There's only 3 Ameobi's

Whenever an English footballer leaves the comfort of the British Isles to ply their trade in another country it’s always intrigued me. Why did they leave? What wasn’t right about playing here? What’s so great about going elsewhere? Answers to these questions are obvious in some cases; Owen to Madrid for example was a fantastic opportunity for him to play for arguably one of the greatest clubs in the world.

What about the players from lower leagues or even non-league that are presented with an opportunity to make a name for themselves abroad though? Why do they travel all those miles to forge a career in the sport?

One story that has always baffled me is the plight of Tomi Ameobi, brother of Shola and Sammy who currently play for the team I support, Newcastle United. Tomi now finds himself playing over in Iceland, having previously played for my local team Forest Green Rovers in the Blue Square Premier, and I’ve always wanted to know – how did that ever happen?! Fortunately I was given the opportunity to ask Tomi some questions about his career so far and how it all came about.

RH: Living in Stroud I’ve supported Forest Green Rovers for a long time. How would you describe your time at FGR? 

TA: At first it was a bit of a culture shock going from league to non-league football, the style of play varied a lot but I quickly settled into life on and off the field. Results didn't always go our way on the field but I would say we were one of the better footballing sides in the league. 

RH: How does a player go from playing in England to playing in Iceland? How did the move come about?

TA: I'm still trying to work that one out myself!!! It was totally out of the blue, I had been out of football for over a year with a few injuries and couldn't really see a way back into football but thankfully my details were passed on to Nick McCreery and the rest is history now.

RH: When you first learned of the opportunity did you have any hesitation in leaving England?

TA: I think I was more worried about whether I would be able to get back to a professional standard of football more than actually leaving home. My family were behind me all the way so that made the move relatively easy.

RH: What did your brothers think of the move?

TA: They were pleased for me to get back playing again, they've always backed me and said I have what it takes to play football. To be honest I think they're a tad jealous that I get to live abroad, they've been in Newcastle their whole lives.

RH: Have they had a chance to come out and watch you play? 

TA: Not yet, I'm hoping Sammy comes out this summer for a few days. It’s harder for Shols as he now has a family of his own.

RH: You scored on your debut against ÍR. Scoring a goal in your first game is always great but to score your first goal in another country must have been something special for you? 

TA: It was such a big relief; I wasn't really renowned for goal scoring before coming out to Iceland. So to score on my debut definitely settled a few nerves.

RH: Take us through the goal – I’m sure you can remember every second of it! 

TA: We were 1-0 down at the time, I already had a goal disallowed in the first half and missed another good chance. If I remember correctly it was a great corner from Nicky Deverdics flicked on and I nodded it in at the back post.

RH: How does the Icelandic style of football differ to that of the English game? 

TA: It isn't as direct as the English game is and teams out here tend to pride themselves on build up play. The leagues out in Iceland are on the up, I'm sure this season that the competition will be tough.

RH: How does the quality of football compare to your time in the Non-league in England?

TA: The tempo is slower in Iceland, teams sit off and let each other have the ball which can be frustrating at times. There are players in non-league who could make the step up but chances are hard to come by these days.

RH: A few English players have found themselves playing football in Iceland over the last few years such as Dean Martin and Nicky Deverdics. What’s the attraction? 

TA: For me it was the chance to come over and play regular football week in week out and I'm sure it is the same for the other lads as well but there are other perks such as the quality of life, embracing another culture and most importantly the standard of naturally beautiful girls which are few and far between at home!!!!!

RH: Generally you don’t see many players leave the British Isle’s to ply their trade abroad. Why do you think that is?

TA: The English leagues are probably the most attractive out there at the minute so I can see why a lot of players would want to stay at home but at the same time competition is stiff. Others find it hard to leave family and friends behind.

RH: One last question: who do you think will score more Newcastle goals in their career – Shola or Sammy?

TA: You’re asking me to split my loyalties here....Sammy!! Sorry Shols!

Tomi isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last player to give it a go abroad if it offers them the chance to play regular football again, it seems like a sensible idea. Who wouldn’t want to have the opportunity to build a football career if you really love the sport, even if it is away from home?

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Tomi’s agent, Nick McCreery, for giving me the chance to ask these questions and finally get some answers that I’ve always wanted.

I wish Tomi good luck with his career in Iceland and I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on his progress.

If the price is right

This week Bath City FC have launched a money raising initiative giving fans and businesses the opportunity to rename their ground for just £50. One of the highest placed part-time clubs in the English football pyramid currently sit in the relegation zone of the Blue Square Premier and like most clubs, money is very tight. They hope this idea will raise much needed funds (and not forgetting the inevitable publicity that it will bring) to ease a potential sticky situation that can be found in their profit and loss sheets.

In 2009 AFC Bournemouth saved themselves from administration with a similar draw asking punters to stump up £500 for the chance to rename their ground. It was a great success and added £50,000 to the clubs coffers saving them from the dreaded points deduction and possible liquidation.

