Van Der Vaart’s New Love [photo] & Three Unrelated Moans

Good morning fight fans.

Every site is telling us that Dances with Scones has got away with ‘that’ incident. I beg to differ. He would have generated less publicity had he been carded there and then. All this business has done is ensured that every referee between here and Hong Kong has watched the footage – which in slo mo does Tommy no favours at all – and pretty much leaves him a marked man in Europe.

Another niggle revolves around Europe and specifically the Inter Milan game. Or rather the manner in which the whole ticketing deal is being handled. An allocation of 5000 seems on the low side and explained away by THFC as being down to operational reasons.  Presumably that translates to how many gendarmes they can rustle up.

You’d think with all that filthy Champions League loot flying about some of it might be diverted from disappearing into Club coffers and go into making the event more accessible to fans… who will will not add to the occasion but also …ultimately generate …more money.

And there is of course the endless dramas faced by fans who want to simply stay either at home or go to the juicer to watch a game. The Landlord of the Red, White & Blue pub in Portsmouth is tilting the windmill marked, ‘Premier League’.

Karen Murphy is attempting to assert her right to buy what she wants in terms of televised games. Her argument certainly makes sense financially. The Red, White & Blue is typical of a vast number of British boozers. Not very big and probably in these testing times scrapping for every penny. The cost of Sky for any licensed venue can be in excess of £1000, whilst a comparable service from a company such as Nova bills in at about a tenth of that.

And you don’t have to put up with the monkey pawed Dicky Keys or the balloon with pubes stuck it’s sides that is Andy Gray.

If Karen is successful it’ll be not so much a landmark case but a modern day equivalent of the collapse of the Roman Empire. I wish her well, but if it happens I’d like to request my hat be marinated in Nando’s Peri Peri sauce prior to me tucking in.

My solution would be for the clubs to license the Premier League to flog TV Season Tickets. As longs as going to a game is 100 times better than watching it on the telly, attendances won’t be affected.

Many supporters simply can’t get to games anymore. Pick a factor. Cost. Kids. Travel. The general agg of getting from where they live to their stadium of choice. Membership charges, handling fees, recorded delivery, hotels, buses, tubes that are shut… the list goes on forever.

The cost of such a lunatic scheme would ultimately be against what the market could bear, but hey we need something to whine about. No?

Or you can go bald trying to get a naffing online stream to work.

Oh yes, here’s VdV tucking in to some old dear…