Football's gone mad

It's a quiet week for YTFC, due to us being knocked out of the League Cup. And no bad thing that, either, though the club's accountants would doubtless disagree. It's been a busy fortnight since the start of the new season with 5 games in 14 days and no doubt both Skivo and the players are glad of a few days now without a competitive fixture to recharge the batteries before the circus begins again on Saturday at Huddersfield and a midday kick-off, of all the absurd times to be playing a fixture over 200 miles away. Bloody hell, that was a long sentence.

I don't do away games any more so it makes no real difference to me what time an away fixture kicks-off, but if I was a regular traveller I'd be more than a mite annoyed at the timing of the Huddersfield game. I note that the supporters buses are leaving Yeovil at 5am on Saturday to get oop north in time for kick-off, a ridiculous time to be up in the morning on a voluntary basis. I know that the reason for the early kick-off is due to the Huddersfield Giants playing at Wembley at 3pm on the same day and can certainly understand the wish of HTFC to maximise their crowd by not kicking off at the same time as the rugby; what I don't understand is why Yeovil are going along with it. Would it not be better for us to play them at the normal time in an almost-empty stadium with a few hundred away fans making most of the noise, rather than at midday in a rather fuller ground with only a handful of away fans present because a fair percentage of the regular travellers have decided not to bother due to the early start? Why are we helping our rivals out and disadvantaging our away fans? Answers on a postcard to M. Starnes, CEO, Huish Park, Yeovil, Somerset.

Football's gone mad, part 1: A 35 year-old footballer signed a 5 year deal (5 years!) with L2 outfit Notts County yesterday. Sol Campbell, a name very familiar to most football fans throughout the world over the last few years, will be plying his trade for County in League Two (division 4 in old money) and will be getting paid more for that than some offers he received from Premiership clubs, £750k a year according to his agent. At the same time County are paying ex-England manager Sven Goran Eriksson £2 million a year for 5 years (5 years!) to act as Director of Football and have signed Kaspar Schmeicel from Manchester City on a 5 year deal (5 bloody years!) and similarly exorbitant wages; all on gates that averaged around 4,500 last season. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what will happen to the country's oldest professional club should the new owners tire of their new toy and the inevitable huge losses that will certainly follow. I've no idea how Notts County fans are reacting to events, but if their club is still around in a decade's time in it's current form I'll be surprised. Actually I daresay Notts County fans are just like the rest of us - hoping for the best and half-expecting the worst. Fans with their glasses half-full will point out that Chelsea's fans dreams came true when Abramovich and his billions took over their club and turned them into one of the most successful club sides in the world, who's to say the same can't happen at County, eventually? Those fans worried about what happens when it all goes tits up will all be shouted down, or told to bugger off and go start up AFC Notts County if they don't like it. Either way, things will never be the same again at Meadow Lane.

Football's gone mad, part 2: Depressing scenes in and around Upton Park last night with far too many fat men of my age re-living the 'glory' days of their youth. It would be nice to think that the FA will grow some balls and take real action against both clubs, but you just know they'll bottle it. Regardless of the sanctions applied to individuals found guilty of breaking the law both clubs should be kicked out of the League Cup competition and made to play league games behind closed doors. Why not? West Ham fans seem to have been the main instigators of most of the trouble last night, but Millwall fans were equally enthusiastic participants. Punish both clubs equally and punish them hard so the fans are hurt too. It's the only way to stop the nonsense in the end. But of course we're talking about the FA here, so expect a particularly stern telling-off followed by heavy fines of less than half of your average Premiership player's weekly wage, suspended for 2 years. The more some things change, the more they stay the same.