Formula 1: Malaysia

As we look ahead to Sundays Malaysian Grand Prix it’s been a steady week in F1. The welcomed return of Fernando Alonso will add fire to the McLaren line up and Lewis Hamilton’s pole for the race is slightly overshadowed by torrential conditions going into Sunday.

Sebastian Vettal splits the two Mercedes drivers on the grid qualifying second, providing a welcomed change to the usual front two! The race will be hopefully given a lift now with a more competitive, less dominant outcome provided from Vettal’s Ferrari.

Other surprising grid starts see 17 year old Max Verstappen qualify sixth in only his second pro formula one race, a huge achievement for him and his team Toro Rosso, let’s see how he fairs in the race and we could see glimpses of a future talent in the sport.

The two Red Bull drivers are places fourth and fifth, still very much in the mix for Sunday’s race, but maybe a few places lower down the placings then would have hoped! Sunday’s race is the second of the season, with some unforeseen results from qualifying and terrible conditions in store we could be in for a few surprises in the race outcome, potential shaking up the dominant display we saw in Australia!!

 

March 28, 2015March 28, 2015 by dannykp27 Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

Corporate social responsibility examples: Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Besiktas

Having a look at Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) I was interested to find what a clubs approach towards it is and if clubs do it differently. I found research on 3 clubs in particular that I feel take CSR very seriously and carry it out very well, the 3 being Manchester Utd of England, Barcelona of Spain and Besiktas of Turkey.

Manchester United have become one of the biggest teams in the history of football since the clubs foundation in 1878, but along with winning trophies they have accomplished a lot in its local community and have set up the Manchester United Foundation to contribute to the local community and around the world.

The mission of the clubs CSR is to ‘’use the passion of Manchester United to educate, motivate and inspire young people to build a better life for themselves and improve the communities they live in’’ (Manchester United Foundation). They provide different schemes and programmes that work with people suffering from a disability, school etc. The Man Utd foundation has organized it CSR into three separate section, working with the local community, then the national organizations in the UK and then finally they work with their global partner UNICEF.

Barcelona are one of the most successful and profitable clubs in the world and works hard to confirm the clubs moto ‘‘More than a club’’, FC Barcelona’s mission is to promote ‘’solidarity, cultural and educational activities to enable the consolidation of the clubs commitment to being More than a club’’ (FC Barcelona foundation). The club build study centres, training educators and its own projects to promote education, they provide funding for research in the field of heart disease and muscle tendon pathologies. Barcelona also have launched charity programs with three agencies; UNICEF, UNESCO and UNCHER. The club carry out projects to benefit children all around the world not just in Catalonia or Spain.

Besiktas were the first Turkish sports club and along with having great success on the field with many league titles and other achievements, the club has success off the field by giving back to its community. Besiktas do CSR slightly differently than Man Utd and Barcelona as they don’t have a separate foundation, the mission of the club is to train well educated and well behaved athletes and managers to contribute to the success of the national team. So it could be debated that the CSR model of Besiktas is a lot more selfish than clubs like Man Utd and Bracelona. They do address social issues by giving help for education to young people and raising awareness for health but don’t have any foundation or even a department for CSR. Of course they don’t have the financial muscle and backing of other clubs but still, the club could look to help the countries less fortunate parts rather than helping the development of the future of the club and national team’s success on the field.

So from looking at these 3 clubs and their approach to CSR you can see they all make a difference to the people they are helping but to whom they are making a difference to changes and so each club has a slightly different view or understanding of CSR. One thing is for sure is that all clubs are aware that they use CSR to benefit the club long term.

 

March 25, 2015March 26, 2015 by dannykp27 Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

England Squad

England Squad

For the upcoming European qualifier against Lithuania and International friendly against Italy

Goalkeepers-

Robert Green, Joe Hart, Jack Butland

Defenders-

Nataniel Clyne, Leighton Baines, Kieran Gibbs, Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones

Midfielders-

Andros Townsend, Raheem Sterling, Ryan Mason, Michael Carrick, Theo Walcott, Ross Barkley, Fabian Delph, Jordan Henderson, James Milner

Forwards-

Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, Danny Welbeck

 

Looking at the England squad Roy Hodgson has picked for the upcoming internationals there are some names that have raised a few eyebrows. With two fixtures you would like to see the England manager experiment with a little, with one friendly and a home match against Lithuania, which granted is a European qualifying match and you can never be too careful but does our nation not have enough young talent to handle a team that are ranked 94^th in the world. That’s not to say that the squad is a bad one, it’s a very good squad just with the exception of one or two individuals that will be discussed in a moment.

The reputation of the England manager at the moment is starting to become that if you make the call up to the national team, you will stay there no matter what. There are plenty of English players in the premier league who are playing well and have missed out on making the team and will feel hard done by for it. Hodgson has had to make a few last minute call ups due to injuries, 2 of which have been in the goalkeeper positon, no one would have questioned the justified call ups of Foster and Forster but because of the injuries of these two Hodgson has looked elsewhere, but why Green and Butland. Robert Green, not a bad keeper but well past his prime and in matches where you’d like to see fresh faces it’s hard to see the logic in this choice. Jack Butland who does look a promising young keeper but he is yet to make an appearance so far this season and has yet to prove himself at the top level of the game. What must Tom Heaton be thinking, playing at top form throughout the season and has made some crucial saves in big matches, should he not be considered just because he plays for a team in the bottom 3.

