Jimmy Burns's Blog, page 29

The evasive Barca goal

Rumour has it that Guardiola and Mourinho share one thing in common at present: they want to qualify for the next round of the Champion's League as quickly as possible so as to focus their efforts when the battle for La Liga really gets underway early in the New Year- and when you have to draw on all your resources to compete in the early Spring with the other big guns in Europe.

While not just Real Madrid but Chelsea and Arsenal seemed to be firing on all cylinders this week, last night Barca struggled  to up their game against lesser mortals at the Camp Nou.

Sure Guardiola's men gave us their usual mix of glorious fluid passing, and there were moments to relish from Iniesta and Messi in particular- but I lost count of the goals that should have been scored but were not.  What should have been a duck shoot turned into a series of blank shots. The final 2-0 scoreline was pretty pathetic really given the nature of the opposition- Champions League freshmen who trail fifth in their own first division.

Last night Barca once again overplayed on too many occasions, when less elaborate moves , fed by a more self-evident killer instinct, might have led to a goal. Creativity without goals is self-indulgent exhibitionism, and it could cost Barca dearly late on in the season.

The Fox saga: Where was the civil service?

 

No doubt there will be even  more damaging  revelations to come about the Liam Fox saga  but so far one area of potential responsibility appears to be missing from the focus of reporting. Just what was the civil service including the spooks doing  during all this period of paid freebies and meeting involving the Secretary of State for Defence's  best man and unofficial adviser? Were any early warnings given and if so when and what? And if not why not? After all , what are legit and paid officials there for if not to advise their ministers and to ensure they operate within the rules? And what are the spooks there for but to warn about potential  dangers to national security emanating from unauthorised parallel diplomatic channels and other networks?

I reserve judgement on whether Cameron was right or wrong to hang on to Fox as long as he did. But Cameron seems forever  mindful of the mistakes , as well as achievements, of Tony Blair and I suspect , in acting how and when he did, he will have kept in mind the haste  with which Blair forced  Mandelson out of the cabinet in 2001 over the Hinduja passport affair, and the sour taste this left in certain quarters. You may remember Mandelson always protested he had done nothing wrong and was subsequently exonerated by an independent inquiry. It was clear by end of last week , if not days before, that Fox could count on no similar outcome.

Scotland vs Spain

Watching Scotland play Spain last night was a delight.

I can't think of a more genial bunch of fans than the Tartan Army. Two days on the Costa del Sol and they had won the hearts and minds of every local, with their harmless good cheer. No matter their players weren't quite up to the standards of their hosts.  Spaniards joined in the Scots singing, and even tried to  liven up the bagpipe with some rhythmic flamenco clapping.

Spain was quite simply beautiful to watch. This was a team that knows what it plays, and plays it to perfection. It's a team that can afford to leave Casillas and  Torres on the bench and do without Iniesta, Xavi Alonso, and Cesc Fabregas because of injury , and still hang together and deliver sublime football of creativity ,  movement and  delivery.

Spanish coach Vicente Del Bosque has succeeded in doing what no Spanish prime–minister in history has managed to do: draw together in a truly pluralistic and democratic national venture a group of Spaniards with extraordinary talent, who play for each other, as much as for themselves. Viva La Roja!

Mixed messages from the FT

It was good to see my former colleague John Gapper devoting his FT New York column to a measured, but ultimately supportive piece about the Occupy Wall Street protest. Good too on the FT's intrepid editor Lionel Barber for giving him the space.

To those not familiar with the pink-un, it might come as something of a surprise that this international business paper, which looks to the world's major corporations for some handy subscriptions and advertising, should have a piece praising the protest movement's "popular democracy", even while criticising its policies for either being "crazy"- closing the Federal Reserve- or of having little chance of gaining  wider support- socialised medicine and bank nationalisation.

"…There is something powerful in their idealism, " writes Gapper, "We must live with Wall Street and the banks on which economies rely to finance growth, but they express an undeniable truth." He added: "There is something wrong when a fresh round of bail-outs looms in Europe while citizens on both sides of the Atlantic remain alienated by the last one."

