Zeusblog

I see EUFA are banning Vuvuzelas from their matches as they feel it might spoil people’s enjoyment of the games. I totally agree with them, but why stop at annoying plastic trumpets? There are plenty of other things that spoil my enjoyment of the beautiful game that should all be banned forthwith. Like the annoying really loud music (usually some kind of power ballad) they play at the end of cup finals which drown out the fans just as effectively as vuvuzelas - it’s almost like they think we don’t know how to celebrate (as a Villa fan I am forgetting what it’s like to celebrate a big win, but that’s another matter). ITV commentators and pundits. The ridiculous hype surrounding the England team. The England team itself - surely club comes before country? Fans who don’t like you criticising your own overpaid stars. Overpaid stars. Overpaid journeymen footballers. Footballers with no sense of loyalty or pride in their shirt. Footballers who aren’t honest about why they are moving club - they never say it’s for the money. Football agents. Orange WAGs. Greedy clubs pricing proper fans out of the game. Greedy clubs ripping off their supporters by constantly changing their overpriced kit. The terrible food they serve these days inside grounds (what happened to good old fashioned terrible food like pies and bovril?). The price of terrible food inside grounds. People who leave before the game is finished. The word ’soccer’. The idea that we should have to give £750 million to football projects around the world in order to host the world cup - if it’s not coming here because this is the home of football and we already have great infrastructure, the best league and the best fans, then we don’t want it. The inevitable spurious estimate of how much the World Cup would be worth to the country. Oh yes, and David Cameron being a Villa fan.

First Batman in Hampstead Garden Suburb, now the Penguin (well two actually) at Wembley. 

I went to the Carling Cup Final at Wembley last Sunday and found myself sitting next to these two guys. What you can’t see in the picture was the rest of their outfits under their Villa shirts - they had big penguin bums and orange flipper feet - very funny. When I asked “Why the Pingu outfits?”, they just replied “Why not?” and laughed.

Apart from the score it was a great day out (particularly those beautiful, glorious 8 minutes when we were 1-0 up), and the new Wembley stadium (my first visit) is so much better than the old one, which other than the twin towers was really awful.

Now I’m not generally very well disposed towards Man Utd, but I have to take my Villa hat off to the Man Utd fans. Most (and I mean 95%) of them were not wearing the red colours that they are famous for, but were wearing green and yellow as a protest against the Glazers, their American owners who strapped the club in debt to buy it. Yellow and green were the club colours of Newton Heath, the original club formed in 1878 that became Man Utd. It’s the fans way of saying that you may have bought Man Utd Plc, but it’s still is and always has been our club. When they celebrated winning the cup (by the skin of their teeth) their end was a sea of swirling green and yellow scarves. Their line is “Love United. Hate Glazers.” My response would be “Hate United. Love the Protest.” Football clubs really are so much more than just a business and a balance sheet, so I hope it works for them.