26 floors, Fireworks and it's all about the Refs (again)

Happy New Year! I saw the bells in with some fireworks and 26 floors above Barcelona so it was a great start to the year. Well not so happy now (let us get the bad stuff done early on I say), a Raith defeat and my washing machine has just unloaded onto the neighbours below! 

It seems to come round every year, a bit like the recent festive period, referees and their deision making. Did it cross the line, was it a penalty, should It have been a card the list could go on. 

This time round I have decided to give you a a mix a letters and paella.

This first serving of Paella and Bovril is an old one but still a fresh topic. 
The second is just a wee observation. 


Enjoy!

PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TEAM AND IT"S MATCH DAY PROGRAMME 

Letters from Barcelona

You cannot escape it, Christmas time is here again! I know it is only November but here in Barcelona the Christmas lights are up and shops are full of decorations and yummy treats. As for many people Christmas is one of my busy times at work so I have been working late in the office over the past few weeks. My iPod keeps me company and as well as being able to listen to the music I want, I like catching up on Scottish football podcasts. Everyone is talking referees!

Now as a football fan I have done it, as I am sure many of you have, blamed the ref for something, called him a nasty name, maybe even advised him to go a see an eye specialist. But can one person, with three widely spaced assistants get it right every time?  Can we afford mistakes to be made that cost teams dearly?

My partner is an American football fan and watches a few games a week.  I must admit I find it very hard to follow with all it’s stopping and starting, but I am getting into it a little more as time goes on. After asking a lot of questions “why do they do this” and “why are they doing that,” questions I noticed there was an abundance of men in black and white stripes.

At a professional level it has 1 main referee and six other officials on the pitch, a referee, head linesman, line judge, umpire, back judge, side judge, and field judge and in some games in 2010 they experimented in some games with an eighth officials.  Why so many referees, surely this means they can see everything! Nope, they even have the cameras and video replays available to the ref during the match.  Eyes are everywhere! But only at the top level!

In 2006 tennis introduced ‘hawk eye’ to the Grand Slam circuit at the US open. Allowing players to challenge twice during the match the decision of the officials.  It has been used widely in other sports since tennis made it famous, but it does have it problems. Scotland’s own Andy Murray had to apologise to another player as hawk eye called a ball in when the replay shown it clearly out.

Can Football Associations decide what match is more important than another and deserves the extra eyes and is it time to risk bringing football into the 21^st century and use the wide variety of the almost flawless technology available? Maybe we should just leave it as it is and enjoy the thrill of the “what if “ factor? It gives us plenty to talk about on the way home after a match. 

Now for some Paella.

  Paella and Bovril

So here we are at the end of another festive period and at the start of a new year! Here in Barcelona we still have a few days of festive fun before we take down the decorations, as here in Spain the big present day is Jan the 6^th. Parents out there be thankful as a Catalan kid you can have up to three present giving days, Cagatió (a log that you feed over the month of December then on Christmas eve you cover this log with a blanket and hit it with a stick until it poops, yes poops, presents), good old Papa Noel and then in January we have los tres Reyes, the three Kings.  In the past years the shops have been pretty slow off the mark with the bombardment of presents giving ideas, however this year I think they have been taking a tip from the sports channels!

Sports channels? Oh yes the recent el clasico was “bigger than Christmas”! It was everywhere you looked. For a solid two weeks at least, constant ads on most of the channels as it was live on more than 4 of the “council” tele channels. Sides of buses were reminding you in larger than life letters the date, channel (one of the many), time and of course a massive picture of Messi and Ronaldo. This was the clash of the Titans.  Reporters were swarming around Camp Nou and Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. The media were in a laughable frenzy, pouncing on every press conference. Any sneeze, eye twitch, statement from Pep Guardiola or Jose Mouhrino was analyzed, scrutinized, tweeted and Facebooked!  If you lived in Barcelona and was not aware of this wee match then you must have been living in another world.  It got quite comical in the end! It got so comical that the top sport comedy program Crackovia (very like “Only an Excuse”) made a great running sketch that summed it up! The match the Saturday before the “big one” for Barca was against Levante UD.  But watching/listening to that match you would think that Barca were playing Madrid every blimin week!  All the reporters post match were asking Pep only about the Madrid match, is was like the Levante match had not even happened.  The comedy show portrayed it in the best way, they had “reporter” in every sketch going “pep pep what about Madrid what about Mourhino” . No matter what the sketch was about they had to have the “reporter”! It was spot on.

Now I loved watching Barca play and was cheering a wee bit when the ball went over the line, but if I am truly honest I was glad the match had finally started as this meant that, depending on the result, I would only be subjected to a few more days of post match gaggle of reporting.  Not quiet the same as pre-match build up to a Raith Rovers match, nor do we have a DVD special ready for Christmas with our win against Partick Thistle! The “wee” teams have to rely on themselves to get the fans going. Like the poster campaign from the club. I love it! You can bring a little bit of home to the office!

So please next time you think the club could be doing better maybe you can help in a small way, print off a poster and put it up with pride, you never know you might get a few more bums on seats! Let us let everyone know that their club is playing at the weekend and have everyone talking about out. What is good enough for Barcelona is good enough for Raith.

For posters please check out: http://www.raithroversfc.com

Remember: You must get permission before putting posters anywhere public.

Oh PS Before I forget, Bon Any Nou from here in Barcelona and I hope to be back at Stark’s Park in the year to come.