I guess more than one Wall Street banker would have choken on his corn flakes this morning just reading this alone.

Of course Gapper is not arguing for the overthrow of capitalism. The FT is not the Morning Star. But he is  saying that the world financial system needs to come up with some pretty radical ideas if it is to survive and that involves politicians listening more carefully to the protests outside the skyscrapers and not buckling to the complaints of the financial industry.

Gapper's piece is a reminder of just why the FT cannot just  be a good newspaper but a courageous one. The same cannot be said for its propagandist pro-Cameron editorial today  in praise of the pm's vacuous speech to the Tory party conference. Of a speech that had nothing on substance on how the government plans to restore growth, and ignored any allusion to the 'big society' as if the voluntary sector had ceased to exist, the FT leader writer concluded that Cameron's determination to stick to its economic plan was just what investors wanted to hear.Plus ca change.

Barca's Unanswered questions

Nothing like having a belated ten day holiday  in Sitges to meditate on the affairs of FC Barcelona. This is after all the town/village, just down the coast from the Catalan capital,  where much of the creative talent behind the region's great fortunes and modernism was developed. They say that long after los indianos -those who traded successfuly and built their palaces-painters and poets used to drink champagne watching the sunset and the sunrise.

Here too resided once the likes of Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho and Louis Van Gal and several Barca players courtesy of the one-time president and construction magnate Jose Luis Nunez whose apartment blocks still occupy prime territory near the golf course of Terramar and the Atlantida night club where Maradona enjoyed many a wild night.

I love to spend time in Sitges and I am not gay. It's stilll a place where, between walks along the promenade and swims in the sea-  people like to eat well, drown sundowners, and  pick up on good information. A well informed local estate agent tells me that these days it's unusual to have flats or houses occupied by Barca players or their coaches. The club under Guardiola likes to keep things closer to home, under tighter control. The last of the wild ones was Ronaldinho.

These days it's not the nocturnal excesses of players the club has to worry about. It's how to keep them motivated and fit enough to pull off another season of trophies amidst a fitness programme that is beginning to cripple  individual stars with the regularity of Afghan mines blowing up NATO soldiers. And then there is  a power struggle between two ambitious, vane, and rather irreconciable former running mates that threatens to develop into football's equivalent of a civil war.

Many a thinker, not least Miguel Unamuno, has meditated on the belief that history is made by a few powerful men, while a majority just sit back and watch or tear themselves apart following one leader or the other. The duel between Barca president and former president, Sandro Rosell and Joan Laporta respectively, for the hearts and minds of cules is turning ugly and potentially destructive. It cries out for mediation, but then one fears this might just simply end up burying the truth.

Rosell insists that Laporta must answer through the courts for his alleged financial mismanagement of the club and other personal eccentricities while at the helm. To do so he has sought and obtained the backing of the compromisarios, the so called members' representatives- a very small percentage of the total membership, and some hand-picked. It is  this 'popular' assembly (sic) that has just endorsed  the club's  sponsorship deal with Qatar (see my earlier blogs on this issue), and the no less controversial decision  to allow several thousand previously banned young fans into the Nou Camp, including members of the infamous boixos nois, on the condition that they are first vetted by the police- an additional cost to the already financially strapped socio.

Laporta , who expelled the boixos nois after receiving death threats from some of its members, for his part has confirmed himself as something of a political animal, pressing the case for Catalan independence in the regional parliament, while pointing a finger at the alleged dark forces of conspirators which he claims Rosell and his friends have mounted against the former ruling junta. A lawyer, Laporta is also threatening to counter-claim through the courts.

Catalan politics can be complex, but you could be forgiven if you found the current politics of Barca particularly confusing. So who is the real democrat : Rosell- who the Economist magazine this week claims has been involved in some questionable deals in Brazil – or Laporta whose legal firm stands accused of buttering up to a corrupt central asian despot , rather more corrupt tham Qatar's emir?

