Jimmy Burns's Blog, page 35

A Royal Day to Celebrate

This is an English version of an Opinion piece which I have written for Spain's El Mundo newspaper as part of their coverage of the Royal engagement.

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Football in contrasts

Barca were on form and did well on Saturday  to beat  Villareal-in my view the third best team in La Liga at present, and not just in points. Real Madrid seemed to have lost their spark on Sunday  playing  scrappily against the near demotion but brave and resilient Sporting, and didn't deserve their belated winning goal. Guardiola showed his usual respect towards his players, his fans, and the opponent while former FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta ,watched the game at the Nou Camp,  like any other ordinary member- that is to say , away from the presidential box. Up in Gijon, Mourinho culminated a week of gratuitous insults and provocation by seeing out the first of a two-match ban, staring at the world through presumably shatter-proof glass.

A study in contrasts in one paragraph which forms part of an ongoing narrative of rivalry and tension, of brilliance and mediocrity, stardom, teamwork and disfunctionality in a football league dominated  by Spain's two clubs which are gearing up like metaphysical warriors to the next 'Classico.' It would be good to see Casillas, Xavi Alonso and Sergio Ramos embracing their national team colleagues in the Nou Camp tunnel just as the Villareal World Cup veterans did on Saturday. It would be a noble gesture which should not affect the quality of the football match that follows.

The must watch football match

So Spain's football authorities-with the agreement of the respective clubs-have switched the date of the next 'Classico' between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou at this end of this month from the weekend to the Monday.

To have held it on the Saturday or the Sunday would have coincided with the staging of the highly emotive Catalan regional elections, thus guaranteeing the event being turned into a potential political battleground.

Politics and history is  of course partly responsible for making this one of the high points of the football season- but it's also about two great football teams-arguably the world's best- playing each other. The decision fits in with new Barca president Sandro Rosell's wish to have Barcia judged for its quality first and foremost and not as an adjunct to a political party as his radicalised predecessor Joan Laporta tried to do.

But officials hoping to 'defuse' this year's encounter may be engaging in wishful thinking. In the aftermath of the Catalan elections, and with Mourinho present, it's going to be combustible anyway. I just hope we can see some decent football. It should be a cracker and I have cleared my diary to be there if I can.

Street fighting man

So thousands of students have taken to the streets of London and some people have proved more anarchic than others, occupying  political party buildings, and clashing with the police.

I celebrate the fact that  finally the educated youth of this country have rediscovered their sense of engagement with politics  after years of apathy only temporarily interrupted by the first major demo against the Iraq war.

And for those holding up their hands in horror? Who can possibly be surprised that street fighting man , with the potential to turn as violent-and as nasty- as he did during the poll tax riots , is back? Cuts, cuts, and more cuts is this government's mantra. Those who think they can get away with it, while the country at large sits back and takes it on the chin, are dreaming

Ossie Ardiles & Maradona

Word reaches me that Ossie plans not to attend my forthcoming talk at London's Canning House on "The myth of Maradona (see news)"out of loyalty to his old friend". Diego, as it is  public knowledge, did not take kindly to the publication of my biography Hand of God, because it exposed his descent into drugs and other demons. The book could not have been written without the cooperation of several of Maradona's friends who recognised that I was attempting to move beyond the normal confines of sports journalism to get at the truth of the flawed genius. Ardiles refused to be interviewed for the book after commenting, speaking of Maradona, that "the truth hurts." He was one of a few number of people who refuse to co-operate with me on the project on the grounds that it was unauthorised and therefore disloyal to Maradona.

I respect Ossie's attitude rather more that that of others whose reason for avoiding me turned out to be they had much too much to hide. My book Hand of God would not have been possible, however, without the help of many more both within Maradona's intimate circle and outside it who provided much insight, comment, and fact. If Ossie hasn't read the book, he should. He might not find it all that bad.

To protest or not to protest

Some newspapers are  full of coverage today about the BBC strike, identifying those media personalities who had not, or had crossed the picket line.

Hats off to most of the Today team , some of the Ten o'oclock news presenters, and key figures of the Newsnight cast for refusing to go on air. Shame on those who didn't and tried instead to keep us entertained, and their pay cheques coming in.

As  I tuned in and out of my car radio, it was at times difficult to make out who was in and who was out, such was the liberal use made by the BBC management of pre-recorded and repeat material. It made me  wonder what fuss, if any, was made by those journalists whose voices were used in such   a way. I suspect not much.  So shame on them too.

