The Sportsman for the serious sports fan

REVEALED STRIKING
How Seb Coe
raced ahead in IT RICH
Glenn Hoddle
the Olympic turns rejects
pay stakes into gems

THE
REAL
VOLCANO
Lesley Vainikolo
on tackling
EXCLUSIVE gang crime
THE RED
KNIGHT
Meet the man
wanting to
#1 CONTENDER
Kell Brook: Britain’s
oust the next king of the ring
Glazers
£4.00

www.thesportsman.co.uk
June 2010
4
The Sportsman for the serious sports fan
CONTENTS
That Moment
Pietersen inspires England
10
Gadgets 12
We look at the latest Boys’ Toys
Comment 23
Mark Duell on the IPL coverage
Letters 37
Your news and views
Sports Technology 46
Revolutionary Footwork
Business Profile 47
Leisure Leagues
Sporting Holidays 59
Your guide to South Africa
Lifestyle & Fitness 62
The Abs Rules
Fashion 63
Ian Poulter Design
Sports Calendar 74
June’s major sporting events
The Last Word 78
Robert Golledge signs off
Pg.14
FEATURES WELSH WARRIOR:
Gareth Delve has
battled an injury-
Professional Hazard 6 plagued career
A look at the modern strains on
professional rugby players
A New Breed of Footballer 14
We look at the Glenn Hoddle
Academy in southern Spain
Sport Science 24
What gives top athletes
that vital mental edge
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
Best, BRICs and Beers 26
We chat to the Goldman Sachs
investment banker trying
to buy Manchester United
Pg.6
Game, Set and Match? 30
Why Britain is failing to
produce top tennis players
The Masterplan 32
How the Far East is financing
Where’s the Money Gone? 48
Manchester’s transformation
We take a look at the accounts
of the private company running
REPORTAGE
the 2012 Olympic Games
Steel City Soldier 38
Boxer Kell Brook on fighting
FRONT COVER
Manny Pacquiao. And we also
From Gangs to Gloucester 54
visit the world famous Ingle gym
Lesley Vainikolo’s remarkable
journey from the streets of
Auckland to the pinnacle of
domestic rugby
Scott the Steeler 60
A professional’s view of life in
the Elite Ice Hockey League
First Past The Post 64
A preview of the Derby with
The Times’ Alan Lee
Life in the Fast Lane 69
Looking at the importance of
money in motorsport with
racing driver Jon Lancaster
Expected to Deliver 72
SECOND CHANCE: The huge logistical operation
The players thrown a
lifeline by the Glenn behind the BBC’s World Cup
Hoddle Acaemy coverage in South Africa
 5

THE
EDITORS’
LETTER
Welcome to the very first edition of The Sportsman, the
upmarket magazine for the serious sports fan. Here at The
Sportsman HQ, our dedicated team of sport-mad buffs
are each month determined to bring the best of sporting
lifestyle, insider knowledge and exclusive reportage.
This month we’ve got an eclectic blend of hard news,
insider analysis and uncompromising comment.
In our inaugural issue we’ve landed a World Exclusive
interview with Jim O’Neill, the man attempting to buy
Manchester United and oust the Glazer family’s hold on
the club. Read how this son of a postman from the
back streets of Manchester ended up with a
£200million fortune. BBC WORLD
Also inside is the story of Gloucester CUP PLANS
Rugby winger Lesley Vainikolo. He tells of An exclusive look
his extraordinary journey from the gangs behind the scenes to
of New Zealand’s North Island to the West see how the Beeb will
Country of England and his plans to work be delivering events
with troubled youths. from South Africa to
PAGES 48-51

Of course, we haven’t forgotten about the our screens

fashionistas and alpha-males amongst you
- check out our guide to Ian Poulter’s clothing PAGES 72-73
range, our gadget round-up and The Sportsman’s
total fitness guide.
So pour yourself a Peroni, dust off the deckchair and
totally submerge yourself in The Sportsman magazine.

The Sportsman
FOR THE SERIOUS SPORTS FAN PAGES 38-43

The Sportsman
ISSUE I / JUNE 2010

The Sportsman
15 Soho Square
London
W1A 7MC

020 7777 2435 PAGE 12

www.thesportsman.co.uk
Twitter @The_Sportsman PAGES 26-27
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHRIS WARNE PRODUCTION EDITOR MARK DUELL
INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR ROBERT GOLLEDGE CREATIVE DIRECTOR TIM LAMDEN
FEATURES EDITOR COLIN JAMES

© THE SPORTSMAN LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE

OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION STRICTLY PROHIBITED. PRINTED BY ST IVES
(PLYMOUTH) LTD. THE SPORTSMAN IS DISTRIBUTED BY COMAG LTD, TAVISTOCK
ROAD, WEST DRAYTON, MIDDLESEX, UB7 7QE . INDEPENDENTLY AUDITED BY ABC

FIND OUT THE STORY BEHIND THE REAL VOLCANO, VAINIKOLO - PAGES 54-58
RUGBY UNION

Professional
Hazard

CRUSHING COLLISION: British Lion Brian O’Driscoll receives

treatment after crashing into South Africa’s Danie Rossouw

In the 15 years since rugby turned professional, the

sport has been transformed. The drive for success has
prompted a weightlifting culture that medics believe
threatens player safety. In this generation of brawn,
it is the English game that has suffered the most

By TIM LAMDEN

I
f you needed a demonstration of modern rugby at
its peak, it was this game. An assortment of Britain’s
finest players pitched against the world’s best side, in
their backyard. When the dust had settled at Loftus
Versfeld last June, many said they had witnessed the
greatest Test match of all time.
The second Test of the 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour
to South Africa was one of the most dramatic contests in
rugby history. The commitment and determination shown
by both sides that day was breathtaking at times. The sight
of Brian O’Driscoll colliding with Springbok Danie Roussow,
in a thunderous tackle that left both men on their backs
oblivious to what continent they were on, became the
abiding image of the tour.
Bob Stewart was one of the physiotherapists looking after
the Lions in Pretoria that afternoon and remembers it as a
particularly gruelling day at the office. “It was horrendous
because I wasn’t actually on the pitch,” said Stewart. “So
when Adam Jones came off with a dislocated shoulder and
Gethin Jenkins broke his cheek bone, I ended up taking
those two guys to hospital.
“When we left the ground we were winning. By the time
we got to hospital they’d kicked the penalty in the last
minute to beat us. Then of course we lost O’Driscoll to
concussion, Jamie Roberts to a wrist injury, Ronan O’Gara
with a bad head knock and then Tommy Bowe did his
elbow. There were five of them in A&E after the game.”
It was a match that veteran head doctor James Robson,

team doctor on the past four Lions tours, described as “one
of the most distressing games I can remember”.
On finishing his duties in South Africa last year, he
concluded that players had become “too big for their skill
levels” and warned their bulk was becoming dangerous.
R
obson’s warning was further stoked by the
astounding injury toll endured by Martin Johnson’s
England side in the Autumn. It was also a warning
supported unequivocally by the statistics.
In a recent study, the Lions’ second Test meeting with
South Africa last year was compared with the 1971 tour
clash between the Lions and New Zealand in Christchurch.
The results were illuminating.
The average weight of the players that faced each other in
Christchurch in 1971 was 14st 1lb compared to their 2009
counterparts, who weighed in at 16st 4lb. The tackle rate
was another remarkable indicator of change. In 1971, 57
tackles were completed in contrast to the 181 tackles made
in 2009.
They are figures that correlate with an increasing trend
of injuries in the modern game. It is a fact acknowledged in
medical rooms across the Guinness Premiership’s 12 clubs
that at any one time in a season around 20 per cent of each
club’s playing squad will be unavailable through injury.
This is a reality that was only darkened by the findings
of a recent study looking at the injury rate in the English
“In their mind every rugby
player thinks ‘we have
to be conditioned at the
highest level to win’”
top flight. The England Rugby Injury and Training Audit
revealed a 20 per cent increase in the number of injuries
suffered by England’s top players during the 2008-9 season,
compared with the previous season.
In the wake of England’s calamitous injury problems last
Autumn, Simon Shaw attributed the gargantuan leap in the
size of players and their consequent injury worries to an
excessive emphasis on gym work. The 36-year-old England
and British Lions lock argued that young players especially
were expected to spend a lot of time on weight training,
turning them into “gym monkeys”
rather than rugby players. ‘GYM
Gloucester’s Henry Trinder, an MONKEYS’:
England Under-20’s World Cup England lock
Simon Shaw
finalist last year, knows a thing or two
about injuries, having managed
only four appearances for
his club this year after a
string of leg problems.
The 21-year-old centre
acknowledges the
excesses of gym work
at times but explains it
is all part of the modern
rugby player’s psyche.
“In their mind every
rugby player thinks ‘we
have to be conditioned
at the highest level to
win’ and that’s drilled
into you, giving you the
mentality that you need
7
to put on size and continue with weights because that’s
what is going to give you that edge,” said Trinder.
“If you look back at
Lomu, he was a freak -
he probably changed the
game”
There is no doubting that it is the dawning of
professionalism that has ushered in an unprecedented era
of brawn and power in the game. Rugby at the top level
these days is about putting food on the table. It’s no longer
a sideshow leisure pursuit or hobby for men to vent their
FREAK OF
NATURE:
All Black Jonah
Lomu shrugs
off two Italian
defenders
frustration on a Saturday, after a week of nine to five.
Former Gloucester captain, Gareth Delve believes one
player more than anyone helped to mould the game into
what it is today. “If you look back at Lomu, he was a freak
- he probably changed the game,” said the 27-year-old. “It
was probably his ability to move that mass at the speed he
was running that really forced everyone to say: ‘Right, that
is the epitome of the new breed of rugby player’.”
It is the likes of Delve, a 6ft 3in, 18st 2lb colossus, who
have had to suffer the consequences of the physical heights
scaled by modern rugby. By the age of 20, the Welsh
number eight had undergone two shoulder reconstructions
and an operation to repair a damaged cruciate ligament in
his right knee. They were injuries that blighted a career that
promised far more than just the 11 caps Delve has earned
for his country to date.
Director of Medical Services at the English Institute of
“It is only a matter of time
until a professional player
will get a catastrophic
head or neck injury”
Sport, Dr Rod Jaques believes the game’s law-makers need
to step in to help allay the damage inflicted on players in
this era of high-octane collisions. “It is only a matter of time
until a professional player in training or in competition will
get a catastrophic head or neck injury,” said Jaques. “In fact,
8
COLOSSAL: Welshman Gareth Delve blasts through the
Scottish defence during the 2008 Six Nations Championship
it has happened already.”
Jaques, a sports medicine physician who works part-time
with Gloucester Rugby Club, is referring to the likes of Matt
Hampson, the England Under-21 prop who dislocated his
neck five years ago in a training ground accident.
H
ampson was paralysed from the neck
downwards after becoming trapped in a
collapsed scrum during an England training
session. The same fate could well have met
Scotland’s Thom Evans, who fortunately
escaped paralysis after breaking his neck against Wales in
this year’s Six Nations Championship.
“I think the sporting world, particularly in this country,
is riddled with reactions to things that have happened,”
said Jaques. “No one was prepared to invest in all-seater
stadiums until a whole load of people died at Hillsborough.
The question is how many catastrophic injuries in rugby, or
in any other contact sport, will be acceptable before there
are rule changes?”
Jaques acknowledges that any decision on rule changes
in the future rests with the game’s governing bodies, rather
than its medical practitioners, but believes there are a
number of options open to exploration. Without doubt
the most controversial is Jaques’ notion of size limits. He
believes limiting a team to a certain tonnage or stipulating
a size limit, in terms of weight and height, for each position
on the pitch could be looked at in the future.
“It would be very controversial and people would say it is
prejudicial,” said Jaques. “They’d say you’re making it very
difficult for big, strong people to play rugby. We are now
entering the world of ethics, whether we can deny people
the right to earn a living. There again, in the fashion world if
you’re 14 stone and six foot you’re not going to earn a living
as a female model, that just doesn’t happen.”
It is a contentious idea and one that Gareth Delve refutes
completely. “I think that totally goes against the ethos of
rugby, because rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes,
that’s what attracts people,” he said. “You’ve got your big
kids in the playground who you stick in the forwards and
the little whippets who will be pushed into the backs.”
For Delve, the issue of injury rate and player mass is
clearer than most make out. “Nobody is going to say to
the guys, you’re only allowed to spend a certain amount
of time in the gym,” he said. “It’s professional now and it’s
guys’ livelihoods. They’re going to do everything they can
to become better players and if that means getting bigger,
stronger, fitter and faster then that’s what they need to do.
“The only way you’ll help sustain a player’s career is to
reduce the number of games in a season but for all the talk
of player burnout, all it seems to have done is added games.”
In professional sport, as with all businesses, money is
power and it is money that drives top level English rugby
today. For the top English clubs the season consists of a
“There’s a lot of Tarzans
playing now - a lot who
look like Tarzan but
play like Jane”
22-game Guinness Premiership fixture list, a battle for
European glory in the Heineken Cup and the LV= Anglo-
Welsh Cup, all interspersed with regular international
weekends. Add on the extra game introduced to the LV= Cup
this season, plus the lucrative Guinness Premiership play-
off spectacle in May, and you have a marathon of a season.
With a salary cap to contend with, squad sizes in a lot of
Premiership clubs just aren’t big enough to cope with the
 9

burden of such a swathe of games. Injuries mount up and most-capped prop in All Black history has decided to return
teams are stretched to their limits. Inevitably standards to his old hunting ground, signing a deal to join Delve at
suffer and with them so do results. the Rebels. It is a return to a standard of rugby that he feels

G
supersedes England’s premier competition.
loucester head coach Bryan Redpath is certainly “I think it’s more enjoyable,” he said. “Defensively it’s
familiar with this process. His side had to settle more challenging, it’s quicker. The ball is used more and
for a seventh place finish in the Premiership when you’re a kid it’s all about using the ball, passing it
this season - disappointing for a club that has around and running with it. You’ve got that in Super 14
enjoyed top half success in the league for years.
While the number of games, squad sizes and injuries all KIWI STYLE:
Greg Somerville
concern Redpath, it is the standard of rugby that really makes a break for
concerns him in this current climate. New Zealand in
the 2003 Rugby
“There’s a lot of Tarzans playing now - a lot who look World Cup
like Tarzan but play like Jane,” he said. “Some people gain
confidence from their gym training but does it make them a
better rugby player? No. It helps them but if you can’t catch
and pass - if you can’t understand the game - it’s no good.
“The biggest problem nowadays for me is that there
aren’t enough people who understand the game of rugby
or can play the skill game of rugby. They get big and strong
but they can’t actually deliver the game.”
It is a complaint that can be levelled ‘TARZANS
directly at the national side of late. AND JANES’:
Johnson’s team seem to have run Gloucester
head coach
aground creatively, choosing to Bryan Redpath
wear down teams (and spectators)
with a battering ram approach that
simultaneously sucks all life
out of the match. The English
club game is certainly more
aesthetically pleasing but it rugby and everyone wants to do it, that’s the fun part of it.”
still lags light-years behind Asked why he thinks the English game suffers from such
the rugby prowess exhibited a deficiency in comparison to its southern hemisphere
on the fields of the southern counterpart, Somerville’s judgement sounds familiar.
hemisphere. “I look at some of the academy boys and they do a lot of
The Super 14 has been weights - they don’t actually get to play that much rugby,” he
undoubtedly the premium club said. “In New Zealand, we do weights, but not to the same
rugby competition in the world. extent as here.
The intensity and skill level of “There’s a lot more emphasis on ball skills and position-
the rugby played between the specific skills. In New Zealand, young players are out there
learning how to play rugby better rather than just getting
bigger and stronger.”
“In New Zealand, young Exactly 15 years since the game made its titanic overnight
leap from amateur entertainment to commercial enterprise,
players are learning how English rugby appears to have reached the absolute
pinnacle of professionalism.
to play rugby better rather Fixture lists have been stacked to the brim in the drive
for profit and rugby players have been transformed into
than just getting bigger” gym-driven athletes pushed to the limits of their physical
capabilities. The players have suffered and with them so has
South African, Australian and Kiwi sides is unrivalled - a the game.
standard of rugby marvelled by players at the opposite In this era of excess, a balance must be met if the English
end of the globe. With the addition of new side Melbourne national side are to consistently compete with their
Rebels, the Super 14 is to become the Super 15 next season southern hemisphere opposition over the next 15 years.
and with it the door has been opened for a couple of
Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk for a full interview with
Britain’s first converts. Gareth Delve about his move Down Under and future with Wales
Gareth Delve and English poster boy Danny Cipriani
have both put their international ambitions to one side in FOOD FOR THOUGHT: England
order to explore an environment that Delve believes will coach Martin Johnson has a
improve them both in the long-term. “For British players, challenging time ahead
the Super 14 hasn’t really been an option because it doesn’t
coincide with the international season,” he said. “That’s a
big decision that we’ve both had to make, that potentially
we might not play for our countries for the next two years.
“I just felt that at this time in my life it was a great chance
to go there and play against the best players in the world.”
Greg Somerville spent nine years in the Super 14, and
formerly the Super 12, before joining Delve at Gloucester
in 2008. After two seasons in the English Premiership, the
THAT MOMENT
 11

8/5/2010: England’s Kevin Pietersen survives

an LBW appeal from Mark Boucher as he returns
to form with 53 runs against South Africa in his
side’s ICC World Twenty20 match in Barbados
GADGETS

Boys’ Toys
Our insider guide to this summer’s ultimate gadgets and equipment

RIDING THE WAVES CAUSING A RACKET

With a supercharged 1812cc four-stroke, four-cylinder and The Prince Speedport
DOHC engine, the Yamaha FZR has a race-inspired hull and Sovereign racket is the most
Quick-Shift Trim System. The race-style cockpit and unique powerful in the Speedport
telescopic steering means that two can jump on and make an range, delivering unmatched
impact on the waves and in the beach house power with state of the art
technology
£12,999 from www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk
£350 Millet Sports

LET THERE BE LIGHT

DUAL VISION
A deep-fitting shape with a flat top,
adjustable brass swing buckle, and Enjoy listening to your iPod
an unstructured cotton. The SLC510 and capture life through an
provides ultimate freedom inbuilt camera with these
state-of-the-art shades
£35 www.solarlightcap.co.uk
£95 bestgadgetry.com

