411's Football/Soccer Fact or Fiction 2.14.08: Replay, Ronaldo, And Remote Locations

Posted by Sean Garmer on 02.14.2008

Another week of Footy Fact or Fiction. This week, Arnold Furious and Taareq Elsokari debate about replay in the game, Premier League going abroad, Tom Hicks at Liverpool and more. One of the questions even introduces the word faction, what is that?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, This however, has nothing to do with the day of love, its about Football or Soccer for some. Could you imagine your favorite Premier League squad playing a league game away from England? How about the use of replay? Those are just some of the tough questions asked in this week's Footy Fact or Fiction. Here to take the challenge are two boys from the UK, come on, let's meet them.


First up is a pretty well known man around these parts and a proud Evertonian, Arnold Furious With his occasional RAW Reports and his column Furious Flashbacks Where he looks at old shows from independent organizations such as IWA-Mid South, among others. He also has a great column in the Movies Zone called Furious on Film Where he takes three movies and talks about them from various ways as well.

In the other corner, Taareq Elsokari A big time footy fan and Manchester United supporter. Taareq formerly wrote the Thursday Kick-Off for the Sports Zone. He still participates heavily in all the Footy roundtables and the footy fourms though.


Well, here we go…


1. At some point this year, someone not named Tom Hicks will own Liverpool?


Arnold Furious: FICTION While I assume Hicks is in this for a short term gain, which is probably a wise bit of financial wheeler-dealing, getting a new buyer would be dependant on the club's infrastructure and playing staff being up to scratch. Anyone who comes in doesn't want to come in to a team that is underachieving. This Liverpool team simply isn't where it should be. Given the huge investment in the team they've not been consistent enough on the pitch. If Hicks wants to maximise his investment then he needs to get improvement before he sells thus driving the value of the club up to a level where he'd make the most amount of money possible. I don't see Liverpool being worth as much as they could be by the end of this season. After all they'll be lucky to be involved in any sort of race come the end of the season. While they should easily win 4th place they're currently competing with city rivals Everton, nearby Man City and Aston Villa. None of those teams have spent anywhere near what Liverpool have on players in recent years. None of them. In fact Liverpool's spending is more in line with the top sides like Chelski and Man Utd. They have to get results on the field. If Rafa Benitez can't do that then Hicks has to think about changing his manager. Which I'm sure he's already considered having spoken to Jurgen Klinsmann. I think it's more likely we'll have a new manager at Liverpool next season rather than a new owner.

Taareq Elsokari: FACT These Dubai Sheikhs rumours aren't going away, in fact they are getting much stronger. Hicks's position with the Liverpool support base is already in a bad state and so him cutting his losses and running isn't much of a long shot. But any chance of selling will need to be supported by Gillette and the question would be if Hicks really does want out will Gillette buy him out, agree to be 50/50 with another investor that he hasn't dealt with in the past or will he also just sell up and leave altogether. I agree with Arnold that it's more likely that Rafa will not be managing Liverpool come Summertime but i think that won't be the only change in the Liverpool hierachy.


2. Playing an extra game abroad is a bad thing for the Premiership?


Arnold Furious: FACT There are too many games in the Premiership already. In fact there are too many teams. I think the division would benefit from losing two teams. After all the number of fixtures for the top sides seem to grow every season what with European football. Plus having these type of games all over the world will just lead to jet-lag and tired players having more issues along those lines. Does the top flight really need all of these teams: Derby, Fulham, Reading, Birmingham, Wigan, Sunderland, Bolton, Middlesbrough? Eight sides there. You could lose six quite easily. After all if this lottery comes off what foreign country is going to want to see Wigan v Bolton or Sunderland v Reading? If they want to cash in on foreign markets then they need to reduce the size of the division first.

Taareq Elsokari: FACT Overexposure is a risk but also burn out and revolt from the clubs is another. This extra game could easily be treated much like the Carling Cup with clubs sending out weaker sides in order to preserve their stars and key players for the other 38 games on home soil. But also, imagine a case in point where the relegation battle comes down to this 39th game and only a point is needed by, say Sunderland, to stay in the Premiership. They are also neck and neck with Reading who need to win the game to stay up. Game 39th is drawn and Sunderland get an easy game against already relegated Derby and Reading get drawn to play Chelsea. It's most likely going to be bye bye Reading in that case.

I just think that this is a hugely silly idea as don't forget if the Premiership will want to go abroad and play games what's stopping La Liga or Serie A from doing the same right here.


3. When Drogba returns to the squad, he and Nicolas Anelka will become the best striker partnership in the Prem?


Arnold Furious: FICTION I can't go fact on this one although I'm tempted. Chelski signed Anelka for the sole purpose of covering for Drogba because they didn't have enough faith in Pizarro to do so. Anelka and Drogba are very similar players. Although Drogba is far more skilful and is also stronger. I wouldn't be surprised to see Anelka demoted to the bench when Drogba is available. After all Chelski still have Wright-Phillips, Joe Cole and Malouda competing for those wide positions. Not to mention Shevchenko. I think if Anelka is expecting to start every game he'll be in for a rude awakening. But given Drogba's fitness levels this year there's every chance Chelski will go with Anelka quite frequently. They certainly value him above Shevchenko and Pizarro because he's a far more varied and consistent player. But Drogba is absolutely world class and building a team around him usually means leaving him up top alone and playing players off him. Unless Nic wants to settle for a lesser role in a wide position I don't see a partnership developing. At least not this season. Maybe next year Avram Grant will have the chance to change his formation and his playing staff. I think he'd like to play 4-4-2 but the players Chelski have are better accommodated in 4-3-2-1. After all if you have Ballack, Lampard, Essien and Makelele where do you play them all?