My real sympathies however are with the firefighters (or firemen as they were once were called). I remember many years ago the huge public sympathy generated by their lengthy industrial action. Money poured into the collection hats outside the stations. This time round their union leaders called off a threatened strike over Guy Fawkes weekend having judged, rightly, that their action not only might have risked lives but also wrecked one of  the few occasions of genuine , if indulgent, collective fun in the year.

There is still the prospect that firefighters  strike in the coming weeks, along with  other public sector employees. And good luck to them. They deserve a fair hearing and as much public sympathy as they can regenerate.Firefighters, like ambulancemen, and miners are society's angels- they rescue life from the jaws of death.

And yet firefighters will struggle  to get the kind of comprehensive coverage the BBC strikers got. Journalists love writing about journalists. By contrast the days when  newspapers employed teams of  labour reporters to cover trade union affairs have long since gone.  It's media celebrities not genuine workers that monopolise column inches, unless you happen to be  a Chilean miner, with newspaper editors themselves  seduced into thinking of themselves as celebrities. See my former boss Lionel Barber in today's FT magazine, in pally conversation after playing a cricket a deux with Imran Khan.

Meanwhile the National  Union of Students is calling out its members next week to protest against the increase in fees.  It's years since the educated youth of this country took to the streets over anything, still less showed a genuine interest in trying to change the world. I hope this is the beginning of a new passionate youthful engagement with politics and society.

Diego turns 50

That Maradona was among the first Argentine celebrities to grieve publicly over Nestor Kirchner 's dead body is not surprising.

As I relate in the  updated edition of my biography of Maradona , Hand of God , the player not only shared an anti-US 'Bolivarian revolution' platform  with Kirchner (and with Chaves), but also counted on the former Argentine president's political support for his controversial appointment as national football coach in the run-up to last year's World Cup in 2010.

I was told that Julio Grondona, the president of the Argentine Football Federation, received personal phone calls not just from Kirchner but also from his friend Chaves urging him to appoint Maradona in the interest of Latin American solidarity. Quite what Latin American solidarity, whatever that is, has to do with successful football is anyone's guess- but the fact was that Argentina's  humiliation by Germany destroyed the myth and exposed Maradona for what he is- a legendary player, subject to paranoid tantrums, but without the technical skills and psychology required to manage a team of top class players in a highly competitive tournament.

Maradona turns 50 this weekend. Last week I was in Toledo, Spain, watching a team  of Real Madrid veterans, led by Emilio Buitragueno play a full 90 minutes against a local team in a charity match. El Buitre, in his mid '40's while lacking the pace of his star years, looked fit and sharp, directed the squad from a slightly forward creative midfield position like an elderly Xavi Alonso, and helped create or score himself half a dozen goals.When not playing his veteran matches, El Buitre works full-time as a senior director in charge of external relations with the Real Madrid of Florentino Perez presidency.

As Maradona completes his half century, one cannot but pay tribute to the genius with the ball that once was, while lamenting the squandered opportunity to have played many more years, and even learn to become a great manager along the way.

Nestor Kirchner rest in peace

So Farewell Nestor Kirchner. Chaves of Venezuela talked of you in terms that made you out to be a 21st version of  San Martin, or, even Bolivar. One of  your men in the Argentine parliament gave you a similar eulogy suggesting that the whole country should mourn the passing of one of its great political figures.

I 've never thought it fair to pass damning judgement on those who have died as it's hard for them to hit back but I'd like to say just this. Some stocks rose in Europe and the  US within minutes of the news that you had died. While you were alive you were never particularly fair on your sworn ennemies, not least the anti-Kirchner Clarin newspaper group that thanks to you and you wife –now widow but still President-was subjected to outrageous harassment and intimidation, just short of the burning of its offices. (Historians will remember that that is what other Peronists did decades ago with La Prensa.)

Opinion polls show that your star and that of your wife's  has been rising  -popularity as irrational but understandable as the decisioun of the Argentine Football  Federation to appoint Maradona as coach of the national team in last summer's world cup.

You have escaped further the consequences of further investigation into how you amassed your fortune and came to power.Like Peronists before you, and Generals for that matter, you have managed to pack the Plaza de Mayo in death as in life, and your widow will surely now be hopeful of securing sympathy votes for an enduring family dynasty much as the Ghandis tried to do in India, and the  Bhuttos in Pakistan. On the other hand , this could be a huge opportunity for civilised Argentines to draw a line under the corruption of the past, engage in democratic dialogue,honour freedom of the press,  and relegate Peronism in all its forms to the dustbin of history.

