Friday Night Lights

Friday heralded the beginning of a brand new European Championship Qualifying campaign and England did their best to silence the critics who have been calling for the players’, and indeed the manager’s, heads since the disastrous campaign in South Africa. Jermain Defoe scored England’s only winner at the World Cup and he was in equally predatory form again at Wembley, scoring a hat-trick while Adam Johnson, who was left out of the final squad in June, scored his first goal for the Three Lions. The qualifiers for this tournament will take place on Fridays and Tuesdays, a break from the normal scheduling of Saturdays and Wednesdays, in the hope that it will give club managers more time to prepare for domestic fixtures when the players are released by their international sides. Inevitably, this has been criticised by fans who have complained that the timing of these matches means that their attendance is dependent on the ability to get time off work if they live outside of London. While this is a considerable oversight by those at UEFA, there has been one advantage of this decision in that for the first time in a long time there has been virtually no football over a weekend during the season.

International breaks have been seen by some fans, especially those who don’t see the value in international football, as a distraction from league football. Although there is far less football than usual it was still possible to make a weekend of it as fixtures for the Home Nations were staggered and if there was South American qualifying, there were games on in the small hours too. This was not possible with the new scheduling as most games kicked off around eight o’clock unless they were in Eastern Europe like the Republic of Ireland were. What resulted was a weekend void of Premier League, Championship or international football and while the media gave much time and space to analysis of the qualifiers, it was refreshing to see other sports and other levels of football in the spotlight.

The Aviva Premiership Rugby season kicked off on Saturday with the London double-header at Twickenham. ESPN are beginning their coverage of the competition and broadcast both games, devoting most of their Saturday afternoon to the clash between last years runner-up Saracens and London Irish and Wasps v Harlequins. Today, BBC Radio 5 live will broadcast commentary of Northampton v Leicester, something that would not happen during a weekend heaving with Premier League football.

Much attention was also paid to the conclusion of the county cricket season as both the Clydesdale Bank 40 and County Championship competitions enter their final stages. Sunday’s Twenty20 international between England and Pakistan would have been in the headlines regardless, owing to the current match-fixing scandal, but with no other sporting event aside from the aforementioned Premiership clash being able to rival it, the Cardiff contest becomes the main sporting event this afternoon.

Lower-league football and non-league football also received a boost from the Euro 2012 qualifiers. League One fixtures were live on Sky Sports and on BBC Radio 5 live, while the 3pm kick-offs did not have to contend with an England game which would have affected attendances at the grounds. Much attention was paid to the East London derby between Dagenham and Redbridge and Leyton Orient as well as Southampton v Rochdale. Saturday was declared ‘Non-League Day’ as fans were encouraged to use this day off to attend a non-league match. BBC Radio Kent received calls from many fans who had been attending non-league games for many years and from those who were attending their first match.

While American sports leagues have often been criticised on this side of the pond for their capitalist nature, their submission to television networks and their propensity to move cities, American sports culture allows for the domination of more than one sport, something that ours does not. While American football is perhaps the most dominant of the ‘big three’ sports which also includes baseball and basketball, they share air-time and column space. This is in stark contrast to the British sports media which predominantly consists of wall-to-wall football. While this results from many factors which cannot be explained here, it is refreshing to see.

Football is undisputedly the most popular sport in this country and there is no danger of that changing in the near future. The Premier League dominates every other league in this country in terms of revenue, attendance and influence meaning that other sports and other leagues barely get a look in. With the international games moving to Friday however, a window has opened for these sports as well as the lower leagues of the football pyramid to get some of the limelight.

Bloodgate: The Fallout

RUGBY: Harlequins

Harlequins started the season yesterday with a disappointing 26-15 victory at Twickenham as they failed to create headlines on the pitch that would distract from the ongoing 'Bloodgate' scandal that continues to dominate the news off the pitch.

The bloodgate scandal saw Quins fined £260,000, the offending player Tom Williams banned for four months (reduced from one year on appeal), their physio banned for two years and their former Director of Rugby Dean Richards banned for three years yet many figures within the sporting media have stated their happiness with the severity of the punishment handed to Quins.

Articles such as this one in The Times have stated their delight that ERC have decided to hand out such penalties as it necessary to prove that Rugby is an honest, honourable sport especially when compared to the sport that many within the game constantly measure itself against; football. Now I am a fan of both sports (although I regard myself predominantly a football fan) yet it constantly irritates when fans and figures within Rugby Union see the game as morally superior to football. This is a sport that hands out a four month ban to a player acting under orders to feign injury, yet gives a ban of eight weeks to a player found guilty of eye-gouging. Not only were Schalk Burger's actions disgraceful, his coach, Peter de Villiers, defended it saying it was part of the game and that those who disagreed should take up ballet dancing instead. Now while Quins' actions deserved to be punished, how can a game take such a moral highground when it has other, arguably more pressing issues to deal with?

