July 2019
‘You need to be a strong person’: How Paul Dummett finally won over Newcastle’s fans
Paul Dummett has had his critics over the years. And many of them have been on social media. But something has changed. And Dummett has changed it.
Speaking last year after hearing his name chanted by Newcastle’s fans for the first time, Dummett said: “It was weird. Normally people shout ‘Dummett, you’re s***e’.”
The self-effacing defender was one of the first names on Rafael Benitez’s teamsheet. And, most likely, it’ll be the same under head coach Steve Bruce, Benitez’s successor at Newcastle United.
When fit, Dummett was in Benitez’s starting XI. And the 27-year-old could pass the 200-game career milestone this season.
The Newcastle-born player’s six-and-a-half year stint in the first team has flown by. Not bad for a player who was once told by Alan Pardew that he wasn’t good enough for the Premier League.
“It seems to have gone quickly looking back,” said the left-back. “Although 27 is still not old, you look back and think ‘where have the years gone?’. I’ve played a lot of games for Newcastle now, and, back then, when I made my debut, I didn’t think I’d be sitting here after more than 150 league games for Newcastle and still playing here.
“It’s taken a lot of hard work, dedication and determination. I kept on coming back from injuries, and with different managers, who have tried to buy players for my position.”
Hard work
Dummett has had to work hard, over many years, to win over some fans. Asked about hearing his name chanted for the first time, Dummett said: “I think it was two years ago. Still now, any player in the Newcastle team will have people that don’t like them as a player or criticise them. It was never only just me.
“There was a lot of people that used to criticise me when I first broke into the team. You need to be a strong person for those kind of things.
“I always looked beyond that, and my thought was that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks as long as the manager’s happy with what you do on the pitch. He’s in charge.
“I don’t know what it was or what changed. One game, they started singing a song, and from that day, more people stick up for you online. You get more plaudits. I had a few good games and changed people’s minds.
“As soon as we sign a player, and we’ve had a player break through from the academy, they always want the new signing to play.
“I’ve had that a lot from being in the first team when we’ve signed players in my position. I always see they want this player to play to get me out of the team.
“Really, the player they’ve signed never did enough to get in the team or ends up leaving or not playing. It’s always been the same throughout my time in the first team.
“They always want something better, but for the past five years, that hasn’t seemed to happen.”
Making dreams come true
Other more talked-about players didn’t make it, and Dummett was the one who achieved his dream.
“From being a young boy supporting Newcastle, you always dream of playing for the first team,” said the Wales international.
“Everyone’s always out there saying that ‘it’ll not happen’ or ‘not many players make it’. For me, I always thought ‘I’ll be the one that will do it’, even though people were telling me I wouldn’t.”
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The battle for the soul of Liverpool: a football club at risk of alienating an entire fanbase
Someone in Liverpool’s marketing team must have a crystal ball. A whole year before they beat Tottenham Hotspur in June’s Champions League final to lift European football’s most coveted trophy for a sixth time, they had filed to register “6 times” with the Intellectual Property Office, and successfully had it trademarked.
The attempt to trademark “Allez Allez Allez” – words from a terrace chant sung by at least six other sets of supporters across Europe before Liverpool adopted it – was slightly less well thought out.
Submitted last year, it was eventually withdrawn. If anybody in Liverpool is going to own it, shouldn’t it at least be the supporters who started the chant?
Read more: Liverpool also tried to trademark ‘Allez, Allez, Allez’
Liverpool are still waiting on trademark applications for “Let’s talk about six baby” and “Six baby”, which were filed on 3 June, two days after their win in Madrid.
“Liverpool”, filed on 20 June, is currently under examination, and has caused quite a stir in a city whose people would feel they have as much, if not more, of a stake in Liverpool Football Club than their American owners, Fenway Sports Group – when you factor in more than simply money; emotion, loyalty, passion, family ties, lifestyle.
Beginning of the end?
It has, understandably, not gone down well with the people who’ve been selling Liverpool-inspired merchandise on stalls in the city centre, around the city and outside Anfield on match days and evenings for decades, some of whom, despite Liverpool’s assurances to the contrary, fear it is the beginning of the end.
Read more: How ‘Allez, Allez, Allez’ became the soundtrack to Liverpool’s incredible Champions League run
These are people whose livelihoods depend on this trade; people who have been as much a part of the assault on the senses as everything else that makes live football feel alive.
The match-day experience at grounds like Anfield helps make the exorbitant Premier League ticket prices a little less painful. The buzz around the stadium in the hours prior to kick-off, with a live band playing, local pubs heaving and supporters belting out songs, never fails to heighten the anticipation for what is about to happen on the pitch.
The two supporters who set up Far Foreign Land to produce and design clothing “that captures the spirit and the passion of Liverpool supporters” remember paying £2 on the gate to sit in the Kop as kids and travelled far and wide to support the club. “They are seeking to register the name in the context of several classes, such as clothing, posters, badges, etc, so not simply trademarking the word,” Far Foreign Land wrote on Reddit.
