Edinburgh taboo
Friday 18 April 2008
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David Beckham (England) (©Getty Images)
If Off the Ball is sure of three things about football it is these. Firstly, Lewes FC play at the Dripping Pan. Secondly, VfL Wolfsburg used to be coached by Wolfgang Wolf. And lastly, Sheffield FC are the oldest football club in the world. Well, just as Leonard Cohen complained that there is "nothing you can measure anymore," so one of the sturdy pillars of our soccer cognition is being chipped away.
Old story
Last year Sheffield were honoured by FIFA as they marked their 150th anniversary. Keen mathematicians will note that their formation is therefore dated at 1857, and thus their pioneering claim has been somewhat undermined by the Foot-Ball Club of Edinburgh, who claim to have been set up in 1824. Admittedly the club, who employed a man to blow up footballs before every game, folded in 1841, but they have now reformed and are pointing to evidence in the National Archives of Scotland that they should be recognised as the originators. Scotland manager George Burley and local member of parliament Alistair Darling, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, are backing the campaign. However, it will not win Darling any votes from Sheffield chairman Richard Tims. "Over the years, various organisations, clubs, countries and towns have come out of the woodwork and said: 'We are older than you, blah, blah, blah,' and most of them have failed to be recognised as such," Tims warned.
Becks in business
But at Off the Ball we don't live in the past, we want the juice on today's biggest names. And they don't come bigger or juicier than David Beckham and Tom Cruise. According to gossip site Janet Charlton's Hollywood (and with a name like that they have to be #1 for soccer stories) the Los Angeles power-brokers are considering going into business together. Charlton writes: "According to a friend of the guys, they're plotting to team up and buy a soccer team. David is still an awesome player but his career is winding down and he wants to go from soccer player to team owner. Theoretically, the combined star power of David and Tom would attract the biggest and best players. The guys are keeping their plans quiet for now but they're crunching numbers to put a deal together." Being able to watch someone other than LA Galaxy may cheer up five-year-old Romeo Beckham, who was so enthralled by his father's side going down 3-2 to Toronto FC that he whipped out his recorder and attempted to play it first through his nose and then upside down. If Off the Ball was more akin to the seamier gossip vessels elsewhere on the web we would now write: "He clearly doesn't get his musical talent from his mother." But we aren't. So we won't.
Keane sees Black
Undeniably, the sporting highlight of 2008 in New Zealand will be the autumn's inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. England will be among the contenders, but Kiwi sport fans who cannot wait until then will have the consolation of a meeting between those nations at rugby union in June, though luckily for soccer-mad New Zealanders a familiar football figure will be in the All-Blacks' corner. Sunderland AFC manager Roy Keane is currently studying for his UEFA Pro-Licence coaching qualification, and part of the course in England involves shadowing trainers in another sport. "What level of involvement I can have, just watching training or whatever, I don't know," Keane said. "I have the green light to have three or four days with them. I don't know if I will be allowed into any team talks. I'll keep my head down and just watch them, try to plug into what they are always about." Sunderland players may be advised to practice their traditional Maori dancing, as Keane is a fan of the 'haka' that the boys from Aotearoa perform before every international match. "If the haka didn't inspire you before a game, what could?" the Irishman said.
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