Democracy is actually sadly lacking in one important respect. No Catalan newspaper- and I include here the popular tabloid  Mundo Deportivo  and the serious broadsheet La  Vanguardia which together make up the bulk of  Barca readers , has made any effort to contribute to enlightening ordinary mortals with a piece of decent investigative journalism into any of the alleged claims and counter claims-and there eare  many more potential skeletons on both sides than the ones I have mentioned here. In Spain, only El Pais which in my view provides some of the most incisive and balanced  reporting on the football of Real Madrid and Barca-has had a shot at it, questioning the legitimacy of the presidents of both clubs.

Noone  meanwhile has had a real try at explaining why Barca is suffering so many injuries at such an early stage in the season, and what might be behind the longer-term vulnerabilities  of key players like Pujol. Could it be that the training programme is wrong? If so why? Are some injuries worse than we are being told and if so why are we being kept in the dark? Did Wenger know something about Cesc's long-term fitness that Guardiola didn't?

Perhaps  the reason not many people are asking these questions, let alone providing answers, is that Barca remains up there as the greatest team in the world,with enough fit players-Messi is still up and running-  still delivering a recipe of creative team work and magicial goals and victories that are a joy to watch. But other teams, not just Manchester United, are learning to play like Barca, and the original brand is likely to face much tougher competition as the weeks go on and other players fall injured. Perhaps only when Barca start really losing will we  get some real  answers. But democracy, this ain't.

Pep Guardiola: Football's Guru

Anyone expecting Pep Guardiola to make a bid for the presidency of Catalonia may have been disappointed by his speech to the Catalan parliament the other day, where he received a medal, honouring him or his professional work.

Pep's  short speech was short, articulate, and hugely inspirational. He was there to make clear the importance of  being passionate about what you do in life-however unimportant you think what you do is- , and to leave  us with no doubt that the one overriding passion in his life is football- playing it, managing it, watching it, breathing it, sleeping on it, sharing it.

Of course the fact that Pep said this in the context of his experience as a Barca player (formed in La Masia) and now manager, that he spoke in Catalan, and that he  ended declaring his faith in the future of Catalonia as a country in its own right put what he had to say on a different level to the usual bland commentaries we hear  week in week out from football players and managers around the world.

Listening to him I tried to imagine Ferguson or Mourinho speaking in similar terms to the Scottish or Portuguese parliaments (let alone the House of Commons or Madrid's Las Cortes! ) – it was an impossible task. While Pep's presence seemed natural, equivalent acts by Ferguson or Mourinho would not only have been unbelievable but also embarrassing.

FC Barcelona has political, cultural, and social identity written into its DNA. Nevertheless Pep is I think is only too aware that football is probably best left untouched by personal political ambition, and in Barca's case his mission needs to be focused in delivering the best possible football and ensuring that the club does not simply become a vehicle of a crude kind of antagonistic nationalism that excludes its claim to universality and squanders its global popularity. Pep spoke less as a champion, than a wise man- football's true guru.

9/11: Ten years on

 

The day the Twin towers were attacked I was with Tony Blair.

I was in Brighton sent by the FT to cover the TUC annual conference. I have a vivid image of the PM and his entourage changing plans on the hoof and turning round from a speech he was due to give to trade unionists on New Labour's latest reform agenda as the images came live on TV. He and his team rushed past me and a group of fellow journalists and headed back to London.

Reflecting on that moment ten years on , Blair defended the actions taken in the wake of the attack, and insisted that to blame the subsequent US-led 'war on terror' for radicalising  Muslims was naive in the extreme.  I agree with him, but perhaps not exactly in the way he would like me to.

It is only too easy ten years on to focus on the subsequent failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to digest uncomfortably over breakfast the daily recipe of reports about cases of illegal rendition and torture which seem to paint yesterday's terrorist as today's violated hero. Those of us who, as journalists,  have had to cover terrororism suspects in court will know of  their individual stories of radicalisation post 9/11, as well as of the responsibility of those who encouraged them to murder. All this now forms a part of our history as indeed do other developments of the last ten years which arguably will have more of an impact long-term on the shape that our world takes such as the growing power of China, India, and Brazil- and by contrast the sense of financial, social, and political crisis with which the US and western Europe seem to be struggling with.

