Quintin Jardine's blog

This has been my week for football books. 

Mark Halsey has been one of my favourite English referees for several years, and I am not a natural fan of that profession. He has always struck me as positive in his attitude to the game, and as a man who realises that a set-up that preaches RESPECT, in great big capital letters, should be prepared to show that to players as well as demanding it from them. He retired from the game at the end of last season, after a career interrupted by a successful battle against cancer, and has now published his autobiography, ‘Added Time’. His book makes it pretty clear that his sympathetic attitude to the game did not endear him to the regime which is currently in charge of English match officials. There are two sides to every argument, but the fact that the publisher (no names, no pack drill) who commissioned the book declined subsequently to publish it, indicates that a certain amount of leaning may have gone on. (Nothing new about that  in publishing, by the way, as a friend of mine could tell you.)

In the end, Mark and his co-writer took the considerable gamble of publishing it independently. They won, for it has become a sports best-seller, and quite right too. He comes across as a bitter man, and hits all his targets. At the same time he is generous in his praise, and the book does shed light on the world of the people who control football matches and the extent to which they are themselves controlled. There are always two sides to every yarn, but the very idea that his former employers did their best to silence him makes me lean towards his version. 

One small criticism which readers should note. In his list of favourite pre-match music, Mark lists a track by Bobby McFerrin, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ and refers sadly to the singer’s suicide. Fact is, Bobby McF is still among us; the suicide thing was an internet rumour that was debunked years ago.

Whether you like or loathe boxing, this is a sobering piece.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24919484

Just finished Keith Gillespie’s book ‘How NOT to become a football millionaire’. A cautionary tale and a good read; also, a lads’ bible.

Awoke this morning to the inevitable buzz over Spurs’ ridiculous decision to allow their goalie to stay on the field vs Everton after being knocked spark out for quite some time. Thankfully, the guy seems okay, but he should have been protected from his own bravery.

In the furore everyone seems to be overlooking another scandal, namely the ref’s decision to book the Everton player involved in what was beyond any shadow of a doubt an accidental collision. When the crowd sang ‘You’re not fit to referee’, they were absolutely right.

I follow golf on the telly; it’s one of the reasons why I have Sky Sports. Currently the European Tour is in what it calls ‘The Final Series’, a device introduced this year to ape the American PGA tour’s successful and very lucrative Fedex Cup series; four big money events, not open to all Tour card-holders, but only to those who have qualified by earning enough through the regular season. Since it is the European Tour, it would be reasonable to suppose that these tournaments would take place in Europe. How wrong could you be? Have I been watching it live? No, because I don’t fancy getting up in the middle of the night!

Of this quids-in quartet, the first took place in China, and the field included local talent and invitees, in addition to the European qualifiers. This week’s event  is also in  China; it’s a World Golf Championship event, which means that only a minority of European Tour card-holders have any hope of playing in it. The third event takes place next week in Antalya, Turkey, which is, I believe, in Asia Minor, and whose guest star is Tiger Woods. Thanks to co-sanctioning, the Tigger has actually won more European Tour events  than anyone other than Seve and Bernhard Langer, but he has never held a tour card in his life, so he’s taking a spot from someone with legitimate aspirations of a place in a restricted field. The last event, the grandly titled DP World Tour Championship, will be held, as always, in Dubai, over a course designed by that well-known European, Greg Norman. So there you have it; not one of these bonanza events, the crown of the European Tour season, will actually take place in Europe.  You might think that’s daft, but it’s not when you realise that in the 2013 series only twenty of the forty-six listed events took place in the what is supposed to be the home continent.

Agreed, you cannot play tournament golf in Europe 52 weeks a year. To give its members earning opportunities, the Tour managers have to go far and wide, to Australia, to South Africa and to the Far East. But they do not need to sell out completely. For years now, the schedule has overlapped calendar years, so what is to prevent them copying the Americans once again and staging The  Final Series in the European summer, with one event each in Britain, France, Germany and Spain? Only, I suspect, a little imagination.