Birmingham City vs Chelsea FA Cup Replay

Local team Birmingham City take on Chelsea tonight. The advertising board got a facelift a few weeks ago and will hopefully be seen live on ITV tonight in their FA Cup replay match against the London based Chelsea.

The advertising board is placed to the right hand side of the players tunnel so we are hoping it should get some airtime tonight. The team will be in tonight to take phonecalls on behalf of Campaign for a Referendum right up until the final whistle tonight.

Let us know if you spot the board tonight and tell your friends and family about Campaign for a Referendum.

Here is a mock up of tonights board:

I also wish Birmingham City luck against Chelsea tonight (even though I secretly think Liverpool will do the Cup double this year...!)

Sponsoring Worcester City FC

After a hectic week in Strasbourg, I drove back Thursday to get back into my Birmingham office on Friday. Friday is a day of catching up with paper work and getting back into UK time.

My weekend is also busy! With Liverpool not being at home this weekend, I am sponsoring local team Worcester City this weekend.

Worcester City play at St. Georges Lane in Worcester and this is my third visit to the Lane this season. The first visit was on a sponsors evening, where I watched Worcester City take on over 50 children in a match – I’ve never seen so many children trying to claim a goal before! It is where I had my picture taken with the Worcester City first team.

My second visit to the Lane came back in September when I sponsored the Worcester City vs Solihull Moors match, where Worcester came out 3-0 winners.

Tomorrow I sponsor the match against Colwyn Bay FC. Worcester City are currently 8^th in the Blue Square North, whilst Colwyn Bay are just 2 points behind them in 9^th.

As a Liverpool fan I feel an affinity with Worcester City football club. Worcester City beat Liverpool in the 1958-1959 FA Cup, and shortly after this defeat Bill Shankley was appointed as manager. This lead to the reshaping of Liverpool football club, and we know the successes Liverpool have enjoyed since.  

Football unites people from all sectors of society, and my football sponsorship scheme I hope has helped some of those clubs who do need the extra financial support. I've paid for all my sponsorships out of my own cash and I get a real buzz out of my local teams doing well. Last time I watched Worcester, Simon Brown who is my sponsored player, had a fantastic game - more of the same please.

Here’s to a great win for Worcester tomorrow – come on you Blues!!

22 years and still justice denied

I can't believe it has been 22 years since that awful day. Even more unbelievable is that the families of the

96 and the many other victims have not had justice.    

You will Never Walk Alone.

A win at last!

I was at Anfield today to see Liverpool notch up their first win since late August, beating Blackburn 2-1.  I rarely get to Anfield due to my busynschedule, so it was quite an enjoyable day in more ways than one. I am also glad at the ownership issue is now over and the future of the club is secure without debt.

The whole issue has left a nasty taste in the mouth that one of the worlds greatest clubs were brought to its knees due to the greed of businessmen. Wayne Rooney this week dominated headlines by holding his club to ransom to get a reported £250,000 a week; this reminded me of the EU's interference in football with the Bosman ruling which has allowed these overpaid prima donnas to disregard their clubs and more importantly the supporters who pay their wages.

It was also good to hear that Portsmouth are out of administration as only a few days ago it looked like the club might cease to exist.

Dons are on their way back

I have blogged before about my love of football and Liverpool FC. As a supporter I was fortunate enough to have witnessed some of their greatest triumphs live. One of their almost triumphs was the FA Cup Final of 1988 against Wimbledon where they lost 1-0 and the chance of a second ‘double’ in three years. I was standing behind the goal that John Aldridge missed the penalty; my heart sank through the ground.

Although disappointed at the result, I was pleased for Wimbledon who had only been a league team for eleven years and had a meteoric rise to the (old) First Division. It was a triumph for football. Little did I know at the time, such incredible feats of football over money would be confined to dreams. Indeed, Wimbledon was the last non-big club to win the FA Cup.

