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Football Wives, Agents, Corruption and Bungs
Agents roles in the game of football are coming under more scrutiny and quite rightly so. How would you possibly regulate this industry when it is part and parcel of the “fabric” of football, whereby fans, media and teams constantly speculate about who should and shouldn’t be playing for the team. Agents fill a niche in this market by connecting the dots between rumour, media, fans, managers, chairman and players.The problem is that many agents are un-skilled, “del-boy” characters, who provide very little in the way of advice to players, feeding players, managers and clubs the information they want to hear, manipulating the system so that they receive their silver for their services.
Footballers egos are notoriously fragile, and for many young players it is easy to be overawed by the flash characters that continually prowl the halls of football clubs and the surrounding scene around a club. Although I would be hesitant to put the game of football in the same bracket as Footballers Wives it does not fall far short. There really are characters of this sort lurking around every corner and it is in the interests of everyone concerned to protect young players from these people.
Agents receive large sums of money for their services, although as mentioned in my previous post about old and new media in football and sport, their services are questionable in what is actually provided for players. A successful, wealthy young player needs a lot of solid advice from his advisors including
· Contract Advice
· Financial advice. Where to invest his money.
· Personal Guidance.
· Honest Advice on his career. Not lip service.
· Media Advice.
· Advice for when the final whistle blows on their Football Career.
Unfortunately in my opinion, most Agents simply are not equipped to provide this service. They have no training in what is a lucrative and extremely specialised form of work.
The Players Football Association offers a service to players, whereby they receive representation in contract negotiations, financial advice and post career advice. They do this for a modest fee and quite often in a more professional manner. However when I was a player it took me until the later stages of my career to understand the role the PFA plays in football and I am quite sure, most players these days are unaware of how much assistance they can receive from the PFA.
I am not against Agents, just the clueless ones. Clubs are always looking for players, players are looking for clubs and Agents do provide a handy link between the two.
For various reasons a player may want to leave a club and he needs someone to assist in finding a new team for him. This is no easy task for most footballers as they are focused on playing and usually unaware of any interest. Football Clubs are typically selfish in that they will not tell a player of another clubs interest, unless it is in the interest of the selling club. This is where an agent can come in handy.
Bungs and Corruption
It surprises me that Mike Newell’s allegations have caused such a stir in football as anyone in the game will freely acknowledge (off the record of course) that “bungs”, “back-handers” and “tapping players” up are not uncommon.
Put it this way : If you were Jose Mourinho and you wanted to sign Ashley Cole how would you do it? You have to talk to the player somehow to find out if he wanted to play for Chelsea, otherwise what’s the point of starting contract negotiations with Arsenal? So you use your network of resources to contact Ashley Cole and find out if he is interested. Is it ethical – Probably not. But it works and Mourinho got his man, got fined, but do you think he cares? £200,000 might be a lot of money for most people, but not for Abramovich and his billions. And this goes on, all the way down to the grassroots level in football in lesser and lesser degrees of un-ethical behaviour. But of course who cares what happens at crapbag united in the bargain basement leagues.
I hope that after all the turmoil and attention of the current Agents scandal that the regulations will get ever tighter, pushing the quick buck agent out of Football and forcing players advisors to improve the services they offer to their players.
Football Blogs and Sports Websites
Football Blogs and Sports Websites I have been trying to track down some of the top names in football and sports to see what websites/blogs they have. I'm quite surprised that the media marketing machines that back up these superstars have been so slow to secure their website domains or to develop their online presence. These players all have backlogs of great football action, goals, interviews and media attention.
With all the attention that Football is getting at the moment due to the corruption and scandals with Agents it might be interesting to analyze what Agents roles are. Old school media such as the printed newspaper and T/V are being transformed and converging with the new media such as Blogging, Podcasting and the Internet. With the ever increasing amount of Bandwith available for downloading on whatever device you like, it would make sense for any forward thinking Sports Agents and Marketing Companies to provide new media advice for their clients (footballers for example) rather than resting easily on their current lucrative fat pay cheques for brokering deals.
A glimpse at Rupert Murdochs, News Corporation (A giant of the Old School Media who own "The Sun", "The Times", "New York Post", "News of the World" and many other printed papers) recent acquisition of Myspace.com, the Social Networking phenomenon shows how old school media is waking up to the future.
Websites/Blogs from these players would make interesting reading for fans. Even the managers should be looking into this. They have a lot of relevant and interesting information that they could be putting out to the Sports World, especially after their retirement. While their careers are still in progress it can be a bit tricky to comment on other players, the team etc but certainly once a player or managers career has ended, it's a great opportunity to pass on their knowledge and stories to the fans. As many players/managers end up writing books, the web could be the perfect window to showcase or drip feed their stories into the media.
Franklampard.com - under development
Davidbeckham.com - domain is parked. No Site
Michaelowen.com - It exists - Hats off to his advisors
Michael Owens Blog - World Cup Blog
Ronaldo - under development
Ericcantona.com - Stolen!!
Ronaldinho - Great site
Ronaldinho Blog - World Cup Blog
Thierry Henry - Blog. Not sure whats going on here
Paul Gascoigne - Exists
Tigerwoods.com - Exists
Michaelschumacher - Exists
Rogerfederer.com - Exists
Pele.com - Great site. Well worth looking at!!If you know of any other websites or blogs from Football players, Sports superstars or Athletes, click on the comments tab below and I will add it to the list.
