ESL fail

How times change? This time last week we were witness to the unveiling of the European Super League, a money-making scheme for the biggest clubs in Europe. Within a few minutes the ESL lay in ruins, with out-of-touch overseas owners making embarrassing filmed apologies to their fans. Arsenal fans used the opportunity to protest against their hated owner Stan Kroenke, the gist being they want Kroenke out and to have some say in how their club is run. Today, the same Arsenal fans are crossing their fingers that Kroenke will sell the club to Dan Ek, the man behind Spotify, the music streaming service which has done more than anyone else to shaft musicians by not adequately paying them for their work. They want Kroenke out and many of them want Ek in, another foreign billionaire who, it turns out is a lifelong Arsenal fan, at least since yesterday. Ek is no more likely to be accountable to the fans than Kroenke, he just has better PR. How much will actually change?

Man Citeh

Meanwhile, Manchester City strolled to their fourth successive Rumbelows Cup win, brushing aside Ryan Mason’s lads at a sparsely populated Wembley. After all the noise about the ESL last week, it was good to concentrate on the football and celebrate the incredible achievements of Pep Guardiola, who has somehow managed to assemble an all-conquering squad on a shoestring budget (£1 billion and counting). “Without fans, football is nothing,” smirked Pep, lighting a big fat cigar with a £50 note.

Meanwhile, at Bristol Rovers

My blog about the failings of the sainted Wael al-Qadi, the club’s owner, whose promise to take the club out of League One came true, albeit the wrong way, enjoyed a mixed reception from Gasheads. Some agreed with me that relegation was, broadly speaking, a bad thing and others suggested I “fuck off to Ashton Gate”. The best comment of all was that my blog was actually a bog, whatever that means. I also learned that I had not been to a game in six years. That’s untrue: it’s three.

Whatever. In this day and age, it’s important that people speak their minds. And opinions are like arseholes: everyone’s got one.

Good old Boris

Fascinating to read in the Daily Mail, of all people, report Boris Johnson as saying he would “let the bodies pile high in their thousands” rather than order a third lockdown. That’ll be the same Boris Johnson about whom the Times newspaper suggested will be bombed out of office for the redecoration scandal in Downing Street. It’s fluff, isn’t it? Johnson himself said today people aren’t bothered about this stuff. So far he’s been right. The British people, who usually complain they hate lying politicians who are only in it for themselves, seem to like Johnson, the biggest self-centred liar of them all.

Johnson’s teflon coating may still save him from the fate of a more conventional politician, but this feels different. The Times’ owner, Rupert Murdoch has long promoted Michael Gove as his preferred PM and the owners, not to mention the journalists at the Mail – Gove’s wife Sarah Vine writes hate-filled polemic for the paper – feel much the same way. When the Sun, also owned by Murdoch, gets on Johnson’s case, you can bet Gove will be right behind Johnson. With a dagger.

The Big Fight

It looks like the fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua is finally going to happen. And where else to hold the fight but the home of female oppression and head-chopping, Saudi Arabia? No one should be surprised by the sport of boxing putting money ahead of human rights – golf is the same – but what will it cost to watch the fight on Pay Per View?

Take this coming Saturday when elderly punchbag Dereck Chisora takes on Joseph Parker in a fight for no title at all. The price for this fight is £20. Fury v Joshua will be for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.

I’ll take a punt and say that this will be the most expensive PPV event in British TV history and how about it being the first £100 fight? Got a dodgy link, anyone?

Scooters

The residents of leafy Elm Lane (see what I did there?) in Clifton were shocked to find more than 100 Voi e-scooters parked on their road. There was barely any room for local residents top park their 4X4s.

E-scooters are the future and we’d all better get used to them. And when Bristol fully opens up after COVID, what we are seeing now will be the calm before the storm. Can you imagine weekend nights in town, with pissed up lads swaying their way home from pubs and clubs? The 100 e-scooters in Clifton had to come from somewhere. I’ll bet most of them started in town.