 A year after their triumph, Wimbledon lost their ground in Wimbledon and was forced to share with Crystal Palace. Wimbledon suffered with the worst attendances in the top flight; to survive they had to sell their best players.   The club was sold and the new owners decided to move the club from its roots in South London to Milton Keynes. The fans protests were ignored by the Football Association who sold out football by agreeing to the move and change of name to Milton Keynes Dons.

The fans quite rightly refused to support the ‘new’ club who were falling through the leagues as fast as ‘they’ once climbed them. The fans formed AFC Wimbledon based in South London. Remarkably, they have risen through the non-league pyramid at a unprecedented rate and are now second in the Conference, one league below the Football League. Today went I went to see them play at Kidderminster today, Kiddy won the match 2-0. I hope in spite of this, AFC Wimbledon get promoted and climb the leagues once again. What happened to Wimbledon was a disgrace to football and highlighted what sham money has made football.

Football socialism and once again reaching the summit of Europe

One of my other great passions (other than trying to get the UK out of the EU) is Liverpool FC. Today they came to Birmingham to play the Blues and I went along. It was an insipid performance from the boys in red and if I'm honest, they were lucky to escape with a point after a 0-0 draw.

Liverpool have an illustrious history and are still the most successful English team of all time, truly Gods gift to football. However, recent times have been difficult without a major honour for nearly five years. The major problem lies not necessarily on the field but in the boardroom.

Liverpool's current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett are American businessmen with a history of owning American sports teams and supporting George W Bush. They purchased Liverpool for £300 million in 2007 borrowing the money against assets of the club, making Liverpool the third English Premier League team to be owned by Americans. There was not uproar as was seen when the Glaziers bought Man Utd on similar financial terms. Maybe because it was hoped that they could bring the financial muscle to compete with utd and Chelsea. They also promised to push forward and finance a new stadium. Most of all they promised to respect the traditions of the club. In my opinion and probably that of every Liverpool fan they had no idea about the club, what it means and symbolises to half the people of Merseyside not to mention millions across the world.

Liverpool is the most socialist of clubs, it's fans have a sense of ownership, it is like a religion. Legendary manager, Bill Shankly Encapsulated this at the 1965 FACup Final. A policemans horse trampled a fans scarf. Shankly pushed the horse and the policeman aside and said "You don't ever show that kind of respect to a Liverpool scarf. That's somebody's life, son."

During the late 1970s and through the 1980s the city suffered terrible economic hardship with the docks closing, the decline of the automotive industry and related industries. The city was also being abused by a loony left council, a laaaabouuuur (kinnock) council. Simultaneously, Liverpool become the most successful team in Europe with one of the lowest admission prices of a top flight club. (I became a season ticket holder for the kop in 1988 at the cost of £65.) the team was the pride of Merseyside. The disastrous events at Hillsborough in 1989 where 96 people lost their lives once again showed the relationship between the people and club. The following day it opened up the stadium to the fans and within days half the pitch was covered with flowers, scarfs etc. The Sun newspaper attacked Liverpool fans, blaming them for the tragedy whilst removing the blame from the police where it really laid. Sales of the newspaper plummeted and still in 2010 the Sun does not have a strong foothold in Merseyside.

Under the Americans ownership the club has been mismanaged and it's relationship with the fans has become strained. The royal bank of Scotland hold all the cards and are refusing to reschedule the clubs debt. The Americans have put the club up for sale but their asking price is far too high. An effort has been made by fans to buy the club with fans each pledging £5000. I am one of those, me part of a socialist endeavour! This is unlikely to be successful but we need to get rid of those Americans and the cloud hanging over us. We need a new stadium and investment in new players to restore Liverpool to where they belong, the summit of English and European football.

I lived in Liverpool for two years, I love  the city, team and people. Hillsborough still hurts and makes me angry to this day. Liverpool is an emotional ecosytem with a delicate banlence of history, tragedy, and resilience that has sustained an entire city. It is them against the whole world. Hicks and Gillett made themselves the world and their in way over their heads