THE RALLY GOOD WAY TO TRAVEL

With an Ultra High Modulus carbon fibre
frame and Bayonet fork used in the other B2
models, the Felt B2 Pro 2009 is
the hottest thing on two wheels

£3,150 www.wiggle.co.uk
FOOTBALL

A New Breed of
Footballer

LINING UP:
Glenn Hoddle and the
trainees bidding to revive
their careers at his Academy

They have all suffered the heartbreak of rejection. Many

were deemed either not good enough or not big enough
for the English game. Discarded by professional football
clubs, they were left staring into the sport’s abyss. But the
ingenuity and faith of one man has given them a second
chance. Rescued by the Glenn Hoddle Academy, these
players are now being nurtured as a new generation

By CHRIS WARNE

A
t the age of seventeen Ryan
Burge seemed destined
for stardom. He had just
been awarded a three-year
contract with Birmingham
City Football Club, and his dreams of
becoming a Premiership star were
edging closer to reality.
Two-and-a-half years later, however,
and the youngster’s aspirations were
left in tatters. Events at Birmingham
conspired against him and his contract
was terminated by ‘mutual consent’.
Luckily for Burge, a former England
manager was on hand to offer him an
invaluable opportunity – the chance to
resurrect his career at the prestigious
Glenn Hoddle Academy (GHA).
“I got to my third year with
Birmingham and everything was going
well. I had been moved into the first-
team for pre-season and I managed
to get a goal against Dagenham and
Redbridge,” said Burge.
The talented left-winger looked to
have a bright future ahead of him, but
the departure of Steve Bruce to Wigan
and the arrival of new manager Alex
McLeish precipitated a change in his
fortunes.
“Steve Bruce brought me into the
first-team for pre-season,” said Burge.
“He had high hopes for me. But when
 15

he left he took his coaching team and

the reserve team manager with him.
“I got injured at the same time all
this was happening, and had to have
a hernia operation, so I was back in
the reserves. The head of the academy
took over the reserve team and he
didn’t really like me. He said my
attitude wasn’t right and as soon as he
came in he said he wanted me to go.”
Discontent, Burge organised
a meeting with the club’s Chief
Executive. “I felt I was getting messed
around so I went to Karren Brady and
said I wanted to leave. She wanted me
to stay and tried to persuade me but I
just didn’t feel comfortable staying.”
After leaving Birmingham in 2008,
Burge played a handful of reserve team
matches for boyhood club Cheltenham
Town before securing a short-term
deal with League Two side Barnet. But
appendicitis blighted his time there
and he made only one appearance for
the club, coming on as a second-half
substitute in a 4-0 home defeat to
Notts County.
In January 2009, the then Barnet
manager Ian Hendon told Burge he
would not be extending his contract.
Hendon expressed sincere regret at
having to make the decision but, in the
absence of a reserve side, said Barnet
could not guarantee Burge the match
time he needed to progress.
Resolute and still determined to
forge a career in the game, Burge
travelled to Japan a month later for
trials with two J-League clubs. Despite
signing for third tier side Machida
Zelvia, he soon became homesick and
opted to return home.
Back in England in July 2009, Burge
appeared to be in the last chance
saloon when he played in a pre-season
friendly for Blue Square Premier side
Forest Green Rovers. “I was training
at Forest Green and they offered me
a contract after I played a game for
them but I wasn’t really happy there,”
said Burge.
“I had applied online to the Glenn
Hoddle Academy and Glenn gave me
a call. He asked me to wait before I
signed for Forest Green because he
wanted me to take part in a trial for
the GHA.”
The 6ft Cheltenham-born winger
had submitted his CV online through
the Academy’s website. With two-
and-a-half years at Birmingham City,
a spell at West Bromwich Albion
before, and trials with Manchester
United and Ajax, it’s not surprising
the GHA elected to take a look at
Burge. WORKING HARD:
“They interviewed me and had The players train
rigorously under
me go down to Warwick for a the Spanish sun
three-day trial. I must have
16
impressed them because they
then picked me to play in a trial game
against Shrewsbury.”
Burge shone against the League Two
opposition, scoring the winner in a
2-1 victory for the GHA trialists. “I was
substituted with ten minutes to go and
Glenn took me over to one side and
asked me to sign for the Academy. I
was delighted, and I made up my mind
quickly to sign for them. I saw it as a
far better opportunity than playing for
Forest Green,” he said.
B
ased at the lavish five-star
Montecastillo Resort just
outside the city of Jerez in
southern Spain, the Glenn
Hoddle Academy is the first
independent football academy. Its aim
is to offer a route back into the game
for those players who have fallen foul
of the professional system.
Established in 2008, the ex-
Tottenham midfielder managed
to raise £4m, with the assistance
of private investors, to fund his
brainchild. Select players who have
been released from Premier League
and Championship clubs are granted
full scholarships at the Academy worth
up to £50,000, including food and
accommodation.
IN THE ZONE:
Ryan Burge
training at the
Glenn Hoddle
Academy
“The primary goal of the Academy is
to provide a lifeline or second chance
for players who have been released
from professional clubs for whatever
reason,” said Neil Duncanson,
commercial director at the GHA.
“Often the players coming to the
GHA are released because they are too
small. They may have the technical
ability but just need a year or two
to develop themselves a bit more
physically.
“Professional football clubs are often
compelled to make a decision on a
player’s future at the age of 18. Glenn
has always maintained that age is
simply too young, and that with a little
more development, they could still
become competent professionals.
“With regards to Ryan it is a little
different. Things just didn’t seem
to work out for him elsewhere. It’s
clear he’s got the ability and the
GHA is giving him the best possible
opportunity to fulfil his potential and
find a new club.”
Scouts are invited from across
“The primary goal
of the Academy is
to provide a lifeline
or second chance
for players”
Europe to take a look at Hoddle’s
collection of players. The Academy is
in essence a unique shop window, and
accordingly it is run as a business, for
profit, with stakeholders expecting a
return on their investment.
Players are contracted to the GHA
and the money is made when they
are sold on to professional clubs who
pay a development fee. Cuts of future
transfer fees and sponsorship revenue
also contribute to sustaining the
venture.
The business model is reminiscent of
the one subscribed to by some South
American football agents who own
their players’ transfer rights. English
football fans will remember the furore
over Kia Joorabchian’s third party
ownership of Carlos Tevez and Javier
Mascherano.
But there is a clear distinction to
be made with the GHA. Unlike such
agents, once the Academy has sold
a player they no longer retain their
transfer rights. Questionable ethics
and murky dealings are not an issue
with the GHA – quite the opposite in
fact. Players are housed in luxury villas
and have access to three swimming
pools, a picturesque 18-hole golf
course and a games room with
Internet.
The Academy has enjoyed
considerable success since its
inception, and its biggest achievement
to date was the sale of former
Wycombe Wanderers’ striker Ikechi
Anya to Sevilla. Anya’s sale was a
major coup for the GHA in its first year.
His move to the La Liga club boosted
public awareness of the Academy and
lent the endeavour vital credibility.
Anya’s story is not a one-off,
however. Of the 27 players taken
in by the GHA in its inaugural
year, nearly half were sold back to
professional clubs. The success rate
validates Hoddle’s concept with the
setting proving a perfect backdrop
for fostering the return of young
footballers to the professional game.
The triumphs can be attributed to
Hoddle’s philosophy of pure football.
The Academy places greater emphasis
on a technical style of play and Hoddle
has outlined a commitment to depart
from the traditional English long-ball
game.
He has stated his desire to create
more technically astute, skilful players,
and the setup and training at the GHA
reflects this. The Academy does not
participate in an organised league and
instead arranges friendlies arbitrarily
against the youth sides of professional
Spanish clubs. Not constrained by the
demands of a fixture list, the focus
remains solely on player development
with more time set aside for training
and technical work.
Hoddle is involved on a daily basis
and leads an elite coaching team that
comprises the likes of Nigel Spackman,
Graham Rix and Dave Beasant. They
oversee a gruelling training schedule
with sessions twice a day, an approach
Burge has found refreshing. “The
training is a lot more technical which
I think is good. We do a lot more work
with the ball and the Academy staff
concentrate more on coaching.
“I have been to League One and
League Two academies where you just
play a game and everyone is literally
fighting for the ball. That’s never going
to help because you’re never going to
improve with training like that. The
training is a lot better at the GHA and
 17

IDYLLIC SURROUNDINGS:
The plush Montecastillo
Resort in Jerez, southern
Spain - home to the Glenn
Hoddle Academy

I definitely feel I’ve improved from it,”
said the 21-year-old.
Players also benefit significantly
from the Mediterranean climate.
Perpetual clear skies and sunshine
create the ideal environment for
football. Training can continue
through the winter months and
Hoddle contends that in England
the poor, capricious, weather can
disrupt training and detract from
players’ enjoyment.
have the potential to make it but are
simply victims of English football’s
financial structures.
With the Premier League awash
with money, there is too much at
stake financially for managers to
risk blooding inexperienced
youngsters. Sir Alex Ferguson
gambled on the likes of
Beckham, Giggs, Scholes and
the Neville brothers in ‘95.
But in the current context
be present to offer trainees much-
needed experience.
The constant lauding of the Premier
League as ‘the best league in the world’
serves often to mask the inadequacy
of the country’s youth setup. But the
perennial problems are exposed by the
consistent mediocrity of the English
national team.
When you cast an eye over the
number of indigenous players plying
their trade in Europe’s top flight

T
could Ferguson take a football leagues you realise the lack
he GHA similar chance? It’s of home grown players in the Premier
represents an doubtful. League. In the 2007/08 season, only
entrepreneurial Managers have 34 per cent of players starting matches
yet virtuous had their hands tied in the Premier League were English.
tour de by the prevailing On average, that’s under four English
force, with Hoddle economic pressures.
et al making money
out of giving young
They are inclined
to play it safe,
“Players who do
footballers a genuine
chance to revive
purchasing
established
work their way up
their careers. But to
a certain extent, it
professionals rather
than placing faith through the ranks
is lamentable that
a market for the
TRAINING HARD:
Burge hopes to
in their young
prospects. The tend to be of a
project exists in the save his career revolving door
first place. culture that sees high standard but
The concept has managers come
flourished only due to
profound failures to develop
and go, coupled with
the unequal distribution
often of a similar
gifted English footballers
at grassroots and academy
of television revenues
through the leagues, further
mould”
levels. Indeed, approximately entrenches the deficiencies. players in each starting line-up,
85% of trainees taken on by Deprived of the lucrative whereas Spain and Italy see roughly
professional football clubs will income from television, a seven native names on the team-sheets
be released. shortage of financial resources of sides playing in La Liga and Serie A.
It’s inconceivable that every for those at the foot of the It’s no surprise that England
single one of those players league hierarchy means a manager Fabio Capello has bemoaned
will not reach the required dearth of investment in youth this disparity. Other countries around
standard. The reality is that development and the absence of Europe have vast reservoirs of talent
many young prospects do reserve teams, which should from which to pick
18
DREAM COME
TRUE:
Ikechi Anya and
Glenn Hoddle at
the GHA (above)
and signing for
Sevilla (right)
their national sides, whilst in
comparison England seem to have a
shallow pond.
That is not to say this country
does not produce quality footballers,
however. Players who do work their
way up through the ranks tend to be of
a high standard but often of a similar
mould. The recent winners of the PFA’s
Player and Young Player of the Year
awards illustrate this point.
Wayne Rooney, the PFA Player of the
Year and James Milner, Young Player
of the Year, were both 16 when they
made their Premier League debuts.
Rooney was the youngest player to
score in the league when he netted
from 25 yards against Arsenal in 2002
“Football in this
country remains
steeped in a
working class
culture that
champions the
industrious”
but intriguingly lost the record
two months later to Milner who slotted
home against Sunderland on Boxing
Day.
The two players clearly have a lot
in common and most striking is their
physical maturity at such a young age.
Both are robustly built and capable of
enduring the intensive demands of the
English fixture list. The award of PFA
Young Player of the Year to 24-year-old
Milner is actually somewhat deceptive
when you consider he was actually
playing in the Premier League for
Leeds eight years ago.
To succeed in the Premier League,
physical attributes are just as key, if
not more important, to a player than
footballing ability. This is not so true
in other leagues in Europe and Hoddle
frequently cites the victory of the
Spanish national team at Euro 2008
to vindicate his faith in small, skilful
players.
H
oddle’s ethos is
commendable, but his
chances of engineering
a new mentality that
embraces skilful, technical
football are remote. Football in this
country remains steeped in a working
class culture that champions the
industrious workhorse of a player
and warms to the long ball, kick and
rush style of play. Skilful players are
often regarded with disdain and
in all likelihood will continue to be
dismissed as show ponies.
For Burge, a spell at the Glenn
Hoddle Academy represents an
opportunity he simply will not find
on these shores. “I think the biggest
highlight so far was playing against
Dynamo Kiev’s first team. It was the
same team who had played against
Barcelona in the Champions League
the year before,” said Burge.
“The only player who didn’t play
was Andriy Shevchenko. We got beat
4-0 but they were awarded two lucky
penalties and it wasn’t really a fair
result. We had a lot of chances, we hit
the bar and should have scored. I had
a really good game and the coaches
actually said Kiev were interested in a
few of us.
“I’d say my other highlights up until
now would be scoring against Real
Madrid’s youth team and I also scored
the Academy’s quickest goal after 11
seconds against a team called San
Fernando.”
Dynamo Kiev and Real Madrid are
a far cry from Forest Green Rovers
and not bad for a footballer who less
than a year ago seemed caught in a
downward spiral and heading for
football’s wilderness. Bristol Rovers
have already expressed an interest
in Burge but it’s likely they’ll face
competition for his signature. In the
event of a move materialising, Burge
will owe a great deal to the Hand of
Hod.
Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk
to watch an exclusive interview
with Glenn Hoddle
A few of the success
stories so far...
Ikechi Anya - Sevilla FC
(Released by Northampton Town)
Chris Fagan - Lincoln City
(Released by Manchester United)
David Cowley - Recreativo De
(Released by Southend) Huelva

COMMENT
TV COVERAGE
STUMPS IPL FANS
Cricket had a 30-year exodus from ITV before it recently
returned. But Mark Duell was unimpressed by what he saw
W
e had to wait more
than three decades
for cricket to return
to ITV. So it was
unfortunately
something of a damp squib as Matt
Smith and relatively unknown actress
Mandira Bedi fronted coverage of the
Indian Premier League (IPL) 2010 on
digital channel ITV4. It’s number 24 on
my Freeview box and is sandwiched
in between Dave Ja Vu and Bid TV. Oh
dear.
The demise of pay-TV service
Setanta Sports paved the way for ITV
to snap up IPL rights and enter the
cricket market for the first time since
the 1970s. With global rights jointly
held by Sony and World Sport Group,
who are in the middle of a $1.2billion
ten-year deal, different broadcasters
around the world snapped up
domestic coverage.
But the fact ITV shifted it onto their
website and a digital-only station that
is way down the list on your satellite
menu shows how much they valued it.
The IPL deal was also overshadowed
by a schoolboy error where they
could only show 59 of the 60 matches
because a Delhi Daredevils and
Bangalore Royal Challengers game
clashed with a British Touring Car race
from Thruxton. Yes, you read correctly.
However, ITV’s acquisition of the IPL
was only one part of this year’s action-
packed cricket television rights scene.
Even more interesting things were
happening in the online market in
January. Eyebrows were raised when
YouTube struck a deal to webcast
live IPL matches, which made it the
first major sporting event to ever be
streamed across the globe.
It was also the first major live
sporting deal for the website and
came after Ukraine v England was
controversially streamed online by
Perform to paying customers only, not
in pubs or bars.
YouTube’s two-year deal with the
IPL meant it could stream every game
anywhere outside the USA. But the
idea of watching sport on a laptop
IPL WINNERS:
The Chennai
Super Kings
doesn’t fill me with joy. God made
sport to be viewed on the box, so you
can watch it with some friends over
a good pint of bitter each. Huddling
round a laptop, even if only for 20
overs, just won’t do it for me. If we are
given the option - ITV on television or
YouTube online - the former is slightly
better.
But saying this, there was a greatly
improved experience from watching
online rather than on the box.
An incredible 20 camera positions
and the chance to pause or fast-
forward coverage made it far more like
sitting in the director’s gallery than
the armchair. Forums, official stats
and a video archive were also good
distractions when the game slowed
down or stopped.
The live and on-demand service
reached an incredible 500 million -
around one-in-twelve world citizens.
The major market for live sport
online is whilst people are at work
- which is why Wimbledon has
been so successful on BBC Online.
With IPL games generally starting
in early or mid-afternoon, that is a
good time to be catching bored office
staff and getting them to watch your
programming.
But back to ITV for one moment. IPL
commissioner Lalit Modi claimed the
23
UK deal was a great success for them
as it would improve competitiveness
against Sky and start a new era for
free-to-air cricket broadcasting.
He is naturally pleased the IPL will
capture a much bigger market, even
though it is still not on terrestrial
television. This is fair enough, as it
is unlikely to generate much of an
audience on ITV1 during a daytime
afternoon.
However, it was a great time for ITV
to snap up cricket with the BBC not
currently looking at taking back rights.
ITV4 could be seen as something of a
dream for sports fans without satellite
or cable television. It has recently
shown FA Cup and Europa League
football, The Tour de France, Guinness
Premiership Rugby, British Touring
Cars and Isle of Man TT. It was one of
the top-ten watched digital channels
last year and is one of the only free-to-
air digital channels to show live sport.
But I still feel any sport is shown on
a digital-only station for a reason - it’s
not going to be that great. And whilst
the viewing experience on YouTube
might have been better, I’d still much
rather sit on the sofa or be at a pub,
rather than getting my friends up to
my bedroom to crowd round a 15-inch
monitor.
That just won’t cut it.
SPORT SCIENCE
WINNER TAKES ALL
There’s more to winning than talent. Sports psychologist Chris
Marshall tells Colin James that mentality is just as important
E
ngland will lose on penalties, Andy Murray will
‘bottle it’ at Wimbledon, there will be at least one
English batting collapse and a Brit will flirt briefly
with a chance of winning The Open before sliding
inexorably down the leader board. Some things
are guaranteed this World Cup summer.
Are we just a nation of losers?
Not according to English Institute of Sport (EIS)
psychologist Chris Marshall.
“We have some fantastic athletes who are doing really
well,” he said. “Look here [at the EIS]. We have Jessica Ennis
and the disabled table-tennis team is doing well - we have
four players in the top ten in the world.”
But chances are that this summer, the back-pages will be
full of stories of players and teams ‘choking’ or bottling it.
Every time someone loses from a position of strength or
expectation of victory they are branded a bottler, especially
if it happens more than once.
And when the transfer window opens, football managers
will talk of signing players with a ‘winning mentality’.
The perception that the English are somehow born
nearly-men is common and understandable given some of
the high-profile defeats.
Marshall rejects that theory, again pointing out recent
successes in British sport.
“I don’t think we are a nation of bottlers. It’s a media
“We’re not a nation of
bottlers - it’s a media thing”
thing. If you go to Australia the papers there will say their
athletes have bottled it, it’s the same in America,” he said.
“The media build people up and when they lose it makes
a good story.
“It is down to the invividual. I don’t think someone has a
particular mentality because they are English.”
The latest media suggestions of an Englishman losing
because he lacked a winning mentality were raised after
Lee Westwood’s Masters performance in April.
Westwood went into the final round with a one-shot lead
over Phil Mickelson but could not hold on to win his first
major championship.
“I don’t think he bottled it,” said Marshall. “His
performance didn’t really drop all week and the American
played a great final round to win. It’s not right to say
Westwood bottled it.”
Westwood’s failure to win the Masters means he has
finished third, third and second in his last three majors.
It does not quite compare to Jimmy White’s inability to
pass the winning post, but it is something that must play on
the Worksop golfer’s mind.
Mickelson was once the nearly-man of golf and he
reassured Westwood that if good enough the majors will
come.
Breaking that psychological barrier to victory is crucial.
People who make light of the physical outcomes of
psychological processes should remember that before
Sir Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier,
athletes and coaches suggested it was physically
impossible.
“When routine is broken,
you lose control”
In the 18 months after that famous run in Oxford, 16
other athletes matched the achievement.
Tim Henman was often accused of not being mentally
tough enough to win Wimbledon but of his four semi-finals,
only the 2001 three-day epic against Goran Ivanisovic could
possibly be described as a choke.
The fact was that Henman was nearly always beaten by a
better player.
When opponents are more evenly matched the battle of
wits becomes important.
“When you get to the elite level we can generally say the
people are of a similar ability and mentality can often be the
difference between them.” Marshall said.
As sport becomes increasingly science-based, the
importance of being in the right frame of mind to perform
well and win is emphasised.
In the last decade there has been a huge increase in the
consultation of psychologists by athletes and teams.
Glenn Hoddle attracted less than sympathetic media
coverage when he hired faith healer Eileen Drewery to help
the England football squad prepare for the World Cup in
1998.
Sven-Goran Eriksson admitted after the 2006 tournament
that England might have done better if they had taken a
sports psychologist with them.
In South Africa this summer we are sure to see at least
one example of that most dramatic decider: the penalty
shoot-out.
England are notoriously bad at taking penalties, so what
techniques could they use to help them deal with the
pressure?
“The key is routine,” said Marshall. “When someone is
under pressure it is reassuring for them to have a routine
they can stick to.
“Jonny Wilkinson has his routine and uses visualisation
techniques which can be effective too. When that routine is
broken you can lose control and things go wrong.”
Wilkinson decides where he wants the ball to go and then
traces a path back to the kicking tee before visualising the
ball travelling along the path and between the posts.
 25