This decade has seen many clubs in the UK change the name of their home ground to benefit from the money that corporations are willing to send their way for the privilege. Examples of this can be found at York City with the Kit Kat Crescent and of course the recent multimillion pound deal that Etihad have signed at Manchester City. There are also clubs who have relied on sponsorship to fund the construction of their new home such as the Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and the Britannia Stadium where Stoke City play their football.

In the United States they have taken naming rights to the next level. They have a grand total of 263 (and counting) sporting venues that have taken on the name of a corporation. Most of them are very standard however there are many comical ones such as the Whataburger Field baseball stadium in Texas and Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado.

The practice of renaming venues in America can be dated back to 1912 with the Boston’s famous Fenway Park and is very common amongst all of their national sports generating a considerable amount of income. The highest amount paid for naming rights can be found in New York where the Citi Field and Barclays Center are situated. Both of these deals bring in $20m every single year and are expected to last for at least 20 years generating at least $400m over the lifetime of the contract – a crazy amount of income.

So what’s the big problem? Surely teams across the globe should be crying out for this ‘easy’ money where all they have to do is change a couple of signs and their letter headed paper? You would think that sports fans would be petitioning their clubs to launch a naming scheme for their club to help secure the long term financial stability of their team like AFC Bournemouth and Bath City have done. However, this is not the case.

Look at the situation at Newcastle United. St James Park, or the Sport Direct Arena, as it ‘should’ be called has caused such a stir with fan groups, ex –chairman and high profile supporters like Graeme Swann coming out to condemn the move. Even the Newcastle City Council “have expressed that they will offer no support to Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley over the changing of the name” and state “that the council officially agrees with the ‘overwhelming majority’ of supporters who believe this is the wrong decision”. Wow, some serious disapproval there.

As a Newcastle fan myself, I’m not that fussed. Of course ideally they would just leave it as it is but I consider myself a modern football fan, one that has moved on with the times that we live in. Naming rights have become part and parcel in the USA with powerhouse sporting franchises raking in cash from all areas and slowly we are seeing this trend sneak its way into Britain with clubs sacrificing history for a quick fix of the balance sheets.

Unfortunately we are in an age where money is everything to teams up and down the country. At the top end clubs like the two in Manchester, United and City, exploit every area of the globe to find potential fans and open up ways to increase their income. As a mid table(ish) club, if Newcastle can bridge the gap to the European places and bring in bigger and better players by selling of the name of the stadium then so be it. I’d much rather watch a solvent, successful team for my match day ticket than one who is struggling with the financial demands of the modern game but has kept a historical name on the front of the programme.

However Manda Rigby of Bath City made an interesting point in a recent interview over their name change and was quoted as saying:

"What we don't want to do is impose anything. We want to get the fans involved as much as possible and we thought this would be a good way to do that."

This is the point I think Mike Ashley and the rest of the board could have done better. They just did it with no consultation. So in a bid to help Mike & Co out I’ve come up with what they should of sent out to all fans before hand...

Dear NUFC fans,

I present you with 2 choices:

1. We’re going to change the name of St James Park to allow us to bring in additional revenue and push to bring European football back to where it belongs.

2. We’ll leave the name alone, sit in mid-table obscurity and watch our rivals overtake us as they bring in more cash than us by selling the name of their ground.

The choice is yours.

Cheers,

Mike Ashley.

I know which choice I would take.

Great Expectations

We have had the return of Landon Donovan to Everton. The return of Robbie Keane to Villa, the club he always supported as a child. We have even had the return of Paul Scholes coming out of retirement to solve Manchester United’s midfield woes. None of which can compare to the return of Jake Windsor to the blogosphere! That’s right, I am back! After being inundated with at least two requests to write another blog I have joined forces with Ryan Harmer in the form of A Foot Like a Traction Engine. 

Over the next few weeks we will be updating the site with a series of blogs, and possibly some player exclusives and guest writers.  Serious stuff! So to kick us off, I present Great Expectations.

Over the years I have been exposed to football at many levels, ranging from playing Sunday league football through to supporting Liverpool FC. Along that road of trials and tribulations I have also witnessed many changes to the game I hate to love. The introduction of the English premier league, the evolution of the champion’s league, the demise of the UEFA cup and the introduction of pointless officials that stand on the goal line seemingly doing absolutely f all! One aspect of the game that I have also witnessed is how the fans’ expectations have transformed.

Supporting Liverpool I have been engrossed in the premier league. Being a Liverpool fan also means I naturally have expectations that involve Liverpool challenging for trophies. However, I grew up watching non league football. My Dad used to take me to watch Dorchester Town and Yeovil Town regularly, normally on a cold drizzly night. A recent development has involved the organisation that I work for being involved in a non-league club called Forest Green Rovers FC. 

Before I expand, I’ll make it clear that I am not pin pointing any of my comments directly at FGR fans. This development has placed me in a position to hear staff and fans, some of which are both, vent their views and air their opinions about the club and their fans. I also frequently have a gander at the clubs forum out of intrigue more than anything.

What I discovered was a portion of supporters surprisingly hard to please, expecting a club that had avoided relegation in the last three seasons on technicalities and goal difference, to be challenging for promotion.  Now I am sure that this is not the only forum that these types of discussions take place, but really surprised me. There was a lot of negativity within these forums with explanations of these views veering on lunacy (which wouldn’t be out of the question after some of my experiences in Stroud). New investment, new players, a club with stability, you’d think there would be little to moan about. When did everything change?