Taareq Elsokari: FICTION I say fiction due to the fact that Drogba seems to want to leave again and this time it might actually happen. That would leave him and Anelka only about three months to actually strike up a partnership which isn't enough time to become the best. I also agree with Arnold that Anelka might start spending more time warming the bench once Drogba is back and Sheva is fit again. Not much more to say here except it's not going to happen, plus Keane and Berbatov seem to be the in form partnership at the moment.


Where's the Substitution?


4. Football/Soccer should never institute any kind of replay (Including Goal Line Technology)?


Taareq Elsokari: FACTION Well sort of Fact and Fiction together. You see at the games now we have not only a fourth official but also now a fifth official. The question to be asked what is this fifth official doing at the game? Why not have this guy sitting in the tunnel watching the game on one of the loads of monitors down there and simply radio to the referee that it was a penalty or a free-kick or the ball did cross the line. Having this scenario you limit the problem of stopping the game for 30 seconds or more to review the video evidence and then restart the game.

Arnold Furious: FACTION I agree with Taareq here. I don't think any technology should ever be used that requires the game to be stopped. BUT if you have a guy watching the game, say to study the referee as I believe the extra official would be there for, then they could review controversial decisions involving the ball crossing the line and call back play if someone scored. I don't think it should be on an appeal basis and should only involve goal line decisions. If we start questioning penalties and fouls then the game will lose all of its flow. Besides these things are opinion based anyway. I see replays of fouls and say they're not fouls but there's Andy Gray on TV saying they are. Who's right? The ref went one way, the commentator the other. I sometimes agree with one, sometimes the other. So it could only work on goal line decisions. There have been some serious breaches of justice in the game. The one that really springs to mind being the one where Roy Carroll scooped the ball out from about 3 foot over the line but no officials were up with play so it wasn't called a goal.


5. Cristiano Ronaldo will cement his place as the World's #1 player at Euro 2008?


Taareq Elsokari: FACT Well only if his efforts don't lead Man Utd to Champions League glory before hand. It's no secret that he has an incredible 18 months. He has cemented himself as the best player in the Premiership as well as in the top 3 with regards to both European and World football. His record for Portugal is simply amazing and in qualifying his goals were a major reason that Portugal will be in Austria/Switzerland. A decent run to the Semi or beyond with a few goals here and there and he might just be regarded as the top player in the world.

Arnold Furious: FICTION He'll have already cemented his place by then. Besides major tournaments aren't always the greatest of hunting grounds for top players. Look at Ronaldinho's lack of success in major tournaments. Even when Brazil won the World Cup with him in the team he wasn't playing well and yet he was undisputed as the best player the world had to offer for some time. I think people look back at tournaments when one player was amazing (Pele, or Maradona in 1986 or Roberto Baggio) and say the tournament made them the best player in the world. No, they were already the best player in the world. The tournament just happened to coincide with that. I've no doubt that Ronaldo will receive harsh marking during Euro '08 and he'll find it hard going but the cream does always rise. My one concern for him not being the star of the tournament is that Portugal probably aren't going to win the thing. Whereas Maradona was a great player in a great team. Same with Pele. Ronaldo might be more relegated to being this generation's Eusebio. That doesn't mean he isn't the best player in the world, because he is, but I don't necessarily expect him to be the star player at Euro 2008. But even if he isn't the star he's still the best player.


6. Inter Milan have their best chance ever to win the Champions League?


Taareq Elsokari: FICTION Inter are in awesome form this season but Serie A isn't the challenge it once was right now. Their form in this seasons Champions League was again excellent but I just think that against a team of top quality they might come up short. I do think they will beat Liverpool, and make hard work of it, but its going further than that is where their problem might be and I think this isn't going to be their season.

Arnold Furious: FICTION You need only look at last year's champion's league to realise that just being the best team from your domestic league is no guarantee of glory. After all both finalists in 2007 had bad domestic seasons. It allowed them to focus on the champion's league. I personally think that makes a bit of a sham of the competition but that's what the champion's league has become. As for Inter personally; yes they're doing very well domestically despite a shaky defensive record and they've done well in Europe so far. But the group they were drawn in wasn't particularly strong and I don't think they've faced a major challenge yet. Speaking of major challenges; Anfield on a big European night is a hard, hard game for any team. A lot of top sides have gone to Anfield and crumbled under the pressure. It'll be a big challenge for Inter especially with Liverpool desperate for European success because their domestic campaign is going so badly.


4 out of 6 isn't bad, we had a little bit more disagreement this week. I wonder what will be in store for the next FOF? Tune in later to find out.