PAST and present

By Howard Borrell

Well we're just a few weeks into the New Year and I thought it was time to reflect on the last one and also look forward.

Some crazy things have happened. The most unfancied team since Denmark won the European Championships and Greece is still recovering from the shock. What an enjoyable final after England again under performed.

On the more predictable front - Arsenal won the Premiership last season and this year new money will take over from old money as the mysteries of Russian privatisation comes home to roost as Abramovich claims his prize; meanwhile the rest of the football world suffers in the wake of Chelsea-esque wages and the new demands that the obscene wealth has brought. Just a few days ago it emerged that the new Surrey based Chelsea training ground will now have a tanning studio installed as a few of the foreign stars missed the sun so much.

Abroad Real Madrid unveiled Vanderlei Luxemburgo as their third coach in a year as the Spanish giants chase perpetual glory and seem to have no idea how to handle less than total success. Watch out for the recruitment of Juan Week Oni as the next fall guy followed by Shortlivio Careera as his replacement.

For most of the season tales of intrigue and cunning have abounded with club after club emerging from or entering administration in order to manage the awful past management that got them in a mess in the first place. Certainly the new year gives me little cause for optimism when it comes to the safety of our fellow league clubs. I hope with a passion that our visitors today come through their tribulations as unscathed as possible. I was sitting in the bar at Wrexham prior to our Xmas fixture and admired framed programmes from their European adventures. No-one can take the Red Dragons' history away and no-one should be able to jeopardise their future simply because an unscrupulous opportunity to profit was spotted.

More locally the Supporters Trust at Rotherham United now plays a big part in the group, Millers 05, that took over ownership of the club but still have to manage that future minus the collateral of Millmoor as the separating out of club and ground becomes the accepted way to circumvent football's morality.

I liked one newspaper snippet when Silvio Berlusconi recently stepped aside as President of AC Milan, in order to comply with a new Italian conflict of interest

law. Berlusconi is the sort of person that Italians either love or hate but he has completely turned around the fortunes of the "rossoneri", however he has always stuck by his initial maxim of "We are in the business of seduction. We need to seduce not just our customers, the fans, but also the media and the sponsors, who ultimately help market us to our customers". He was and is right and AC still successfully live by that philosophy, if seven Italian championships and four European Cups are anything to go by. Britain would do well to adopt the outlook more genuinely.

Earlier this month the Old Trafford version of line dancing made another appearance. Roy Carroll confused the linesman by the ball being so far over the line that the official thought he was seeing things and played on, much to the annoyance of Tottenham players and officials who probably missed out on three league points. In 1997 the Spireites were similarly cheated on the same ground but this time a place in footballing folklore was taken away from our grasp. 26 February is the date that the IFAB (International Football Association Board) meet to discuss video replays. Delay on introduction can no longer be justified and an early trial for goal line disputes only should be introduced swiftly.

Boxing Day not only saw Chesterfield lose their unbeaten home record to a tremendous Luton side but also huge numbers of people lose their lives in the Tsunami disaster. The enormity of the tragedy is still unfolding but, for the first time in living memory, I believe that sport showed that it recognised real life is more important than a spectator spectacle - not by postponing games or even by nationwide impeccably observed silences at grounds but by the spontaneous gestures of fans, players, officials and leagues that helped raise aid sums previously undreamt of. We've all done individually what we felt we could afford to do but football grew up after the disaster and helped not only the victims but its image.