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How to Become a Professional Footballer
Football. The magical game, the escape from the ghetto, or the streets, to seek fame and fortune. Many youngsters idolize their footballing heroes, longing to become the next David Beckham or Michael Owen. But exactly how do you become a professional footballer?“I could have been a professional footballer, if it wasn’t for my dodgy knee, or my flat feet”. If I had a penny for every bloke up the pub that told me this line, I’d have my own private jet to fly back and forth from Belize in.
I believe that the way to become a professional footballer, in fact the way to reach the elite in any chosen career is to be passionate about what you do. You do not need to have your arm twisted to go to the training field and play in the freezing winter. You do not need to be scolded and cajoled into running the extra mile. But you do need to run the extra mile.
I started playing football when I was a toddler. As I grew up I had a natural love of the game. I couldn’t get enough of it. I would play 2, sometimes 3 games on the weekend. Saturday mornings, if the Wayland High School (Watton) had a match would be my first game. Then it was off to the local park in Ashill, in awe of the men playing in the first team, standing behind the goal kicking a ball up against the net, annoying the first team goalkeeper for Ashill. “If only I could get a game,” I would think to myself as the older guys strutted their stuff on the pitch. Then on a Sunday it was off to the next village to play in the youth football, from under 11s, all the way up to under 17s.
Of course it wasn’t long before I got to stand in front of the goal and start playing for the mens team in Ashill. I remember starting as a Sweeper, a position I absolutely loved. I had a big 6 foot, hard as nails centre half playing with me, who used to smash the opposition centre forward and I would drop off and pick up all the loose balls. Brilliant.
At this age, 14 or 15 years old I wasn’t really strong enough to compete physically with the men, although I did my best, and started to play in positions further up the field until ultimately becoming a striker.
But I always had a great “passion” for football. 3 games on the weekend was my ideal Saturday and Sunday. While friends went out to parties, I was totally dedicated to playing football. I would go out running in the evenings to get fitter, and never did I need someone to push me into doing this. I think most athletes and professional sportsman will tell the same story, that they just loved doing the thing they do.
Football has to be your hobby. You have to love doing it. Practice at every spare moment. Anyone can buy a ball and go into the yard and practice skills and flicks. Keeping the ball off the ground, kicking it against a wall, running with the ball until it feels as normal as running without it.
Practice, practice, practice. That is what you do when you are a professional, training 5 sometimes 6 days a week. So that is what you need to do before becoming a professional. If you want to be a dancer you stand in front of the mirror and practice your moves. If you want to become a singer you grab the shampoo bottle and sing your heart out at every possible opportunity. The same applies to football. In an ever more competitive sport, the pool of players to choose from is bigger, the quality of the players to choose from is better. You have to be the most dedicated athlete in the world to achieve this dream.
Of course you do need natural talent as well. I would never admit to being the most gifted player in the world but I was very dedicated. No matter how hard you try you cannot make a racehorse out of a donkey. It will soon become evident if you have what it takes to reach the top of your sport. You will coast through games, score bags of goals, be the outstanding player week after week. Then you will need belief in what you are doing. You will have to really believe that you can make it to the top.
Something that I never believed until it happened. I had a lot of determination and perseverance, but it never really crossed my mind that I could become a player until I walked through the front gate of St James Park with my kit bag. Even then I felt like an impostor in a world I should not have been in. Perhaps this was my downfall. Never really having enough belief. Never really feeling like I was a professional footballer.
But I was good enough to play over 300 professional matches and score over 130 goals. Practice was the foundation for everything I did. It almost felt that every cell in my body had to move into line and be synchronised to the exact movements required to perform the different skills in football. That training exercises were put in place to allow my mind to sub-consciously be aware of everything that needed to be done during a game, so that my conscious mind was free to deal with all the more complicated requirements of competing at an elite level.
When I watch amateur football I cannot help but wonder how much of an average players brain activity is used just focusing on controlling the ball. They have doubts in their minds because they are not sure that they will be able to deal with a ball coming at them at 30mph. Whereas a professional is hardly even thinking about this.Ronaldinho (check his website out) is not worried in the least that he will be unable to control the ball, no matter how hard it comes to him, or under whatever difficult circumstances he receives the ball. His brain is working on much more complicated problems, such as evading his marker, finding space, being alert to the whereabouts of his teammates. He is like a Chess Grandmaster, constantly planning ahead. If the ball comes here, he immediately knows his future options before it has happened.
Practice, practice, practice. It fine-tunes the body into performing routine tasks on the football field such as
· ball control
· striking the ball
· athletic prowess
· and teamwork
and it frees up the brain to deal with the more intricate parts of the game such as
· movement off the ball
· creating space
· weighing up all the future options on the pitch
For all young aspiring Footballers and Athletes and Singers and Dancers out there in the world,
· believe 100% in what you want to be
· have a passion for what you do (otherwise find another sport, hobby, job)
· and practice, practice, practice.
Good luck.
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More Articles :
How I became a Professional Footballer
Part 1 - Ashill to Kettering
Part 2 - Kettering to Newcastle
Part 3 - To the Toon (NUFC)
Part 4 - Life with Kevin Keegan
Part 5 - Goodbye NUFC, Hello the Baggies
Part 6 - Wembley here we come!!
My Retirement from Football
You Tube Video Sharing.
Just started messing around with You tube the online Video Upload/Sharing service. Not really sure what I am going to do with it but here is the newly created Jungle Dome Belize Video Channel
With some funny video from MTV Wildboyz. Plus Video from us, including the Howler Monkey Riding the Dog and Kayaking
With some funny video from MTV Wildboyz. Plus Video from us, including the Howler Monkey Riding the Dog and Kayaking
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