CLASSIC
The technique has helped him become a World Cup
winner and England’s leading all-time points scorer.
Psychologist Jeff Simons described a ‘quick-set routine’
that could be carried out 30 seconds before competition to SPORTING CHOKES
increase focus or help recovery after a distraction.
There are some sports where routine is a very natural With a great summer of sport ahead, we
part of the game. The repeated actions in snooker, golf and look back at some of the worst examples of
darts lend themselves to a fixed process. snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
These closed sports, with their stable and predictable
environments, are much easier to develop routine in than
open sports where conditions are constantly changing,
meaning movements have to be adapted.
Athletes have to give themselves the best chance of
winning by preparing properly, being confident and relaxed
isn’t enough.
“We work alongside the coaches to help that preparation”
said Marshall.
“You have to put in the hours of practice required to be
successful. It is important that training is structured with
set goals rather than unstructured. Achievement equals
talent plus preparation.”
Perhaps the England football team should practice taking
penalties as much as possible.
Not only would it help to reinforce a routine but players 1994: Snooker legend Jimmy White had lost
would simply become better at putting the ball where they five World Championship finals already,
want it to go. including the last four. After levelling at 17-17
Where though should they be aiming and what about the and only a simple black needed in the deciding
goalkeeper? frame, White missed by a mile leaving Stephen
An Israeli study in 2006 suggested that goalkeepers Hendry to clinch the fourth of his seven titles
would save more penalties if they just stood in the middle of
the goal.
The study found that goalkeepers who stayed in the
middle of the goal saved 33.3 per cent of penalties in
contrast to 14.2 per cent when they dived to the left and
12.6 per cent when they dived to the right.
Yet goalkeepers only stay central for 6.3 per cent of
penalties and psychologists believe this is because they
have an ‘action bias’.
Goalkeepers see staying central as ‘inaction’ and favour
the action of diving to one side.
If a goal is scored despite a dive then goalkeepers believe
1999: French golfer Jean Van de Velde went
“Goalkeepers save more into the last hole of The Open with a three shot
lead. He hit the grandstand, found the water
penalties by standing still” and then a bunker. The triple-bogey forced a
three-way play-off but Van de Velde couldn’t
recover and Paul Lawrie took the title
they have tried their best to save it.
If a goal is scored and the goalkeeper remains central, he
negatively belives that he has not acted, rather than made a
decision to stay in the middle of the goal.
The study showed that kicks to the goalkeeper’s left were
saved more often than when they dived to the right.
If the goalkeeper dives to the left and the penalty goes
that way he has nearly a 30 per cent chance of saving it.
If he correctly dives to the right his chance of saving the
penalty falls to 25 per cent.
But success still depends on the correct mental
preparation which helps a player to kick the ball in the
direction he intends to.
In competition, players who can stick to their routine 1990, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006: England
when under pressure will be the most successful. have gone out of five major tournaments on
“Routine needs to be drilled into athletes through penalties. 1990 was the most painful of them
structured training with coaches,” said Marshall. “The all, with misses from Chris Waddle and Stuart
better prepared it is the better it can be carried out under Pearce ensuring England lost a World Cup
pressure.” semi-final shootout against West Germany
So there we have it.
England is not a nation of losers but just needs more Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk to relive these howlers
penalty practice.
FOOTBALL
Best, BRICs and Beers
Manchester United are arguably the world’s greatest sport
brand, but currently £800million in debt at the the hands
of the Glazer family. Robert Golledge finds out more
about Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs chief economist
and man leading the bid to reclaim the club for fans
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
J im O’Neill is your archetypal Manchester United fan.
He reminisces about Dennis Law, is still infatuated
with Georgie Best, and describes Wayne Rooney as the
best English player he’s ever seen grace the sodden
Old Trafford turf.
A son of a postman, his father’s side of the family were
publicans and his mother’s parents were farmers. He grew
up in the deprived Wythenshawe estate, now synonymous
with the TV series Shameless.
Football would govern his week in the playground and
on Saturdays he’d play for both his junior school and Gately
Cubs sides before scuttling off to watch United.
Very much an average Mancunian lad growing up in inner-
city Manchester in the sixties.
But just like Manchester as a city and United as a club,
O’Neill’s circumstances have changed beyond belief.
Now 45-years after an eight-year-old O’Neill watched
the Red Devils share the Charity Shield with arch rivals
Liverpool, he is leading a group of wealthy supporters
whose aim is to buy-out the Glazer family as the club’s
owners.
Enter the Red Knight.
At 53-years-of-age Jim O’Neill needs to slow down:
REDS’ SAVIOUR?:
Goldman Sachs
chief economist
Jim O’Neill at work
The boy from Gately is now Goldman Sachs chief
global economist with a personal fortune estimated at
£200million.
“My current life ambition is not to do so much,” he
said. “My life is kind of crazy these days. I often think I
have the best economics job in the world. It is extremely
demanding but hugely enjoyable, I am responsible for all
our economists and strategists around the world. I also
travel all over the World, and am involved in all the different
“My life is kind of crazy
these days - I often think I
have the best economics job
in the world”
businesses that Goldman Sachs does. I feel very lucky. My
life is very stressful but very enjoyable.”
O’Neill sure has an unconventional way of freeing up his
time. Whilst the global money markets and international
economies were in utter turmoil he
initiated a campaign to take over the
country’s greatest sporting name,
his beloved Manchester United. It is
inconceivable why a man at the head of
one of the world’s most powerful banks
would embark on such project at such a
tumultuous and enigmatic time.
Is it the same drive of ambition that
took him from the backstreets of Gately
to the World Trade Centres in New York,
London and Frankfurt?
“I am really not sure! I never thought,
or still today, think of myself as being
ambitious. My main goals are to enjoy
myself, try to keep my feet on the ground,
remember all the people that I have
enjoyed life with, and not get carried
away by anybody’s status or perceived
self importance,” he said.
In March the group of wealthy well-
 27

connected United fans dubbed the Red Knights confirmed used to go to a lot of Roxy Music/Bowie- themed places. I
their intentions to take over the club.
“Following the intense media speculation overnight, we
can confirm that a group of high net worth individuals, who
“I was really into Tamla
support Manchester United, met in London yesterday. This
group is supportive of current management but are looking Motown and bitter beer until
at the feasibility of putting together a proposal to be put to
the Glazer Family regarding the ownership of Manchester I went to Sheffield, where I
United,” a statement said.
learnt to drink everything”
“George Best, not only was was always into bitter beer until I went to Sheffield, where I
he awesome, we wanted to learnt to drink everything.”
After leaving Burnage High School, the same school
attended by Rodger Byrne (captain of the Munich air crash
be like him - especially his team), the Gallagher brothers and later Wes Brown, O’Neill
studied Economics at the University of Sheffield.
success with girls” “All in all I spent nearly seven years at university
‘studying’, most of the time playing football and having a
The problem, as they see it, is that the Glazer family has good time,” he said.
used the club as collateral in their takeover, plunging the “I loved it, arguably still the best four years of my life were
club into a debt of £800million. at Sheffield. Most of my best friends, certainly many of my
In 2009 a successful bond scheme, overseen by Goldman longest are still, people I used to hang out with there. I was
Sachs, saw the club generate £500million to a very naughty student, especially in the first and second
help service the debt. years.
Last year the Glazer family paid “I existed to play football, and have a good time. I think I
themselves over £20million from the probably stayed ‘in’ about three times in four years. We had
club’s coffers for their roles as the some completely wild, some outrageous football club trips
club’s directors. Without the world away - highlight being to Newcastle University, where I
record £80million sale of Cristiano believe our exploits made the national press.
Ronaldo, the club would have made a “Sheffield had a great football team when I was there,
net loss of £10million. and I managed to get into the first eleven as a fresher and
This month the Glazer family said was in it, on and off the whole time I was there. Although in
they’d already rejected bids of the MA year, they won the UAU cup against Kent, but I lost
£1.5billion from Middle-Eastern my place due to a broken foot, and one of my best mates
investors, suggesting the Red took my place, and I couldn’t get it back again.”
Knight campaign had little O’Neill, married for 27 years with two kids, aged 19 and
substance. 22, lives in south west London, previously living in New
As a youngster O’Neill’s York.
life was dominated by He made a name for himself six years ago when he coined
football, playing at the term ‘BRICs’ – identifying Brazil, Russia, India and China
every opportunity and as the current emerging economies that would overtake
he even represented many of the G8 countries’ status as global financial
Manchester at county powers.
level, aged 17. “I called them ‘BRICs’ for a reason - not that they
There was one always will play second fiddle to the West but that they
player, however, he will be the solid structures of global economics,” he once
idolised on and off the said.
field. Prior to the Glazer family’s takeover of United in
“George Best. 2004, O’Neill served as a non-executive director of the
Not only was he club. It was during this time that
awesome, but like he became close with Sir Alex
many other teenage Ferguson.
united fans, we “I have had the pleasure of
wanted to be like him getting to know him.
- especially his success “It’s remarkable how successful he
with girls. has been, but he doesn’t forget where he
“I had a very enjoyable social has come from,” he said.
life, hanging out with posh girls in Equally remarkable is the story of
Cheadle Hulme and Bramhall until Terrence James O’Neill, but will
I was ‘big’ enough to go into town we being seeing him as one of
after being 16, when it was the United’s owners?
Oaks in Chorlton and Placemate, or GOALSCORER:
“I’m afraid I’m unable to
Pips in town. Manchester United talk can’t talk about
“I was really into Tamla Motown, prize asset, Wayne anything Red Knights
Rooney
but my mates had a bit related right now,
more open and varied not even to The
tastes than me, and we Sportsman.
TENNIS

GAME, SET
AND MATCH?

British tennis is in a bad state. So why can’t we

produce any decent players? Mark Duell spoke
to an academy training manager to find out

DEFEATED:
Andy Murray shows
his frustration as he
loses the 2009 final of
the Australian Open
T
ennis is such a difficult
sport,” said Martin Folger.
He would know, being a
professional coach with 38
years of playing experience.
“It always seems to have been one
player that has come through, like
Andy Murray. But when you talk about
them representing their country as a
team, sometimes the best players in
the world don’t actually make the best
team.”
Great Britain’s fifth straight Davis
Cup defeat - to lowly Lithuania earlier
this year - was a good example of
this. It led to much soul-searching
within tennis after captain John Lloyd
resigned and was later criticised by
Murray.
The poor performance in the Davis
Cup seems so much worse when
you consider that Sport England are
distributing £26million of funding to
the Lawn Tennis Association over a
four-year period. This will not be cut
by sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe,
despite an All Party Tennis Group
report that said the LTA should be
delivering ‘better outcomes than at
present’.
Folger, who is tennis manager at the
Sheffield Tennis Academy, believes
we must be patient before things
improve. “I think we’re more geared-
up to developing tennis players in the
future, but that takes time,” he said. “A
tennis player doesn’t appear in a five-
year period.”
He believes it takes about 10,000
hours to produce a player who
may qualify for the first-round of
Wimbledon. Folger said: “If you start
playing tennis at six and you’re going
to do 10,000 hours, that’s 20 hours a
week over a 10-year period - or 1,000
hours a year. It’s a long and arduous
road.
“We’ve produced tennis players to
a very high world standard in juniors,
and then the transition from the junior
game to the senior game is where we
seem to be breaking down. We’ve got
Laura Robson and a group of players
below her, but that jump to the senior
game is such a giant step.”
One conclusion from the All Party
Tennis Group’s findings was that the
LTA is not producing enough quality
players around the country. But Folger
disagrees with this view. “Tennis is an
individual sport,” he said.
“If you put Murray on a doubles
court, he’s a good player, but not a
doubles specialist. We are producing
tennis players - just not doing well at
team tennis. We seem to have always
had one individual tennis player.”
Great Britain hasn’t produced a
tennis player who has reached the
final knockout stages of a Grand Slam
since Tim Henman, as Murray was
trained abroad in Sanchez-Casal,
Barcelona. Folger acknowledged that
comparisons are often made with
French and Spanish tennis training,
but still rejects the idea that Britain
is falling behind to its European
competitors.
“We’re developing at the same
rate as other countries,” he said. “We
keep seeing players out of Estonia
and Lithuania who are not world
champions. They seem to be better
than us collectively as a group, but
they’re not in the world’s top ten
individually. For a team event like
the Davis Cup, ideally you need two
very good singles players and also a
doubles pair. Murray gets found out by
doubles specialists, like Henman did,
as it’s not their game.
“You’ve also got to look at the
culture of British tennis. We haven’t
got the climate of Spain and France
and are a smaller country - they’ve
got a bigger catchment area and more
people are playing tennis. These sound
like cheap excuses, but it’s always
difficult to compete on a level playing
field. Why doesn’t Jamaica have a
bobsleigh team? Why don’t we get
tennis players from Iceland? You’ve
always got to look at what you’ve got.”
“It’s difficult to
compete on a
level playing field”
Folger is confident of a positive
future for British tennis. “The
structure is getting a lot better,”
he said. “We have got a lot of good
juniors coming through, which is very
encouraging.
“But it’s about keeping the
management process going, keeping
them competing and making sure they
get assistance to make that transition
from the junior to the senior game.”
The Davis Cup defeat came after
Dan Evans lost in the decisive singles
match to hand Lithuania a 3-2 victory,
and means Britain must beat Turkey
in a July relegation play-off. The loser
will drop into the tournament’s lowest
tier, Europe/Africa Zone Group III.
“Things can flip very quickly,” said
Folger, trying to look ahead. “People
will see the Davis Cup as a negative,
but what would happen in July if
Murray lifts the Wimbledon trophy?”
Investment levels across all sports
are currently a political hot-potato,
but Folger says the issue now is not
how much money there is, but - in the
31
words of the Financial Times - ‘How to
Spend It’.
“I think there’s a lot of investment
and now it’s being better used,” he
said. “In the past there’s been quite a
lot of money thrown at tennis and it’s
basically gone into the wrong areas.
If you’re going to develop a top-class
tennis player, you have to make sure
all the pieces are in place. You always
want some funding for groups below
the top level to push those above.”
Folger’s Sheffield Tennis Academy,
part of the Lawn Tennis Association,
is based at the Graves Tennis and
Leisure Centre. It helps people across
the city get involved in tennis and
develop the performance of children
from the age of four, right up to adults.
The academy has six indoor and 12
outdoor courts that are also used for
recreational tennis, lessons for senior
citizens or ladies only and specialist
coaching for the disabled and deaf.
“Here at Sheffield, we are bucking
the trend,” Folger said. “There’s a
recession on but the number of people
coming onto our courses is increasing
at a steady rate. So that shows people
are coming into the game. Once you
get them into the game, then you’ve
got to coach them correctly and the
broader the base, the more chance
you’ve got of finding a champion.”
Folger started playing tennis as a
13-year-old and was trained by the
mother of Sheffield’s Roger Taylor,
who won six tour-level singles titles
and nine doubles trophies during
his career. Folger himself went on to
become a professional tennis coach
and manager. But something he
notices in younger players is that they
don’t have the same knowledge of
the game’s professionals as budding
footballers having a kickabout.
“If I go on court with a group of six
or seven-year-olds and in July and I
put it to them: ‘Who will win the Men’s
singles final at Wimbledon’, there may
be one or two who know. To them, it’s
a game and a lot of fun. Certainly when
they get a little older, you’d expect
those answers to be forthcoming. You
might see kids playing football in the
park saying: ‘I’m Wayne Rooney’. But
I don’t see tennis players saying: ‘I’m
hitting the ball like Nadal’.”
So, roll on Wimbledon. It’s the time
when the nation joins together in
support of one man, clutching their
strawberries and cream on Murray
Mound in SW19.
Folger seems confident that the
tennis training structure of this
country is in good shape, despite
coming in for heavy criticism recently.
We can only judge our players on their
achievements, and hopefully that ‘one
guy every year’ will be everyone’s
favourite Glaswegian this summer.
INVESTMENT