In the defence of the team it’s the same names, in the position England needs most improving on why hasn’t Hodgson given the call up to someone like Ryan Shawcross? An experienced player who plays week in week out and to a very good standard, like Heaton is he just being refused a call up because of the team he plays for, I guarantee if Shawcross played for a team in the top 5 of the league he would have received a call up to England a long time ago. Another player who deserves a chance In the England set up is Ryan Bertrand, another player who is experienced enough, plays week in week out for the best defence in the league; he’s even played in a Champions League final. So when Luke Shaw was added to the injury list, Bertrand was surely the man to take his spot but instead it was given to Danny Rose an average player who isn’t exactly one for the future.

Why has Andros Townsend been given another call up, he isn’t good enough for his club and he’s not good enough for the England national team. It just goes to show that when you get in the England team you stay in the England team, there is no logic in choosing Townsend for the team and surely there’s plenty of young English talent that deserve a call up. Ryan Mason is a player that has had a mixed reception with the fans, I think it helps my point that Hodgson should pick different players and I think he should be given a chance and if he performs well then he could change people’s opinions.

I can’t disagree with the choice of forwards, although why only 3? With so many midfielders perhaps players like Ings and Austin should be called up to the England set up as they have both proven they can score calls at the highest level of the game. The chances of Kane starting the game were pretty good but now with Sturridge out he looks an absolute certainty to start both games.

March 24, 2015March 25, 2015 by dannykp27 Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

UEFA Champions League Quarter – Finals

The draw for the next round of the UEFA Champions League was today and it has provided us with some exciting games to look forward to.

• Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid
• Barcelona vs. PSG
• Porto vs. Bayer Munich
• Juventus vs. AS Monaco

Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid

The most eye catching tie of them all would be the Madrid derby, both teams making it through to this round narrowly with Atletico winning on penalties to Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid surviving a scare to Schalke. The bragging rights between these two huge rivals have become a lot more balanced in recent times but perhaps Real won the war last year when these two met in the final of this competition, and after coming within a few seconds of being European champions themselves, Atletico will want their revenge because despite having such a great season in winning the league and reaching the final, to have lost it in the manner they did must have hurt badly.

Atletico winning the tie might potentially but the final nail in the coffin for Ancelotti after coming down with a lot of criticism from the fans and media with the way they lost at home to Schalke and struggling to keep up with Barcelona domestically, so if Ancelotti were to end the season without any silverware he may be saying goodbye to the club.

From a neutrals perspective this should be a great tie, two teams that play great football and are exciting to watch. Atletico not quite the team they were last season but still with great quality in their side and for Real Madrid, well they are the defending champions and won’t want to give up that honour especially to their city rivals. I think both teams will win their home legs it’s just a case of who does it better.

 

Barcelona vs. PSG

These two teams must be getting sick of each other, meeting in the group stage earlier this season with both respectively winning at their home ground and the season before last when they met in the same round in which Barcelona would come out of the tie victorious. A game that on paper Barcelona should win what with PSG having two key figures of Ibrahimovic and Veratti out for the first leg, PSG still have a good team without the two but without the physical structure of Zlatan upfront PSG will have to find other ways of scoring goals which is easier said than done. Could struggle defensively as well for the French champions as the English public have all come to know what David Luiz is like, in fact the world probably knows by now after the World Cup. The saving grace for that is his buddy next to him is the world’s best centre back at this moment in time, that being Thiago Silva but is Luiz too much of a liability coming up against the most dangerous forward line in the world.

Keep in mind also Barcelona are going for the treble this season and in the form they’re in its hard to see them not coming through with all the silverware. Being top of the League with a chance to have one hand on the trophy this weekend against Real Madrid, and in the final of the Copa Del Rey against an average side of Bilbao which you can only really see one winner in.

 

Porto vs. Bayern Munich

Porto have been the dark horses in this competition so far and if they can cause a shock in knocking out Bayern Munich it will make a lot of people look up and notice them. Even though they haven’t exactly had the toughest of times in this year’s Champions League, having been drawn in an easy group and then having drawn everyone’s wanted tie of Basel for the Knockout Stages they still have a very good squad, as Porto usually do, when it comes to business there aren’t too many better than Porto. However that doesn’t really help them so much on the pitch and for a long time now Porto only seem to get so far in this competition so making it to the final 8 will be seen as a successful campaign for them. To state the obvious a home win in this tie might be the only way to see them having a chance in going through, if they can do that then shut up short for the away leg then who knows.

Bayern Munich are another team in the competition that are looking at a treble, with a predictable huge lead in the Bundesliga and will meet Leverkusen in the quarter- finals of the Deutscher Pokal so it’s hard to see them get complacent and slip up. The only German side left in are looking at their 4^th semi-final in 5 years and despite a bad exit to the competition last year they are still just as powerful as they were when they won the competition 2 seasons ago, even if they may no longer be regarded as the best team in the world.

 

Juventus vs. AS Monaco

Juventus are a team that have not been noticed by many people this season, maybe because they haven’t faced any English team or Real Madrid or Barcelona and so haven’t really had that much attention, perhaps they like it that way. The last number of seasons they’ve have won the Italian league without having to check their shoulder and so will surely be looking to better themselves for a good run in Europe and establishing themselves as an elite team amongst others. And they couldn’t have been handed a better chance to do that.

With all due respect to Monaco, they are very well organised and for a team with a lot of young players and good financial muscle they probably will become a very good side but for the moment they’re just nothing special. Hell got a little bit colder when they scored 3 goals away to Arsenal almost equalling the amount of goals they scored in the whole of the group stage(they scored 4 goals in the group stage) the saving grace to that being they don’t concede many; they do have one of the best defences in Europe. However as we saw in the second leg against Arsenal, if you can dominate play and pound them on the attack you’ll eventually find your way through on goal, just be careful against the counter attack.

 

 

March 20, 2015March 21, 2015 by dannykp27 Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment