Q & A On The Amex v Withdean with a Reading fan

H: “You’ve been to both the Withdean and the Amex as an away supporter.  I can only assume you enjoyed the Amex experience more!?”

 

N: “Of course, but the Withdean had its unique…..well, not ‘charms’ exactly, but the attraction of the Withdean was that it was a hell of a lot easier to get to than the Amex!  Closer to the city centre, so you can enjoy some of Brighton’s very decent pubs and still get to the ground in good time.  That said, Brighton have really tried to make the Amex as accessible as possible, but 20,000-odd squeezing into suburban Falmer station is a lot less comfortable than 6,000 getting to Preston Park.  The train to Amex for our league visit was a shambles to be honest, queues of people intermingling.  Luckily there was good humour as there is little or no animosity between Reading and Brighton but I can only imagine the fun and games when Leeds come along…..or Palace!”.

 

H: “Well, if the train journey is uncomfortable at least the stadium is a lot more enjoyable for away fans now?”

 

N: “Of course, it is fantastic.  Padded seat, great leg room!  Our ground was built ten years or so before yours so we don’t have padded seats!  What I really liked about Amex is the effort you’ve made to respect your history and welcome your visitors.  There are murals outside the ground of past Brighton players, we don’t have anything like that  and I thought it was a nice touch.  Envious of that.  In the away end you make visitors feel at home with graphics and videos of past favourite players, really caught the eye.  I believe that there are beers local to the visiting club on sale, nice touch because at most grounds there are only the usual boring branded lagers on sale.  I didn’t get to the beer queue as I arrived shortly before kick off after that cramped train journey!  My only other complaint about the Amex would be that it isn’t very clear for away fans at first where you have to enter, so I missed out on a pre-match pint.  But generally I guess if you make sure that people enjoy the experience they’ll come again, particularly to a city like Brighton where you have so much to offer the visitor”.

 

H: “No padded seats at the Withdean!”

 

N: “Quite!  It was tough for you guys having to play 100 miles away in Gillingham and the Withdean must have felt like Wembley after that period of exile.  And we could hardly expect you to feel sorry for us away supporters getting wet when you suffered the same potential drenching 23 times a season yourselves.  The view from the away end was diabolical to be honest, when we scored a consolation goal at the far end of the ground towards the end of a 3-1 thrashing in 2002 when both teams went up I couldn’t even tell we’d scored.  And obviously it rained so heavily that night you might as well have tipped a bucket of water over me as I walked through the turnstiles!  I was cursing the experience back in those days, but we only had to suffer once a season.  I remember Reading fans whingeing about the high ticket prices you charged at Withdean but to be fair when you could only squeeze 7,000 fans into the place you needed to somehow raise the revenue to compete with the wealthier sides”.

 

H: “I think it’s worth remembering how much Brighton fans suffered from the fall out of selling the Goldstone with nowhere suitable to move to.  With all due respect, other clubs like Reading who moved grounds were spoiled by comparison because you didn’t have corrupt directors and public enquiries to fight”.

 

N: “it think that is a fair point, which away supporters would have done well to remember when bemoaning the poor facilities at Withdean.  We are very lucky at Reading in that Madejski always had the club’s welfare at heart and was able to benefit from a football-friendly local council.  I think since the Goldstone has demolished you’ve seen clubs like Reading, Wigan and Stoke move grounds and thrive whilst you were stuck at an athletics ground.  None of those three clubs could claim to have greater potential support than Brighton, but they were all  fortunate to be able to improve their facilities and move up the league.  It is no coincidence that better facilities improves your fortunes because you can attract better players and more supporters. Brighton are catching up, and on the basis of that Newcastle game which was televised a few weeks ago, catching up very quickly indeed”.

 

H: “Perhaps we’ll even overtake you and have your place in the Premier League”.

 

N: “Cheeky bugger.  Perhaps.  And I never thought I’d say this, but perhaps you deserve it after all you’ve been through.  I am convinced you’ll be there sooner rather than later.  And the way your club looks after away fans – as I said earlier – would be a credit to a greedy league where you are regularly charged well over £40 for facilities far inferior to the Amex.”

 

H: “Or maybe we’ll see you next season one way or another!”