THE
MASTER
PLAN

BEACON:
The City of Manchester
Stadium dominates the
skyline
 33

It’s eight years since Manchester hosted the

Commonwealth Games. But the legacy of the largest
multi-sport event ever held in Britain continues.
Manchester City FC recently signed a billion pound
deal to develop the area around The City of
Manchester Stadium. We examine if sport is leading
the regeneration of a run-down post-industrial area
34
INNOVATIVE:
Artist’s impression of
City Street and the Halo
F
ifteen years ago it was one
of the poorest areas in the
country. Today it is at the
heart of billion pound plans
that will transform the area
and create a genuine world class sport
and leisure complex.
East Manchester is being revitalised
through sport with investment being
led by the much maligned foreign
money in football.
They have been accused of killing
English football and spending immoral
sums of money on players but the
owners of Manchester City have plans
that are bigger than the beautiful
game.
The club recently signed a deal
with Manchester City Council and
regeneration company New East
Manchester (NEM) that is expected to
attract £1billion worth of investment
from private backers and City’s
billionaire Abu Dhabi owner HH
Sheikh Mansour.
The project to create a top level
sport and leisure destination around
The City of Manchester Stadium will
create thousands of jobs and help
to regenerate one of Manchester’s
poorest areas.
By COLIN JAMES
A luxury hotel, restaurants and
shops plus a new training complex
to rival AC Milan’s Milanello, which
is arguably the best in the world, are
expected developments in an area that
was given a sense of purpose by the
2002 Commonwealth games and the
sports facilities that followed.
At the other end of the football
ladder, FC United of Manchester have
announced the intention to build a
£24m: Indoor BMX Centre
£3.5m: Planned FC United
of Manchester stadium
£1bn: Expected leisure
complex investment
£3.5million, 5,000 capacity community
stadium in Newton Heath, the
birthplace of Manchester United.
In February work started on the
world’s first purpose built indoor BMX
track that will be completed in 2011 at
a cost of £24million.
The arena, with a spectator capacity
of 2,000, will be built next to the
Velodrome and together they will form
the National Cycling Centre.
A
t the heart of the industrial
revolution, east Manchester
had one of the deepest coal
mines in Britain and a busy
manufacturing industry.
But, as industry declined, 60 per cent
of jobs were lost in just ten years
between 1975 and 1985.
Houses emptied and crime rose as
the departing industry left in its wake
a wasteland.
Manchester is an ambitious city. It
lays claims to being the birthplace of
the industrial revolution, the computer
and communism with varying degrees
of accuracy.
Its bids to host the 1996 and 2000
Olympic Games were mocked by some
as ideas above its station. At the time
Manchester didn’t have a single five
star hotel.
But when it won the 2002
Commonwealth Games, Manchester
could begin to build the biggest
concentration of sporting venues in
Europe.
And so the transformation of east
Manchester could begin.

The area already had one top venue,
the cycling velodrome, the home of
British track cycling and its eight
Beijing Olympic gold medalists, which
had opened in 1994.
The area traditionally called
Bradford became known as Eastlands,
the location for Sport City the main
base of the Games.
At the centre The City of Manchester
Stadium would host the athletics and
“We want a year-
round destination
and City want a
global brand”
rugby sevens and after the Games be
converted into a football stadium - the
new home of Manchester City.
Other new venues included
the National Squash Centre, the
Manchester Regional Athletics Arena, a
tennis centre and the regional base for
the English Institute of Sport.
Former athletes Seb Coe and
Jonathan Edwards criticised the
decision to convert the stadium
for football use but the long term
implications of that decision look
great.
B
y the start of next season
the first new improvements
to the area around the
stadium will be complete.
This includes a market-
B D
A A
C
E
place fan zone of shops and food and
drink outlets to be called ‘City Street’
on Joe Mercer Way, the north approach
to the stadium, and an iluminated blue
halo on top of the club shop.
The club spent 14 months studying
the world’s best sporting facilities and
it has explored ways to increase the
capacity of the stadium.
It is hoped that work on the longer
term elements of the scheme -
incorporating the site of the ditched
supercasino and 59 acres of land
bought by City’s owners - will begin
within the next five years.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of the city
council, said: “The City of Manchester
Stadium has been a credit to the city
and this further investment will enable
local people who can work, to work,
and will give our young people the best
possible start in life and will make east
Manchester a place in which to work,
invest, live and visit.”
“A football stadium brings people in
significant numbers maybe 30 days a
year.
“We want a year-round destination
that enhances the reputation of the
city as a visitor destination and City
want to build a global brand.
“The club has made it very clear that
they have a long-term commitment
to the area and its regeneration and
part of the agreement we’ve signed
enshrines that.
“We are very clear that we want
activities on the site that create jobs
for local people at a range of levels.”
City could be expected to lose touch
with its traditionally working class
F
H E
G
NEW DESIGN: How east
Manchester will change
35
support base as it spends millions of
pounds seeking a place among the
elite of European football but chief
executive Garry Cook is insistant that
“The club has a
long-term
commitment to the
area”
the fans and local community are part
of the future of the club.
He said: “Manchester City has
been and always will be at the heart
of the community it serves in the
city of Manchester, the longer-term
considerations for the area reflect the
long term commitment of our owners
to the club and the community it
serves.”
Foreign investment in football has
been heavily criticised, but those who
gain employment as a result of the
ambtious owners of Manchester City
will very much welcome it.
The Eastlands club hope to become
the best team in the world on the pitch,
but whatever they achieve with the
ball looks set to be dwarfed by off-field
developments that could change the
face of a city.
Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk
to see more detailed plans and take an
interactive tour of Sport City
EAST MANCHESTER
The new sport facilities
that will be built on the
east Manchester site:
Regional athletics arena
B Tennis centre
C Squash centre
D City Street Manchester
City club shop with Halo
Leisure development
F Velodrome
New East Manchester
G land
H Possible Manchester
City training complex

LETTERS
HAVE YOUR SAY
Since we launched www.thesportsman.co.uk,
we have been inundated with your views:
some sensible, some not so sensible. We’ve
selected the best of them for you to enjoy
Dear Sportsman,
As a qualified and experienced football
referee, I am growing increasingly
frustrated by the media’s lack of
understanding of the laws of the game
and their correct application.
John Motson, the supposed expert
among experts at the BBC, is one of the
worst culprits.
Can someone please tell him that
‘daylight’ is entirely irrelevant when it
comes to the offside law?
I propose that anyone who is paid
to talk or write about football should
be forced to complete the FA training
course and referee a few games for
themselves.
They’d soon discover what a difficult
job referees have and by learning
about the laws (note to Mr Lawrenson:
they are not ‘rules’), they may start to
make fewer idiotic comments.
What they don’t realise is that
football fans look to them for insight
and believe what they say.
So when it comes to Sunday morning
and The Dog and Duck versus The
Red Lion, their ignorance is repeated
verbatim by angry hungover players
and managers.
This makes the job of the referee
even more difficult.
If Andy Gray or John Motson are
reading I’d be delighted to show them
the ropes myself.
Sam Tyler, Ealing
Dear Sportsman,
The dispute over drugs testing
between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and
Manny Pacquiao raised an important
issue.
Because of the divided nature
of boxing it has been difficult to
implement consistent doping
regulation.
Professional boxing is lagging behind
other sports when it comes to testing
fighters for banned substances and
there are strong rumours that drug use
is rife in the sport.
37
EMAIL
letters@thesportsman.co.uk
POST
The Sportsman
15 Soho Square
London W1A 7MC
Dear Sportsman,
What is happening to the development
of young English cricketers?
There doesn’t seem to have been a
significant English breakthrough since
Stuart Broad. Instead there appears
to be an increasing number of foreign
imports pulling on the Three Lions.
For a long time we have had players
from overseas representing England at
cricket. There have been nine post-war
captains born outside the UK.
However, many of those were unable
to play for their nation of birth. Tony
Greig, born in South Africa, was given
the opportunity to play cricket for
England whilst his native country were
excluded from the international game. OVERSEAS
Others, like Nasser Hussain may have TALENT:
been born abroad (India) but grew up Craig
Kieswetter
in England.
It seems to me that qualification
rules are being used by players for
the good of their careers and bank
balances. Would Jonathan Trott have
made it into the South African team?
There’s no doubt that the money
Pietersen has made over the last five only weaken our team. The real issue
years eclipses his potential earnings is the development of young cricketers
had he stayed in South Africa. and the ECB identifying talent early
These players are not an invading enough to develop it properly. Until we
army demanding to be selected. Geoff sort that problem out we’ll be stuck
Miller and his selection team pick with a pick and mix team of foreign
them because they believe they are the players who make a mockery of
best available cricketers. international sport.
Changes to the qualification system
do need to be made but they would Malcolm Fletcher, Henley
Amateur boxing is policed by the sort itself out.
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Fans are constantly frustrated
which carries out regular random tests by promoter politics preventing
on fighters. anticipated fights from happening.
It is time for professional boxing to And this latest dispute between
arguably the two best fighters in the
world highlights the fact that we must
unify the sport as much as possible
before it loses all credibility.
When a dinosaur like Evander
Holyfield can claim to be a world
champion it is clear the sport has lost
PUNCH UP: its way completely.
Mayweather v
Pacquiao
Ian Bishop, Manchester
REPORTAGE

IN TRAINING:
Brook goes for an
early morning run
near to his home
in the Wincobank
area of Sheffield
KELL
39

BROOK
Steel City Soldier

He is one of British boxing’s hottest properties. Fresh

from winning the WBO’s Inter-Continental title, the
Sheffield Welterweight talks about his status as
number one contender to fight Manny Pacquiao,
his dreams of an ascent to boxing’s pinnacle, and
the obstacles that he’s still to overcome
40
WORKING THE JAB:
Brook demolishes
Krzysztof Bienias to
win the WBO’s
Inter-Continental title
A
s a young boy he pretended
to be Jackie Chan and Bruce
Lee. Now, as a grown man,
his childhood fantasies of
combat have been realised.
Kell ‘Kid’ Brook is a real life fighter and
an immensely talented one at that.
He has conquered all of his 21
opponents in the boxing ring and the
Welterweight division’s rising star
believes he will one day be the sport’s
pound-for-pound king.
On March 12 this year 24-year-old
Ezekiel Brook, nickname Kell, defeated
Polish pugilist Krzysztof Bienias to
claim the World Boxing Organisation’s
(WBO) Inter-Continental title. The
Yorkshireman proved too much for the
resilient visitor and the referee halted
the bout in the sixth round to spare
Bienias further punishment.
The fight, at Liverpool’s Echo
Arena, was Brook’s first test on the
international circuit and he passed
it with flying colours, preserving his
undefeated record. More enthralling,
however, was the fact that the victory
propelled him to the top of the WBO’s
rankings and installed him as number
one contender to face the majestic
seven-weight World Champion and
reigning WBO World Champion Manny
‘Pac-Man’ Pacquiao.
Brook, who started boxing at the
age of nine, is the latest in a long line
of boxing prodigies to surface from
Brendan Ingle’s world-renowned and
revered St Thomas Boys and Girls
Club. As a hyperactive child his father,
By CHRIS WARNE
a property developer, first took him to
the gym so he could expend a little of
his excess energy.
At the gym, founded by Ingle in the
Wincobank area of Sheffield, Brook
came to train alongside one of the
Irishman’s most famous protégés
‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed. “I remember
when Naz used to come in here to
train, the whole gym would go silent
and everyone would stop and watch
him,” said Brook.
“There are a lot
of good fighters
out there in the
Welterweight
division but I
believe I’m the
best right now”
“I used to love watching him
sparring and on the bags. He really
made an impression on me and made
me think I want to be that good. Naz
achieved so much in the sport and
hopefully I can go on to do the same.”
Sheffield-born Brook idolised Hamed
and admits he still has to pinch himself
every time he talks to the former
World Featherweight Champion.
Unsurprisingly, comparisons
between the two boxers have become
commonplace with commentators
drawing parallels between their
unorthodox, switch-hitting styles.
Sadly, Hamed became notorious
for his unruly behaviour outside
of the ring. He served four months
of a 15-month prison sentence for
dangerous driving in 2006, after
crashing his £300,000 Mercedes
supercar head-on into another car at
90mph. The collision left a male victim
in the other vehicle with every major
bone in his body broken.
Whilst Brook will hope the critics
do not have cause to extend their
analogies with Hamed beyond the
pair’s respective boxing abilities, the
powerful right-hander has already
experienced problems outside of the
ring. Rumours surrounding his diet
and a reported fondness for Wagon
Wheels have cast a question mark over
his commitment and fight preparation.
Eyebrows were also raised in some
quarters when he broke away from
the Ingle gym, switching his trainer
to Dave Coldwell, the current head
of boxing at Hayemaker Promotions.
Despite winning the British
Welterweight title under the guidance
of Coldwell, Brook was floored in the
opening round of a contest against
relative journeyman Karl David, whom
Brook recovered to knock out in the
third round.
According to Brook, who is reluctant
to dwell on his past, those difficulties
are now behind him and he prefers

to concentrate on his return to the
Wincobank gym, which has coincided
with tremendous form in the ring.
Since Brendan Ingle’s son, Dominic,
took over as Brook’s coach the young
Welterweight has knocked out each
of his four opponents, defending his
British title three times in only six
rounds of boxing.
One of those impressive
performances came on away turf
in Glasgow against Kevin McIntyre
who had been stripped of the British
Welterweight crown after pulling out
injured of a previously scheduled fight
with Brook. The matchup was billed
as one of the biggest British fights of
the year but Brook made light work of
McIntyre, knocking him out in the first
round and flooring the Scot three times
in the process. When McIntyre was
dispatched to the canvass for a third
time the referee waved the fight off.
There is certainly no doubting
Brook’s pedigree. The man, who has
his boxing trunks embellished with
‘Special Kell’, won the prestigious
Boxing Writers’ Club young boxer
of the year award in 2009, pipping
light-heavyweight Nathan Cleverly to
the prize by one vote in the closest
CHAMPION:
Brook poses with
his British and
Inter-Continental
Welterweight belts
“
I’m number one
contender at the
moment so if they
make the fight with
Pacquiao it’s
got to be done
and I’d do him
41
ever ballot. Past winners of the prize
include Brook’s childhood hero
Naseem Hamed, as well as Barry
McGuigan, Nigel Benn, Joe Calzaghe
and Amir Khan.
Brook’s receipt of the Geoffrey
Simpson award corresponded with a
general consensus in boxing circles
that he was beginning to fulfil the
potential he first demonstrated
from an early age when he won
two Amateur Boxing Association of
England titles. Under the tutelage of
Brendan Ingle, Brook enjoyed a highly
successful amateur career, which saw
him compile a record of 31 wins from
36 fights.
With Dominic Ingle now in his
corner, Brook is showing a growing
maturity that should allow him to
scale the upper-echelons of the sport.
He trained on Christmas Day and
New Year’s Day for his last fight with
Bienias, a sign of his dedication and
intent, and his trainer firmly believes
Brook is on the road to glory.
“It’s in his hands. He’s certainly
got the ability to win a world
title and compete at the highest
level. It just all depends on
how badly he wants it. If he
continues to show the hunger
that we’ve seen over the past
year and a bit, he’s got every
chance of equalling what Naz did and
going on to achieve more,” said Ingle.
Former World Cruiserweight
Champion and fellow Ingle trainee
Johnny Nelson shares this view.
Speaking on Sky Sports after Brook
steamrollered over Krzysztof
Bienias, Nelson said Brook regularly
produced “magic” in the gym and was
a “truly special talent” with “amazing
potential.” A belief echoed by Naseem
Hamed who has backed Brook to

