Burton v Barrow... Live Streaming of the Blue Square

having suffered a 24 blackout last friday, i was unable to find out whether or not i could access the streaming audio commentary of the last cambridge united match; but today, i have found what i was looking for: a blue square broadcast on BBC local derby radio in the likes of burton albion v barrow. unlike as with league games, this match (meaning this would be true of other conference matches as well) is not indicated as having any geographical restrictions (for example: available to UK users only) as it does with all league games. despite the fact that there is a setanta stage-manager giving the ref the ok to kick-off; this informs me of a glaring inequity that needs to be pointed out, not just to the general public, but this should be of interest and concern to the chairman of any club that plays in the football league, especially those in the lower leagues. although it might not mean much to the chairman of chelsea or man. united, but if i were the chairman of brentford f.c. - i would be livid about the current situation.



what this means, is that in some ways, there are now, obvious potential advantages - strengthened by a huge shift in the nature of "broadcasting" since the outset of the digital information age, the internet and the use of the home computer as a common experience - to playing in the blue square than there would be playing in leagues 1 or 2. of course, old and established businesses - especially those that are involved in sports and entertainment, where the commodity is actually information and its subsequent transmission(s) to an audience - have been slow to pick up on the potentials, and are usually hostile, either directly or indirectly through corporate association - to the ease with which information can now be transmitted, and very often work on limiting these new potentials rather than encourage them.

surely though, it can only be a matter of time before someone, somewhere makes the realization of what the capabilities of the internet are in terms of how and to whom it could be advantageous. if for example - you are a blue square premier team and were free to stream whatever you wanted through your website - or worked out a licensing deal with the BBC to stream your home games, you could then use all the conventional localized methods of online promotion by posting links and providing information (forums, groups, emails, profile sites etc.) to let people know who you are and what you're doing. i would suggest that this would create a new international market for blue square football, which would, in turn, create and increase the value of its advertising space. i would suggest as well, that any professional football is going to be of relative interest to football fans. the more hardcore a fan... all the better. of course, there is the natural assumption as to what level of interest people are ever going to take in lower league football, but these assumptions are based on the pre-digital world and the effect of television, and the contemporary film, radio and journalism of the TV era - and made by those who historically and psychologically came under its influence. in a world where diversity has become the norm - and while new TV and radio stations, websites and the like, create the opportunity every day for more general access to information than has ever been possible before, there is a large cross-section of the population who will want to "localize" their experiences and take advantage of the potential of this diversity, and might much rather follow burton albion than simply be fed more manchester united and chelsea.



depending on the extent of control that a club has over its own broadcast and streaming rights, there are probably already small, localized markets forming around this very idea and many more small potential markets where followings for teams like cambridge or oxford united, rushden and diamonds, burton albion or kidderminster to work in and develop. as i said, i'm not sure how far this is able to extend - but to have the same opportunities denied to brentford f.c., crewe alexandra, accrington stanley, swansea or leyton orient serves no purpose than to put limits on that which might develop. i doubt that anybody at the FA has thought an awful lot about this, other than to have a knee-jerk reaction concerning control over their content, and all the negative aspects of the internet and the digital information age. that is why every single club in the football leaugue from manchester united right down to bournemouth and luton town have had DRM forced upon them by english football's governing body. the sad thing is, i doubt that anyone who is actually hindered by this has given it much thought, or regarded it as anything more than standard and necessary corporate protocol and procedure. the present situation does absolutely nothing, except devalue the potentials of all these cookie-cutter websites; which, and in turn, plays its part in maintaining the status quo on all levels, cultural and economic.

that is why, if i were the chairman of any club in leagues 1 or 2, i would want to lift the restrictions on streaming their radio broadcasts over the internet - and i would be trying to convince any other chairman in these divisions of my conclusions and start trying to have a dialogue about what to do. i don't know how it works, but here in canada there is only one sentanta broadcast, and this year they seem to have pretty much a monopoly on english games - aside from the once a week TSN and Sportsnet broadcasts of premier league games; which, themselves are licensed from - you guessed it - sentanta sports. last year i remember watching the steel-city derby (at hillsborough) on FOX sportsworld, as well as the first luton v liverpool FA cup tie. there were a few other broadcasts - especially FA cup games - that were on FOX, but this year... nothing. it's all italian and south american football.



i don't know to what extent setanta is involved in limiting live football streams on the internet, because if you try and connect to one of the "blocked" streams on the BBC, you will get a pre-recorded advertisment that runs over and over, beginning with a female voice announcing that: "due to contractual obligations we are unable to bring you the current broadcast event..."

i hope the chairman of leyton orient or brentford f.c. wakes up one day and sees how they're being scammed, and the future - if allowed to happen - is to their benefit, and probably to the benefit of everyone outside the premier league. the past always tries to exert control over the future - which means "the present".

