WBA 1-1 Bolton Wanderers F.C.

live text replay



this was - in every way - a better than average, although very typical PREMIER LEAGUE match between two teams who look, at the moment, like finishing somewhere mid-to-top table without actually breaking into the top six. as such, it was an entertaining, well played game that saw both teams with chances to win it late-on. it was both engaging and exciting. not that everyone was brilliant or there weren't any mistakes or poorly played passes; but the second-half , especially, was a display of some really cracking, determined football.

a tale of two media

as i do every saturday, i woke up, had a shower, got my coffee and tuned in the ALBION PLAYER transmission. there was no live TV broadcast in my area, so i took the game in, as i usually would, listening to the ALBION RADIO while watching the spurs/villa match on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA out of the corner of my eye.

there was a delayed TV broadcast at 8.30 PM (EST) so i did ultimately get a chance to see the match. the surprising thing was how different the two experiences were. on TV this was a terrific match that ended with both teams pushing for the win and creating chances at both ends. as digital-audio-commentary it was characterized by the announcers as having been a "dreadful game of football" with little to recommend it at the sound of the final whistle.

indeed, ALBION RADIO had been such a negative listening experience that the true quality of the match was a delightful surprise when i did finally see it. however, i couldn't figure out why dave bowler and john dunn had found it to be a match of such relatively poor quality when in fact it was a really fine example of competitive PREMIER LEAGUE football?

where the last two encounters between these two sides produced a couple of listless draws in the premiership campaign of 2008-09, both teams have improved considerably and each have new managers who have brought new character and talent to their respective clubs.

bolton may have once have been a one-dimensional team, relying on physical play, attacking from the back and the use of the long ball in getting forward. but, they are now - and especially with the arrival of martin petrov - a side that play more than a little bit of football up front, with a really superb target-man in kevin davies. surprisingly and despite a string of draws in their recent results, they possess the 4th best attack in the league at the moment.

contrarily, the albion have always relied on control of the football and superior time in possession, with a smart passing game through the midfield. roberto di matteo is now in charge at the hawthorns, and while maintaining the excellence of the midfield, he has transformed the team to be a much better defensive side, who themselves have found a first-rate striker in peter odemwingie. the albion have surprisingly been the PREMIER LEAGUE's form team since the last international break. di matteo has been named PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER-OF-THE-MONTH for september, and odemwingie the PLAYER-OF-THE-MONTH.



with jerome thomas out due to a minor leg injury, graham dorrans - who has still to find consistent form in the premiership - was played on the left-wing, alongside an accompanying midfield of paul scharner, chris brunt and james morrison. of course, youssouf mulumbu was in his regular holding position in front of the back four. gabriel tamas was back in the team, after having missed the arsenal game through injury. the gaffer seems to have an otherwise established back-line of gonzalo jara, jonas olsson and the excellent nicky shorey at left-back.

chris brunt, who i fear goes terribly underrated by the albion supporters sometimes, had a great game start to finish. while the northern ireland international was outstanding as both right and left-winger last year, in the medium of the PREMIER LEAGUE he looks to me to have finally stamped his name on the central attacking midfield role ahead of graham dorrans.

my suspicion about dorrans - and while his performance in the second-half against birmingham city had seen him begin to exert his influence and show momentary flashes of the brilliance which we all know he is capable - has yet to really make the adjustment from the CHAMPIONSHIP to PREMIER LEAGUE football. judging from his performance against blues - and in the top-flight - his natural skill, guile and pace might be most effective being played on the wing. there's no doubt that he was out of sorts against bolton, his first touch completely eluding him and his confidence unusually lacking. but then, there's just some days where nothing works and you've just got to write it off and move on.

in the CHAMPIONSHIP, dorrans was successful by virtue of the more open nature of the game at this level. he could control the ball, stand-off a defender and dictate both the direction and pace of play. the PREMIER LEAGUE however, is much more unrelenting, the defenders quicker and more skilled in shutting down the play. also, the young, scottish international carries expectations that he didn't have to deal with he when he joined the team during the PREMIER LEAGUE campaign of 2008-09.

in truth, he looks yet to have played enough and seems under some small amount of personal and professional pressure. chris brunt, on the other hand, looks composed and ready to play in the top-flight this time around.



and maybe this is why the ALBION RADIO commentary was so negative. west brom supporters are unusually attached to their talismanic players; and the under-performance of a fan favourite tends to reflect in their minds on the quality of the whole team. bob taylor, for example, played on some of the worst albion teams of all time. however, he is arguably remembered with a greater fondness than any other player of the last twenty years. consequently, so too are those that played alongside him.

youssouf mulumbu was given the albion MAN-OF-THE-MATCH award in this one, and while the congolese midfielder turned in his usual performance of tackling anything that came into his area, his distribution was poor and clearances no better than routine.

on quality of individual performance, chris brunt rightfully should have got the nod, but he has never been an overwhelming fan favourite; and having been given the central attacking role over a popular player like dorrans is never going to sit well with the baggies faithful no matter what he produces.

also, these are the kind of games - and bolton one of the teams - that the baggies are going to find the most difficult to get results from this year. the trotters are a bigger than average, very physical team whose first aim is to disrupt the rhythm and tempo of the opposition and attempt to bombard the opposing penalty area with a menacing aerial attack. they were very forceful in holding manchester united to a draw last weekend, so this has to be taken as a good result by the albion.

