Clarke one nil

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Welcome to the daily Leeds United comment feature, today we again promote a worthy cause.

As you read various articles on football, particularly Leeds United, sometimes it’s hard not to get cynical and depressed. However occasionally that turns around and you see the other side. For example I recently read that David Batty spends his time on charity activities including been involved in advertising campaigns for Cancer Research.

Another one of our ex players involved in charity fundraising is Danny Mills, something he was invloved in whilst still a professional footballer. He is presently involved in preparing to race the Brighton Marathon in a wheelchair on the 18th April. The Just Giving Link for Danny Mills’ efforts can be found here http://www.justgiving.com/dannymillswheelchairmarathon and is in the Clarkeonenil blogroll, when I checked earlier it had a total of £751 pledeged so far. I think this is a bit low given the causes and effort involved (and if every one who reads here donated a £1 that would be £1000 a day!). Therefore I decided to give over today’s Daily Contribution to advertise the cause and sponsor link again.

Below are the words of Danny Mills himself on why he is doing it:

“Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Danny Mills”

Please sponsor Danny Mills and support his efforts and causes. Thank You.

Editor Michael.

Leeds City fan.

In this weeks Teenage Kicks In our young writer Darragh Mullen combines poetry, football and Irish history to make a point.

It’s funny how poetry can last the test of time. Those of you familiar with the great Irish poet W.B Yeats will also be familiar with his poem September 1913 where he greatly criticises Irishmen for their lack of passion in campaign for change. Many people years before had given their lives in an attempt to gain a Free Republic but at the time he was left with people content with what they had even though ultimately it was not what everybody wanted. I can’t help drawing comparisons though with such a symbolic poem and Leeds United today! This year we found out that we actually don’t know who owns our club and we were reminded what we already knew that our Glorified Funds Manager was not trustworthy. The worst part about it is that nobody seems to care all too much or at least nothing is being done away from the keyboard.

I don’t think I need to say anything on how bad Bates is or how important it is for us to know who our owners are because to be honest, I am sick myself of reading articles on it. The bone that I have to pick is the absolute lack of action taken by people in and around the Elland Road area. Like last week, I will reiterate the Green and Gold campaign and the Scouser’s billboards because they are two clear cut examples of fans acting out against their chairmen. To date there has been no public protests from Leeds fans in an attempt to find information about anything really. Websites have been created, newspapers have been banned an many an Internet blog has given its valid opinion but nobody seems willing to grab this by the balls ls and pull everybody along with them. We have no leader willing to tackle this in person. We are supposedly the best fans in the world and our support of a team in league 1 in such high attendances is meant to be a credit to us all. We read about Gary the superfan who has only missed one game in however many years but apparently when it comes to owning the club its none of our business and theres no point in trying to find out. Also when it comes to a snake running our club it doesn’t really matter as long as nothing terrible happens. It doesn’t matter if we don’t own our stadium and we have missed the first deadline to buy back our training ground but as long as Bates has “stabilised” the club its ok. Let’s not cause a fuss!

Putting it bluntly, action taken on the Internet is not action taken at all. As one individual writing one blog I do not make a difference in the scheme of things Leeds United and I have to accept that as a part of life. I only get to Elland Road on average once a season anyway so its fair to say that my input into the club is far less than the majority of fans, especially those who are there week in week out. I would like to think that personally if I did live across the other side of the Irish Sea that I would get there more often but then again who is to say really. When it comes down to it there are many more Leeds fans out there who are far more influential than me. My point is that its these people who need to do something even if its through the Square Ball or LLHB. I have no idea the names of the people who organised the Green and Gold campaign but as much as some of you may hate to admit it, it is damn well impressive. It is a simple idea that is growing by the day as more and more people do something so simple yet so symbolic and when a player who is loved as much as Beckham puts on a green and gold scarf (be it on purpose or without realising it) it makes the front page of every sports page in the country and many more worldwide. What Leeds lack is a good campaign and an original idea and its going to need someone or some people to step up to the challenge and grab it by the scruff of the neck. You can’t leave it to The Guardian and David Conn, who is not even a Leeds fan, to try and lead a campaign against Bates. LLHB or somebody needs to stop talking about doing something and actually do something. We cannot just sit back and leave it to Bates to hope things turn out right because if we do then I guarantee that there will not be a happy ending in store. Yeats finishes with “Romantic Ireland is dead and gone, it’s with O Leary in the grave.” Our passion seems to have died with Ridsdale and as of yet I see no evidence of it returning.

looks so good on the page...

This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

Today we look at the latest set of idiocies to stalk the world of English football, we had so many to choose from just getting it down to 8 was an achievement in itself! Hope you like the new amalgamation approach.

