Plenty to Enjoy at the Women’s World Cup

By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London.

In the words of my unimpressed girlfriend as she caught me hunched in front of the computer screen in my darkened front room: “Bloody hell. You must be desperate!”

 And in a sense, I was. My girlfriend was disappointed, but I was starting to get football withdrawal symptoms. In a fallow summer devoid of any meaningful action for an avid England fan, I decided to tune in to the quarter-final of the Women’s World Cup in Germany between England and France – and I’m glad I did.

 I’ll be honest – I’ve been more than a little critical of women’s football in general over the years. The women’s FA Cup final has often been on terrestrial TV, and I’ve tried to watch it a few times with little success. It seems like football, and it seems competitive, but just not competitive enough to will my legs to stop wandering into the kitchen to make a cup of tea and read the paper. But before I kick off a raging AFR battle of the sexes argument – this isn’t a sexist thing at all. It’s just that the standard of football in every women’s game I had watched prior to the match last night was a long way from that which I am used to when watching Premier League matches every weekend. Just as I would be loath to watch a Nationwide Conference game as opposed to a Premier League or La Liga clash, I quite frankly couldn’t be bothered to sit down and watch a top-level women’s game when there is a better level of football to be watched elsewhere. The quality on offer just hasn’t been high enough to hold my attention. I know I’m spoilt, but I’m a Manchester United fan living near London – what can you expect? If I was a ‘real’ fan I’d be watching my local team St Albans City battle it out in the Southern Premier League (two leagues below the conference), but you’re probably more likely to find me down the local with a pint, watching the Premier League on Sky Sports. What a sham I am.

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Ashley Young at United – Slippery Snip or Expensive Bench Warmer?

By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

Ashley Young’s arrival at Old Trafford has been met with mixed reaction amongst Manchester United fans. At around £15m some say he’s good value English talent when compared to the £20m Liverpool paid to bring in Jordan Henderson from Sunderland, but could he end up being a £15m bench warmer?

The major bone of contention seems to be the conundrum of where he will fit in at United. In Nani and Valencia, Ferguson already has two of the Premier League’s best wingers and it’s hard to see how Young will go about displacing either of the pair. Young was utilized predominantly on the left wing for Villa, but this is the wing that Nani plays on when Valencia is fit.

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Alas, Poor Ollie

By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

“If we can go to Man Utd and get something and that keeps us up, I think that will be the best story that I’ve ever read or seen unfold - never mind anything that William Shakespeare’s ever written.” – Ian Holloway

Fifty-seven minutes of Blackpool’s do-or-die last game of the season again Manchester United had elapsed. Vaughan whips a delicious cross into the box and Taylor-Fletcher produces the unlikeliest of deft finishes to send his Blackpool side 2-1 up and the Seasiders into delirium. Cue commentator’s cliché: ‘You just couldn’t write this’. Holloway’s best story ever was starting to unfold right before our very eyes. But then Shakespeare turned in his grave…

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To Survive, or not to Survive - Holloway’s Blackpool Dilemma

  By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

Finally the fateful day has arrived - Survival Sunday. Come this evening we’ll all know who will be joining poor old Scott Parker’s West Ham in The Championship and who will be staying up to enjoy another season of fun and frolics in the Premier League. One man no-one will want to see go down, though, is Blackpool’s fantastically entertaining manager Ian Holloway.

He is a man who possesses a wonderful way with words and his post-match interviews will be sorely missed should Blackpool be relegated today. However, the fear of the drop will have been hanging over ‘Ollie’s head for the past few weeks now. As he wrestles with the prospect of life in The Championship, I wonder what thoughts might be running through Ian’s mind…

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A Shandy-Manc* on the Sandy Banks of Marseille

By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London.

*Shandy-Manc noun - A Manchester United supporter with highly dubious or non-existent ties to either the city of Manchester or Manchester United football club itself, esp. from South of England. See also: ‘plastic Manc’, ‘glory hunter’, ‘Oliver Sparrow’.

Last week A Football Report was given an exclusive opportunity to go behind the scenes at the Marseille versus Manchester United Champions League game in the South of France and was granted the chance to go and watch my beloved Red Devils play away from home by the gracious and generous Eric Beard, who had to stay at home. Read on for a colourful insight on what was a brilliantly interesting trip.

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AFR Podcast - Capturing the Game with Ryu Voelkel

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Growing up in Japan, Ryu usually only had the photos in the newspaper to assist his imagination in developing the scenery and atmosphere surrounding some of the biggest matches in football. And his imagination has yet to let him down…

Oliver Sparrow, Ulysse Pasquier, and Eric & Jordan Beard of the AFR Team were lucky enough to have an enlightening chat with the well-traveled football photographer Ryu Voelkel, originally from Japan but now based in Paris. As Ryu points out in the podcast, photography is subjective, however Ryu’s unique style seems to capture a sense of universal appreciation in the world of football and beyond. Though Ryu is a freelance photographer regularly flying across Europe to every high-profile stadium imaginable, Nike hired him to be a main photographer in South Africa in its promotion of the World Cup. We talked about what the life of a photographer entails, how he got into the field, and some of his best experiences in his line of work. This is Ryu’s first ever media-related appearance, so we hope you enjoy a truly fresh perspective!

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Hughton Relegated, Pardew Promoted?

[Alan Pardew is the next lucky man to be taken for a ride on the managerial merry-go-round by Mike Ashley…]

By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

As discussed in our most recent AFR podcast, Newcastle United have this week parted company with their manager Chris Hughton after only sixteen games of the Premier League season after guiding them back to the top flight this year. News today has broken that Alan Pardew is the man who has been chosen to replace him, an appointment which had been widely rumoured in the football media.

To most of us on the outside, Newcastle fans or not, Hughton’s sacking seems like a nonsensical decision. This is a man who took over the reins from Alan Shearer when the club were relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2008/09 season, a time when the club was at its lowest ebb for as long as many can remember. He guided them through a potentially tricky season in England’s second tier and came out on top of the pile. What more could the man have achieved in his first season in charge? Aside from pipe-dreams of winning the FA and/or League cups, it’s hard to see how Hughton could have done any better. One season, one promotion. So far, so good…

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(Source: philosofooty)

The AFR Team has its say on the curious cases of Qatar & Russia: England 2018 Frozen Out

The AFR team is sharing its diverse perspectives on the drama that unfolded yesterday in Switzerland in a series of posts throughout the next day or so. The series features perspectives from our writers who call places like Montreal, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, London, Manilla, Boston, and Lisbon home. We continue with the thoughts of Oliver Sparrow, a deflated England fan writing from London.

The tears have just about dried up, but the underlying feeling of deflation still persists. I was desperate for England to hold World Cup 2018, and despite the furore about the recent BBC Panorama programme and investigations into FIFA corruption by the British media, I still genuinely felt that England 2018 could have been a reality. How wrong I was.

With a measly two votes, England didn’t even make it past the first voting round. An incredibly polished performance from the likes of David Cameron, Beckham, Prince William and the quite brilliant Eddie Afekafe was widely rumoured to be a favourite of FIFA representatives, but it was not to be. Many expected it to be a straight shootout between Russia and England, but one can only imagine that factors beyond the England 2018 bid team’s control had derailed their campaign before they even started their pitch in Zurich yesterday.

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