Liveblog compilation

I’ve been collecting up a selection of liveblogs, or interactive coverage as we called it, from my year covering Crystal Palace.  It is not a definitive collection, there are some I just can’t find, but I think it gives a good flavour of what I was writing.  We discontinued the coverage when it was clear we could not boost numbers.  Unfortunately, Palace Radio’s appeal was too strong for us to overcome.

If the SPL and SFL want to fix Scottish football, they need to think bigger

Campbell Ogilvie – Roll your sleeves up, do some dirty work.

The dust seems to have settled on the argument and now it just lays in wait for somebody to pull their fingers out. The Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League spent most of the autumn sounding out fans and the press and launched rival plans for restructuring the professional game in Scotland. Both plans were approved by their members with some small changes and both will press on, seemingly in the complete ignorance that any changes that are made will be just a tiny percentage of the things that need to change.

Sport will never be clean until there’s nothing in it for the sports themselves

After the publishing of the Usada’s findings in the Lance Armstrong case, the most worrying aspect for me is that the Union Cycliste International has continued to pursue a lawsuit for libel against Irish journalist Paul Kimmage. Kimmage, along with David Walsh, was at the frontline when it came to questioning the validity of Armstrong’s claims to be clean, even from his very first Tour de France victory in 1999. One would think that Kimmage would be vindicated by the Usada report, which supports the claim that the UCI covered up a suspect test during the 2001 Tour de Suisse. However, the governing body are continuing with the case. I guess it’s a question of pride for them, though Kimmage maintains they are seeking to silence him.

The problem is that cycling is still in a precarious position. Looking at the UCI’s 2011 financial reports show that shrinking TV contracts and a diminishing number of races are big threats to the sport. Interest is still high, the question is whether the corporations are willing to pay for it. I suppose they’re now paying for the era that precedes this one. Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour wins helped cycling immensely and the UCI needs the stink to come off or else it will not be able to sustain the pro cycling it has right now, let alone expand the sport. However, the stink will come off and the sport will expand because it seems to me that the paying public don’t care enough about drugs cheat to actually stop watching. There’s not enough of an incentive to change.

…on whether MLS’ designated players are actually worth it

Torsten Frings - "WTF, I can't run that far anymore!"

With salary-capped sports leagues, there is always pressure to loosen the purse strings a little, especially in minority sports. Raising the cap is the most common way or alternatively allowing cap exemptions for certain players but it’s a balancing act between those teams that want to spend more and those who can’t. In MLS, the solution was to allow teams to spend what they want in a controlled manner. The Designated Player Rule – championed by Anschutz Entertainment Group so their franchise, the LA Galaxy, could sign commercial juggernaut David Beckham – was introduced in 2007 and has been changed and tweaked ever since. However, with the Galaxy the only team to ever win the MLS Cup with designated players and both conferences currently led by teams without them, the question has to be asked; are designated players a waste of time?

…on why we must reform and possibly wave goodbye to the Conference National

Scarborough were the first team automatically promoted but their "Theatre of Chips", McCain Stadium, was torn down in 2011 after the Seadogs went bust

It’s 25 years since Lincoln City became the first team automatically relegated from the Football League. Founder members of the Football League Second Division and ever the trend-setters, the Imps decided the best way to bounce straight back was to stay professional in a semi-professional league. Little did they know that a trend had started which would permanently change the Conference where today, 18 of its 24 clubs are fully professional. It’s time to face up to what the Conference has become and reform it, else it will become a burden.

…on West Ham’s rapidly disintegrating season

Allardyce felt adopting a Henry the Eighth-esque pose would win the fans over. Unfortunately, it failed.

If it’s squeaky-bum time in the Championship, it would seem that West Ham have already followed through. Topping the table in February, a dry run of form has befallen West Ham at exactly the wrong time. An eleven-game unbeaten run would ordinarily be something to shout about but with seven draws, five of which on the bounce, West Ham are now four adrift of second-placed Reading, who ended said streak with a 4-2 win at the Boleyn Ground. Early in the season, manager Sam Allardyce was full of 10-game targets and gusto, now he’s fallen back on his favourite trick; turning on the fans.

…on Newcastle Falcons’ slow decline and the southward drift of the Aviva Premiership

The most hated man in English rugby celebrates Newcastle's only Premiership title in 1998.

Another English Premiership season and it’s another relegation battle for the Newcastle Falcons. The early pace-setters of the professional era have been in decline for several years and thus it is little surprise that the club that escaped the drop last season by points difference are now staring the abyss in the face.

…on the London Broncos’ dire need for their own stadium

Twickenham Stoop - Current home of the London Broncos, which some feel is slowly killing the club.

In June 1980, over forty years since anybody even tried, Fulham FC set out to bring the 13-man code of rugby league football back to London. Fulham RLFC, playing at Craven Cottage, launched the following autumn. With the football club’s backing, the club yo-yoed between the First and Second Division until relegation from the First Division in 1984 saw Fulham bring their experiment to an end and withdraw their funding. Since then, the club have essentially been homeless. 28 years is a long time to be on the streets, especially in London.

…on John Bostock and the flawed cult of the loan spell

John Bostock can't catch a break. Every loan spell is treated as some great disaster and proof of a supposed attitude problem.

It’s the final transfer deadline of the season. The Football League’s crafty emergency loan loophole will be closed in a year or two but until then you have to treasure the last bit of transfer action. The last throw of the dice, the last opportunity to dump some wages, the last chance to bring in that one player that could get you those extra points to avoid relegation or sneak into the playoffs.

…on Widnes’ great comeback and the future of Super League

Widnes chairman Steve O'Connor has put time, money and effort enhancing what Widnes already have. Unfortunately, they're the exception not the rule.

It’s old news, I guess. Widnes Vikings have been confirmed as Super League’s newest team, with the RFL living up to the promise that one Championship side would be guaranteed a licence for the 2012-2014 period. The Vikings have turned things around considerably in the three years since they were turned down in the last round of applications. Had the club been in its current state then, they would not have been shut out.