go on and win a World title.
When asked about the manifold
temptations that naturally accompany
sporting success at such a young
age and which could inhibit his
progression to boxing’s zenith, Brook
admitted he found it hard to remain
disciplined at times. “There’s food,
there’s women, and there’s going out
with your mates,” he said.
“It’s not easy but I know I’ve got
what it takes to be in those super
fights and, if I keep my mind on it, I
know I will reach the top.” Brook’s
countenance is calm, but a steely
determination is unmistakable.
Providing he can do what another
British Welterweight Ricky Hatton
failed to do over the last decade
and limit his indulgences, there’s
every chance he will accomplish his
ambitions.
Although Brendan Ingle believes
Brook “has a great chance of making
a fortune”, the prizefighter appears
unlikely to suffer delusions of
grandeur. Indeed, what is perhaps
most conspicuous about Brook is his
down to earth persona – a trait that
was patently absent from Naseem
Hamed’s character.
“I want to be a
World Champion
by the end of the
year so whoever
they put in front
of me now will
get beat”
The charismatic Brook, who
harbours dreams of one day sharing
a ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr at
Madison Square Garden, is under
no illusions of the sheer enormity of
the task facing him. But the young
Northerner is supremely confident
he will achieve his lifelong goal of
winning a World title.
“It’s going to take a lot of hard work,”
he said. “There are some big names
in the Welterweight division at the
moment; Mayweather, Pacquiao, Cotto,
Mosley, Berto, but I’d fight any of them.
“I want to be World Champion by
the end of the year so whoever they
put in front of me now will get beat. In
your mind you have got to think you
are going to win every fight. If you’re a
little bit negative you’ve got no chance
in this game.
“There are a lot of good fighters out
GUARD UP:
The Steel City’s
son poses after a
media workout
there in the Welterweight division but
I believe I’m the best right now. I’m 24
years old and when you’re at that age
you have got no fear when you get in
the ring. I’m used to winning so when I
get in there I expect to win.”
On a fight with Manny Pacquiao,
who Brook is theoretically entitled to
a shot at if the Filipinio ace refuses to
vacate his WBO title, Brook said with a
grin: “I’m number one contender at the
moment so if they make the fight with
Pacquiao it’s got to be done and I’d do
him.”
Brook, is at ease throughout our
conversation and he speaks with a
warm, heavy South Yorkshire accent.
Relaxed and frequently sporting a wide
smile, he sits comfortably atop the
grimy apron of the boxing ring inside
the Ingle gym.
As we chat it soon becomes clear
that Brook’s grand declarations are
not motivated by arrogance but by a
genuine self-belief, an attribute which
is certain to serve him well in a game
where confidence can be so crucial.
“You have got to be confident and
talented which I am. I know I have got
the ability to do it at the highest level,”
he said.
Not only is Brook blessed with
irrefutable prowess, but in the Ingle
gym he also possesses the perfect
environment to hone his skills, and
sparring sessions with stablemate
and former WBC World Light
Welterweight Champion Junior Witter
have helped Brook attain his polished
performances of late.
After the emphatic triumph over
Bienias, Brook’s promoter Frank
Warren was quick to stoke the idea
of an encounter with Olympic silver
medallist Amir Khan – a prospect
Brook relishes. “Everyone asks me the
same question. Will I be fighting Amir?
And I always give the same answer,
yeah. Amir’s a good fighter and it
43
would be a great British fight but he’s
got a glass chin and I know I’d expose
him.”
Unfortunately for Brook, money
makes fights and at the moment he’s
simply not a big enough draw. With
Khan also unlikely to step-up to the
Welterweight division any time soon,
you’d be foolish to hold your breath in
anticipation of the fight.
But if the pair do cross paths down
the line, Brook’s trainer Dominic
Ingle predicts his fighter would be too
powerful for Khan and envisages only
one winner. “I’m not slagging Amir
off but I’m not impressed with him.
Sooner or later he’ll get found out and
I think Kell would crush him,” he said.
For now, talk of mega fights with
the likes of Khan and Pacquiao are
premature, even if Brook does insist
he’d ‘do over’ the latter. Brook’s next
assignment will be against Michael
Jennings, the man who tried but failed
to defeat Miguel Cotto for the WBO’s
World Welterweight title, which the
Puerto Rican Cotto subsequently lost
to Pacquiao.
A victory over Jennings would
represent a tying up of the final loose
end on the domestic scene and also
provide an indication of how Brook
stacks up in relation to the division’s
protagonists.
Frank Warren is highly protective
of his fighters and unlikely to risk
damaging an asset as valuable as
Brook by throwing him straight in
at the deep end, but if Brook can
dismantle Jennings quicker than the
five rounds it took Cotto to do the job,
it would signal he is primed to mount
an assault on the world stage.
Tune into the fight on July 3 and you
may just witness the birth of British
boxing’s next superstar. If Brook can
floor Jennings early doors, the impact
is sure to generate tremors in the
boxing world felt across the Atlantic.
BOXING
A Sweet Science
Brendan Ingle’s dilapidated den has fostered some of our
brightest boxing talent. Chris Warne paid the gym a visit
F
ormer WBO Cruiserweight
World Champion Johnny
Nelson once described the
gym as “Brendan’s school
of hard knocks. It smells
like it looks. Forty years of blood,
sweat and tears hang heavy in the air.”
It’s certainly a far cry from the glitz
and glamour of boxing Mecca, Las
Vegas. The exterior of the building is
in a state of decay. The wooden door
marking the entrance is splintered and
ecru paint peels from the brick walls.
In the street outside faint thuds of
leather gloves on leather bags are
audible. As you enter, walking through
the first blue door, the thumping
becomes louder. Opening the second
red door and moving inside, the
pounding is incessant and the stifling
humidity strikes you, overwhelming
your senses momentarily.
Dozens of youngsters launch their
fists forward and weave in and out of
punch bags that swing like pendulums.
At the back of the hall two men
wearing protective headgear occupy
a boxing ring. They engage in combat,
pummeling each other and delivering
punishing blows. In a corner, to
the left of the ring, a bald, brawny,
middle-aged man is sat down barking
instructions to the fighters. His elderly
father stands just before him, tying the
black string on a 12-year-old’s glove.
The father is Brendan Ingle and the
son, Dominic. This is the world famous
St Thomas Boys and Girls Club, the
birthplace of some of Britain’s greatest
FATHER AND SON:
Brendan and Dominic
Ingle coaching their
fighters as a team
boxers. Three World Champions, nine
European Champions, and a dozen or
so British Champions have all emerged
from the gym since its establishment
in the 1960s.
Herol ‘Bomber’ Graham, ‘Prince’
Naseem Hahmed, Johnny Nelson and
Junior Witter are the most famous and
successful products to date. They are
the sweetest fruits of the intense and
tireless labour exerted within the walls
of this former church hall.
“Some of these
lads could easily
have ended
up dead if they
continued down
the path they
were heading”
Brendan Ingle founded the gym
almost five decades ago after the
vicar in the Wincobank area of
Sheffield asked him to help sort
out misbehaving local youths. The
69-year-old, who turns 70 this June,
boxed professionally when he arrived
in the Steel City from Dublin aged 18
and he saw the sport as the perfect
remedy for troubled youths.
On one side of the gym, a dusty
white sign emblazoned with black
letters outlines his philosophy: “Boxing
can seriously damage your health but
teaches self discipline and gets you
fit. Smoking, drinking and drugs just
damage your health.”
On the other side of the room
a notice board is covered with
newspaper clippings. Some articles
highlight the gym’s triumphs and
display pictures of boxers with
beaming smiles and belts. The other
cuttings, recounting tales of local gang
violence, stabbings and shootings,
have been pinned up in deliberate
juxtaposition. The stories illustrate the
two contrasting routes members at the
gym can choose to follow.
Wincobank and the surrounding
areas are plagued by crime and social
deprivation. The gym is situated in
the Sheffield Brightside constituency,
which has the highest unemployment
rate in Sheffield, and for the majority
of kids trained by the Ingles boxing
becomes an alternative to a life on the
dole, behind bars, or worse.
“Some of these lads could easily have
ended up dead if they continued down
the path they were heading,” said
Brendan. “You read in the papers that
there are stabbings and shootings out
there so if we’re keeping them away
from gangs and that type of thing then
we’re doing a good job.”
Boxing represents an escape route
from relative poverty, and a genuine
chance of achievement in life, for many
of the boys and men who attend the
 45

Ingle gym. Those who denounce the

sport as morally reprehensible fail to
grasp this.
Brendan, who lives opposite the
club, maintains that the discipline
conferred by the sweet science ensures
participants keep on the straight and
narrow.
“If we can get kids in here, we can
keep them off the streets, out of
trouble, and give them something
positive to focus on,” he said.
Johnny Nelson, considered by
Brendan as his “biggest success”, was
a self-confessed troubled teenager
before the Irishman took him under
his wing. “Nelson came in seven days a
week, even though he had to catch two
buses to get down here,” said Ingle.
“People used to say to me: ‘You’re
wasting your time, he’s no good, he’s
not going to end up anywhere.’ And
I used to tell them: ‘He’ll finish up a
world champion, just you wait and
see.’”
Ingle’s prophecy came to fruition
BIGGEST SUCCESS:
and Nelson reigned supreme as WBO Johnny Nelson gets his
Cruiserweight World Champion for gloves tied by trainer
almost six and a half years. Nelson’s Brendan Ingle
assiduous nature and dedication
combined with Ingle’s innovative overwhelming sense of equality, which, a World title, and a man from whom
training techniques saw ‘The as an Irish immigrant, stemmed from Nelson learnt a great deal.
Entertainer’ flourish in the ring. his experiences in a foreign country. These days Brendan takes a
The great emphasis Brendan placed Brendan embraces multiculturalism backseat with regards to training
on dance and footwork was initially and his notion of equality manifests fighters. He was awarded an MBE in
derided in boxing circles, but his itself in every aspect of his treatment 1998 for his services to boxing and
subsequent success soon silenced the of the club’s members. community work and he prefers now
critics. The stars he nurtures continue to to concentrate on the latter, working
The distinctive style he pioneered train alongside the club’s kids, who with youths from disadvantaged
has proven consistently difficult for benefit immeasurably from watching backgrounds.
opponents to get to grips with over their idols and picking up tips from Brendan remains a near permanent
the years. His fighters’ low guard and them. fixture in the gym but his training
ability to switch from an orthodox to a Nelson was fortunate enough to train mantle has been passed on to his son,
southpaw stance will often bamboozle with his childhood hero Herol Graham, Dominic, who now hopes to emulate
their adversary. a man widely considered as one of his father’s glory as a world-class
Nelson also benefited from Ingle’s the best British fighters never to win coach of boxing.

WATCH VIDEO CONTENT OF

KELL BROOK IN ACTION
PLUS...
SEE OUR FULL LENGTH
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
TRAINER BRENDAN INGLE
ONLY AT the Sportsman online
WWW.THESPORTSMAN.CO.UK

BECOME A FAN OF THE SPORTSMAN ON ... AND FOLLOW US ON

SPORT TECHNOLOGY

Revolutionary Footwork
The makers say they will revolutionise your game. They redefine speed and defy
logic. Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexandre Pato all helped to
develop this technology. It is one of the latest in a long line of creations. We decided
to have a closer look at Nike’s most innovative football boot to date

Nike Mercurial Vapour Superfly II

A lightweight perforated sock
liner ensures an overall weight
of just 185 grams but with
strong support, while reducing
stud pressure for comfort

Nike Flywire technology has

enabled a cable structure that
has been re-engineered to
provide a more dynamic fit
without compromising
durability

There is a pressure-activated
stud in the forefoot of the
Superfly that extends when
you need it, giving you grip
and acceleration

£275
 47
BUSINESS PROFILE

The rapid growth of five and six-a-side football across

Europe shows no signs of stopping. Mark Duell finds out
how it’s all founded on a successful business idea that
ploughs some of its healthy profit back into the community

L
eisure Leagues is Europe’s
longest-established and
largest provider of five-a-
side and six-a-side football
leagues.
Based in Warwickshire, it’s
supported by Gordon Brown and David
Cameron, with strong links to councils,
schools and sports centres around the
continent. The company has now been
running small-sided leagues for more
than 30 years.
They have gone on some journey -
from sports halls with wooden floors,
painted goals on brick walls and
sponge balls, to astroturf and proper
equipment. There has also been a huge
expansion in membership. FAST GROWTH:
Alex Zielski, Leisure Leagues liason The Leisure
officer, said: “Since the formation Leagues team
now organise 300
of the organisation, there has been leagues across the
a substantial growth, with Leisure UK and Ireland
Leagues now operating around 300
leagues across the United Kingdom players, and even the best can’t resist a to support the local community and
and Ireland. game with us.” national charities,” Zielski said.
“There has been a noticeable shift ‘Leisure Leagues’ became a “We feel that it is important to
from 11-a-side to small-sided football description in the 1990s for small- provide something to the community,
on a national scale. sided leagues in the Midlands, before it and make frequent donations to
“It has been recognised that a expanded across the UK and Europe. organisations such as Cancer Research
number of players are either switching Their business plan is about putting UK, The National Blind Children’s
to five and six-a-side football, or all surplus profits into good causes, Society and The Dogs Trust.”
playing this as well as either Saturday and at the same time running a
or Sunday league. profitable business out of amateur To find out more about Leisure Leagues
“It has been known that a number of football. This makes it more of a phone 0845 230 2340, visit their
professionals have played at Leisure community venture than a business to website at: www.leisureleagues.net
Leagues. We cater for all standard of some extent. “Leisure Leagues strive or email: info@leisureleagues.net

FIVE-A-SIDE:
Amateur footballers
compete at a sports
centre in Leominster,
Herefordshire
OLYMPICS 2012

The Sportsman

Where’s the
More than £9billion of public money is being fed into the
London 2012 Olympic Games. Millions of sports fans are
due to descend on the capital in two years time - bringing a
welcome boost to the economy and generating millions in
ticket sales and merchandise. With legacy being the buzz
word of the London Games, we find out what is happening
to the billions of pounds of private sponsorship and
merchandising costs
 49

Investigation

Money Gone?

STRATFORD:
The Olympic Stadium
is costing the taxpayer
a huge £537million
50

THE VIEW:
What Lord Coe
and his team can
see from Canary
Wharf Tower

By ROBERT GOLLEDGE

N £9.325bn
estled 14 floors up in the sanctuary alongside Coe’s team in
City’s proverbial ivory Canary Wharf tower.
tower a close-knit team LOCOG – the privately-funded
of shrewd businessmen, company headed by Lord Coe and Paul
Olympians and advisers The total taxpayer Deighton – are tasked with the running
gaze over their expanding empire. contribution of the Games.
Looking North East from the reflective Coe’s team are also responsible for

metallic walls and smooth ceramic
floors of Canary Wharf tower, double
gold medallist Lord Sebastian Coe
shakes the hand of Paul Deighton,
the CEO of the London Organising
Committee of the Olympic Games and
£2bn
generating and spending £2billion
through lucrative sponsorship,
merchandising and ticket sales. This
Target amount of private was envisaged to pay for the Olympic
Village, Media Centre, the opening
investment ceremony and 17 days of Olympic and

Paralympic Games Limited (LOCOG).
They’ve got reason to be happy. The
venues are nearing completion, public
opinion ratings are soaring and the
International Olympic Committee has
awarded London a nine-and-a-half out
of ten rating for the host’s progress.
Yet three times over budget with
a colossal cost to the public purse,
the London 2012 Olympic Games
resembles a financial Pandora’s Box.
When the IOC awarded Coe’s
team the Games six years ago in
Singapore the estimated cost was
put at a £3billion. It now stands at
£9.325billion.
Owing to the global recession and
a major shortfall in sponsorship, only
£900million of a £2billion contingency
fund remains - two full years before
the Games.
Both Blair and Brown’s governments
were forced to raid the National
Lottery of £2billion, take £150 off
each working person in the country,
and hand Londoners an additional
£90k
The pay rise
given to Lord
Coe, LOCOG
chair, taking
his 2009 pay
to £375,000
£1.175billion tax bill to pay for the
Games.
The taxpayers’ £9billion is funding
the building of the venues, security
and transport infrastructure -
security alone will cost £838million.
It is administered and overseen by
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and a
team of public workers at the Olympic
Delivery Authority (ODA), who take
12 days of Paralympic action.
Cast your mind back to 2004 and
Singapore, where one word was
repeated again and again. It was even
uttered from the mouths of David
Beckham, Kelly Holmes and Tony Blair.
Legacy.
That was the plan, the dream. But
the reality is very different.
When analysed it is clear that the
public purse is paying for the venues
and infrastructure. It’s the public
purse that will pay for a radical new
transport system. It’s the public purse
that paid out to the tune of £5million
per gold medal won at Beijing 2008.
The Sportsman has concluded
through detailed analysis of LOCOG’s
financial accounts that it seems the
Games will not be for the good of sport
or to the taxpayer.
By 2009, five years after LOCOG’s
inception, the company failed to attract
enough private sponsorship to pay for
the Olympic Village and Media Centre.
The contingency had to be raided

to rescue the project at a cost to the
public purse of £785million.
As a result there is now very little
headroom for further setbacks as the
contingency is running ominously low,
prompting auditors to warn the ODA
that it may have to be bailed out with
further government aide.
LOCOG said that with the Media
Centre and Village becoming
publically-owned, taxpayers would see
a significant financial return when the
property is sold following the Games.
As it stands the land value has fallen by
£150million in a year and the property
market in the area is ailing.
Questions also remain on whether
LOCOG will even turn around a profit
for the Games.
For the last two years the company
has operated on a deficit – even though
it has attracted £500million from
national corporate sponsors and its
key executives have been taking out a
sizeable sum in salaries and bonuses.
In 2008 CEO Paul Deighton was
paid £557,440 in base salary and fees.
In 2009 his package was £453,440
with over £700,000 worth of deferred
bonuses due to him. He is eligible for
an annual bonus of 75% of his salary
for each year until 2012.
What will be the Games’ legacy?
Spending on infrastructure and security dwarfs that of sport
In contrast the country could pay up
to £838million for security costs.
And sports based outside the London
area are suffering too. Last month saw
both Welsh and Scottish nationalists
claim their grassroots sports clubs had
missed out on £30million respectively
over five years due to Lottery funds
being rerouted to the Olympic Games.
Similarly questionable is the lasting
legacy of the £1.3billion spent on the
Olympic venues.
It’s looking increasingly inevitable
that the £537million Olympic Stadium
will have to be rented or sold to West
Ham United – rather than become
a national centre of athletics as
originally envisaged.
The longevity of the specially-built
Basketball Arena on the Stratford site
is also questionable. The organising
committee decided the sport
would be housed in a purpose-built
£90million arena despite suitable
venues including Wembley Arena,
the ExCeL centre, Earls Court and the
02 Arena. This decision looks like an
unaffordable luxury, especially in the
middle of a recession.
Meanwhile the British Olympic
51
Meaning after the completion of the
Games, Deighton could have pocketed
£5m
around £5million.
Despite the economic downturn, the
company’s chair Lord Coe saw his pay
packet rise from £285,000 in 2008 to
Total £375,000 in 2009. He is eligible for
amount bonuses of up to 10% of his salary
each year.
LOCOG CEO To put these pay packets in
Paul perspective, David Higgins, Chief
Executive of the ODA, which is
Deighton tasked with building the venues
(right) could receive and infrastructure, is in charge of
including bonuses and £9billon of public funds (as opposed
to Deighton’s £2billion), and earns
base salary around £200,000 a year.
With the taxpayer funding the
£557,440
Games’ infrastructure and venues, they
can be forgiven for feeling aggrieved
when Coe’s private LOCOG company is
taking such a large slice of the millions
Paul Deighton’s 2009 they will attract from sponsorship,
salary. He is entitled to merchandise and ticket sales. The
taxpayer is likely to see little if any of
an annual bonus of 75% these millions whilst paying for the
this. He currently has Olmpics to go ahead.
Of the billions invested in the Games
around £700,000 in only £290million has been earmarked
deffered bonus for elite and grassroots sports.
payments owed to him Paralympic investment will be
£66million.
teams have already had £50million
slashed from their 2008 budgets in
£400,000 the run up to the 2012 Games, and the
cash-strapped government is certain
to target the Olympic’s generous
coffers when seeking ways to boost the
The amount spent on nation’s dire finances. Meanwhile the
British Olympic teams have already
the much-ridiculed had £50million slashed from their
London 2008 budgets in the run up to the 2012
Games.
2012 The pertinent question is: how is
Olympic it justifiable that a private company,
paying private sector wages,
Games administers and absorbs financial gain
official from the Games whilst the taxpayer
foots the £9billion bill?
logo Yes, the Games has brought an
unprecedented level of investment to
East London with a welcome boost
to the construction industry and
employment sector.
£1.175bn But with the financing for
infrastructure dwarfing the spending
on elite and grassroots sport, it is
of extra tax contribution looking increasingly unlikely that
the Games’ legacy will match the
made to the Games by extravagant promises made when
London residents we won the bid in a glow of national
ecstasy back in 2005.
RUGBY UNION

FAREWELL: Vainikolo
thanks fans at Odsal
Stadium after his final
appearance for the
Bradford Bulls in 2007
 55

Rugby league icon to overnight union success.