But it's worth reminding ourselves of the sheer horror of  9/11 and how it was the product less of a legitimate sense of grievance against US imperialism by the developing world (and not even that could  justify what happened) than  a carefully planned operation prepared by the propagators of a medieval fundamentalism bent on carnage on a mass scale against human beings across nations.

To blame Blair is to be sunk into a false sense of  complacency and to underestimate the continuing challenge to our security posed by violent fundamentalists ,notwithstanding  the death  of Bin laden and the positive shoots of the Middle East uprisings.

Qatar and Barca

I  remember back in the summer of 2003 attending a press conference organised by the Elefant Blau during the FC Barcelona presidential election campaign at which the then candidate Joan Laporta sat side by side with his running mate Sandro Rosell.

There was a sense of positive expectation. The Elefant Blau had made huge a huge advance on the collective consciousness of football fans worldwide as a grassroots movement that believed in democracy , transparency , and financial accountability. A new era was beckoning after decades during which Barca 's image as mes que un club had ended up being rather tarnished by the despotic  rule and alleged financial irregularities of Jose Luis Nunez.

No matter that Laporta was a little known lawyer with a father in law strongly associated with the Franco regime, or that Rosell was a senior executive with Nike, or that their campaign had ended up predicated on a false promise that David Beckham was on his way to Barca and not Real Madrid. Instead of Beckham, the Elefant Blau delivered on Ronaldinho  which after all seemed a more logical arrangement  given Rosell's strong commercial ties with Brazilian football at the time.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Laporta went on to be elected  and he fell out big time with Rosell who then succeeded him as president, and the two men ended up throwing a great deal of mud at each other . The  unresolved and rather unpleasant legal battle of action and counter action  has  done the reputation of either men not much good although there is little sign of a tactical reconciliation.

On the contrary Rosell continues to generate opposition over his decision to strike a massive sponsorship deal with Qatar. No matter that Pep Guardiola was once a player in Qatar, and helped support the arab country's  controversial  bid for the 2022 World Cup or that an alleged  whistleblower confessed earlier this summer that she had invented claims of bribery of FIFA votes or that  Qatar  was cited by the Financial Times  last week as a key supporter of the beloved Libyan revolution, having armed and financed anti-Gaddafy rebels.

For the critics, the image of Qatar is of an autocratic state that mistreats its women and its foreign workers and which is at odds with FC Barcelona's identity with democracy and the 'purity' of its shirt. It's a debate that is being fuelled by former allies of Laporta who nonetheless should realise that Rosell's presidency will remain pretty unassailable as long as Barca continues to win trophies and dazzle the world with the brilliance  of its football not least that played by the club's recent not inexpensive signing Cesc Fabregas.

Lourdes revisited (with thanks to Fr Nicholas King S.J.)

A week away from one's daily existence seems all that much longer a break when it has been spent in Lourdes and I write this now while the experience is not only still fresh in my mind but also hopefully resistant to old habits settling in  again.

Pilgrimage is a journey and a discovery, and how ever many times I return to this holy enclave in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the process endures- each trip providing both renewal and a fresh encounter in most unexpected ways. It is in the pleasant surprises breaking through the pain and heartache and dark clouds of foreboding that Lourdes reaches out and converts. Therein lays its deepest mystery.

To the uninitiated, first encounters can be off-putting. The numerous gift shops with items ranging from cuddly toys making wolf-whistles to luminous virgins with moving eyes, the cafe waiters touting for business as if the menu de jour had turned into a bordello, the hotels with their neon lights and piped music- these are all scenes that seem to collectively conspire against any sense of mystical experience.

And then there are the crowds, testing one's tolerance of fellow men and women to its limit. Visitors to Lourdes are not an orderly, quiet lot on the whole. The Italians and French make it clear they are the dominant occupying force in a loud acquisitive manner more suited to a busy urban shopping centre than a small town made famous by a shrine.

And yet to survive this –as we all do-without losing one's patience or temper before entering  the domain  of sanctuaries and   holy grotto at its centre is to experience a rite of passage away from the maddening crowd and into another kind of humanity where faith rather than money calls the shots.