“You could still, for example, create a T-shirt with Liverpool on it if there was nothing else football related on it. It just feels like a deliberate attempt to throw their weight around and smother small companies and local businesses. Any of the flag/scarf sellers will no longer be able to sell anything with Liverpool on it – if you wanted to buy your kid a scarf at the match it would have to be an official one for three times the price.”
Fan anger
Liverpool supporters’ group Spirit of Shankly shared their anger at the move: “Can we now assume that anyone who uses the name Liverpool could face legal action?” they said.
Liverpool Is Not For Trademarking
After a magnificent summer of optimism & celebration we are alarmed at FSGs proposals to copyright the name ‘Liverpool’.
This will alienate many fans who cherish the independents who add so much to our fan culture… https://t.co/bsGqHZzKlm pic.twitter.com/Ua42ewtARj
— Spirit of Shankly (@spiritofshankly) July 25, 2019
“Will local football teams be at risk, simply for having ‘Liverpool’ in their name? For decades, local traders outside of Anfield have sold scarves, hats, T-shirts, etc and for many it’s their sole source of income. Scores of those t-shirts have been, and still are, happily worn by players, past and present. These traders provide a vibrant alternative to the club’s official merchandise and are bought by thousands of fans every match day. What happens to them?
“After a magnificent summer of optimism and celebration for LFC, it is hard to contemplate such a controversial, ill-thought out move by FSG. It is one that will alienate the entire fanbase.”
Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore has attempted to reassure those concerned. “This isn’t any kind of attack on local football, any kind of attack on local vendors,” he insisted.
“This is trying to protect the football club, our employees, the city itself, protect the revenue that comes in, protect the visitor economy that comes in and this city enjoys. Right now, we’re under attack from large-scale manufacturing that is alluding to be official Liverpool Football Club merchandise.”
Significant resources needed
They may still struggle to see it through. In the past nine years, three businesses have tried to trademark “Liverpool” unsuccessfully. In football, Chelsea, Tottenham, Everton and Southampton were all able to trademark their names commercially, although it took Chelsea four years.
“The lesson from the past is that succeeding in such applications is very difficult,” Robert Ganpatsingh, a partner at law firm DMH Stallard, said. “Those who want to succeed will need patience, significant resources and an expertly drafted specification of the goods and services that they plan to apply their trademark to.”
Perhaps the staff member who foresaw their sixth European title a year in advance could’ve given the team a heads up that one word – Liverpool – would cause an entire city to erupt.
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Liverpool also tried to trademark ‘Allez, Allez, Allez’
Liverpool attempted to trademark “Allez Allez Allez” – words to a terrace chant that had been sung by at least six clubs before they adopted it.
The chant was properly embraced by Liverpool supporters two years ago and became synonymous with their run to the Champions League final in Kiev, when they lost to Real Madrid.
Somewhat optimistically, the club then filed an application with the Intellectual Property Office to trademark the words “Allez Allez Allez” in November last year, only to eventually withdraw it.
Popular elsewhere
Yet a song the club tried to claim as their own was, it has been suggested, lifted directly from Porto – an idea first conceived by Liverpool supporters who noticed the Portuguese side’s fans taking up the chant against Borussia Dortmund in 2016.
It has also been chanted by three Italian clubs – Genoa, Juventus and Napoli – as well as Rangers and Atletico Madrid.
The song originated as a 1985 Italian disco hit L’Estate Sta Finendo (The Summer Is Ending), by the duo Righeira, and is said to have been introduced to football by L’Aquila, a team in Italy’s lower tiers, when Righeira performed there in 2009 after an earthquake hit the city.
‘Strictly to protect the club’
Liverpool have caused a furore by registering an application to trademark the word “Liverpool” with the Intellectual Property Office.
A Liverpool spokesman said: “We are applying to register ‘Liverpool’ as a trademark, but only in the context of football products and services. We are not, and wouldn’t ever, seek to register ‘Liverpool’ across the board.
“This application is strictly to protect the club and supporters from those benefiting from inauthentic products.”
Other recent trademark applications by the club include “6 times” – referencing their sixth European title last month.
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‘It’s going to be tough’: Wolves players wary of artificial pitch ahead of Europa League second leg against Crusaders
Wolves players admit going to Crusaders next week is going to be a pain in the grass.
The Belfast part-timers play on a 4G artificial pitch, something new for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side to contend with as they look to build on their 2-0 first-leg lead in the Europa League second qualifying round next Thursday.
Crusaders’ tiny Seaview ground in north Belfast also has capacity of just 3,383 and is tight to the pitch, unlike the much bigger and more open Molineux.
Wolves captain Conor Coady said: “It’s still going to be tough going there. It’s astroturf. We know what we need to do and we need to just go there and do that professionally.”
Diogo Jota, who scored Wolves’ first goal in European competition for nearly 40 years, said: “I’m not sure what the second leg will be like. They are losing so they need to do something different.”
Wolves have started their season 16 days before their Premier League rivals after kicking off in sweltering 30 degree heat, but the players are relishing their early taste of competitive football.
Coady, 26, added: “We’d prefer to have a start like this – hot summer nights – because it means you are doing something right. Friendlies can do your head in.”