This is only a fraction of the Lesley Vainikolo
story. Little is made of the Tongan’s path as a
teenage gang member and his ambition to help
troubled youngsters when his playing days end

FROM GANGS
TO GLOUCESTER
By TIM LAMDEN

P
rotection is something you imagine Lesley
Vainikolo could probably manage without. Super
League clubs could have done with some during
his 149-try tenure at Bradford Bulls, a record
achieved in just 152 games. As could Leeds
Carnegie on the advent of his switch to union, Vainikolo ran
in five tries on debut for Gloucester away to the Premiership
newcomers back in 2007.
Standing at over six foot and carrying close to 18 stone,
the Tongan-born winger powered himself to cult hero status
among the Odsal fans during his five years at Bradford,
earning a place in the Bulls’ Team of the Century.
Just nine games and nine tries into his professional rugby
recalls. “Where I lived in Auckland there was a cop killed by
islanders five doors down from me.
“There were crips and bloods [rival criminal gangs
originating in America] back in the late seventies and early
eighties, through to the nineties. It was the Tongans and
Samoans, they hated each other. It was real bad.”
Looking back, Vainikolo concedes losing his way amid
the ongoing clash of Polynesians that engulfed him growing
up: “I got in trouble when I was younger, just from fighting.”
But he warns of far worse than just fisticuffs and scuffles
occurring on the streets of Auckland today: “There’s
stabbings and drive-bys, you name it. It’s probably because
the kids don’t have a role model.”

I
union career, he was drafted into Brian Ashton’s England
squad, playing in every game of the 2008 Six Nations t is on this issue that Vainikolo is
Championship. determined to make a difference
The 31-year-old powerhouse, dubbed ‘the Volcano’ during once his playing days are over.
a remarkable rugby league career, was not always a figure of “I’ll probably go back to New
such invincibility. Zealand and aim to help these
Having moved to New Zealand with his family at the age kids. Just to keep myself out there
of six, a teenage Vainikolo found himself caught up in a speaking to people.
“It’s something that I’ve always
“Where I lived in Auckland wanted to do because I experienced
being in gangs when I was young.
there was a cop killed by These kids get into a lot of
trouble and they are often
islanders five doors down kids who you know
could go further. You
from me” need to sit down
and reach out to
gang culture that had persisted in the Mangere district of them. It’s who
southern Auckland for almost two decades. you hang about
Navigating his way through this volatile environment, with.
the young Tongan relied heavily on the guardianship of his “I see a lot
uncles. of guys that
“When I was young I used to be one of a gang, I was I grew up
blessed that most of the leaders of the gang were my with and
uncles. So I was pretty lucky to have security,” Vainikolo they
56
THE VOLCANO
THROUGH THE YEARS
Having turned 31 this May, we
look back on a momentous
decade for Lesley Vainikolo
NOVEMBER 2000: Vainikolo scores one
of a hat-trick of tries for New Zealand
against Wales on the way to the final of
the Rugby League World Cup
OCTOBER 2005: The euphoria is
visible as Vainikolo crosses for Bradford’s
winning try against Leeds Rhinos in the
2005 Super League Grand Final
FEBRUARY 2008: Vainikolo apprehends
Shane Williams with Gloucester teammate
Iain Balshaw during his England debut
against Wales in the 2008 Six Nations
JANUARY 2010: Vainikolo celebrates
scoring his 20th club try for Gloucester in
their Heineken Cup pool match at home to
Biarritz
could be with me, or they could be in France, they could
be the best players in the world.”
It is the tragedy of wasted talent that seems to bother
Vainikolo most. But whilst those he knocked about with
in Auckland back in the ‘90s may not have achieved half
the success their talents portended, his is a story of great
promise duly fulfilled.
Hitting almost 16 stone by the age of 15, Vainikolo
demonstrated his prowess on the rugby league field from
an early age, with powerful displays for Auckland’s De La
Salle College. He was also astonishingly quick, running the
“When you do everything in
one sport, you like to
challenge yourself in a
different sport”
100 metres in 10.6 seconds to qualify for the 1998 World
Junior Athletics Championships, beating future All Blacks
winger Doug Howlett along the way. Gifted with both speed
and power in abundance, the youngster was torn between
athletics and rugby league.
F
ittingly, in a remarkable twist of fate, it was a
rugby league icon who first inspired a young
Vainikolo to take up the game that helped make
the decision which would ultimately propel a
17-year-old Tongan from Auckland into rugby
league’s history
TRY TIME: Vainikolo
books. celebrates an England
vv“I had to choose try with Matthew Tait
out of athletics or
rugby league,” says
Vainikolo. “And then
my idol came down,
his name was Mal
Meninga. He was
coaching Canberra
Raiders and he came
and visited me at
home in ’97 and said
he wanted me to
come over and play
for him.”
Without hesitation,
Vainikolo followed
the Kangaroos
goal-kicking great
to Australia and in his first season was named Raiders’
Rookie of the Year. The same season he was picked for New
Zealand, scoring an eventual 14 tries in 12 appearances for
The Kiwis, including nine tries in the 2000 Rugby League
World Cup.
In 2002, he left the Raiders for Super League and the
“If I can get one out of 50
kids off the street then I’ll be
happy”
Bradford Bulls, a move which would see him become
arguably the deadliest finisher in Super League history.
After a short period of adjustment to the British game,
Vainikolo emerged with the Super League try-scoring
record in 2004, managing 36 tries in only 26 appearances,

ON THE CHARGE: Vainikolo offloads to Mike Tindall for
Gloucester in a Premiership clash with Northampton
including five hat-tricks.
In 2007, at the age of 28, Vainikolo crossed codes and
joined Guinness Premiership side Gloucester on a three-
year deal.
“When you do everything in one sport, you like to
challenge yourself in a different sport,” he says. “I looked
at rugby union as an opportunity for me to open another
chapter in my book. Gloucester were really keen for me to
come and try it and I did. I made the right choice and I’ve
never looked back since.”
T
ussling at the top of the try-scoring list for
much of his debut season in the Premiership,
it was hardly surprising when England came
knocking after only nine outings for his new
West Country side.
Vainikolo views proudly what was an instantaneous yet
short-lived international dalliance. “The challenge is to
play different sports to the highest standard and I made it.
It was an honour to pull on that white jersey.”
With only five caps to his name, Vainikolo’s ambition
appears resolute when the prospect of further
appearances is raised.
“I’m trying to get back in that England team, that’s my
biggest goal. But at the moment, I’m just concentrating on
Gloucester and performing week-in, week-out. I think that
“I think I’ve got at least
another five years in me -
you haven’t seen nothing
yet”
will be the best for me, my performances must do all the
talking.”
In the 13 years since Lesley Vainikolo signed his first
professional rugby contract, it is certainly his work on the
field of play that has spoken for him. The big kid from the
57
hard streets of southern Auckland became master of his
innate abilities and gained worldwide acclaim along the
way.
Asked whether it is the same kind of success he hopes to
bring to the troubled youngsters on the streets of Auckland
today, the man known affectionately as Big Les is somewhat
philosophical.
“I want to help them in whatever they want to do. They
could be an art or English teacher. Or a maths or sports
teacher. Anything, to get them off the street and get them on
the right road. If I can get one out of 50 kids off the street
then I’ll be happy.
“I just want to let them know that the people around you,
they may say they are your friends, but will they be there
at the end for you? If you’re in trouble, will they be there?
Because I experienced it. When I got into trouble, where
were all my friends?”
Wise words and an earnest cause. Two decades have
elapsed since an Australian hero of the oval ball, himself a
descendent of Polynesians, introduced the world to Lesley
Vainikolo.
In the next ten years, will the Tongan idol emulate
Meninga and pass on the baton to Auckland’s next great
rugby son? If you take his word for it, it won’t be anytime
soon. “I think I’ve got at least another five years in me - you
haven’t seen nothing yet.”
Go online to www.thesportsman.co.uk to watch five of the best
Vainikolo moments from the past ten years
THE FLYING TONGAN:
Vainikolo dives over the
Kingsholm try line
 59
TRAVEL

WORLD CUP HOLIDAYS

SOUTH AFRICA
With this summer’s FIFA World Cup heading to
Africa for the first time, The Sportsman sent
Robert Golledge to sample the beaches of
Durban and the fine wines of Cape Town

DURBAN
DESTINATION AFRICA:
(clockwise from bottom)
Downtown Johannesburg, Often the
Durban beach, Free State forgotten
Stadium in Bloemfontein, brother of South
zebra in the African sun,
the view from the Twelve Africa, Durban
Apostle Hotel & Spa in is a city that family.
Cape Town epitomises If you’re staying
the country’s for several days
21st century check into The
credentials. Westville Hotel.
A walk along It’s been around
the harbour since 1800 and
will reveal the brings personal
yachts of Roman service to an
Abromovich, all new level
Arcelor Mittal and with your own
the Qatari royal concierge as
standard.
The in-house
restaurant and
cocktail bar
are also a
delight.

CAPE TOWN
The gushing Twelve Apostles
turquoise waves Hotel and Spa
of the Atlantic where earth, sea
Ocean crash and sky meet
against the idyllic to provide total
shores of the relaxation.
JOHANNESBURG Western Cape. And the wine?
From Table My advice: drink
Joburg needs no introduction. Mountain to the them all. After a
The city will play host to the World Cup Cape Peninsula couple of hours
final and will set one of the most stunning you find yourself in this sun-
scenes in the tournament’s history. Berlin it absorbed into drenched city
ain’t. the dramatic you simply won’t
The Sportsman reader should try the La backdrop of the give a toss as any
Colombe restaurant. Head chef Luke Dale- the Mother City. of the region’s
Roberts fuses classic French cuisine with If you want to marvellous stock
tradition east-Asian elements with flair and make the most will compliment
care. It is at the higher end of the price range of this retreat the blazing
but the exuberance is worth it. try the luxurious orange sunset.
ICE HOCKEY
SCOTT THE STEELER
Mark Duell speaks to ice hockey star Scott Basiuk
at the end of a long, hard season for Sheffield
S
cott Basiuk seems a fine chap.
But the Canadian is not the
type of person you would
like to meet in a dark alley,
especially after he’s just lost
an ice-hockey match. The 6’2” Shef-
field Steelers defenceman weighs
more than 15 stone and is well-known
for his physical approach on the rink.
Although the Elite Ice Hockey League
crowds love a good fight, Basiuk is still
cautious when it comes to dropping
his stick and laying into somebody.
“You never really enjoy the fights,”
he said, sipping a pint of Heineken
in The Cavendish pub on Sheffield’s
West Street. “I’m a bigger guy than
most players so I’m expected to
play physically. I’ll do it but it’s not
something I get excited about. It’s a
little scary - you’re pretty much trying
to punch a guy in the face until he’s not
moving. That’s the basic rules of the
fight.
“I tore my shoulder fighting last
year, so that’s probably something I
won’t do now because I can’t afford to
get hurt again. I like hitting, shooting
and playing strong - and I’m good at
it thanks to my size. It excites me and
the crowd too. There are usually more
fights at the start of the season as
you’re establishing yourself as a player.
If you’re a pushover in the first few
games against the same team, people
are going to be more physical against
you. You need to let them know early
on that you’re not the guy to mess
with.”
Basiuk started his career in New
York at the Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute before moving up to the East
Coast Hockey League (ECHL) for South
Carolina and later Portland in the
American Hockey League (AHL). He
then went back to the ECHL to play for
Dayton, Bakersfield and Utah. The AHL
and ECHL are the next levels below
the National Hockey League (NHL) in
North America, which has a similar
structure to the English Football
League.
The 29-year-old decided to head
for Europe in order to speed up his
career progress. He said: “I finished
college aged 24 and I knew if I didn’t
play well every night I wouldn’t get
noticed, as the top teams would rather
take a younger guy than me. The ECHL
is pretty rough. You get the young
guys that play hard every night. After
you’ve played in it for a couple of years
and you don’t move up anymore, you
realise it’s time to change. You used to
be able to make more money in the UK
when the pound was nice against the
dollar, but over the last few years the
poor exchange rate has meant a 30 to
40 per cent pay cut.”
“At 26, I knew I probably wouldn’t
get called up full-time in the US, so
I decided to see what Europe could
offer me. The UK’s league doesn’t pay
as well as mainland Europe but it’s a
way of getting your foot in the door.
Play well here and you can get a job
in Europe. It’s a good league and it’s
got better every year that I’ve been
here. My team takes care of my car,
apartment, furniture and insurance -
so I don’t have to bring or buy any of
that stuff.”
“You’re pretty
much trying to
punch a guy until
he’s not moving”
Basiuk landed at Manchester
Phoenix before moving to the Steelers
in 2008. He is now studying for an
MBA at The University of Sheffield -
part of a partnership that gives two
of the Steelers’ players scholarships
every season. “It’s a good draw for
the Steelers to get players in who are
willing to take a bit of a pay cut,” he
said. “That’s what I’m doing. I didn’t go
to mainland Europe because I’d rather
get the MBA here. You never know how
long you’re going to be playing for -
I’ve already had a four-month injury
this season.”
It’s clear that his MBA has made
Basiuk think more about the business
side of ice hockey and why it is less
popular in the UK than across the
pond. He said: “Football is ingrained in
society here and you don’t really have
ice outside. Ice hockey is something
you just can’t play outside here - but in
Canada you can play outside for four
months every year. That’s the reason
for ice hockey being less popular in the
UK – it’s the society, the weather and
what you’ve always done.
“The crowds here like the action,
the hitting, the intensity. But it would
be nice to get more younger fans and
families along to games, because it is
a good family environment. We are
always talking about what we can
do to bring in more fans. It’s tough.
Nottingham Panthers seem to have
got it right and draw lots of people,
but you can’t take their business
model to Hull because they don’t have
the money, arena, people or history.
One successful business model can’t
necessarily be copied everywhere. You
need to take each market on its own.”
The Elite Ice Hockey League only has
eight teams - Sheffield, Nottingham,
Coventry, Cardiff, Edinburgh,
Newcastle, Belfast and Hull, and the
highest paid player in the league is
on an annual salary of only £50,000.
Basiuk argued that Edinburgh,
currently in financial trouble, must
take more risks in order to improve
crowds at their games. He believes fans
will only come if their side increases
spending on big players. “Edinburgh
don’t put any money into it,” he said.
“They don’t want to spend money as
they don’t want to lose money, but you
have to spend money to have a good
team.”
The Steelers play their home games
at the Sheffield Arena, which costs
around £10,000 a game to hire out. It’s
not cheap and the team only breaks
even with average crowds of around
3,500 paying customers. “For Sheffield,
it comes down to the owner [Bob
Phillips] spending money, which he
doesn’t really want to do sometimes,”
Basiuk said. “He expects a lot from us,
and wonders why we’re not drawing in
crowds and not playing in a good style
- but it costs money to bring exciting
players in. You’ve got to be willing to
spend money on it and in the long run
it will be more popular.”
 61

Basiuk clearly enjoys playing ice hockey,

and in the 10 years before this season racked
up 50 goals in 428 appearances. Not bad for
a defenceman. But now he is looking at what
the future holds - and playing next season
is seeming ever more unlikely. “It’s getting
to the point with my injury and the way the
pound has gone that you start to look at life
after ice hockey,” he
said. “That’s a little
sad - but I still feel
in shape and like to
play. It’s just whether
you can afford to
play. I’ve got a wife
and bills to pay back
home and for the first
time I’m wondering
if I want to carry on
playing.”
Basiuk worked as an assistant coach
at Manchester Phoenix before leaving to
enjoy an immensely successful season with
the Steelers in 2008-2009, when they won the
league and play-off titles under coach Dave
Matsos. In fact, it is the coaching side of things
that might tempt him back into the game.
As for being a media pundit, he was quick to
rubbish that idea. He said: “I see these former
hockey players on ESPN in America and I
just think, ‘Oh my God, shut up!’ Especially
goaltenders. They sit in the net, don’t actually
play the game and drive me crazy when they
are commentating.”
Something else that concerns Basuik is the
effect playing is having on his body. “By the
third game in four days you’re tired and by the
fourth game you’re exhausted,” he said. “After
a recent run I could barely walk as you’re so FACTFILE
tired from all the games and training. But
when the next game comes around you feel Name: Scott Basiuk
great again. Birthplace: Saskatchewan, Canada
“It’s different to football in that you play Date of Birth: 4 August 1980
for a minute, then get a break, then go back Lives: Gleadless, Sheffield
on. The pressure is on your legs, arms and Team: Sheffield Steelers
shoulders taking the hits on the Position: Defenceman
boards.” Weight: 215 lbs
Despite the injuries and Height: 6’2”
worn-out joints, it would
probably still be a bad
decision for anyone to
challenge him to a game of
fisticuffs anytime
soon.