It is here, in and around the Grotto-where the  14 year old shepherdess Bernadette Subirous saw her 'lady' in the niche in 1858- that Lourdes delivers its most moving engagement between those in need of help and those prepared to give it . Together they contribute to a rich tapestry of interconnected prayer services and cleansing rituals: from masses and torch lights processions, to more intimate candle offerings  or washing in the waters.  If Lourdes helps you to spend a long week without feeling it necessary to check on emails, phone texts, and keep up with 24 hours TV news it is because it connects you in its own way to a world one had forgotten to see or listen to, where the inner self and that of the 'other' engage in a more positive, uncluttered , and profound dialogue.

Each one of us returns from Lourdes, cherishing those moments of pleasant surprise I referred to earlier which can prove both humbling and inspirational. While these moments can be, by their very nature, intensely personal, they also touch us collectively, and manage in the process to rekindle our faith in a God of love.

Some of my own pleasant surprises came from experiencing at first-hand the  pain of others, along with the self-less dedication of fellow volunteers –old and young-to those in their care, and  the sick or disabled's  own loving response, however  late the hour, however much the suffering that had been gone through or was undoubtedly still to come. But carers also found the space and time to talk to each other in a way that no social network could possibly facilitate. They rediscovered more about their true selves, regardless of social position or job title.

Somehow our souls are nourished by the place just as Bernadette's was. In the late hours we are surprised by Lourdes and come away with an inner joy we feel we should share with others.  In the week I switched off my I-Pod. TV, and computer, the grotto late at night shone with a quiet brilliance, the dappled dawn brought its own testament to God's Glory as did the stillness I rediscovered with fellow pilgrims (all of them half my age) at the summit of the Pic du Jer with its panoramic view of the beautiful landscape surrounding Lourdes.  Not all of us slept through the big thunderstorm the next night but once it was over, the river had regained its strength and clarity. Carers and cared for-pilgrims all-seemed drawn to it.  The bend in it, held us in prayer.

Published in The Tablet 2/9/2011

La Liga: Another two horse race

There are many months ahead filled with potential pitfalls-not least injuries and general exhaustion brought on by an increasingly manic schedule-but the opening La Liga games have provided some tantalising clues as to what awaits us.

Building on their performances in the Super Cup, both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have got off to an impressive start that suggest not only that La Liga will be a battle royal between them, but that they will also prove difficult to beat in the Champions League.

But first let us not forget that the second leg August Super Cup  encounter between Real Madrid and Barca at the Camp Nou ended in another nasty brawl  between the players, and Mourinho caught on camera almost poking Guardiola's  friend and assistant Tito Vilanova's  eye out.

FC Barcelona's president Sandro Rosell continues to show extraordinary restraint in his reactions as does Pep Guardiola, both men calculating perhaps that Barca's image and brand as mes que un club relies on a certain ethos of civility. Meanwhile, if Mourinho continues not only to be tolerated but also supported by President Florentino Perez and vocal Real Madrid fans it is because his psychological tactics are a mere sideshow to the reality of the team he has built up.

Easy as it might seem for cules to caricature Mourinho as a hooligan, there is no doubting that Real Madrid is playing much better than it did last season, and playing with style, cohesion, and real hunger for goals. They also have strength in depth which can allow Mourinho to plan for the long-haul with justified confidence.

All of the above can be applicable to Barca although psychologically it is more difficult to maintain hunger when you have had a feast-and Barca's trophy cupboard is almost overflowing. The two summer signings, Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez have fitted into the team with the ease of missing pieces into a virtually completed puzzle (watching Fabregas score in his first two games alongside his Catalan colleagues has made poor Wenger's situation look even more miserable while bringing huge excitement to the Nou Camp) , but Barca remains injury-prone and dependent on Messi as playmaker and goal scorer. It will be interesting to watch in what circumstances Guardiola rests Messi on the bench. He certainly wont want to be without him in the latter stages of the season.

In terms of quality and potential little separates Mourinho's Real Madrid from Guardiola's Barca  and great games of football involving each team lie ahead both in La Liga and in the Champions League although further encounters between the two clubs could well turn even uglier, as Guardiola seemed to suggest after the last battle at the Nou Camp.