At the Camp Nou

 

It's always a joy being back at the Camp Nou to see a live match and Saturday's Barca vs Valencia was the kind of event that makes it worthwhile.

There were close to 90,000 in the stadium which is quite a turn-out for this early stage in the season but then it was an important match. Barca has been floundering a little of late while los ches  , as the Valencia players are called,  have had an unbeaten  run of games, displaying a mixture of attacking football, creative midfield, and solid defence that makes them a formidable challenge for any top European  club.

The match was preceded by two days of football politics of a kind that only Barca can provide. First Barca's previous president Laporta and his supporters hold a media event defending their record against allegations of waste which has left the club with a hugely successful trophy record but an uncomfortable debt. In the UK club presidents and their managers get bollocked if they waste money and then perform badly. But then this is Spain where Barca and Real Madrid fans want it all and where patience runs thin and where history counts for everything, and yet so much is so easily and so quickly forgotten.  Laporta lets us not forget, was elected president on a manifesto that promised transparency and accountability. His running mate was Sandro Rosell who brought Barca Ronaldinho instead of Beckham.

At the weekend, Laporta's self-defence  was followed by an extraordinary meeting of  fans –actually a pool of representatives- to hear new president Rosell present his version of events based on a  due diligence report on the Laporta regime prepared by an international accountancy firm.

The report –or at least what was aired publicly- contained little more than what had already been widely reported in the Spanish media: that the club struck a bad bargain by paying over the odds over Ibrahimovic only to get rid of him after getting just over a season out of him; that Laporta conducted a secret spying campaign on some of his fellow directors; that some club executives had one too many unjustified expenses.

It all fell short of any allegation of financial impropriety, still less corruption, but it was enough for members to threaten to take Laporta to court for breach of 'social contract', an action which Laporta, a lawyer, plans to vigorously defend himself against.

The spectacle of a current president of Barca sticking the knife into his predecessor  and one-time close ally was hugely enjoyed in the executive offices of Real Madrid whose own faith in Mourinho's ability to deliver at least one trophy this season increased with a convincing  victory over Malaga.

Prior to Saturday's game at the Camp Nou, grounds men had laid new turf and lightly sprayed it with water to make it the perfect playing field for the home players.  Instead Barca was put up against the wall by Valencia for much of the first half, conceding a goal, and narrowly escaping a second thanks to a brilliant save by Valdes.

Barca's free-flowing game was partly stifled in mid-field by Valencia's high pressure tactics and quick counter-attack. Messi seemed awkwardly   ineffective playing a kind of hidden number 9 behind Villa with the first giving away the ball on far too many occasions, and the second unable to effectively penetrate his former colleagues at Valencia without being caught off-side or blocked by a defender.

At half-time, there was a distinct nervousness in the air with the frustration of Barca fans finding an escape in protesting the evident time-wasting of Cesar the former Real Madrid and now Valencia goalkeeper who played in outrageous  pink provoking some disgraceful  although relatively isolated homophobic chants.

Barca came out in the second half with the same players but a different attitude and game plan. Pep Guardiola had told them to up their game, and move around the pitch more. Valencia's  match strategy suddenly seemed laboured, as Iniesta –the star of the match- went on the rampage before scoring an equaliser. Villa moved out onto the left flank, and Messi pushed up with increasing menace. It took the extraordinarily resilient captain Pujol to grab the second with a wonderfully precise header  having earlier bust a gut in defence with the increasingly impressive Busquets providing essential cover and Alves doing his usual darting runs and crosses down the right flank.

By then it was time for Guardiola to bring off Xavi-on the mend from  an injury-and bring  in Pedro-clearly recovered from his- and showing the kind of speed, ball control, and vision that made his such a revelation last season. By the end the Camp Nou had recovered some of its faith in a team that has been suffering from post-World Cup fatigue but which can still produce the most exciting football in the world. It would have been party mode had it not been for the likelihood of star-studded Real Madrid thrashing the underachieving Malaga, and taking pole position in La Primera Liga, just ahead of Barca. 

The most enduring image of the match? Guardiola losing his kool with the referee and gesticulating theatrically, Mourinho style. One thing is certain, we are gearing up to a potentially fascinating  Gran Classico.