It’s not difficult to work out why things have changed. Since the premier league and champion’s league have developed into their current form, so has the amount of money involved. This then created more pressure on the premiership clubs to qualify for champion’s league or to stay in the premier league. Nothing new here. It now seems that these pressures have disseminated throughout the leagues. 

There will always be clubs with fans that have higher expectations than others, or a set of fans that believe the club should be achieving more. However my experience of lower league football was that expectations were much more realistic. 

What seems to have been the catalyst in my particular example is the investment of a wealthy businessman in the club. It is this perceived wealth that caused expectations that are perhaps already unrealistic become stretched. How are clubs meant to meet expectations when they are so high, in such a short space of time?

The power and money involved at the top level is not filtering through the leagues, however the pressures and expectations seem to be. Should the FA be doing more to distribute the wealth, or should the Premier league take responsibility? The fans need to take some responsibility of course, but I believe the issue was from above; therefore they need to help out. 

Any thoughts and opinions on the above are welcome, I hope to address my points a little more  in the future but for the time being, any fans of lower league clubs it might be worth thinking of what is happening at Darlington for example, and if your club is stable appreciating what you have right now.

When two become one...

No, this isn't anything to do with the Spice Girls, it's probably the biggest football annoucement to come in 2012.

Authors of blogs Grassroots to Galacticos and Next Goal Wins, Ryan Harmer and Jake Windsor, have come together to form one to bring you more content and opinions than before.

Watch this space for more regular updates in the near future.

It's certainly true that 2 wrongs DO make a right!

Away from the bright lights...

Having been involved with my local team Forest Green Rovers for over a year now, I’ve become engrossed in the world of non-league football. From the high volume of transfer dealings that happen all the time, to the financial troubles clubs face on a daily basis, it’s more real and you learn so much about what the football industry is really about.

Over the last 12 months I’ve found myself reading everything I can about the plight of the clubs that sit lower on the football pyramid - whether it’s about Kettering Town and if they going to be in existence anymore or whether Gloucester City will ever move back to the city they came from. These are stories that affect people’s livelihoods up and down the country yet our sporting media is packed full of stories like Gary Cahill wanting 50k, 80k or 100k a week to play football for Chelsea - that is of little interest to me anymore. The big clubs have become marketing machines with millions of pounds being spent on each club year in year out. As a nation we have become obsessed with grand occasions like Champions League finals and players such as Rooney and Ronaldo gracing the hallowed turf at our favourite clubs.

Yet, if I stopped supporting my beloved Newcastle United tomorrow nothing would change. The club wouldn’t miss me, I won’t get a letter in the post asking where I’ve been and I’m sure they could deal with one less shirt sale a year.  Of course, having been through the ups and downs of relegation and promotion I’m not going to throw all that away and forget about them, I’ll continue to support them but perhaps on a lesser scale. Gone are the days where I’ll spend my free time rifling through waves of online transfer rumours for the latest news on the Magpies. I’d much rather read about Cromer Town’s battle with a deceased Norwegian King (check it out, it’s mental), I find it much more interesting.

Let’s bring things back to basics though – the football itself. There are loads of benefits to watching your local non-league team over the clubs at the top of the English game.

For a start, it’s a lot cheaper. Taking prices from a top team like Liverpool, the cheapest ticket to watch a class A match is £45. At my local club, FGR, that equates to 3 full paying adults which I think is a much better return for £45 in today's economy.

Also, you are much closer to the action. For your £45 at Anfield I imagine it may be easier to watch the match through binoculars. In comparison, at any non-league ground you can hear what the players are saying to each other, you can see the expressions on their faces when things go right and wrong and when you shout out encouragement, you feel like it actually makes a difference to the players on the pitch. The whole experience is completely different to standing with 40,000 other fans in a massive stadium where the spectacle can sometimes feel more like theatre than a game of football.

Away from the matches, the lower league clubs don’t just want your support, they need it.

We’ve recently seen Darlington FC falling foul to financial problems and going into administration; it’s anyone’s guess as to whether they will still be competing come the end of the season. Talks are on-going to see if anything can be salvaged but it seems like a plan that was always doomed to fail considering they can barely fill 10% of their multi million pound ground. However it raises a valid point. The population of Darlington is just under 100,000 and currently their average attendance is around 2000, so approximately 2% of the population. If they were able to push this up to 3 or 4% and potentially double their gate receipts this would make a massive difference to their survival chances and long term aims. Whereas in comparison an extra 2000 people watching a match at St James Park, sorry, the Sports Direct Arena (I’ll talk about that another time) would only line the pockets of Mike Ashley furthermore.

You may think that going to watch a non-league match won’t help. But it will. Not only is it a great (cheaper) day out than going to watch a Premiership game but the money from your match ticket and any refreshments or merchandise you buy will genuinely help clubs in leagues such as the Blue Square Premier and beyond keep the lights on and the doors open.

Every little helps.