sports
N OV E M B E R 1, 2010
T h e na N ya ng c h ron ic l e
bpl talk
What lies at the end of the storm Sulaiman Daud FOR Liverpool fans, drama took place not on the pitch but in the court of law. A battle, fought in The Royal Courts of Justice, was to decide if Liverpool Football Club (LFC) could legally be sold to New England Sports Ventures (NESV). Liver pool fans have been through some nail-biting situations previously, most memorably the 2005 Champions League triumph in Istanbul. But even that legendary moment paled in comparison to the elation felt by supporters with a few simple words from Judge Justice Floyd, who presided over the case. “The owners (Tom Hicks and George Gillett) do not have the right to veto a sale.” Fan dissatisfaction with club owners have been rife in English football. Manchester United fans have mounted their own ‘Green & Gold’ campaign against the Glazer family. Newcastle fans have abused Mike Ashley for failure to provide funds for the team. It is said that the quickest way to lose one's fortune is to invest in a football club. Fans are therefore suspicious of owners who buy football clubs, as it takes massive amounts of money to keep it competitive. The cautionary tales of Leeds United and Portsmouth are reminders of failures that can arise
if club owners fail to provide sufficient or sustainable investment. What’s next for LFC? New owner John Henry has made all the right moves and said all the right things, chief of which was that he would “listen to the fans”. His team has taken the unprecedented step of meeting with Spirit of Shankly, an independent supporter group. NESV has had a brilliant track record when it comes to reviving flagging fortunes of sports teams. Two years after they bought the Boston Red Sox, the baseball team broke its 86-year drought winning a World Series title. A stable boardroom and actual investments should alleviate the problems that have plagued the club for the past few years. It is no coincidence that the last trophies won by Liverpool were in 2005 and 2006, before the start of the Hicks and Gillett era. Injecting huge sums of cash into the team, like what Chelsea and Manchester City have done, is not how NESV does business. Fa n s s h ou ld n ot e x p e c t Holly wood-st yle transfers of £50 (S$102) million and above. However, Liverpool will not be outspent in the transfer market by the likes of Stoke City, Wigan Athletic and Sunderland. This will bring out the true potential of a club expected to compete in the Champions League. The question then arises: can
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they said that? “Lately, it was Slumdog Millionaire. Well, at least a little.” F1 driver Michael Schumacher on which movie made him cry
SENT OFF: The departures of Gillett (left) and Hicks (right) may lead to an improvement of the club's fortune PHOTO | INTERNET
fans trust the manager to get it right with proper backing this time? The answer, sadly, is no. Roy Hodgson, while a decent manager for a mid-table club like Fulham, is shockingly out of his depth in the Anfield hotseat. His tactics have been subpar, his press conferences bizarre, and he has frozen out key players like Daniel Agger and Fernando Torres. Recent transfers like Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky have proved disappointing. As a result, Liverpool are currently in the relegation zone at 18th place. Hodgson’s position is untenable and he will probably resign before the January transfer window opens.
His replacement will represent a statement of intent by NESV. Within eight days of taking over the Red Sox, John Henry fired the incumbent general manager and appointed the youngest ever manager in the team’s history in his place. A similar move to appoint an ambitious manager like Frank Rijkaard or Manuel Pellegrini to replace Hodgson will be seen as a forward move by the fans. Liverpool fans are hoping that NESV will replicate their previous successes. But amidst the speculation about what is to come, most are happy to recall the prophetic words in the club’s famous anthem, “You’ll never walk alone."
“When I arrived in this country, players were on £200,000 a year. Only 15 years later, it is that per week, a bit of a shock for me.” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on the rising wages of footballers
sports talk
The virtual experience of live sports Annabelle Liang GONE are the days where sports video gaming involved racing a pair of athletes in a grainy two-dimensional medley. Now, think multi-player entertainment, motion-sensing controllers and high-definition gameplay. The days of the Playstation and its pirated replicas have since been preceded by improved versions of the console and the X-box. These advancements brought games like Winning Eleven, NBA live and FIFA series into the list of must-haves for sports fans. Soon after, the Nintendo Wii console was launched, which brought sports video gaming to a new level. Gamers were no longer inactive couch potatoes. They needed to swing the Wii controller to hit tennis balls and flick it to throw vir tual frisbees in respective sporting games. Besides the sole value of enter tainment, t he Wii Fit has also racked up points with the weight conscious. British media personality Kelly Osbourne, 24,
incorporated the Wii fit into a fitness routine to balance off her “terrible diet”. S h e t o l d B r i t a i n's n e w ! Magazine: “I don’t really work out either. I play on my Wii machine—I love the Wii Fit!” Although a success on the aforementioned levels, the artificially constructed atmosphere in
today's sports video games is still far from reality at sporting venues and stadiums. This is despite game companies' efforts to improve the realism in games. It is not possible for video games to replicate the suspense spectators feel at a stadium, or the glory and celebrations of the athletes. Nor is it able to recreate
GRAPHIC | Pham Hoai Nam
the smell of grass on the field, or the priceless first-hand gestures of elation or regret from the athletes. Cynics who challenge the vibrancy of a stadium’s crowd can just look to Paraguayan model Larissa Riquelme. The World Cup fan promised to strip naked in Asuncion central square, should Paraguay reach the semi-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, she did not strip as Paraguay was knocked out by Spain in a 1-0 quarter final match. Even the enthusiastic Kallang Wave of Singaporeans at the National Stadium is a good example of a creative and united show of support for the football team. Compare that to the flat and replicated sounds of encouragement or dismay from “spectators” in current video games. In the future, the realistic atmosphere of live sports in video games could be possible with improvements in technology, like full surround sound systems. But for now, video-game fans who want to soak in the intense sporting atmosphere of suspense and cheering will still have to head down to the stadiums.
GRAPHIC | ALISIA NING
“Players are pieces of meat that's how I look at it. When your time's up, your time's up.” Roy Keane on his footballing career
”What's good in new FIFA? I've been Pro Evolution Soccer all my life.” Tennis player Andy Murray, through Twitter, to Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand on football video games