as a baggies supporter - and as some of my previous blogs will attest - this issue affects me quite often, as this year is only our 4th premier league campaign and i have spent many years following other teams, like sheffield wednesday in the 1990s, because living outside the UK, i simply could not keep in touch with what the baggies were doing, being relegated to nothing more than a simple box-score in the newspaper. in fact, i have only just recently - and by virtue of people posting video, articles and images on the internet - begun to catch up on how the baggies fared, who were the heroes, and what were the great games between 1986 and 2001 when they left my life and disappeared into the 2nd then 3rd division... but tomorrow, i got no worries. after all, we're playing manchester united - and they're always on TV whenever they play. but it does cost me an extra $25 per month to see all the premier league fixtures every week, and in the world of TV there is no choice - everything is mainstream and contrary to the world of digital information, which is why big, powerful corporate entities have an interest in keeping us ignorant as to the potentials, and strive to keep computers and the internet from doing their natural work. i mean, $25 for what, in the long run, just amounts to more chelsea and manchester united?!?!

C'MON YOU BAGGIES!!!!!!!

WBA 2-2 Burnley

it was again the regular story of searching out a medium by which to follow the match. i ended up with the doncaster/villa game on TV, the kettering/fulham match on 5live radio online, and - as usual - i had to use the BBC text report for the baggies match.

there is only one thing that i can really remark on, and that is that for the balance of the match the albion held the majority of possesion time by roughly a 55-45% ratio. that statisic changed in favour of burnley towards the end of the match (last 10-12 minutes, or so), and that is when burnley scored the equalizer. i don't know how to assess this - and as a baggies supporter i've seen too much of this this season, with the manchester city game being the only case in which they were able to shrug it off and score the goal they needed to win. to say that this is a problem is an understatement. it has been the bane of their season... the biggest problem; but then, by all accounts i've seen or heard, the west brom counter attack was looking good in the last few minutes of the match today, and it sounds rather like everyone was much more expecting a third albion goal rather than a burnley equalizer - and bednar came close to closing the game down when he hit the post with about a half hour left; so i guess i can't really criticize too much in this particular case... but what a drag! being so close and now... what could be a tough replay away to the clarets!



i have to applaud tony mowbray for fielding nothing less than what would be his first team in any given situation. they may still be doing this the hard way - i mean, who would want to add an extra fixture to the list when you are firmly embroiled in a relegation battle with 6 or 7 other teams? so, whatever profligate defending led to the goal, it is certainly the least desirable of any potential outcome - and considering the albion's present status in the league standings - possibly including getting knocked out of the cup. in short, the baggies are forced - and for the immediate future anyway - to keep on trying to advance in the cup. i'm proud to say that unlike some of the other teams who find themselves in the same situation, the baggies are trying to win their cup games! i had a chance (of course) to see the manchester united/spurs match, and the first goal aside, i've never seen anybody so obviously standing around waiting to lose a match as i did tottenham today. it was almost embarrassing to watch, and harry redknapp didn't care. his mind is firmly set on avoiding relegation - if he can win a cup tie on the day - ok - but otherwise, who cares?!?! back to the office monday morning...



this is completely different than the last round against peterborough. burnley have great supporters, and i imagine that turf moor can be quite an intimidating little ground; but, i'm sure the baggies will win the replay simply by jogging their memories and recalling what level of professional football they are routinely capable of, and then follow through accordingly. one of the trends of the FA cup is that the atmosphere of the cup ties is diminished from what it used to be in the bigger parks. this tends to favour the lower league teams playing premiership opposition away from home; and favour the bigger teams when they play at the smaller teams park, where there's a nice atmosphere and they can relax and go about the day's business.

scott carson makes game winning saves - and has some of the surest hands in the premier league, but, he has too often been victimized by his defenders. i still haven't seen any match reports or video highlights, so i don't know what the circumstance of the equalizing goal was, but it was clear from the text commentary that anything that the albion were achieving through their counter-attack was not enough against what was beginning to appear also, as relentless burnley pressure.



you'd think that after 40 years or so, they'd get the message that you don't win by defending a lead if you are primarily an attacking team. you win by keeping possession of the ball and not giving the opposition any chances. the baggies would have won at least more 6 or 7 more games in all competitions had they tactically followed this formula. i mean, they don't give up losing goals late on - in fact, i can only remember the single case of losing a match to wigan near the end - but, they give up 1 goal leads late on routinely.

there is an irony here, in that defense has always been a problem for west bromwich albion. even the great teams of the 60s and 70s (with the exception of a brief run of clean sheets in 1978) were all susceptible at the back, with the goalie always needing to be good and having to possess a little bit extra intensity than might be otherwise necessary for another club. obviously a character ilke john osbourne comes to mind. for example, when albion beat chelsea in the 6th round of the FA cup in 1969 - it was tony brown and astle who scored, but it was john osbourne who won the game.




no doubt that the baggies will be thinking about nicking a point at home against man. u. on tuesday - an important goal for their premiership aspirations. with premiership survival having, unfortunately, become more valuable than an FA cup win, i can see this being a distraction and i imagine this may have influenced their play towards the end of the game, thinking that they could win the game through defending and possibly drawing the clarets forward enough to hit back on the counter would be enough of a tactic to win. unfortunately, once again, it did not work for the baggies - and it seems like a tendency that has become ingrained in the team's character. having said that, and seeing how obvious it is, i just wish they'd cut it out!