Jota, 22, said: “I’m young so I feel fresh. I want to keep up the good work of last season because we had a fantastic year.
“It’s been a different kind of pre-season. We have travelled a lot but that’s part of the game for the good teams. We want to be a good side so we need to get used to that.”
Confident of a win
Wolves were set to take a 1-0 lead to Northern Ireland only for Ruben Vinagre to score in the 93rd minute to give them more breathing space.
Coady admitted: “It was always going to be tough but that second goal was huge. We probably deserved a few more but getting that second goal was massive.”
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FA warned it must confront money-laundering in football
Governing bodies have been urged to work more closely with the Government and authorities after professional football was added to the EU’s money-laundering risk watchlist.
The European Commission said this week that the complex structure and lack of transparency in the game “created a fertile ground for the use of illegal resources”. They added that “questionable sums of money with no apparent or explicable financial return or gain are being invested in the sport”.
The Commission’s report into money-laundering identified football, along with 47 other goods and services, as an area that could be exploited by criminals.
Unified approach needed
Darren Bailey, who spent seven years as the Football Association’s director of football governance and regulation, has warned that a more unified approach is necessary to prevent the game being used for financial exploitation. “Sport has not been fully closed to money-laundering and exploitation,” Bailey said. “Clearly, sport and public agencies need to work more closely together and share information to tackle these threats.”
Money-laundering in football includes match-fixing and investments into clubs. In recent years, billions of pounds have poured into English clubs, and others across Europe, from new owners.
Highly complex deals are struck, with tens or hundreds of millions of pounds often not effectively accounted for.
“In order to maintain the competitive and financial integrity of sport, as well as protecting the public from crime, there also needs to be a more sports-specific approach to data and information sharing,” Bailey said.
“Governments and public agencies need to recognise the unique characteristics of sport before implementing an approach to fully tackle corruption and financial misconduct.”
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Arsenal star Sead Kolasinac fights off car-jackers wielding knives
Arsenal stars Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil were attacked by two men wielding knives in north London on Thursday.
In a video of the incident that has been circulated on social media, Kolasinac can be seen jumping out of a car to confront the masked aggressors, who had pulled alongside the car on mopeds.
Mesut Ozil’s car got jumped, Kolasinac jumped out and backed the beef. #YaGunnersYa pic.twitter.com/CxsJeiCvxw
— James (@smhjaames) July 25, 2019
In the footage, both men were seen brandishing knives at 26-year-old Kolasinac. An Arsenal spokesperson said: “We have been in contact with both players and they are fine.”
Police enquiries continue
The Metropolitan Police said: “Police were called to Platts Lane, NW3, shortly before 5pm on Thursday July 25 to reports of an attempted robbery.
“It was reported that suspects on motorbikes had attempted to rob a man who was driving a car.
“The driver, along with his passenger, managed to get away unharmed and travelled to a restaurant in Golders Green, where they were spoken to by officers.
“There have been no arrests. Enquiries continue.”
Kolasinac and midfielder Özil are not the first London-based footballers to be targeted on the road. In 2016, then West Ham striker Andy Carroll was threatened at gunpoint on his way home from training.
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‘A lot of people don’t understand the mindset of footballers’: Ryan Bertrand reveals ambition to become an agent when he retires
By Tom Prentki — Ryan Bertrand’s Instagram strapline reads: “Some people play the game, others change it.”
It is a mantra he follows closely. Unusually for a footballer, Bertrand arguably reached his pinnacle aged just 21 as he made his Champions League debut in a winning final for Chelsea against Bayern Munich.
Nine years later, on the eve of his 30th birthday, he has followed a more common trajectory of highs and lows, the latter when he was unexpectedly omitted from Gareth Southgate’s England squad for last summer’s World Cup in Russia.
Now he is focusing on the second half of his motto by using his experience to help change the world of football representation – firstly taking on a more active role with his own agent, First Access Sports.
“I’ve decided to have a bit more of an input in consulting and helping them [First Access Sports] put the right infrastructure in place for the players, looking after them and the finer details,” he said. “In the agency world there’s a lot of people who actually don’t understand the mindset of the players.
“There are a lot of players going out on loan or players leaving England to go abroad but you have to be clear with your objectives, you have to know the player’s tactics and the next club’s tactics and make sure it suits his playing style. They need to go somewhere that suits them to ensure they keep progressing.”
‘Football has changed dramatically’
The England full-back is someone who takes his position as a high-profile footballer seriously, thinking about the game beyond simply his own experience.
“Football’s a sport that in the last five years or so has changed dramatically in terms of the managerial styles and demands of the players. The exposure for women’s football, it’s a really enjoyable space if you love the game,” he says in reference to the recent Women’s World Cup in France.
“I don’t think there are so many barriers anymore, there’s pathways now. The great thing is about the women’s game is that it’s not forced. It’s not pushed from anywhere. It’s grown genuinely, an organic growth over many years. It’s here to stay and you can see the quality from the World Cup that it deserves all the praise it’s getting at the moment and long may that continue.”
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