MY
WELL-TRAVELLED:
FUNNIEST
Basiuk has played
ice-hockey across
North America and
MOMENT
the UK. He was at
Manchester before Go online to: www.thesportsman.co.uk
joining Sheffield to see what happened when Basiuk
punched another player and ended
up knocking out a referee
LIFESTYLE AND FITNESS

The Abs Rules

Fancy a strikingly rippled midriff
poolside this summer? Of course
you do. Then begin crafting those
desirable abdominals today with
these three great tips

1 Train the abs like a muscle

To build your abs, do ten to 15 reps
and increase the intensity by adding
more sets. Leave one day in between
abs sessions to allow the muscles to
recover

2 Get your diet right

To build muscle you need to eat
between 1.5g and 2g of lean protein
per kilo of bodyweight every day. To
see a six pack, a man has to get down
to ten per cent body fat, and to lose
fat you’ve got to burn more calories
than you take in
3 Prioritise your training
If you want to get a six-pack you’ll
need to devote separate sessions to
train your abs so that you hit them
when you’re still full of energy. Never
try to do an abs session before a
heavy lifting workout because you
can exhaust the muscles in your core,
which could be dangerous

Grooming for June

LAB SERIES
Maximum comfort
shave cream
Provides a close and long-lasting
shave instantly. Helps cushion
your skin against razor cuts
------------------------------------
£13 for 100ml. Available
at: houseoffraser.co.uk
CLINIQUE
M lotion
daily hydration
Lightweight lotion for normal to
dry skin replenishes moisture.
Helps soothe shaving irritation
------------------------------------
£20 for 100ml. Available
at: houseoffraser.co.uk
ISSEY MIYAKE
L’Eau d’Issey
Pour Homme
Sex in a bottle. An undisputed
ladies’ favourite. A must have
fragrance for any ‘active’ male
------------------------------------
£36.99 for 75ml. Available
at: theperfumeshop.com
KOUROS
Deodrant by
YvesSaintLaurent
This perfumed deodorant
provides effective protection
and freshness all day long
------------------------------------
£20 for 150ml. Available
at: houseoffraser.co.uk
 63
FASHION

Ian Poulter Design

Every month we’ll exhibit striking, stylish and sophisticated attire from one premier
designer. This month we highlight a selection of truly trenchant garments, brought
to us courtesy of world class golfer and fashion icon Ian Poulter. A contemporary feel
combines with Poulter’s characteristic flamboyance to produce a range that many
club golfers will naturally come to consider essential etiquette
P ol o £
44

.9
5

Be
lt £ 1 1 0 . 0 0
5
.9
39

s £1 4 9.9 5

y £
T r il b
se r
ou

Tr

ITEMS DISPLAYED:
Contrast Trim Shirt (Mocha),
Corduroy Trilby Hat (Mocha),
Signature Tartan Shorts
(Indigo), Limited Edition
Golf Club Buckle & Belt (St.
Sh 5 George’s Red), Limited Edition
o r ts £ 4 4. 9 Union Jack Tartan Trousers

Collection available from www.ianpoulterdesign.com

HORSE RACING

First Past
The Post

CHALLENGING TERRAIN: Horses tackle the

difficult contours at the 2008 Epsom Derby

Epsom Downs will play host next month to a racing spectacle revered
worldwide. The Investec Derby returns in June for its annual dose of
historic equine drama. To mark this year’s race, Tim Lamden spoke
to senior racing journalist Alan Lee about St Nicholas Abbey, the
Epsom course and the decisive month of May

W
hen I met with Alan Lee in early April
the British flat season had only just
commenced with an inaugural meet in
Doncaster around a week before our
rendezvous. Yet even then, the country’s
racing press had already decided on Epsom Downs’ Derby
winner and the season’s ultimate victor.
Aidan O’Brien-trained St Nicholas Abbey would accept
in his stride the mantle of successor to last season’s all-
conquering Sea The Stars, now a colt of legend from John
Oxx’s Currabeg stables. Johnny Murtagh would emulate
Michael Kinane’s achievements in the previous season and
ride St Nicholas Abbey to victory, first in the 2000 Guineas
and then in the Derby, before clinching all manner of other
titles. This was the narrative racing’s newspapermen had
written for St Nicholas Abbey. It was a done deal.
Fast-forward a month and the reality looked quite
different. St Nicholas Abbey never
looked in the race at the first Classic
of the year, finishing a sluggish
sixth in the 2000 Guineas on the
opening day of May. It was the
33-1 shot Mafki that claimed the
flat season’s first bragging rights CHAMPION: Sea
with an impressive ride from The Stars races
Frenchman Christophe Lemaire. to victory in last
year’s 2000 Guineas
“Maybe he can win all the best
races, Royal Ascot, the Epsom
Derby, we have to go race by
race,” said the winning jockey in
the aftermath. How quickly predictions
and expectations in racing can change.
At our meeting in April, Alan Lee
had warned against the hyperbole and

expectancy that had swamped St Nicholas Abbey.
“By the time your piece comes out St Nicholas Abbey
might have been blown out of the water in the 2000
Guineas and we’ll be looking at a load of different horses,”
said The Times’ chief racing correspondent in a moment of
prophecy.
“I can’t emphasise enough how many sparkling two-year-
olds, once they turn three, are big disappointments and
you’ll normally know the first time they run as a three-year-
old.”
“St Nicholas Abbey might be
a world beater or it might be
that he hasn’t ‘trained on’”
There was certainly no doubting St Nicholas Abbey’s
ability as a two-year-old. Progeny of Ballydoyle’s king
stallion, Montjeu, sire of two previous Derby winners,
the colt powered to victory in the Racing Post Trophy last
October and immediately collected odds of 3-1 for a win at
this season’s Derby.
But Alan Lee was weary of jumping to such immediate
conclusions. “The thing about flat racing which separates it
from jump racing is that the Classics are for three-year-old
horses that may only have run once or twice as two-year-
olds, some have never run at all as two-year-olds. So you’re
clutching at small pieces of form and you’re clutching at
pedigrees.
GREAT PROMISE: St Nicholas Abbey
pulls away in the Racing Post Trophy last year
“Over jumps, you see form develop over a period of years.
So St Nicholas Abbey might be a world beater or it might be
that he hasn’t ‘trained on’, he hasn’t developed from two to
three. There’s also the question of stamina. He’s bred to stay
the mile and a half of the Derby but there are many horses
that don’t.”
It is the deviating shape of the Derby track at Epsom
racecourse that Lee believes provides one of the most
demanding flat races in the world.
“The first Derby I covered, I walked the Derby course
“Racecourses are not built
like that anywhere else”
at Epsom the day before the race and I couldn’t believe,
because it’s not clear on TV or even when you’re at the
course, that the first half mile is steeply uphill. You see
horses that are basically knackered and out of the race
by the time they get there, there are some who just don’t
handle it.
“Then you turn steadily left-handed and you come
downhill at a rate of knots and then there’s a sharp turn
at the bottom to come uphill again. That’s where the
agility of a racehorse, as well as its stamina really counts.
Racecourses are not built like that anywhere else.”
The physical demands of a Derby winner are no doubt
65
great but then so too are the rewards. Described by
Benjamin Disraeli as the “Blue Riband of the turf”, the
Derby, first run in 1780, is considered by many to be the
greatest flat race in the world. Undisputedly the most
prestigious of the country’s five Classics, it is Britain’s
richest horse race, with winnings of £1.25 million.
The Derby will run for the 231st time on June 5, a date that
will persist regardless of Alan Lee’s objections.
“I think if you started now with a blank sheet of paper you
wouldn’t be running your greatest race in the first week of
June,” said Lee.
“It’s the highlight of an eight month flat season and it
comes after two months. Normally you would have your
highlight as a climax at the end. But it’s never going to be
shifted now, that’s where it’s always been historically and
that’s where it will stay.”
Looking back on the Derby’s illustrious history it hasn’t
been afraid of change, as Lee pointed out.
“What is fascinating about the Derby is how it has evolved
on a Saturday, because it always used to be on a Wednesday.
There was a great outpouring from traditionalists who were
horrified when it was moved to Saturdays.
“But the fact is, on the last few Wednesdays nobody went,
it was dire, because the world’s moved on, people don’t just
take days off in the middle of the week.
“It’s now been built back up so that on the Saturday
Epsom Downs is absolutely covered. The infield as you call
it, there are 100,000 people there. It is an extraordinary
sight. The Derby has been reborn.”
Sitting across a table in Cheltenham’s Hotel du Vin,
I asked Lee if he had a tip for the hordes that will coat
Epsom’s infield come June.
“You couldn’t, you just couldn’t at this point. It would be
mad to even contemplate it,” he said.
“There is so little to go on,
but it becomes clear during
May because all the horses
will come out and run”
A month later, after the 2000 Guineas, the sound of heads
being scratched at Newmarket was deafening, and not
exclusively from the O’Brien camp.
St Nicholas Abbey, regardless of Lee’s rational scepticism,
was flat racing’s hottest prospect, only to be usurped in
his biggest race to date by five horses deemed incapable in
comparison. Of course, there’s nothing to say that he can’t
still go on to win the Derby and become the great horse so
many have predicted.
But his fate is certainly more uncertain now - as is the
outcome of next month’s Derby.
“To the real aficionados of flat racing, the beauty of it
is that it unravels so late in the day,” said Lee. “You have
this month of May where everything becomes clear, and
in those few weeks you approach the day with everything
crystallising before you.
“There is so little to go on, but it becomes clear during
May because all the horses will come out and run. It’s
almost unheard of for a three-year-old to go to the Derby
without a run that season.”
So as the month of May unwinds so too does the destiny
of this year’s Investec Derby. But for all the forecasts and
predictions, no one can ever be certain in this game.
“There’s a great deal of guessing. Guessing and hunches in
flat racing,” said Lee.
SUBSCRIPTION

Subscribe
FREE
Joop! Jump
Men’s 50ml EAU DE TOILETTE

Plus 15% OFF COVER PRICE

Get The Sportsman delivered directly to your door. Take out
an annual subscription this month and you’ll receive Joop! Jump,
the company’s signature male fragrance. Every subscriber will
also receive 15 per cent off the cover price entitling them to:

12 issues for £40

TO SUBSCRIBE AND CLAIM YOUR
FREE GIFT, CALL: 01858 438821
DON’T FORGET TO QUOTE ‘JOOP15’ OR VISIT...

WWW.THESPORTSMAN.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE
*This is a special introductory promotion open to UK residents only. Direct Debit offer. Details of the Direct Debit Guarantee are available on request. Offer ends 30/06/2010. Calls from BT
 67

The Sportsman online

bringing you the latest news and informed comment from the sporting world

The Sportsman
T

The Sportsman SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW DIGITAL

EDITIONS OF THE MAGAZINE

TThe Sportsman
EXCLUSIVE WEB CONTENT
AND VIDEO INTERVIEWS
T
VISIT
WWW.THESPORTSMAN.
CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE
TO FIND OUT MORE

The Sportsman mobile

for more information visit www.thesportsman.co.uk/mobile

landlines cost 4p per minute, mobile phone charges may vary. Lines open Mon-Fri 9am-9pm; Sat 10am-4pm. Whilst stocks last. Featured gift may be replaced by one of equal or higher value.

MOTORSPORT
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
The last two Formula One world champions are both
English and now they are team-mates. But according to
Jon Lancaster, one of England’s top young drivers,
money is as big a factor as talent in the race to the top
By COLIN JAMES
H
e travels around some of the most glamourous
destinations in Europe driving fast and very
expensive cars for a living, but Jon Lancaster
is not the playboy stereotype with the million
pound yacht and apartment in Monte Carlo.
The Leeds based 21-year-old has his feet firmly on the
ground.
He’s currently competing in the World Series by Renault
(WSR) Formula 3.5, which is just one step below his target
of Formula One and the chance to compete against Lewis
Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Though on the face of it British motorsport looks blessed
with a strong stable of talent, Lancaster belives not enough
is being done to help young drivers up the ladder.
“There’s not enough support for drivers,” he said. “In
69
REVVING UP:
Jon Lancaster
accelerates at
MotorLand, Aragon
France they have an organisation that helps you raise
money and get backing and help with training. We don’t
really have anything like that.”
The cost of competing has increased to such an extent
that two seasons ago F1 drivers discussed taking industrial
action in protest at the rocketing cost of the super licence
they must buy in order to race.
The FIA responded by lowering the fee but it is still
estimated that this season the total cost to a driver
including specialist insurance and the licence could exceed
£200,000.
It is not just at the top level where the cost of competing
is cause for consternation.
“It costs the most money for the licence in England - it
costs £900. It’s ridiculous,” Lancaster said.
70
“I have seen some good drivers
who don’t make it purely for money
reasons. You need money if you’re not
rich. I’m not rich but I have some good
sponsors, even though we’re always
looking for more.”
The cost of motorsport is prohibitive
to many people but others have an
easy ride. A young man backed by
wealthy parents can get a long way
before his talent is truely tested.
“It’s all about money and who
you know. There’s lots of people in
motorsport who just have the money
to get in there and there’s a few people
who get there on ability rather than
who they know. I like to include myself
in that,” said Lancaster.
H
is passion for racing
was sparked when he
was given a go-kart as a
Christmas present at the
age of nine.
Dad Charles, a karting enthusiast,
took him to the track at Wombwell,
Barnsley, and that is where Jon first got
behind the wheel.
“It went really well. As we
progressed into races we started doing
alright and it went from there,” he said.
“It was just me and my dad going
karting driving round in a Transit van.
When you’re starting you have no team
behind you.”
“Some good
drivers don’t
make it purely for
money reasons”
As he entered an ever increasing
number of races Lancaster’s school
studies started to take a back seat.
“When you’re 14 you don’t have
much of a school life. I was doing a
maximum of four-day weeks or three
usually,” he said.
“I often had to stay on at night until
five to catch up. You have to make
the decision: your education or your
karting.”
Lancaster had no trouble convincing
his father that it was the right decision
to focus on his driving rather than his
education.
“My dad is my manager really so he
backed me. He takes care of everything
in a similar way to Lewis Hamilton and
his dad, but we haven’t fallen out like
them” he joked.
It was when he was picked up by
Milan’s Birel Motorsport, one of the
biggest teams in karting, that Lancaster
really started to believe he could make
a career out of his hobby.
In 2006 after much success in
karting he got his chance to move into
single-seat formulae racing.
Starting with a couple of races at
Silverstone in Formula Ford he moved
on to the Formula Renault 2.0 UK
Winter Series.
“It was quite difficult to adjust from
going 70mph low down to a big car
which obviously isn’t as nimble and
light,” he said.
“I was up against drivers three
years older than me and much more
experienced. We did well though and
we got a few podiums.”
It is telling that Lancaster continually
attributes success to the teams he is
part of, in particular the father-son
team that has stayed together.
The year 2007 was his most
successful season to date. Competing
in the Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0
Championship, he won five races and
finished as runner-up.
Lancaster’s talent has not gone
unnoticed and the British Racing
Driver’s Club (BRDC) honoured him
as a ‘Rising Star’, a title previously
awarded to Lewis Hamilton.
“It gets you into places like the Grand
Prix where you can meet people,” he
explained.
“Sadly they don’t give you a cheque
which would be nice, but it’s good
recognition really - it’s all about the
honour.”
Lancaster spent the 2008 season in
the Formula 3 Euroseries where he
won superbly at Nurburgring.
Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg
and Sebastian Vettel all excelled in the
division before moving on.
In 2009 Lancaster made the last
logical step below F1 by joining WSR
with Comtec Racing.
And he won a race in his debut
season at that level taking the
checkered flag in Portugal.
After a difficult winter in which
he was let down by several teams,
he signed with Fortec Motorsport in
Northamptonshire.
He backed himself to take the
drivers’ title but the season hasn’t
started as he hoped due to technical
problems and what he claims is sheer
misfortune.
“It’s a lot of bad luck. People use
luck as an excuse but unfortuntately
qualifying has been a problem,” he
said.
“Spa was a track I didn’t know. It was
wet and I cut the chicane three times
but didn’t gain any position. They said
I’d gained time and Greg Mansell, son
of Nigel, protested and he won the
appeal.”
“It’s not quite
the F1 glitz and
glamour”
It would really take something
special for Lancaster to recover from
this point but he remains optimistic.
“It’s quite a busy lifestyIe. I have to
attend lunches, meetings, dinners - I
have a charity auction coming up,” he
said.
“It’s not quite the F1 glitz and
glamour everyone sees. We’re always
looking for sponsors and attending
meetings and talking to people - that’s
how you get along.”
Other sportsmen would complain
at having to fulfil such commitments
off the field or out of the ring but
Lancaster seems happy enough to do it
if it will help his career.
“You do what you have to to get to
the top and in this game it really is
about who you know, so the more
people you speak to the better,” he
said.
Lancaster is determined to reach
F1, but should he miss out, his well-
grounded attitude will see him right.
PRIZE:
Lancaster (right)
celebrates third
place at Aragon