Nothing Goes Deeper than Football

well, in my search for information on how english football broadcasting, licensing, copyrighting etc. is allowed to work in the 21st century, where digital information - or at least, the digital information process is involved now in the creation and/or dissemination of just about all media - and here i am again, living in this age of miracle and wonder and having to resort to following the west brom match on the BBC live text report. the interesting thing is that i managed to get the Chelea/Stoke match on 5live - which i think informs me (along with the 5live broadcast of hull/arsenal match, which was also available to me, as well being broadcast live on sentanta canada tv) that as long as the match is broadcast on television, it's ok to let the online stream go international, even though it will still always say: available to UK users only. but with local broadcasts, or in the case of something that doesn't have significant and/or live initial tv broadcast, the stream becomes unavailable to users outside the UK. obviously this has something to do with television broadcasters considering that online streaming audio commentary isn't significantly competitive with the foxsport or setanta markets.

this isn't a hit and miss proposition here - even though, there are aspects to it that seem possibly arbitrary and backwards to what is obvious to anyone who has understood the nature of digital media and how it works. especially, in this case of digital audio and/or video media; in that - and provided you wish to share the content in the first place - it is naturally more efficient and simpler to release the information in a way that is accessible to anyone and everyone who knows it's there, rather than try to limit who can access it. that is the nature of digital media: as long as you know where it is and have all the appropriate plugins, permissions for your browser, and the site password (in the case of a secure encrypted website) you should be able to download it. to use DRM (digital restrictions management) means that some part of the process (possibly the encoding of the file itself) has been rendered so that it no longer behaves in a way that is actually natural or basic for digital information.





a porn site - for example - doesn't necessarily do anything to their content besides editing, attaching some text indicating proprietary rights (domain name and/or licensing/copyright indications) in some corner of the frame and then post the video for download to site members; along - very often - with a photo gallery of the shoot. with a basic setup like this - all that is required is the creation of a secure site that cannot be accessed except by members using an encrypted and secure password. the only other thing that porn/erotica sites have traditonally done, is use a particular proprietary format as a preferred choice of actual media - or you might find a choice of 1 of 2 formats (realplayer or windows media, for example); both of which might only play on a computer, and might require re-encoding to play on dvd player, for example. although, it used to be common for commercial sites to use realplayer and have everything encoded as realplayer media - which was one of the first companies to use a DRM where the media was intended to be viewed as an embedded, non-downloading file. the trouble with this set up, is that copies of an open document (i.e. a webpage with embedded video document) might be in your temporary files and can be copied to a hard-drive. i know that this is true of flashplayer. all you need to do in order to copy an embedded flash object, is to locate it in your temporary files and copy it to hard disk and rename it to have .flv as the extension. it is possible - although the results can vary depending on the quality of the original file.

although there is no rule to this, and all individual situations deal with it differently. the trouble with this is that as soon as a user has downloaded the content - and while it might not be strictly legal - it is then possible to share this information with someone else, allowing them to download the content now from you. this is in the nature of digital media: it copies easily without loss of quality. DRM is realatively new - and to do what it does (although i actually know very little about it and it must work/depend on specific encoding of the information)... it is, at very least, an extra process that is intrusive and interferes with the nature of the media, in order to further exert controls over the aforementioned media and its content.

now what i don't understand is how does this control benefit anybody? when is it in someone's actual financial interests to take pains to control the copying of the media? certainly, professional sports, by the nature of its organization and very quickly changing relevance of information would have seem to have less need to protect their information once it has passed into its second stage of "old news", rather than more.

so, how many people are going to join the manchester united website as a premium user, in order to watch/listen to a stream that is going to be on tv anyway? what i think is weird, is that while i can understand a porn site wanting to control their content - and certainly more so than a sporting event, whose relevent cultural lifespan as actual active, sellable product is diminished in salable worth by the time of the next game. so, less restriction on internet streaming of major league sport events would seem to be the preferable norm: the advertising space of the site(s) would increase exponentially on every level, in terms of the worth of their advertising space... and maybe that's really why they would want to control that what for them amounts to nothing more than doing things in the fashion of a nickel and dime porn site...