It has even been suggested that Richards' actions are due to his association with Leicester Tigers, a club that pioneered the concept of professionalism in Rugby Union. For a sport that prided itself on the amateur ideal to separate itself from professionalism in other sports such as football and Rugby League, a belief that professionalism caused this cheating is no surprise.

Harlequin's reputation has taken a huge hit over the summer as a result of the scandal and it will be difficult to rebuild. Although the team have been rightly reprimanded, it speaks volumes about the sport that some call "Violence with honour" would see cheating, a foreign element more evident in other sports, punished more severely than an act of barbarism

2007 Varsity Match: Oxford 16 - 22 Cambridge

On the 6th December, I went to Twickenham for the first time to watch the 2007 Varsity Match. I'm not going to lie or be patronising, but I couldn't care less who won. To me this was just an archaic knees-up for old boys of our country's two great universities. The match was a good one, filled with drama and excitement, and as I was there at the invitation of a Cambridge friend, I was cheering on the light blues.

Cambridge won 22-16, and to be honest were the best team on the day. Now a lot of fuss is made about the Boat Race, but to be honest I will only watch rowing if it's Great Britain rowing, not these two universities. But this, was something everyone can watch and enjoy. Yes it's another privilege and an ego boost that these two universities enjoy, but at the end of the day it's good fun and it's a chance for these players to play at the home of English rugby.

Twickenham on the other hand, was not as good as I had imagined it. The train station was cramped and busy, which is to be expected as this is basically a small town with a huge 80,000 capacity stadium in it. I was sitting in the North Stand, which was not very modern and glamourous, but functional. To be honest, I never got the same feeling I did the first time ~I visited Old Trafford or the old Wembley. It was probably because the match was not a full capacity game, but it seemed to lack atmosphere, and the rain didn't help either. I will probably have to come back for an England game in the sunshine to see what the magic is all about.

It was a good day though, despite the weather and transport arrangements consipiring to ruin it. There are photos on the SvenSport Flickr site, however my camera decided to stop working before I got into the ground, so there are some that are of poor quality.

Varsity Match Photos

A British Sporting Renaissance?

Last year the sheer mediocrity of British sport was highlighted by the BBC Sport Personality of the Year programme. What should usually be a celebration and reflection of the year's sporting achievements was an unwelcome reminder of the lack of achievement in 2006. But one year on, we are on the eve of perhaps the greatest British sporting year for some time.

Indeed, perhaps it was apt that Zara Phillips won the accolade and follow in the footsteps of her mother to win the award. 2006 had been a relatively good year for certain sports; Beth Tweddle's world title springs to mind as well as Nicole Cooke's achievements in cycling. But with no disrespect to any of the other nominees, in a year in which the World Cup was held, to have a cricketer who had played a handful of games for England in a relatively unsuccesful side and a Formula One driver, who's talent is undoubted, who won his first race in his seventh F1 campaign as nominees for the award spoke volumes about the poor year for British sport.

Ten months on from the ceremony, England are on the brink of winning a second consecutive Rugby World Cup and Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of becoming the first rookie ever to win the Formula One world championship. This is in addition to Scotland beating some of the finest sides in Europe en route to qualification to the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland next summer. England's qualification campaign is back on track and Northern Ireland were stunning some of the bigger nations in European football in theirs.

Is Britain experiencing a sporting renaissance or is this just typical British exaggeration? It is a bit of both to be honest. Next weekend will determine whether or not it has been a successful year. The Brazillain Grand Prix on Sunday and the World Cup final on Saturday will determine the final destinations of both the F1 Drivers World Campionship and the Rugby World Cup respectively. If both are achieved it will have been a vintage year, if one is achieved it will have been successful and if none, it was still better than 2006. Indeed, the British isles could also have two representives at a major football championship since 2002 if Scotland manage to negotiate the "Group of Death" after beating France home and away as well as World Cup quarter-finalists Ukraine, although one could argue that they are in a better position than England at the moment.

However one must remember that England were seen as no-hopers before their sensational victory over Australia last Saturday and Hamilton the supposed understudy to double World Champion in the McLaren this season. While England's triumph is to be celebrated, Wales and Ireland failed to get past the group stage of the Rugby World Cup and the Republic of Ireland and Wales never got their qualifying campaigns going for Euro 2008. We must remember that nothing has been achieved yet and that next weekend will be an unbelievable double-header of world class sport. One thing's for sure, whether Lewis Hamilton, Jonny Wilkinson or James McFadden (The scottish choice probably) win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2007, it will have been deserved