We start where we always start, at Leeds United. When you’re the Monaco based chairman of the only club in the top 4 divisions where the beneficial owners are not known and you want to release a new profile photo do you a) pose with the manager who could be squeaking you out of the division your idiocy pushed us into in the first place, b) place yourself in the middle of a group of players wafting a contract around with figures that would look generous in the top half of the CCC or c) with the designs and drawings of a construction project that no-one believes will ever get built. The answer is: http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20100310/its-a-big-few-weeks-for-all-chairman_2247585_1989734, c). Well did you expect anything else? Meanwhile about 6 miles down the road.

I’m no financial expert but I’m pretty sure 0% is less than any number between 1 and 99%. So why has the administrator turned down the only offer on the table at Farsley Celtic and closed down the club Chester City style (but without the accompanying fanfare)? Apparently the offer fell “short of what was acceptable to creditors”, well clearly getting sweet nothing is more acceptable so that is ok then, Farsley can reform 3 divisions lower and the creditors can pride themselves on standing firm. Shame about the ground not being designated for housing isn’t it Mr Administrator. There is a similar ground/club disconnection down on the South Coast.

There was a lovely line from the Portsmouth administrator at the press conference yesterday that announced that 85 people, all on about 1% of what the players are on, were made redundant. He basically said that more would be forthcoming “should Portsmouth be relegated”, priceless. “Should”, my 2 year old can register they will be. So those who got off lightly yesterday know they have about 7 weeks before they are also jettisoned. Meanwhile Peter Storrie, the man most responsible for the mess is still at the club, but don’t worry he has kindly offered a 40% pay cut, unfortunately for the PR boys the fact remains if he’d been sacked his £1.2m salary would have covered all the 85 people now feeling betrayed. Betrayal of course comes in many forms as the manager of Liverpool knows only too well.

Poor Benetiz, if it’s not the owners only giving him £250m to spend, if it’s not the players and their damm silly “body language”, if it’s not Wigan Athletic chairmen poking his nose into Liverpool’s business then it must be the press’ turn to be responsible for the dismal results this season. The latest attempt to deprive Liverpool of their rightful place as PL winners was the outrageous question about Gerrard’s V sign. Clearly the ref saw it, clearly he decided that despite every other footballer on the planet would get a straight red, because of the “Gerrard Defence” (I can do what I like because I’m famous, precedent set in Chester Crown Court in September) it’s obviously acceptable for the England Vice-Captain to communicate with the referee like that! Abnormal behaviour is also acceptable at Cardiff City.

Did the QC for HMRC plan in advance the line “they are robbing Paul to pay Peter”, well obviously not or he would have put it that that around rather than using the traditional way. There was still enough to amuse in the Recorder’s words, she expressed disbelief in the miracle of a Malaysian businessman just popping up with £6m in the next few weeks. Its end-game time for Peter Ridsdale and company, administration is probably weeks away (I suspect Ridsdale is stupid enough to wait until the team look like they might sneak the last play-off place before cutting the legs from under them) and with it the end of a career in football for someone who should never been allowed near the sport in the first place. Equally how did Rupert Lowe get back into football so quickly?

Sorry my mistake that posh sounding shifty looking bloke outside the High Court was in fact Southend United’s chairman Ron Martin, although it took a couple of takes to be sure. This is the supreme idiocy, trying to raise less than £200k on the basis of a supermarket buying the ground you’re going to be playing on for decades to come. Still with only 35 days to go before winding-up we at least know Southend’s relegation will be confirmed by administration before then and season’s end. One hopes the demonstration on Saturday is well attended, after all if been told in court the club is insolvent isn’t enough to arouse the fans out of the fantasy of a new stadium and the PL soon then what is? Another place you can find a lack of reality is Hereford United.

The problem with having a mainstay who becomes an institution at the club is that it becomes too tempting to use them again. Similar to Crewe Alexandra and Dario Gradi, it seems Graham Turner has taken over the reins again at Hereford. Now I’m not sure about this but it seems to me that given relegation to their natural home of the conference isn’t happening this season the sacking of John Trewick is a touch harsh. Small squad, no money to spend, geographically off the main drag of football I don’t see what the locals expected, maybe there is a multi-millionaire cider maker out there, and maybe he can buy them Joe Cole.

Now although this is a “stupidity run riot” special we do have to acknowledge where the opposite accrues. Take Chelsea who seem to have finally woken up from the largesse days and are now offering much more realistic contracts. So Mr Cole J and Mr Ballack are been offered real cuts in the terms on offer whilst Mr Anelka is only been offered a one year contract extension. Factor in the lack of signings in January and you wonder if Peter Kenyon ran off with all the money. Maybe Manchester United and others will follow suit, maybe just maybe, Ferdinand, Terry, Gallas and Wright-Phillips are all about to find out just how overpaid everyone of them was when their next contract offer arrives. Truly that would be genius to balance the stupidity of the last 15 years!

So fit it hurts so proper its amazing.

Welcome to Clarkeonenil’s daily comment feature on all things Leeds United, today Graeme Garvey takes on the “fit and proper” regulations.

If you want to own or run a football club, do you have to be a good person? No. Do you have to be an honest person? No. Do you have to be a friendly person, a bit of laugh, always ready to help out when a mate’s in need? No and, like for the other two, the answer is official. All you need to be is ‘a fit and proper person’. ‘A fit and proper person’, eh? The phrase is so grand that it makes you think that such wondrous things as owning or running a football club cannot be for mere mortals like you or me.

A fit and proper person! We’ve got some of them at the helm of Leeds United – and that’s also official – so it’s probably a good idea to find out exactly what one is or is not. Over to last week’s Guardian, – The League confirmed it had written to Leeds seeking clarification because directors and 30% shareholders in its clubs must be identified to it and passed as fit and proper people who have no recent criminal convictions and have not run a football club into insolvency twice. The League made no further comment until a spokesman said last month: “The Football League has concluded its enquiries regarding Leeds United’s fit and proper persons test documentation and has addressed the issues raised with the club. Following further information from Leeds, the League is now satisfied that the club is compliant with Football League regulations.”

Lots of words there. Sometimes the Guardian forgets that many of the people it is writing for haven’t got all day and all night but the first thing that jumps out is that ‘fit and proper people’ have no RECENT criminal convictions. Just by needing to mention criminal convictions shows the type of person we’re dealing with here. It reminds me of the old joke about the man who, on trying to enter Australia is asked by Customs if he has a criminal record and he replies, ‘I didn’t know you still needed one.’

Then there is that other beauty; fit and proper people have not run a football club into insolvency TWICE. Phew, we only just squeak through on that at Leeds, don’t we? “Just one case of insolvency to be taken into consideration, Your Honour.” Can happen to the best of us, can’t it? And, again, why talk of such things if that isn’t exactly the type of person the Football League are dealing with?

A fit and proper person, then, is not quite the wonderful soul we might first have imagined and how unhappy the League were when they were forced to admit that the person or persons who hold our cherished club by the proverbials had not made a habit of doing these bad things. So the Football League had to just grin and bear it. The words in the statement give that away. No, “We are delighted to say that Leeds United AFC is run by good, honest and friendly people.” Not even, “Leeds United is run by fit and proper people.” Instead, “The League is now satisfied that the club is compliant with Football League regulations.” Or something to the effect that “you’ve got away with it this time.”

Not a resounding statement from the League in endorsement of the powerbrokers at the club, then. And our friend, Lord Mawhinney’s packing it in anyway. A Ph. D. in radiation physics is no help when you dealing with fit and proper people. I can well imagine the scene as the chosen few at the Football League were allowed to look into the Cluedo envelope and gaze at the list of name/s of the true owner/s, then they just sighed and put it back in, shaking their heads. But we must spare a thought in all this for our noble Chairman. It must have been awfully horrid to be in his position and not to have known who owned your club. And this guy’s had a bit of a bad press from some. Anyone who wanted to put up electric fences to keep in Chelsea fans cannot be totally bad, can they? In fact, he might even be ‘a fit and proper person’. I don’t think he’s had any recent criminal convictions has he? And he’s only run the club into insolvency once. No, the more I think about it, the more I realise he’s the fit and proper kind of guy you need, always on the look-out for shysters who are trying to do us down. And, in Ken’s world, there are shysters everywhere, from our own doorstep in Leeds to the frozen wastes of Siberia.

There might be those who have been beaten down by the ownership saga, who can’t follow it all or possibly don’t even care. Good thing for them that there are others who can and do. The justification for it being a good thing in the case of our club lies in the final part of the Guardian extract where the League had to keep going back to Leeds until they eventually got the documentation they needed to finally convince them that it wasn’t run by CONVICTED felons dragging it down yet again. Without trying to make it like some Hollywood tosh with sugary music swilling along in the background, once we stop challenging people who truly are not fit and proper in the real world, we’re talking about a whole society being lost not just a football club.

Rather than pay the slightest attention to the fatuous ‘You’re not famous any more’ chants, a much more hurtful one would be, ‘Who owns yer?’

Could be 56 days or 35 days, could be whenever.

and a reminder to all Leeds United fans just how lucky we were the HMRC hardline happened after our 2007 stunt (well more like as a consequence):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/gordonfarquhar/2010/03/chester_city_gone_in_30_second.html

Its only the start.