and that maintains the status quo. whether by design or deeply, collectively and subconsciously psychological sustaining of the the thing, that's what it is. as long as the team websites don't do that much business, and appear as shady little nickel and dime internet operations that a computer savvy supporter uses to order his season tickets - or whatever... but is never thought of a potential source of revenue by, say making live audio commentary free to any user who wants to access it - or better yet - a streaming videocast!!! there's no argument that the advertising space would become worth a lot of money - not to mention current television broadcast deals - if they were to do so. how powerful could media be if it was allowed to do its job, and people were content to let it do so and learn to live and work in a changed and changing world, forever forcing into new situations and constantly demanding the creation of more art... more content... no one has a clue how upsetting this could all be. but it is true, that the past always exerts, and endevours to control the future - which is to say "the present", and we are all subject to its tyrannies to whatever degree they are generally allowed. people have a hard time imagining the future, because it will require new variations on philosophy, ethics, work, cultural value...

the BBC local stoke commentator was literally in tears this afternoon as chelsea scored a late equalizer, and then deep deep into injury time they scored the winner. he was choked up, not so much at the immediate idea of the game having ended 2-1. it was the feeling that an effort that deserved to be recognized as a real acheivment in terms of footballing and nothing else - and the brilliance, hard work, determination, and character of stoke city's play today will just disappear into the history books as another chelsea win...

and nothing goes deeper than football.

online pornography has been dealing with issue of maintaining control of copyright (distribution) of its material for a lot longer than other information industries content focus. their early solution was to just keep creating new content on a regular basis in order to keep their audience joining and re-joining; thus, paying for the services and then not bothering to - or even figuring out that they often have to - as very often membership to a site will be automatically recurring - cancel. while not a wholly satisfactory method of control, it was inventive, and required that the work be continuous - no matter how it evolves, and since porn (let's expand to include the term "erotica" as well; since i don't define something as porn unless there is actual penetration) and erotica, there will always be a niche interest in what you are doing, and will attract those who follow whatever your "subject" or "fetish" is, controlling the content to create the incentive to join is as useful to a pornographer as it is to disney and whatever puke they are presently putting out or gaining control of.

to join a premiumtv website costs about $80 a year. cheaper than joining a porn/erotica site, but more than something that should be free is worth... and the fact that you are forced to using unethical and intrusive software is so galling; and assures that i will never join and as far as the content goes, i will dedicate myself to "stealing" whatever i can... extending a big "FUCK YOU" to the premier-league and football association.

it didn't appear, from anywhere that i looked - that there was a television broadcast of the west brom/middlesborough game, at all. in which case, we would be into the proprietary copyright territory of the teams' website and DRM content. i won't go into this now...

it's many hours later and i eventually manged to see the match at 1.45 in the morning. after the week's TV schedule had been posted, i realized my only chance of seeing the game otherwise, would be on a repeat this coming tuesday at 4.30 AM...

WBA 3-0 Middlesborough

of course, i knew that we were going to win this one and was more than i could have expected. from where i was sitting it looked absolutely brilliant, save for the unusual amount of time the 'boro were allowed on the ball, which was pretty much a 45-55 split in the possession time. it was just as i had said: the baggies are going to have to look their midfield and stop all the excess discussion around the supporters about lacking strikers. brunt and koren could not have picked a better time to put some fire in the midfield attack, what with bednar out of the line-up on a suspension acquired through yellow-cards, and morrison out with the recurring hamstring problem. the makeshift defense played better than any backline has yet this season for the albion. the wins and clean sheets are finally coming, i think; and this team - especially after the acquisitions of the last few days - is a strong enough team to drag us up out of the relegation zone inside of the next four or five weeks. only they can answer if they can find the character; which the albion showed a tremendous amount in winning such an important match by such an emphatic margin.

i would suggest that that is something that has to be credit to the baggies, as there has not been, at any time, any negativity emanating from the team as represented by tony mowbray. we'll have a while, i feel, to assess what level of a manager that he can become and what zenith he might reach, as it feels like his job is safe for a few years and he'll have time to see his projects through. i think the club would be stupid not to allow him so. he has most recently - and aside from good the management that won the 4 out of the last 6 matches - he has also been a positive and intelligent spokesman for the team when they were going through a hard time, and i think he did it quite stylishly and realistically. that made us all feel better, and that we could hold our heads high at the level of footballing we were capable of, and are now learning to translate this into premier leaque successes.

so i guess, that koren is the man to play up front and get more involved in the attack, where i have been calling for greening to play further up front in attack. i really don't care who it is, but this albion team wasn't going to go anywhere until they figured out this business with the strikers and goal-scoring in general. up front, anyway, this is going to be the way they'll have to play for the rest of the season.

