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Dark Forces Afoot

I began to compose this article at the half way point in the season, around the time of the Christmas fixtures. Though it was the actions surrounding Saturday?s game that had led me to place it back on my to-do list. Here it is complete, if somewhat later than expected. But maybe just that little bit more relevant....

As the Premiership reaches the final leg of this long hard and enjoyable season, the run-in to the final positions come this May will be keenly contested with many twist and turns in the final 13 games. As usual, the Big 4 are considered favourites by the pundits to remain in the top 4, but the race for the those prestigious places come the end of the season could throw a surprise new twist in the repetitive story of top end Premier League football.

Tottenham and Everton have come a rogue quiche slice away in recent seasons to perhaps taking down a top four straggler, but this year not just maybe two clubs, but a possible ?Threatening Five? can been seen as real contenders for the elusive 4th spot. Everton, Aston Villa, Man City, Blackburn and Portsmouth; as of the weekend they are all within 6 points of 4th and though some may seem to be fading, the injection of new faces through January will try to reverse that trend. How good a season this is? Can you remember the last time that 4th spot was so hotly contested? More than likely in the days when 4th spot didn?t mean jack?

The Threatening Five are teams with talented squads on an upward curve in progression. Man City have arguably the best manager in the league and Martin O?Neil is showing why he?s a Big 4 manager but without a Big 4 team. Blackburn are treading the slowly-but-surely path such as we... and as for Portsmouth, well, when you but 100 players a season the chances are some of them will turn out to be a bit tasty.

In the past though this alone has not been enough to beat a Big 4 team who have all the perks of Champions League status. Ok, if you?re thinking of Everton 2005 put your hands down a moment for here is the similarity between this season and that one. Liverpool are struggling. Comparatively of course, but Liverpool are not so much a Big 4 team, more the Big 4th. Rotating away with Europe in mind, they never look likely to win the Championship but a healthy bank balance and Champions League year-in, year-out see them cementing 4th spot with annoying repetition. But is this the season when priorities in Europe undermine the very reason for being there?

There?s a blood thirsty pack after 4th spot and Liverpool are looking much like a flagging wildebeest. It could be supper time for a lucky other.

Everton qualified 4th back in 2005 but this was not the victory for those in favour of a meritocratic balance to the Premiership as one might have hoped. Liverpool flexed their G14 muscle and wheedled their way back in and just as hope was there for of the rest of us, we saw what the crux of this article is, Everton were escorted out of Europe in circumstances which were more suspicious than Mulder and Skully in Area 51. So are there dark processes afoot to make sure the status-quo remains? It wouldn?t surprise me in the least!

For those dark processes to be afoot you of course have to ask yourself: Why would there be? It was the reason for the Premier League coming into existence, it was the reason for the European Cup evolving into the Champions League, it was the soon to be defunct G14?s sole purpose to protect it and protect it for themselves; Money! Everything is about money. You got to get the money first. Then when you get the money you get the power. Then when you get the power, you get the women? oops, sorry, little off track there!

The FA is bringing untold riches into the league and their main selling point from the Asian cash cow is a reliance of the top four staying just that. Why continue with a failing Liverpool when you can simply change to Real Madrid instead? Said one Malaysian to a Chinaman. I?m sure Uefa don?t want the rather unsexy Blackburn playing midweek European football on TV sets in Asia when it could be the Reds either.

So with the ?Threatening Five? casting a shadow over the playground of the rich and infamous, what will the FA conspire to keep the hitherto milk and honey quartet?

The FA like to look whiter than white, and with BBC wishing to keep their last decent sporting rights on the channel and Every Sunday is Super Sunday on Sky, they get to do so with no questions asked TV coverage. But scratch beneath the surface and things get a little gray.

Diving is 90% the sole reserve of the Big 4. Ask anyone who they think are the biggest divers in the Premier League and the list of players and teams will be remarkably similar. And just how many extra points do these teams add to their final haul through this Machiavellian pursuit? Enough to keep them from looking over their shoulders at the chasing pack that?s for sure. And why do they do it? Because they keep getting away with it when other teams do not. We know the injustices that go in favour of the Big 4 compared to us little teams and the system doesn?t help either ? and isn?t supposed to.

In fact the disciplinary system is set up in a way that if a player has cheated by diving and the referee has wrongly interpreted this as foul, there are no laws post-match they can use to take action and it is considered done and dusted. How sweet for the FA! The FA could bring in post match TV evidence to stop this blatant cheating in an instant. They do not. The FA could easily bring in goal line technology as in rugby, or Hawk Eye as in cricket or tennis. They do not. That would of course be one step too close to bringing in post match TV evidence for the result effecting diving. Oh and why have a disputed goal settled accurately by precise technology when the refs can decide in the Big 4?s favour along with the diving that goes on as well?

Uefa are taking issue with match-fixing through betting syndicates, but surely diving and the inability to punish should be of the same imperative? It?s in-house and has more of a say on league standings than a million bets placed in the Far East. Platini?s desire to move away from an elitist form of football is all very well but all that has done is given England an extra qualifying round for the 4th place team and the G14 will from the 15th February expand to 100 clubs. Yet we know some will be more equal than others. It?s not in their interests either, so don?t expect change where the money is.

The system is set up to keep the top teams at the top; do not kid yourselves that we are not being manipulated into accepting this from the powers at be. How they must love it every time a rent-a-quote pundit says ?He should have been more clever and gone down there?. Conformity is a blessing for them.

If righteousness prevails, and Liverpool through football fail to qualify for the Champions League, with the upsurge in billionaire owners and quality teams below that of the Big 4 The FA will fear one thing happening to them:

The four minute mile was once considered impossible, couldn?t be done. For decades it was the barrier which showed the limit of human endurance. However, contrary to popular belief, in 1954 Roger Bannister cracked the 4 minute mile by 0.6 seconds. The impossible happened!

This however was not the only astonishing feat associated with this sporting milestone. By the end of the year ,16 sub-4-minute miles were recorded around the world. It wasn?t just the physical impossibility that had been conquered but the psychological barrier as well. Mentalities changed, the impossible was now just an achievable challenge. Is this what those in power fear? Where as Premier League?s bottom 16 knew their place, now the top four could be running scared that the private party may soon be over.

We are possibly entering into one of the most important eras of top flight football since it all kicked off in 1888. Does the Premier League stay the fruitful playground of the few, or will we see it get blown right open in the next few seasons and true competition returns to what was once a great sport to follow?

You may or may not agree with me but I ask one thing. Keep one eye on the circumstances surrounding the diving incidents and refereeing decisions with the Big 4 and especially Liverpool. Perhaps the disciplinary actions and reds and yellows awarded towards those below may be of interest. They will play a big part too.

And of course the Big 4 do not need to be involved with a game for this dark effect to come into practice, we saw with AJ?s goal on Saturday that referees can make decisions through nothing more than a whim or a fancy. But what do the media care for a disallowed goal between Blackburn and Everton?

When the final standings are settled come May, they might just show in some way that this is not too far from the truth.

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