Biggest club in London?

 

 

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• Different ways to see the world of football

By Tony Attwood

We are told that Morgan Rogers is ‘excited to join biggest club in London’ after making £117m Chelsea move, according to the Guardian today

Now we know that is not true in terms of Chelse being the biggest club in London either in terms of ground size, trophies won or pretty much anything else, but of course not everyone knows that is not true, and some will be transported into the idea that somehow Chelsea is a top club.

And just to help on this issue, and clarify things a bit, Arsenal have won 14 league titles (including one unbeaten), and  14 FA Cups (the latter being more than any other club I think).

In short, in terms of trophies won, Arsnal is the third-most successful club in English football behind only Liverpool and Manchester United.   In terms of ground size Arsenal is quoted on the internet as having a capacity of 59,867, making it the third largest in England, behind Wembley and Old Trafford.  Chelsea is a long way behind having a capaicity of 40,341.  Add to that the notion that Chelsea have won the Premier League once, Arsenal have won it four times and we see the difference.  

Now I may have got some of those figures wrong – I don’t think so but it is possible, as they are produced by myself sitting in my office without being checked.   But the Guardian is a national newspaper and as such that carries extra responsibilities in terms of trying to get data correct, not accepting a statement from a single source and verifying what one is given and correcting where needs be.

This notion however seems to have diminished in recent years and national newspapers now appear to be willing to throw up all sorts of football information without checking, which is a bit sad really.

But it is part of a general declne in football reporting, which seems to be engaged in picking and choosing bits of information it wishes to report.  

For example in the world cup we might note that there was a decided reluctance to report on the violence employed by Argentine players, and indeed the fact that after they had failed to win the World Cup they deliberately turned their back on the actual winners.   Hardly a major crime I know but very bad sportsmanship, and yet not reported much at the time.

I also came across articles in which Argentina officials claimed that their country represented football and the nation in the best possible way, and their behaviour was beyond reproach, and they quickly joined in the suggestoins that the world cup had been so good that it should be enlarged next time around.

This was also the world cup, you may recall in which the President of the United States was wideely noted as trying to remove a player’s booking – so that he could appear in the next match – the President seeming to take the view that as President of the host nation he had the power to overrule a decision by the referee. 

Obviously a lot of the dismay among the Argentine fans was caused by the fact that they find the notion of the Falklands being a UK overseas tgerritory unacceptable, but I felt it was generally understood that political matters didn’t actually force themselves into football.   Countries play each other irrespective of their political, economic or social positions.   But obviously that is not part of Argentine philosophy although it is Fifa’s view I believe.

What’s more, being involved in advertising as I have been through much of my working life I was also interested to come across a number of situations in which backers appeared to be wanting to disassociate themselves with Argentina’s attitude, while the issue of the removal of Spain’s homeless people from near the stadium used for the final, gained a fair amount of publicity in the UK.   

All in all the World Cup may be have successful for pulling in the crowds but I am not sure it was that good at gaining overall positive publicity for either of the finalists.

But if you feel you know all those things and have had enough, here’s just one more before I shut up about the WC totally.

Cristiano Ronaldo BACKS FIFA conspiracy theories: Portugal star ‘likes’ journalist’s claim organisation is ‘one of the most corrupt institutions on the planet’ after bitter rival Lionel Messi’s fortuitous run to the World Cup final.

And that I think is it for the WC..