 

N: “In the Prem hopefully.  Its an unfriendly league, you’ll be patronised and looked down upon but it is still the place to be.  I will definitely visit again, in fact I visited again for the Kuipers testimonial.  For the league game we had a full allocation but those of us who were respectful and discreet were welcomed into the bar behind the stand at the far home end after the game, the North Stand I believe?  One of our party had his son with us who wore a Reading shirt but the home fans didn’t bat an eyelid, particularly after we’d sneaked a rather fortunate win.  The stewards were great as well, they allowed us to go pitch side for some pictures.  An absolute credit to your club.  I will remember that visit fondly and I wish you well because of that”.

The not so ‘squeaky clean’ side of sport

There are many trials and tribulations in the modern world of sport, and this week has unearthed some disheartening situations embedded in Football, Athletics and a range of other sports, and it is not a local problem, in fact its not even a European problem. Incorporating the whole world, the underground world of match fixing, drugs, and the importance of money has weaved its way into the highly profitable sports we live and breathe.

 

The common saying ‘money talks’ has never become so relevant in the past few years. This time it is Athletics that is in the spotlight.  Apart from London 2012, Usain Bolt hasn’t competed in England since 2009. The reason? Britain imposes taxes on appearance fees/prize money for all non-resident athletes in all sports when they compete in the country. Surprisingly enough, this tax was scrapped for the Olympics, and also for the 2011 Champions League final. Bolt’s agent stated that ‘the rules were discouraging’ a lot of athletes from competing; yet debatably it has degraded the importance of Athletics. Are the top athletes only competing for the money? Of course they love their sport, but the fact Bolt was prepared to miss The Grand Prix (again) due to the tax, raises the question of whether the government are too easily swayed into giving V.I.P treatment to high profile people. Are the government instead only ‘inspiring a generation’ that will compete, but are taught to only do so if they are getting enough money? One rule for one and one for another perhaps? Previously the government have not been so inclined to change the rules, after all the event was held at Crystal Palace, now the venue has changed to the Olympic stadium, there is a greater emphasis on inviting the top athletes to compete, and to continue the legacy of the Olympics.

 

In the background to the Lance Armstrong doping saga, another drugs scandal has emerged from Australia. Following a report from Australia’s leading criminal intelligence organization, it was concluded that the use of drugs, both performance enhancing and recreational is ‘widespread amongst professional athletes’ and it is being ‘facilitated’ by coaches, management, even doctors. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the report was that it was not just centered on athletes individually, ‘The findings indicate…the doping of entire teams’. The news will shock fans, and innocent parties involved in the sports, and who knows where the investigation will end up, if a whole team was found guilty then rightly so the team would be chucked out of competitions and leagues. For such a widespread problem, would a two year ban for guilty participants really be enough? It begs the question, if this has been uncovered in Australia, is it only inevitable that one day, it will be England at the center of a fiasco like this?

 

But perhaps these two controversial stories are just two insignificant needles in a haystack in contrast to the worldwide match-fixing debacle that was made public recently. Europol’s investigation started eighteen months ago, initially just Germany, Finland and Hungary were under scrutiny, however this was later extended to Slovenia and Austria. In total 680 matches in 30 different countries were analyzed, including a whopping 13,000 emails scrutinized. 50 people have been arrested, with a further 80 search warrants obtained, and in total 425 suspects were identified. In conclusion to the investigation it was found that 380 of the games were ‘fixed’. Included in this is an unnamed Champions league fixture in England. It is believed that the match fixing is stemmed from an Asia-based crime syndicate and investigators believe they have uncovered an ‘extensive criminal network’. It is very easy for match fixing to take place. Take for instance a lower league game in Finland, the players/officials will not be getting paid extortionate amounts, a little bribe, a little secrecy, and the match is fixed. The underlying problem, and the only way in which match fixing will be stamped out is if we regulate the betting industry (particularly in South East Asia) otherwise we are powerless to prevent it from happening, we do not want to see in the future hundreds of games being riddled with suspicious bets, and even more suspicious outcomes from matches.

 

It is almost as if the modern world has caused its own problems, with the availability of online betting, the gigantic number of matches played every week, it is very easy for certain small incidents to slip under the radar, until they are accumulated and exposed. The readily available drugs, easy to snap up online are becoming a magnet for athletes, it is the wider causes of the problems that must be addressed before there is any hope of stamping out corruption in sport.