Contracts

I am puzzled about modern football.

I don't expect club loyalty, I fully understand that players are professionals and play for money. The days of Matt Le Tissier are long behind us.

What puzzles me is when a player, like Ashley Cole, signs a contract and then thinks they can go and get a deal elsewhere and that they should be free to do it.

Players need to learn that when they sign a contract they have to honour it unless BOTH sides agree to rip it up. Maybe one day one of these mega rich chairman coming into the came will turn around and say "look son you have a contract and you are staying. You can sit your bum on the bench for two years and stuff your England career."

It'll never happen but I can dream.

Two Divisions

A number of people have said they are not convinced by the concept of two division in championship cricket.

I have to disagree. Mid table clashes used to be meaningless but now Durham and Yorkshire are fighting to avoid relegation whilst Essex (YAY!!!) are hoping to pip Worcestershire for promotion back to where they belong!

It means more games mean something. Surely that must be a good thing.

Team Ethic

Tiger Wood was quoted as saying he didn't understand the hype about the Ryder Cup.

Perhaps that, more than anything else, explains why the Europeans do so well. I appreciate that Americans do have team sports, US Football, Baseball etc but there is nothing at the national level. The US has no real sporting rivalries because the sports it plays tend to be ones that are, or until recently have been, US dominated.

This has started to change, major league Hockey and basketball players are now eligible for the Olympics. When the dream team first played they demolished everything in sight but with more Europeans playing in the NBA the standards are narrowing and the US are not dominant.

We all remember the upset of 1980 when a team of college students beat the USSR Ice Hockey team. The superstars of the NHL would beat all comers it was thought. But in recent years this hasn't happened, with Eastern European and Scandanavian teams beating the US and Canada.

I understand that in Europe the ice hockey rink is a different size. A canadian friend said that when the games were held in North America the US and Canada would do better and vice versa. Still the NHL, for so long believed to be of a standard beyond the rest of the world, has proven to be mortal.

In the rest of the world international rivalries are rife. Brazil v Argentina, Holland v Germany, Australia v New Zealand, Pakistan v India, England v Scotland, England v Australia, England v lots of people I guess.

In Europe and the rest of the world it matters to us. I wonder if the American public "care" if they win the Ryder cup? If they do will the players really "care".

The Australian players may have been gutted after losing the Ashes but on returning home they found out that the country wanted revenge. The English footballers knew that the public were "devastated". I'm not talking about the people who go everyweek but the casual fan as well.

Upon returning home to the millionaire Golfers, Basketball and Hockey players feel the same pressure and sense of hurt? If they don't, losing at the games they used to dominate, is something they may have to get used to.

A British League?

Every time a Anglo-Scottish match takes place in Europe the old debate surfaces about whether the old firm should be allowed to play in the English Leagues.

I can see the appeal. For the likes of Celtic and Rangers it would give them access to premiership TV money. For the premiership clubs the big Glasgow teams have massive fan bases and matches would be box office.

At first sight it's a win win situation but is it? It would mean two less premiership places for English team. It would make it much harder for smaller clubs to make it in the premiership. Its hard enough for the likes of Wigan now ...... What would be the impact on Scottish teams? Ok they would have more chances of making Europe but there would be much less TV interest and money without the old firm.

However exciting it may be for TV the true football fan who goes every week, as opposed to those of us who watch the telly, wants to believe they have a chance of making it and becoming the new Bolton.

Football is run by money, forcing fans to trvel to watch matches at all sorts of odd times. Lets not allow the money men and big clubs to further diminish the dreams of the smaller clubs.

The Noble Art

I must admit to enjoying boxing. It may seem odd to regard to grown men thumping the hell out of each other as sport but there you go.

Firstly boxers show each other respect. Whatever is said before the fight afterwards they show each other respect.

Perhaps the finest two fights I saw were the two involving Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran.

Before the first Duran made remarks about Leonard's wife. Leonard was incensed and stood his ground and lost, but lost heroically. He proved he was a fighter. In the rematch he boxed and humiliated Duran

Tradgedies happen. When Johnny Owen died after a fight with the great Lupe Pintor Owen's family certainly held no blame to Pintor and invited him to a memorial service.

Sadly one of the best fights ever to involve a Briitsh boxer was Benn vs McClellan. It was savage and Benn, a fighter who I had never really admired, showed immense guts. Sadly McClellan suffered brain damage was left in a wheel chair.

Should it be banned? I think not, nor does a fighter like Michael Watson who also was brain damaged. Watson also saw it as an occupational hazard. Like a grand prix driver in a crash.

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Hoggard Injured

Well the Hoggster is going to miss the rest of the season.

So of the bowlers selected for Australia the ones currently fit are Mahmood and Panesar.

Are you optimistic? I'm not!!

We are all Europeans now

The British are noted for being sceptical of mainland Europe but every two years this changes. Yes folks the Ryder Cup is coming.

For some reason the sight of American's in funny trousers and dodgy knitwear changes us and we become all European. People who previously would like to cast us a dritft across the Atlantic will start saying come on Sergio!

One of the things that puzzles me is why we do so well? The Americans have higher ranked players seem to win all the majors and yet this seems to count for nothing. Apparently we are favourites this time around, I find this hard to believe.

Perhaps its that strange thing called team spirit. In 2002 it was noticeabley lacking in the US team. David Duval (whatever happened to him?) seemed happier talking to the European team and it was also noticeable that a whilst 11 US players were in the team uniform a Mr T Woods was not. Not good for morale.

So there is a little over a week to go. I am not a big golf fan but of course I'll be cheering our boys along.

COME ON SERGIO!!