F1: The Season So Far
The 2010 season was eagerly anticipated by both fans
and competitors. It promised three new teams, five new
drivers, a raft of new rules and the return of a legend
Bahrain, March 14
Not the start everyone hoped for. After
the race there were complaints from
spectators and drivers that overtaking
was too difficult.
Michael Schumacher managed
sixth on his return but it was his old
team Ferrari who were celebrating
after Vettel blew a spark plug gifting
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa a
1-2. Lewis Hamilton took third.
DONE IT: Mark Webber
celebrates another win
Australia, March 28
A thriller. Rain before the race meant
that everyone started on intermediate
tyres.
Going into the first corner Button
spun Alonso who barged Schumacher
off the track.
The safety car had to come on after
Kamui Kobayashi’s front wing failure
sent his BMW Sauber rebounding
off the barrier into the path of Nico
Hülkenberg and Sébastien Buemi.
Button took a risk being the first to
switch to dry tyres but it paid off and
he held off Robert Kubica and Massa to
claim the defending champion’s first
win of the season.
Watch footage of Jon Lancaster racing at MotorLand in Spain on www.thesportsman.co.uk
LEGEND: The Brits look on as
Schumacher returns
Malaysia, April 4
Another good race, although the Red
Bulls ran away with it - Vettel forcing
team-mate Mark Webber to settle for
second place.
Nico Rosberg completed the podium
line-up.
The McLarens and Ferarris had
misjudged the qualifying conditions
and had to come from the back of the
grid.
Hamilton drove superbly to finish
sixth from a grid position of 22.
GOOD IMPROVEMENT: Lewis
Hamilton finishes 6th after starting in 22nd
China, April 18
A McClaren 1-2 this time as Button
won his second race of the season.
With Hamilton in second place it
was the first English 1-2 since Monaco
in1969.
The rain played a big part in the race
and Button’s decision to battle the
damp on dry tyres paid off.
Hamilton and Vettel were both given
warnings after a collision as they left
the pit lane..
Rosberg in his Mercedes finished
third.
71
CRASH: Chaos at the first turn in
Melbourne
Spain, May 9
Mercedes and Virgin Racing both made
changes to their cars before the race.
Webber led all the way but
Hamilton lost out on second place
when he suffered a blown tyre on the
penultimate lap.
Having already taken advantage of a
Vettel mistake, Fernando Alonso was
able to claim second place with Vettel
third.
Schumacher finished fourth, his best
since returning, but was made to work
hard all race by Button.
Jon Lancaster
Formula 3.5 driver
“This is a good season.
Red Bull have made a
couple of mistakes but
they have definitely
got something in their
cars that’s very quick.
Jenson has done fantastically. It’s
going to be a very close year but I
could see Vettel and Webber running
away with it if they drive well.”
FOOTBALL
TV’s AFRICAN MISSION
It’s a gigantic logistical operation to get the World Cup onto
our screens at home. Mark Duell speaks to BBC Football
Editor Andrew Clement to see how he’s been preparing
A
broadcasting studio on top of a hospital roof,
180 staff and one expectant nation. Forget the
pressure on England manager Fabio Capello -
Andrew Clement is directing the BBC’s coverage
of the whole World Cup.
The Editor of BBC Football is well-rehearsed in putting
on a good show for football fans. He has been in charge of
Match of the Day, Match of the Day 2, the Football League
Show and Carling Cup coverage this season.
But South Africa 2010 will be on another level. “The
World Cup is a big challenge because of where it is and
when it is during daytime,” Clement said. “There are a lot of
elements involved in putting it together. I think it will be a
very different World Cup from the past competitions.”
The BBC announced in March that it will spend more
than £2million sending at least 122 staff to South Africa,
including presenters, programme makers, commentators
and pundits. The total staff bill will be much higher as
technology staff and freelancers take the figure to almost
300. There will be 15 per cent fewer staff than at World Cup
2006 in Germany, but the total cost will be around the same
due to more security and longer journey times travelling
inside South Africa.
The BBC’s World Cup coverage has changed significantly
since Clement started at the Beeb over 20 years ago.
“My first World Cup was 1990 and I just worked out of the
Television Centre basement,” Clement said. “For reflecting
the tournament it’s better to be out there as you get a more
genuine feel for what’s going on.”
“It will be a very different
World Cup from the past”
For World Cup competitions up to 1994, the BBC team
was based in London, with occasional live uplinks from the
host country. In 1998 and 2006, the team was on site in
Paris and Berlin respectively, but for 2002 they were based
in London until the Brazil v England quarter-final when
they relocated to Japan and South Korea. So how will they
cover South Africa?
Clement said: “We’re going to base ourselves in Cape
Town. At the moment logistics suggest we can’t present
from the stadiums because of the distances involved
of getting from A to B in the early group stages of the
tournament. But we will have platforms positioned
inside the stadiums to soak up the atmosphere inside the
grounds.”
The BBC’s team will be fronted by Match of the Day
regulars Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee
Dixon and Gordon Strachan. They will be sending 15
commentators for television and radio, compared to ITV’s
four. Star footballer pundits this year will include AC Milan’s
Clarence Seedorf and Emmanuel Adebayor of Manchester
City and Togo.
“We want a few people who will make an impact,”
Clement said. “Seedorf has won the Champions League with
three different teams and got to the semi-finals of the World
Cup with Holland. Adebayor is a good talker and we were
lucky to get him on the team. He was in the same qualifying
group as Ghana with Togo. I’m sure there’ll also be a few top
managers signed too.”
The main commentary team will include Guy Mowbray,
Jonathan Pearce, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton and Steve
Bower. The BBC’s main studio has cost tens of thousands
of pounds to build on top of Somerset Hospital roof in Cape
Town.
“There have been lots of negotiations and we’ve been
trying to help the hospital anyway we can,” he said.
The studio’s construction, winning the hospital roof
space against other broadcasters and spending on satellite
transmission could cost around £1million. But even though
the 23ft glass walls on top of the six-storey building promise
spectacular views, it is an interesting move after the BBC
was criticised for spending £250,000 on a new studio in
Vienna for Euro 2008 after it did not like the original view.
“We dabbled last October broadcasting in South Africa for
the Confederations Cup,” Clement said. “If that was anything
to go by, it’s going to be pretty noisy.”
One new feature for this World Cup will be a roving
reporter bus, fronted by Football Focus presenter Dan
Walker, Garth Crooks and Damian Johnson. “The bus is the
most ambitious part of what we’re going to do,” Clement
said.
All live matches will be broadcast on BBC1, apart from
simultaneous group games that will go on either BBC3 in
the evening or the red button in the afternoon.
“The BBC is quite a big place,” he said. “We’re working
with the BBC World Service and will use their Johannesburg
offices. More and more now, the planning is all multimedia
and multi-platform. It’s your money we’re spending and you
want value for it.”
One of the major planning challenges for the BBC ahead
of South Africa was deciding which games to show itself and
which ones to give to ITV.
“We have to strike a deal with ITV to carve up the
tournament,” he said. “The irony is that we’re negotiating
with a guy who was my boss until a year ago and he is
making the exact arguments he used to poo-poo 12 months
ago.
“All matches out there are covered by the host
broadcasting services - a consortium including ITV. For
England games, we’ll add in three cameras which means we
can control the pictures to an extent.
“It’s a slog, certainly during the first few days,” Clement
said. But surely directing coverage of the World Cup would
be a dream job for any football fan? “The long days are
pretty relentless but you work hard and play hard. It can be
a lot of fun.”
We wait to see if Capello has organised his England squad
as well as Clement seems to have sorted out his own team.
 73

WHERE D
O THE CAM
ERAS GO?

This show
team will s where the BBC
cameras aposition its 16
Cup stadiuround a World
match. Eig m for a live
the covera hty per cent of
Camera A ge comes from
opposite itand the positions
replays are mostly
for

VICTORIOUS:
Italy players lift the
World Cup trophy
after their World
Cup Final win over
France in 2006
 June
74

Calendar 2010
The month of May heralded the end of domestic football and rugby for 2010, but sports
fans do not despair, because June serves up a summer sporting smorgasbord. With the
World Cup, Wimbledon, Test Rugby, Test Cricket and Grand Slam Golf, what more could
you want? Well, we thought a guide to help you keep track of it all might be of use

4th - 5th Racing: Derby Festival

T he event is iconic not only in horse racing but also in

the wider sporting world. The centrepiece is the Epsom
Derby, known colloquially as ‘the Derby’. It is one of the five
‘Classics’ and widely regarded as the greatest flat race in the
world. For a preview of the event see pg.64-65.

4th - 8th Cricket: England vs Bangladesh

E ngland host Bangladesh at Old Trafford for the second

and final npower test between the two countries. The
minnows of international cricket have never managed a
victory over England in any form of the game and the home
side, captained by Andrew Strauss, are overwhelming
favourites to see off the tourists’ challenge once again.

11th World Cup Football: South Africa vs Mexico

T he highly anticipated opening game of the 2010 World

Cup kicks off with hosts South Africa pitted against
Mexico. With 70 places separating the two teams in FIFA’s
world rankings, the home side will be relying on their native
support inside Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium (right)
to help them secure an upset against their more seasoned
South American opposition. The game is sure to draw the
attention of football fans in the UK. Manchester United
supporters will be keen to get a first glimpse of their new
Mexican acquisition, 21-year-old striker Javier Hernandez.
While Arsenal fans will be hoping Carlos Vela forces his way
into the Mexican team after the talented striker was omitted
from his country’s pre-World Cup squad.

12th Rugby Union: Australia vs England

E ngland will renew their rivalry with Australia in Perth

as part of their summer tour, which will see them play
two tests against the country they famously defeated in the
2003 World Cup Final. The hero on that occasion was Jonny
Wilkinson (left), and the fly-half will have his sights set on
a place in Martin Johnson’s 44-man squad once again. The
two test matches against the Aussies are part of England’s
first five-match summer tour since visiting South Africa ten
years ago. As well as the tests against Australia, they will also
play two games against the Australian Barbarians before
rounding off their tour with a match against the New Zealand
Maori. England’s touring party will also include members of
the Saxons squad who will be intent on impressing with the
2011 World Cup looming.
 75
12th World Cup Football: England vs USA

E xpect to see little evidence of the ‘special relationship’

on the pitch as England take on the United States in the
opening match of Group C. After a litany of tabloid scandals
threatened to overshadow their World Cup preparations,
the England side, led by newly-appointed skipper Rio
Ferdinand (right), can ill-afford to approach the game in a
spirit of congeniality. The nation credited with inventing the
game will remain favourites in the eyes of many to progress
from a group that is completed by Algeria and Slovenia, but
Capello’s men would be wise not to underestimate their
opposition from across the Atlantic. Although the game
has yet to truly capture the imagination of a country that
prides itself on a different variety of ‘football’, the US team
should be regarded as a more-than-proficient outfit. Led by
former Fulham defender Carlos Bocanegra, the US topped
their qualification group, finishing a point ahead of Mexico.
English football fans will be aware of the threat posed by
Landon Donovan, who enjoyed a successful spell at Everton
this season, and is the USA’s all-time leading goal scorer.

13th Formula One: Canadian Grand Prix

T he Canadian Grand Prix returns to the Formula One

calendar after a brief one-year hiatus. The Circuit Gilles
Villeneuve in Montreal was dropped for the first time in 30
years and replaced by the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
in 2009. However, Canadian racing officials have now signed
a five-year contract with the Formula One Administration
that will see the track cemented as a permanent fixture until
2014. Lewis Hamilton (left) will be desperate to atone for
his mistake during the last Canadian Grand Prix in 2008. Not
noticing a red light, the McLaren Mercedes driver slammed
into the back of Kimi Räikkönen as the Finnish driver waited
in the pit lane. Hamilton had qualified on pole but the
crash forced him to retire, ending all hopes of a successive
Canadian Grand Prix victory following the young Brit’s
triumph in 2007.

14th World Cup Football: Italy vs Paraguay

W orld Cup champions Italy begin the defence of their

crown against Paraguay in Cape Town. The holders
captured football’s most illustrious prize for the fourth time
in the 2006 World Cup final after conquering the French
on penalties. The game will probably be best remembered
for Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi, which
saw the French captain sent off after the Italian defender
allegedly insulted his mother. Earlier this year Zidane
claimed he ‘would rather die’ than apologise to Materazzi.

15th - 19th Racing: Royal Ascot

S teeped in tradition, the world famous race meet is a

beacon of British heritage dating back almost 300 years.
It is Europe’s best-attended meet, with over a quarter of
a million punters converging on Berkshire for the annual
event. Held on Ladies’ Day (June 17), the Ascot Gold Cup is
the highlight of the week and renowned for its pageantry.

17th - 20th Golf: US Open

F resh from his Masters win in Augusta, Phil Mickelson will

be determined to follow up his achievement by claiming
the second major of the year. The US Open is being hosted
at the prestigious and picturesque Pebble Beach Golf Links
course on the coast of California. Last time Pebble Beach
staged the event, back in 2000, Tiger Woods (right) emerged
victorious finishing a record 15 shots ahead of the field.
76
18th World Cup Football: England vs Algeria

T he second group stage game. Although England will once

again be championed to brush aside their opposition,
the tie has the potential to turn perilous for Capello’s men
should they approach the North African side with a shred
of complacency. The Algerians eliminated African Cup of
Nations winners Egypt in a playoff to clinch a berth at the
tournament and they should not be taken lightly.

20th MotoGP: British Grand Prix

F or the first time since 1986, Silverstone will be the setting

for the British Motorcycle Grand Prix after Donington
Park, the previous home of British motorcycle racing,
declared bankruptcy. The new venue has been redeveloped
to the tune of £5million, making it more suitable for bikes,
and Silverstone officials have claimed the new track will be
the fastest on the MotoGP calendar with riders expected
to reach an average speed of 113mph. Honda’s Andrea
Dovizioso is the defending champion but the Italian will
face stiff competition from compatriot Valentino Rossi.

June 21st - July 4th Tennis: Wimbledon

A ndy Murray will once again bear the burden of a nation’s

expectation as Wimbledon gets underway at the All
England Club. Last year, the fiery Scot was defeated in the
semi-finals by America’s Andy Roddick who later lost out to
winner Roger Federer (left) in a memorable match. Drawing
after four sets, the two played out the longest fifth set ever
played in a final at the Championships, which Federer
eventually won 16-14. The ‘Swiss Maestro’ will now be
intent on reaching his eighth consecutive Wimbledon final
and equaling Pete Sampras’ record of seven singles titles. At
the hands of Federer, Murray has endured the pain of defeat
in two Grand Slam finals. Could it be third time lucky?

22nd Cricket: England vs Australia

W hen Ricky Ponting’s men met England last summer

for the NatWest one-day international series, they
strode to a thumping 6-1 win. A whitewash appeared
inevitable until England managed to salvage a little pride
from a disastrous series with a four-wicket victory in the
final match at Chester-le-Street. Australia’s showing was
especially impressive given that it occurred in the wake of
their demoralising Ashes defeat. Ponting will be hoping his
side can replicate last summer’s form at the Rose Bowl this
June for the first contest in a five-match one-day series.

23rd World Cup Football: England vs Slovenia

E ngland’s third and final game of Group C will be against

Slovenia. Qualification for the knockout stages is the
sole objective and Capello’s men should be strong enough
to overcome this final obstacle. A word of caution, however -
Slovenia secured their spot at the World Cup by vanquishing
an accomplished Russian side and they could revel playing
the role of underdogs once more.

25th World Cup Football: Brazil vs Portugal

B y far the most glamorous contest of the group stages

takes place between Brazil and Portugal in the proverbial
‘group of death’. With the Ivory Coast, widely regarded as
Africa’s strongest representative, also in the group, a major
contender is guaranteed to fall at the first hurdle. North
Korea are the unfortunate team making up the numbers in
Group G, in only their second appearance at a World Cup.
Next Month...
The World Cup is on the horizon,
so we’ll be previewing a month We speak to Andy Murray
of high drama in South Africa as he prepares to give
us something to smile
about at this year’s
We analyse Lewis Wimbledon finals
Hamilton’s chances
of winning the
British Grand Prix ON THE SHELVES
Wednesday June 9 2010
TO GET YOUR COPY DELIVERED AND A FREE GIFT, VISIT:

WWW.THESPORTSMAN.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE
78
THE LAST WORD
Terry outbedded by Tiger, our manager’s Italian and we can’t
even elect a Prime Minister. Britain is a nation of losers but we
should still get caught up and embrace the World Cup hype
T
he sheer oodles of
mindboggling bulge
that is spouted from the
mouths of this country’s
Daily Star-reading
cretins whenever a major sporting
competition nears has become
intolerable.
With monotonous spouts of
ING-GUR-LAND being recited by
lager-swigging oiks, I am already
prepping a space in the garage for
the noose.
With some of the greatest
stars ever to play the beautiful
game gracing the sun-drenched
South African turf this summer,
we should watch this sporting
carnival with a dash of optimism,
a drop of belief and stirred with
the spoon of realism.
Let’s face it: England just can’t
compete on the big stage.
It’s in our blood.
In the same way I have to
accept that I can no longer
have a 30-minute telephone
conversation without my 77-year-
old grandfather abruptly ending
every call with “sorry, I need to
go to the toilet”, we as a nation
have to accept we will not win the
World Cup.
We are a nation of losers. Just
look at the history books.
When Winston Churchill
defeated the fascist Nazi-regime
he was not greeted with grandeur
and gold but by being ousted from
No. 10 within weeks of VE day.
If Churchill can’t win, what hope
does diddy Shaun Wright-Phillips
have?
And here’s the biggest secret of
them all – one you won’t discover
in your daughter’s GCSE History
books: it was Russia that was
victorious in the smouldering
European mainland, not the Keep
Calm and Carry On brigade.
More Dad’s Army than Great
Escape.
By Robert Golledge
CAPELLO:
Our favourite Italian
Just look at our captain shag-
tastic John Terry. Compared
to Tiger Woods’ antics, Terry
is left looking like a spotty
prepubescent 14-year-old who
finds himself masturbating over
the Argos catalogue.
Our hopes of success hinge on
the shoulders of Messrs Beat-the-
DJ Gerrard, conveniently-missed-
a-drugs-test Ferdinand, and a
man who turned Cheryl Cole gay.
And I haven’t even started on
Peter Crouch yet!
So do I condone this coma-
inducing, over-hyped hysteria
that has saturated every football
World Cup in recent memory?
Absolutely.
We have to find a purpose. A
man without a purpose is like
David Beckham’s pants without a
tennis ball.
Football is our purpose. It’s our
passion. It’s our Mohammed and
this summer Johannesburg is our
temple.
For centuries those who achieve
great things have been laughed
at.
And just like a Jimmy Carr gig,
no one is laughing now.
Hysteria is wonderful.
Exuberance and passion are bliss.
For far too long following
England at international
competitions has simulated the
loss of one’s virginity.
The expectations. The pressure.
The pre-match anxiety. The
patient build-up play. The final
flurry.
And the stark realisation that
you’ve flopped to defeat well
inside the first half.
It’s a cruel game.
But just like Tiger – you’ve got
to start somewhere.
Just because you’ve felt the
pain of past conquests, it doesn’t
stop those hairs on the back of
your neck – whose sole purpose
is reserved for these occasions –
from standing tall.
So this summer remember to
cast your minds back to Georgia
Sloan and the premeditated night
when her parents were out.
And remember the arduous
journey and the many lessons,
techniques and subtleties you’ve
learnt and embrace the hype, the
hysteria and the crazed madness.
For, in truth, it’s the foreplay
that makes the game what it is.
Without it there’s no climax.
And with it you’re on course,
results pending, for a one way
ticket to Soccer City, the World
Cup Final, and an all mighty
orgasm.
Shakespeare couldn’t have put
it better:
If Football be the food of love,
play on.
For more of The Last Word and
exclusive content check out The
Sportsman online at:
www.thesportsman.co.uk