Subject: North East's BIGGEST Club gets BIGGER........................
Date: 04 September 1999 08:44
the forbiddingly named Federation of Football Historians and Statisticians who are funded by FIFA and UEFA have drawn up a table which ranks Man Utd as the worlds best club. the table which calculates the top 100 club sides in the world is based on a complicated formula but they basically give 5 points for each win or draw by every club side in the world. the harder the competition, the more points are awarded and of the English clubs appearing in the top 100, Newcastle are in at 66, behind, Man U (1), Chelsea (5), Arsenal (21) and Aston Villa (59). with the only other English clubs below us, Liverpool (70), Leeds (74) and Tottenham (100) so not only are Newcastle the best supported club in the North East, the 2nd Best supported club in England and the 8th best in Europe. we are now the BEST footballing club in the North East, 4th best in England and 66th best footballing team on gods planet when it comes to playing and winning at football. add to this that we can offer the best wages to players, attract the biggest names in world management and will soon have 51,000 supporters cheering on the Toon Army and it would appear that things aint all that bad? regards Reporter
GET REAL BOY!!!!
SWEET FA, GRAHAM KELLY
Graham Kelly's critics would say that his catch phrase was "No, that
wasn't my fault." Whether being asked to accept his part of
responsibility in the Hillsborough disaster or answering more mundane
complaints about England matches on Sky TV, Football League clubs
facing bankruptcy or fans priced out of the game, Kelly always seemed
to slither away from blame.
The release book itself has caused a mini-scandal too - brought forward
to fall between England's Euro 2000 qualifiers with Luxembourg and
Poland so as to maximise the impact of a few paragraphs that attack
England skipper Alan Shearer, calling him "childish and immature".
Kelly, of course, has denied any involvement with this crass marketing
caper saying: "It is entirely outside my control. I signed a contract
to do the book six to eight months ago. It didn't appear to do Alan
Shearer any harm and there are far bigger things that are going to rock
the boat if the boat is going to be rocked. It's unfortunate if in some
respects it caused some upset during an important time but it is
outside my control."
Friends of Kelly's though tell of a passionate, lively and even witty
football fan, much in contrast to his dour public demeanour and sleep-
inducing presentation of the FA Cup draw. Kelly is proud to have
presided over the renaissance of English football and his part in the
developing a "Blueprint for Football" - a document that aims at
restructuring the game at all levels, from the management of the
England team to the involvement of supporters groups in the running of
football. A Blackpool fan in his youth, Kelly actually played in goal
for Blackpool reserves before giving up football for a job in a bank.
He started working for the Football League in the 1960's and became
Secretary in 1979. He moved across to the FA in 1988 - in time for the
creation of the breakaway FA Premier League and the resulting swing of
power away from the Football League to the Football Association.
After 11 years as Chief Executive Kelly resigned from the FA in 1999
over accusations of "bungs" to buy Welsh FA votes. He still denies that
there was anything wrong with that loan and the book is used to defend
himself on that issue in particular and a host of others. It also give
us an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how English football is run
and Kelly's frank opinions on characters such as Shearer, Bert
Millichip, Irving Scholar and Ken Bates. Its the story from one side of
English football - the establishment - but should be compelling reading
none-the-less.
Buying guide:
http://www.footaball.com/england/sweet_fa.html