Peterborough United 0-2 WBA

it was much as i suspected and i had to follow this one on the BBC live text report. i watched the bristol city v. portsmouth match on sentanta - and to my surprise, i was able to listen to the histon v. swansea match through BBC radio online on cambridgeshire local. in the light of my last blog, i was surprised by this, as i realized that the restrictions on league teams as to what can be broadcast or streamed, did not necessarily extend to non-league teams. to what extent this goes, i'm not sure; but, i am going to further explore by seeing if i can access the stream of the next cambridge united - or some other blue square teams' home matches. we shall see what we shall see... torquay and wrexham is my target for tomorrow.

anyway, i can't say that i can make any judgments about the play, but the numbers looked good and a 2-0 win is only 1 goal short of the 3-0 result that i wanted... the best news was that jay simpson scored his first goal; and after the promising play he has shown in the games in which he has participated, i had a real sense of renewed hope, especially after the unfortunate loss to aston villa on the weekend. which was another tight one that we could have won with less mistake at the back, and more incision up front. but tony mowbray has been doing some pretty fair wheeling and dealing in the loans market in the last few days, and rearmed now with a full complement of strikers finally, there is every reason for there to be a positive feeling about the rest of the season today.

i have to say that about the albion this year: they have distinguished themselves by not getting into a panic and think about firing the manager rather than face life in the championship again (as some clubs in the premiership are starting to do). i hope the baggies realize that this gives them a potentially huge psychological advantage in matches with premiership clubs that literally can't afford relegation. blackburn springs immediately to mind, for one...

in fact, and although hardly out of the woods, but with jay simpson and luke moore having opened their scoring accounts, and both looking useful with bednar coming into form, we may just yet have a team that can avoid the need for a dramatic "great escape" scenario by pulling us up out of the drop-zone well before the last two months of the season. of course, i think this weekend against middlesborough will be the start of where it's determined whether we're going to have to do this the hard way or not - as there won't be that many opportunities to gain what is essentially a 6 point turnaround from a single victory, like this one. also, we will know more about what the actual form of the team is likely to be over the next month or so, and see if the strikers and other scorers can continue to find form. a win will go a long way to determining this, and i'm fully expecting it based on our first match against middlesborough. despite the lack of miller, i think we are probably a better team right now than we were when we beat them way back in october, and the outcome of this match will say much about the albion's character.

The FA Cup

i saw a post earlier last week, on BBC 606, that suggested we send out a second team and allow peterborough to beat us, so we could have the club concentrate on the premier league. it goes to show where people's heads are at these days; but as a baggies supporter who cares deeply about the history of the club, i found this absolutely appalling. i hope above anything that the albion can put together a decent cup run. success in one competition can sometime stimulate confidence in others - and just personally speaking - wouldn't an FA cup win - and it's not beyond this present albion line-up (portsmouth certainly proved that last year) or at least a finals appearance, go a long way to take to the sting out of a misery, if, for example, worse came to worse and we were relegated? also, and unlike some of the other clubs in the premier league - the albion should always put their utmost effort into winning the FA cup, because, after all, what are west bromwich albion famous for? with only one league title ever - which they won about 120 years ago - west bromwich albion is famous for their 5 FA cup wins out of 10 finals appearances - as well as their overall 20 appearances in FA cup semi-finals. they still rank as the fifth most successful cup team of all time, and i believe rank number three all-time in FA cup semi-final appearances. it might make us a bit of an anachronism - but not to go full-out for FA cup victory would be to turn our backs on our very history and the source of our greatest fame. i mean, last year - if they had managed to get past portsmouth in the semis - i have no doubt that they would have gone on to win the rarest of doubles, managed only once before (by the baggies of 1931): a second division (in this case "championship") title coupled with an FA cup final win.

my feelings on the matter (and to hell with the premier league for just a moment) is that the less we put into the cup, the less we are west bromwich albion. time and tide may change perspectives and diminish the value of a particular competition. indeed, manchester united fans expect a routine league/FA cup double, rather than look on it as a special achievement - as it used to be a near impossible thing to do. in fact, my first exposure to english football, was the CBC broadcast of the 1971 arsenal-liverpool final. it was a big deal that arsenal had not only manages to become the firs team to create a come from behind victory in extra-time; but more importantly, managed to win the "double" for only the second time in the 20th century. it was historical... and the FA cup was the show-piece. winning the league was all very important because of what it meant in practical terms and is the true foundation of a successful run in the european competitions; but to win the FA cup was the struggle to be champion whose glory was evident, palpable and resplendent. it was the true show... the highlight of the year, as well as the year's most important memory. who won the FA cup? that was the measure of the year. it wasn't until the european competitions - through television - became so important that the perception shifted and the premier league title became of paramount importance. in 1976 liverpool may have won the league, but it's southampton winning the FA cup that we all remember.

Tyranny of the Corporate Mainstream

it is difficult and requires more than a little imagination to remain a west bromwich albion supporter and live outside the UK; or any of the other territories where access to the broadcasts (radio, TV or online streaming) of the football league (championship, league 1 and 2) is either limited or simply not accessible. you can apply this to any team that plays outside the premiership, or often finds itself playing outside the premiership.

while the baggies are currently playing in the premiership, it has been a struggle and truthfully, not much fun. and purely from a pragmatic viewpoint - it is likely as not that the albion will be relegated back to the championship at the end of this season. it is a stark contrast to last year's championship league winners, who were the highest scoring team in the country in any division, made it to their 20th FA cup semi-final, and were tremendously entertaining. trouble was... i didn't get to see much of it, because there are very few football league (championship, leagues 1 and 2) matches broadcast where i live, and the local BBC radio streams - that provide live commentary of a team's home matches and are all available online through the BBC website - are inaccessible to non-UK users "due to contractual obligations".

the other alternative of keeping up with a team in the lower divisions is to use the official team websites - which are all setup by a company called "premium tv", which uses a basic template (so all the websites look the same) , and (presumably) supplies support for the sites - where for a yearly fee you can join as a "premium user" and thence can access streaming media (both audio and visual) through the site. the trouble is that the content on these websites uses DRM (digital restrictions management) to limit and/or otherwise control the copying and/or sharing of the information. DRM requires the use of a microsoft operating systems and further requires accessing these sites using microsoft internet explorer (MAC and FOSS software users are defacto denied access to the content). anyone who understands the nature of digital media should recognize at once how unethical and plain wrong on just so many levels this is, that i wouldn't know where to begin. for one thing, it works completely against and interferes with the constitutional nature of what digital media actually is and how it works!!! DRM is an intrusive function that works to limit the natural capabilities and characteristics of digital media - in other words: it is a process that performs nothing but negative functions - in that it works to "stop" or "limit" something happening rather than help to "facilitate" what is its nature, or to help it work better - and on a more insidious and larger scale it is another attempt to control the computer user and force them to use particular and specific microsoft products, re-inforcing and colluding mindlessly in the neo-criminal monopoly of microsoft on PC computers. by all means, go ahead and join your favourite team's website, and use it for whatever worth you find in it - buy a shirt, order tickets, download photos and read articles but DON'T join as a premium member and give them any money. if people stop giving them money, they will have to stop asking for it and give us what they should be in the first place. unless you just want to keep creating more and more manchester united supporters. the only thing that restrictions on allowing international users access to live audio commentary of local matches in the UK does is re-inforce the status quo and keep the system that has created unfortunate situations like the "big 4" to perpetuate. it does nothing for brentford football club, or cambridge united who would be the kinds of organizations that would benefit immensely from the free international access to audio commentary and/or video broadcasts - as this would allow for them, just as with manchester united or liverpool to become known around the world - albeit, most probably, on a somewhat smaller scale.


while i have less of a problem with the idea of paying a membership fee in order to access content; after all, i would do the same with a website that dealt in pornography or erotica that might interest me - but, surely membership fees for professional football online that isn't even remotely ethical by virtue of the use of DRM - couldn't possibly be worth anything near what the potential advertising revenues that would be created by streaming the matches for free - at least as audio commentary, which we should probably be getting from local BBC stations online anyway. the difference is, that with pornography/erotica, the websites depend on membership fees as their main source of revenue. i'd be curious to see what they offer as content, but i am completely opposed to DRM (and closed information in general) i have no intention to start using windows again now - i haven't had microsoft on one of my computers in over 2 years, and the computer that i am running at the moment was purchased new, and has never had any microsoft product installed on it.

english football in canada is broadcast starting with basic cable. in that, a regular, no-frills, cable TV service will get you 3 or 4 live premier league games a week, over the course of the saturday and sunday. there are two networks: TSN (canadian affiliate of ESPN), and SportsNet, who must license and cross-license with the likes of skysports and setanta for their broadcast content. these are, more often than not, matches featuring the "big 4" and historically popular teams like newcastle and tottenham. there is no broadcast of any stage of the FA cup, league cup or any of the lower leagues at this level. this is mainstream football boadcasting designed to do nothing but tie in with the champions league (of which they also have an allotment of broadcasts), cater to and create more and more manchester united and liverpool fans.

on top of this, and at considerable extra cost - there are 2 other packages that can be ordered by digital cable subscribers - that offer the full extent to which english football can be seen in this country. at $25 a month extra (and available as a single item only) is setanta sports canada, which is - as its name implies - a setanta network aimed at a specifically canadian audience. along with the other two aforementioned networks, this alone will give you the opportunity of seeing every single premier league game - if not live, then at least in repeat over the next few days. this, along with skysports telecasts covered by FOX sportsworld canada is also the only way to see any of the FA cup, including the semi-finals and final. typically, during the second-half of the season setanta shows perhaps 1 championship game (usually an important game between 2 of the top teams, or a famous historical derby) and one or two SPL matches in the course of the week. occasionally fox sportsworld canada will likewise, broadcast an important championship game, historical derby or FA cup game - but this is most infrequent.

so - even after buying every extra cable service that i can - and diversified my selection of games to watch to the utmost extent, and searched the internet for resources; i still find myself living in a world that does nothing to encourage my being a west brom fan, nor a coventry city, brentford, walsall or leyton orient fan... having resisted it all my life, and having truly hated manchester united for just as long, i have to wonder why the FA is so intent that i be a manchester united fan?

Who are These Baggies and What Do They Want?

I Don't Care About the Premier League

i don't know what to say... maybe i'm expecting too much; but today's loss just left me cold. i guess, truthfully, if i have to come on line here to talk about the "positives", and our desperate need for a striker, i'm only doing it to make myself feel better about what has been a really unhappy season from which we all expected so much at the outset.

so now it's time to face reality, and accept that as like as not, we are going to be in a relegation battle. even if things remain consistent and it ends up being tight at the bottom - we have a poor defensive record with a poor goals against ratio - which would count heavily against us in the event of being drawn on points with anyone. the only way we'll avoid the drop is to win every draw left against bottom-half/mid-table opposition, and then a few upsets on top of that. i'm still going to remain confident (maybe i'll even order another shirt - that always cheers me up), and keep faith in the current squad, but i am in need of reassessment.

i think it's time to define what we are actually dealing with here. the character of the team was certainly changed by the departure of kevin phillips. more than any single one thing that happened to the baggies between seasons, i think this move was pivotal in a way that nobody could have ever imagined. we all know what he gave the team in terms of cold, hard goals; but he improved all the strikers around him by instilling a kind of confidence that always produces results. even when he was just sitting on the bench, both bednar and miller were able to play relaxed, attacking football, knowing that they had phillips to come on when they weren't having a good day - as well as vice versa. in fact, i seem to remember a couple of times last year where they were actually playing 3 strikers(?). this is old news however... not worth dwelling on - but still worth pointing out.

west bromwich albion have found themselves a team transformed from a high-scoring, all out attacking, pass and control championship league side; to something that is a much younger, in need of development, injury-ridden, under-achieving, premier-league rebuilding project - that will need a "one step back to take two forward" resignation to the facts before we can get anywhere. the contrast is stark; and with only the future, injury returns and the development of potentials to look forward to - there may be reasons to remain optimistic about the future, but the present is a real drag.

as a few of you who've read my posts before know, i live in canada and follow the baggies on TV, internet radio, BBC live text scores and any other way that i possibly can! so for me, it's important that the baggies stay up in the premiership, because that way, i can see every game - if not live, then at least in repeat over the course of the next few days. in the championship, i get to see them 3, maybe 4, times a year; and listen to them once or twice on BBC internet radio...

otherwise, i could care less about the premier league, and would rather watch a winning championship side over the misery and desperation of a relegation bound premiership team. i know it must sound like sour grapes, but if the premier league was the only measure of english football (as it often is seen from an overseas perspective) then nobody would care about anything but manchester united and liverpool (as often happens overseas). those of you who've grown up with the albion, can go to matches at the hawthorns, or, at least, can listen to the matches on the radio - are really lucky to be able to be part of such great a legacy as that of west bromwich albion. i'm sure there were many satisfying seasons where the baggies won more than they lost, and everyone felt rewarded for their support in spite of the fact that they spent 16 years straight outside of the 1st division/premier league. this is the time i refer to as having "lost" west bromwich albion. when they were originally relegated in 86, i did not see the team play again until 2001 due to lack of media broadcasts of the lower divisions in north america. this unfortunate situation persists until this day.

Aston Villa 2-1 WBA

i sort of figured we might lose to villa today - they have a real momentum even when not playing well. but the baggies - as they often do, came out looking the better footballing side of the two, and quickly dispelled any negative feeling - until they conceded a goal. the first villa goal came on the tail of some really good defending, with the ball being cleared off the line twice - but with no real committed clearance of the ball, the goal was an inevitability. the second goal was just plain stupid, and i feel real sorry for scott carson - because he was credited with an own goal that slipped through and changed direction under his arm. he was hard done by, i felt, as agbonlahore had no real angle to score from, and there were two defenders who backed right off, allowing a shot that should have been shut down. carson had it covered and made the save, but there was enough pace on the shot, and from close enough range that it squibbed out from underneath his arm as he was moving to get his whole body down and in front of the shot. the responsibility for this goal lies soundly with the two defenders who didn't close the villa striker down. it was dreadful defensive play. i have changed my mind considerably about scott carson recently, and am grateful that we have good goalie who's learning his craft in leaps and bounds. the defenders now have to rise to the occasion and give him decent full-time protection. carson's clumsy mistakes are always somebody else hanging him out to dry (for example, john terry in the england match). the only really bad mistake that i've seen that he was 100 per cent responsible for, was the bosingwa goal in the chelsea game. it was the first goal of the game and you're never gonna' get nothing chasing a game against the likes of chelsea.

on the other hand, the baggies played their usual game, which is good control of the midfield, useful and attractive passing, and gorgeous buildups that never get around to the shot. in fact, i think this is a tendency of the team, that when they do penetrate the opposing defense and work the ball into dangerous positions inside the box, they wait too long looking for the shot, almost like an old south american style team that expects to walk the ball into the net. the talk all year long - and especially since the ishmael miller injury - was about the lack of strikers. but given the situation, i think that it's about time that they put this out of their minds and start to look to the mid-fielders as the source of goals. morrisons goal today, illustrated this perfectly. this is the kind of shooting opportunity they should be taking more often, as well as pushing the mid-fielders further forward in attack. jonathan greening's (who happens to be my favorite player) current role in the middle of the park, pushing around short passes designed to retain possession is a role that any number of the current mid-fielders could perform. jonno should be busting a gut to push forward into the box with his mind set to attack, and working to set up shots for the forwards and find opportunities to take shots at goal himself. although i think as person, he probably makes a good captain, other than the fact that he seems to think of it as a playing position rather than bureaucratic function; and might actually be a distraction for him. he should be scoring 10 more goals a year than he does. that's how much i believe in his talents, and wish he would start using them. i had no problem with the team selection today; other than i think that tony mowbray should be starting cech, but not as a full-back. i think cech looks most natural in the mid-field, and i have a suspicion that he might be able to supply some of the quality that the team is lacking in terms of attack. evidenced in that he had a hand in both goals in the tottenham match.

the only way that this particular baggies squad will start to see some success is if the mid-fielders start scoring regularly. with morrison, greening, cech, brunt, and koren, between them, responsible for producing 1 goal a game. bednar needs to start - with moore or simpson in regular rotation, maybe even see how he starts paired with beattie. the permutations up front are not really important as long as TM can find something that works and can produce (as with the aforementioned midfield attack) at least one goal every game.

WBA 1-1 Peterborough United

if it were my choice, i would throw more into the FA cup than the team has, as illustrated by the 1-1 draw with peterborough. the baggies are famous for winning FA cups, and are still one of the top FA cup teams and rank third in all-time semi-final appearances. i read a post that proposed that we abandon the FA cup competition by sending out the reserve squad and lose intentionally, so as to concentrate on the premiership. this is a point which really defines west bromwich albion for me... what kind of club is it? what is its character? the albion has always been a successful FA cup team, first and foremost - it is the basis of our fame. if we had gotten into the final last year against cardiff, we would have won that as well as the championship. it may just be that the baggies are an anachronism and it may take them a long time to figure out a way to adapt the organization to the premier league, or at least find its relationship to the premier league. remember, the last time that the baggies were at the top of the old first division and making european cup appearances, the game was played by footballers. it is now played by athletes and the pace of the game is now twice what it used to be. i admire that west brom has remained a club that puts football first - even though we live in an age when that may not be a particular advantage.

i didn't get to see this game - or even listen to it on the online BBC radio stream (available to UK users only); but i did follow it on the BBC live text report - where the important action of the game is reported and updates every 2 minutes. coupled with the fact that i read the statistics and, on paper, everything about the game was ridiculously one-sided. west brom had twice the possession, three times the shots on goal, and three times as many corner kicks; yet, by all accounts from people who posted on the BBC 606 forum - especially those who were there, as well as the news reports - west brom played terribly and were menaced by the peterborough striker all night. they had been playing really well in the league the previous couple of weeks, but not in this one, whatever the numbers said.

it would be a shame if the baggies turned their backs on the very competition that is the basis of their fame and success. maybe therein lies the problem. when the thing for which you became famous ceases to be or is diminished in stature - so is whatever success or prestige that thus you had derived from it. to what extent does that diminish your history? how well does this answer who you are as a historical collective? west bromwich albion should always intend to win the FA cup, because the less they do, in a funny way, the less they will be west bromwich albion. while a perspective may change, and time marches on, at least you know who you are and from where you came. i look forward to the day that west brom can consolidate its place in the premier league and fight for the opportunity to play in europe again. but the FA cup is the only thing that we have even the most remote chance of winning, and should be as committed to winning it as anything else we do. i know that's not in step with the reality of the modern world, but then again maybe so is living abroad and trying to remain a west bromwich albion supporter.

i probably won't get to see it, but when the albion make this tuesday's trip to london road - i will be following live... SOMEHOW... just busting for the albion to win 3-0!!!