button took a risk being the first to switch to dry tyres but it paid off and he held off Robert Kubica and Massa to claim the defending champion’s first win of the season.

Malaysia, April 4

Another good race, although the Red Bulls ran away with it - Vettel forcing team-mate Mark Webber to settle for second place.

Nico Rosberg completed the podium line-up.

The McLarens and Ferarris had misjudged the qualifying conditions and had to come from the back of the grid.

Hamilton drove superbly to finish sixth from a grid position of 22.

China, April 18

A McClaren 1-2 this time as Button won his second race of the season.

With Hamilton in second place it was the first English 1-2 since Monaco in1969.

The rain played a big part in the race and Button’s decision to battle the damp on dry tyres paid off.

Hamilton and Vettel were both given warnings after a collision as they left the pit lane..

Rosberg in his Mercedes finished third.

Spain, May 9

Mercedes and Virgin Racing both made changes to their cars before the race.

Webber led all the way but Hamilton lost out on second place when he suffered a blown tyre on the penultimate lap.

Having already taken advantage of a Vettel mistake, Fernando Alonso was able to claim second place with Vettel third.

Schumacher finished fourth, his best since returning, but was made to work hard all race by Button.

LEGEND: The Brits look on as Schumacher returns

DONE IT: Mark Webbercelebrates another win

CRASH: Chaos at the first turn in Melbourne

GOOD IMPROVEMENT: Lewis Hamilton finishes 6th after starting in 22nd

Watch footage of Jon Lancaster racing at MotorLand in Spain on www.thesportsman.co.uk

A broadcasting studio on top of a hospital roof, 180 staff and one expectant nation. Forget the pressure on England manager Fabio Capello - Andrew Clement is directing the BBC’s coverage of the whole World Cup.

The Editor of BBC Football is well-rehearsed in putting on a good show for football fans. He has been in charge of Match of the Day, Match of the Day 2, the Football League Show and Carling Cup coverage this season.

But South Africa 2010 will be on another level. “The World Cup is a big challenge because of where it is and when it is during daytime,” Clement said. “There are a lot of elements involved in putting it together. I think it will be a very different World Cup from the past competitions.”

The BBC announced in March that it will spend more than £2million sending at least 122 staff to South Africa, including presenters, programme makers, commentators and pundits. The total staff bill will be much higher as technology staff and freelancers take the figure to almost 300. There will be 15 per cent fewer staff than at World Cup 2006 in Germany, but the total cost will be around the same due to more security and longer journey times travelling inside South Africa.

The BBC’s World Cup coverage has changed significantly since Clement started at the Beeb over 20 years ago.

“My first World Cup was 1990 and I just worked out of the Television Centre basement,” Clement said. “For reflecting the tournament it’s better to be out there as you get a more genuine feel for what’s going on.”

For World Cup competitions up to 1994, the BBC team was based in London, with occasional live uplinks from the host country. In 1998 and 2006, the team was on site in Paris and Berlin respectively, but for 2002 they were based in London until the Brazil v England quarter-final when they relocated to Japan and South Korea. So how will they cover South Africa?

Clement said: “We’re going to base ourselves in Cape Town. At the moment logistics suggest we can’t present from the stadiums because of the distances involved of getting from A to B in the early group stages of the tournament. But we will have platforms positioned inside the stadiums to soak up the atmosphere inside the grounds.”

The BBC’s team will be fronted by Match of the Day regulars Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon and Gordon Strachan. They will be sending 15 commentators for television and radio, compared to ITV’s four. Star footballer pundits this year will include AC Milan’s Clarence Seedorf and Emmanuel Adebayor of Manchester City and Togo.

“We want a few people who will make an impact,” Clement said. “Seedorf has won the Champions League with three different teams and got to the semi-finals of the World Cup with Holland. Adebayor is a good talker and we were lucky to get him on the team. He was in the same qualifying group as Ghana with Togo. I’m sure there’ll also be a few top managers signed too.”

The main commentary team will include Guy Mowbray, Jonathan Pearce, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton and Steve Bower. The BBC’s main studio has cost tens of thousands of pounds to build on top of Somerset Hospital roof in Cape Town.

“There have been lots of negotiations and we’ve been trying to help the hospital anyway we can,” he said.

The studio’s construction, winning the hospital roof space against other broadcasters and spending on satellite transmission could cost around £1million. But even though the 23ft glass walls on top of the six-storey building promise spectacular views, it is an interesting move after the BBC was criticised for spending £250,000 on a new studio in Vienna for Euro 2008 after it did not like the original view.

“We dabbled last October broadcasting in South Africa for the Confederations Cup,” Clement said. “If that was anything to go by, it’s going to be pretty noisy.”

One new feature for this World Cup will be a roving reporter bus, fronted by Football Focus presenter Dan Walker, Garth Crooks and Damian Johnson. “The bus is the most ambitious part of what we’re going to do,” Clement said.

All live matches will be broadcast on BBC1, apart from simultaneous group games that will go on either BBC3 in the evening or the red button in the afternoon.

“The BBC is quite a big place,” he said. “We’re working with the BBC World Service and will use their Johannesburg offices. More and more now, the planning is all multimedia and multi-platform. It’s your money we’re spending and you want value for it.”

One of the major planning challenges for the BBC ahead of South Africa was deciding which games to show itself and which ones to give to ITV.

“We have to strike a deal with ITV to carve up the tournament,” he said. “The irony is that we’re negotiating with a guy who was my boss until a year ago and he is making the exact arguments he used to poo-poo 12 months ago.

“All matches out there are covered by the host broadcasting services - a consortium including ITV. For England games, we’ll add in three cameras which means we can control the pictures to an extent.

“It’s a slog, certainly during the first few days,” Clement said. But surely directing coverage of the World Cup would be a dream job for any football fan? “The long days are pretty relentless but you work hard and play hard. It can be a lot of fun.”

We wait to see if Capello has organised his England squad as well as Clement seems to have sorted out his own team.

TV’s AFRICAN MISSIONIt’s a gigantic logistical operation to get the World Cup onto

our screens at home. Mark Duell speaks to BBC Football Editor Andrew Clement to see how he’s been preparing

“It will be a very different World Cup from the past”

FOOTBALL

TV’s AFRICAN MISSION73

VICTORIOUS: Italy players lift the World Cup trophy after their World Cup Final win over France in 2006

WHERE DO THE CAMERAS GO?

This shows where the BBC team will position its 16 cameras around a World Cup stadium for a live match. Eighty per cent of the coverage comes from Camera A and the positions opposite it are mostly for replays

74

England host Bangladesh at Old Trafford for the second and final npower test between the two countries. The

minnows of international cricket have never managed a victory over England in any form of the game and the home side, captained by Andrew Strauss, are overwhelming favourites to see off the tourists’ challenge once again.

4th - 8th Cricket: England vs Bangladesh

The event is iconic not only in horse racing but also in the wider sporting world. The centrepiece is the Epsom

Derby, known colloquially as ‘the Derby’. It is one of the five ‘Classics’ and widely regarded as the greatest flat race in the world. For a preview of the event see pg.64-65.

4th - 5th Racing: Derby Festival

June Calendar 2010

The highly anticipated opening game of the 2010 World Cup kicks off with hosts South Africa pitted against

Mexico. With 70 places separating the two teams in FIFA’s world rankings, the home side will be relying on their native support inside Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium (right) to help them secure an upset against their more seasoned South American opposition. The game is sure to draw the attention of football fans in the UK. Manchester United supporters will be keen to get a first glimpse of their new Mexican acquisition, 21-year-old striker Javier Hernandez. While Arsenal fans will be hoping Carlos Vela forces his way into the Mexican team after the talented striker was omitted from his country’s pre-World Cup squad.

11th World Cup Football: South Africa vs Mexico

England will renew their rivalry with Australia in Perth as part of their summer tour, which will see them play

two tests against the country they famously defeated in the 2003 World Cup Final. The hero on that occasion was Jonny Wilkinson (left), and the fly-half will have his sights set on a place in Martin Johnson’s 44-man squad once again. The two test matches against the Aussies are part of England’s first five-match summer tour since visiting South Africa ten years ago. As well as the tests against Australia, they will also play two games against the Australian Barbarians before rounding off their tour with a match against the New Zealand Maori. England’s touring party will also include members of the Saxons squad who will be intent on impressing with the 2011 World Cup looming.

12th Rugby Union: Australia vs England

The month of May heralded the end of domestic football and rugby for 2010, but sports fans do not despair, because June serves up a summer sporting smorgasbord. With the World Cup, Wimbledon, Test Rugby, Test Cricket and Grand Slam Golf, what more could you want? Well, we thought a guide to help you keep track of it all might be of use

75

Calendar 2010

Expect to see little evidence of the ‘special relationship’ on the pitch as England take on the United States in the

opening match of Group C. After a litany of tabloid scandals threatened to overshadow their World Cup preparations, the England side, led by newly-appointed skipper Rio Ferdinand (right), can ill-afford to approach the game in a spirit of congeniality. The nation credited with inventing the game will remain favourites in the eyes of many to progress from a group that is completed by Algeria and Slovenia, but Capello’s men would be wise not to underestimate their opposition from across the Atlantic. Although the game has yet to truly capture the imagination of a country that prides itself on a different variety of ‘football’, the US team should be regarded as a more-than-proficient outfit. Led by former Fulham defender Carlos Bocanegra, the US topped their qualification group, finishing a point ahead of Mexico. English football fans will be aware of the threat posed by Landon Donovan, who enjoyed a successful spell at Everton this season, and is the USA’s all-time leading goal scorer.

12th World Cup Football: England vs USA

The Canadian Grand Prix returns to the Formula One calendar after a brief one-year hiatus. The Circuit Gilles

Villeneuve in Montreal was dropped for the first time in 30 years and replaced by the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009. However, Canadian racing officials have now signed a five-year contract with the Formula One Administration that will see the track cemented as a permanent fixture until 2014. Lewis Hamilton (left) will be desperate to atone for his mistake during the last Canadian Grand Prix in 2008. Not noticing a red light, the McLaren Mercedes driver slammed into the back of Kimi Räikkönen as the Finnish driver waited in the pit lane. Hamilton had qualified on pole but the crash forced him to retire, ending all hopes of a successive Canadian Grand Prix victory following the young Brit’s triumph in 2007.

13th Formula One: Canadian Grand Prix

World Cup champions Italy begin the defence of their crown against Paraguay in Cape Town. The holders

captured football’s most illustrious prize for the fourth time in the 2006 World Cup final after conquering the French on penalties. The game will probably be best remembered for Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi, which saw the French captain sent off after the Italian defender allegedly insulted his mother. Earlier this year Zidane claimed he ‘would rather die’ than apologise to Materazzi.

14th World Cup Football: Italy vs Paraguay

Steeped in tradition, the world famous race meet is a beacon of British heritage dating back almost 300 years.

It is Europe’s best-attended meet, with over a quarter of a million punters converging on Berkshire for the annual event. Held on Ladies’ Day (June 17), the Ascot Gold Cup is the highlight of the week and renowned for its pageantry.

15th - 19th Racing: Royal Ascot

Fresh from his Masters win in Augusta, Phil Mickelson will be determined to follow up his achievement by claiming

the second major of the year. The US Open is being hosted at the prestigious and picturesque Pebble Beach Golf Links course on the coast of California. Last time Pebble Beach staged the event, back in 2000, Tiger Woods (right) emerged victorious finishing a record 15 shots ahead of the field.

17th - 20th Golf: US Open

The second group stage game. Although England will once again be championed to brush aside their opposition,

the tie has the potential to turn perilous for Capello’s men should they approach the North African side with a shred of complacency. The Algerians eliminated African Cup of Nations winners Egypt in a playoff to clinch a berth at the tournament and they should not be taken lightly.

18th World Cup Football: England vs Algeria

For the first time since 1986, Silverstone will be the setting for the British Motorcycle Grand Prix after Donington

Park, the previous home of British motorcycle racing, declared bankruptcy. The new venue has been redeveloped to the tune of £5million, making it more suitable for bikes, and Silverstone officials have claimed the new track will be the fastest on the MotoGP calendar with riders expected to reach an average speed of 113mph. Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso is the defending champion but the Italian will face stiff competition from compatriot Valentino Rossi.

20th MotoGP: British Grand Prix

Andy Murray will once again bear the burden of a nation’s expectation as Wimbledon gets underway at the All

England Club. Last year, the fiery Scot was defeated in the semi-finals by America’s Andy Roddick who later lost out to winner Roger Federer (left) in a memorable match. Drawing after four sets, the two played out the longest fifth set ever played in a final at the Championships, which Federer eventually won 16-14. The ‘Swiss Maestro’ will now be intent on reaching his eighth consecutive Wimbledon final and equaling Pete Sampras’ record of seven singles titles. At the hands of Federer, Murray has endured the pain of defeat in two Grand Slam finals. Could it be third time lucky?

June 21st - July 4th Tennis: Wimbledon

When Ricky Ponting’s men met England last summer for the NatWest one-day international series, they

strode to a thumping 6-1 win. A whitewash appeared inevitable until England managed to salvage a little pride from a disastrous series with a four-wicket victory in the final match at Chester-le-Street. Australia’s showing was especially impressive given that it occurred in the wake of their demoralising Ashes defeat. Ponting will be hoping his side can replicate last summer’s form at the Rose Bowl this June for the first contest in a five-match one-day series.

22nd Cricket: England vs Australia

England’s third and final game of Group C will be against Slovenia. Qualification for the knockout stages is the

sole objective and Capello’s men should be strong enough to overcome this final obstacle. A word of caution, however - Slovenia secured their spot at the World Cup by vanquishing an accomplished Russian side and they could revel playing the role of underdogs once more.

23rd World Cup Football: England vs Slovenia

By far the most glamorous contest of the group stages takes place between Brazil and Portugal in the proverbial

‘group of death’. With the Ivory Coast, widely regarded as Africa’s strongest representative, also in the group, a major contender is guaranteed to fall at the first hurdle. North Korea are the unfortunate team making up the numbers in Group G, in only their second appearance at a World Cup.

25th World Cup Football: Brazil vs Portugal

76

We analyse Lewis Hamilton’s chances

of winning the British Grand Prix

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ON THE SHELVESWednesday June 9 2010

The World Cup is on the horizon, so we’ll be previewing a month of high drama in South Africa

We speak to Andy Murray as he prepares to give us something to smile

about at this year’s Wimbledon finals

By Robert Golledge

THE LAST WORD

The sheer oodles of mindboggling bulge that is spouted from the mouths of this country’s Daily Star-reading

cretins whenever a major sporting competition nears has become intolerable.

With monotonous spouts of ING-GUR-LAND being recited by lager-swigging oiks, I am already prepping a space in the garage for the noose.

With some of the greatest stars ever to play the beautiful game gracing the sun-drenched South African turf this summer, we should watch this sporting carnival with a dash of optimism, a drop of belief and stirred with the spoon of realism.

Let’s face it: England just can’t compete on the big stage.

It’s in our blood.In the same way I have to

accept that I can no longer have a 30-minute telephone conversation without my 77-year-old grandfather abruptly ending every call with “sorry, I need to go to the toilet”, we as a nation have to accept we will not win the World Cup.

We are a nation of losers. Just look at the history books.

When Winston Churchill defeated the fascist Nazi-regime he was not greeted with grandeur and gold but by being ousted from No. 10 within weeks of VE day.

If Churchill can’t win, what hope does diddy Shaun Wright-Phillips have?

And here’s the biggest secret of them all – one you won’t discover in your daughter’s GCSE History books: it was Russia that was victorious in the smouldering European mainland, not the Keep Calm and Carry On brigade.

More Dad’s Army than Great Escape.

Just look at our captain shag-tastic John Terry. Compared to Tiger Woods’ antics, Terry is left looking like a spotty prepubescent 14-year-old who finds himself masturbating over the Argos catalogue.

Our hopes of success hinge on the shoulders of Messrs Beat-the-DJ Gerrard, conveniently-missed-a-drugs-test Ferdinand, and a man who turned Cheryl Cole gay.

And I haven’t even started on Peter Crouch yet!

So do I condone this coma-inducing, over-hyped hysteria that has saturated every football World Cup in recent memory?

Absolutely.We have to find a purpose. A

man without a purpose is like David Beckham’s pants without a tennis ball.

Football is our purpose. It’s our passion. It’s our Mohammed and this summer Johannesburg is our temple.

For centuries those who achieve

great things have been laughed at.

And just like a Jimmy Carr gig, no one is laughing now.

Hysteria is wonderful. Exuberance and passion are bliss.

For far too long following England at international competitions has simulated the loss of one’s virginity.

The expectations. The pressure. The pre-match anxiety. The patient build-up play. The final flurry.

And the stark realisation that you’ve flopped to defeat well inside the first half.

It’s a cruel game.But just like Tiger – you’ve got

to start somewhere.Just because you’ve felt the

pain of past conquests, it doesn’t stop those hairs on the back of your neck – whose sole purpose is reserved for these occasions – from standing tall.

So this summer remember to cast your minds back to Georgia Sloan and the premeditated night when her parents were out.

And remember the arduous journey and the many lessons, techniques and subtleties you’ve learnt and embrace the hype, the hysteria and the crazed madness.

For, in truth, it’s the foreplay that makes the game what it is.

Without it there’s no climax. And with it you’re on course, results pending, for a one way ticket to Soccer City, the World Cup Final, and an all mighty orgasm.

Shakespeare couldn’t have put it better:

If Football be the food of love, play on.

For more of The Last Word and exclusive content check out The Sportsman online at: www.thesportsman.co.uk

Terry outbedded by Tiger, our manager’s Italian and we can’t even elect a Prime Minister. Britain is a nation of losers but we should still get caught up and embrace the World Cup hype

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CAPELLO:Our favourite Italian