true to their form in constantly needing to come from behind, the baggies trailed in this match on a goal by johan elmander in the 63rd minute. the 29-year-old swedish striker had slipped into an open space behind his marker, gabriel tamas, and kevin davies showed his worth in playing a short-touch pass that left nothing more for elmander to do than blast the ball past an isolated scott carson.

a few minutes later, tamas again made a poor play in failing to clear against the on-rushing martin petrov. scott carson came out of his goal well, forcing the bulgarian to shoot wide and maintain the single goal deficit.

the baggies responded with some excellent wide, hold-up play by peter odemwingie in the 73rd minute. the nigerian striker showed patience and skill in recieving a pass down the right flank, taking on his defender, maintaining possession and waiting for the run of james morrison before crossing the ball for the scottish international to head home from about 5 yards out.



there were close calls at both ends before the final whistle, and this was probably a deserved result. even with the added expectations of their historic win at arsenal, this was a point well earned in a game that will be more typical, i think, of what the baggies will have to deal with week in week out for the rest of the season.

as for dave bowler and john dunn's inexplicably negative attitude towards this match, i'm reminded that there is a pessimistic bite in all black-country humour, that if left unchecked - and on the subject of football especially - will translate into a hopeless, abject despair and misery no matter how well things are going.

at the end of this weekend's round of the PREMIER LEAGUE, west bromwich albion sit 6th in the table and are nearing the end of a very difficult set of away fixtures. nobody would have imagined this even three weeks ago, and there's a long way to go before the baggies can think about qualifying for europe. mssr's bowler and dunn have every right to be worried... i guess?!?

The Premier League Upon Us...

as one of the few - and perhaps the only - non-UK bloggers who writes extensively about the baggies, i am reminded by the pre-season of my relative isolation from my subject material.

there are fans who post to online forums, as well as professional journalists of all kinds - and including bloggers - who live in the birmingham area, attend the training sessions and reserve matches, as well as keep an eye on the comings and goings at the hawthorns' parking lot. chris lepkowski - whose blogging, journalism and audio/visual work can be found in the birmingham mail, is probably the most pre-eminent west brom journalist, and his name comes up quite often as a source of accurate news amongst the baggies' online community.

my main source of information - as well as my primary access to most baggies matches this last year - has been the ALBION RADIO transmissions, through the club's website; and featuring dave bowler, west brom's head publications editor, with either duncan jones or chris hall doing the match commentary. i write about west bromwich albion and their coverage through live digital-audio commentaries, overseas television broadcasts and wide ranging, diverse online media resources.





in short, i am the first person i know of to report on west bromwich albion football club through a daily analysis of online digital media - and from an overseas perspective. while the myriad disadvantages to reporting on the baggies from 3000 miles away should be evident enough, there are several advantages that might be easy to overlook. while the quality of "objectivity" is not necessarily a virtue, in and of itself, being removed from the pessimistic humour of the black country - which often converts to an unnatural, painful despair over the subject of football - there is a negativity that never colours my writing. i consider myself the quintessesntial, naive optimist as far as my support for the albion goes - a stance that is much easier to maintain from a distance.

my devotion to the albion aside, there is absolutely nothing black country about me, and i look on my visits to the hawthorns as a day-trip to a strange and exotic corner of the world where one goes for no other reason than football. it is a singularly spiritual experience in a suburban industrial wasteland.

while i do always hope for the best, i don't start every premier league campaign projecting a comfortable mid-table finish. for example, when kevin phillips left and the next signing the club made was gianni zuiverloon, i wasn't particularly filled with confidence as i knew that the club had lost a player that they weren't going to be able to replace, and this wasn't going to be as good a team going into the premiership as the side that had won the championship title the previous season. things just didn't feel right. i still hoped for a mid-table finish, but by late october - and after a good start to the season - it was clear that the club was in trouble. i still remained positive on the issue of survival right up until the loss to liverpool saw them dropped back down to the championship for the following season.





while i have been a bit worried by the lack of goals in this past pre-season - and i have to keep reminding myself that defensive organization was probably the gaffer's main concern. i mean, why else would di matteo play chris brunt as a defensive mid-fielder?!?! ishmael miller knocked in a couple of goals, but more crucially the baggies didn't concede more than one goal per match in any of their pre-season friendlies, so in that sense, it has probably been a fair success for the head-coach and his team.

most educated pundits haven't foreseen the baggies having any trouble with their attacking game at premieship level anyway, and are generally more positive about the albion's ability to find goals - and from a wide ranging source of players - than many of their most die-hard supporters. west brom boasted 19 different scorers last year, 4 with 10 goals or more. the defence, on the other hand, has been a different matter althogether. it has been evident, however, that RDM has focused quite specifically on this long time problem and addressed it with a group of successful summer signings that will go a long way to making the baggies more solid at the back.

it's expected that a large number of teams will be playing a variation of the continental 4-5-1 attacking formation this season, and it's become pretty evident from the recent signing that west bromwich albion will be one of them. football seems to be moving into a new era as teams playing the standard 4-4-2 formation become fewer and far between. indeed, variations of the 4-5-1 were decidedly predominant among teams at this year's world cup; and the success of these tactics in recent UEFA competitions suggests it will soon be the preferred formation of most top professional clubs. the albion had already started playing this system under tony mowbray, who abandoned the idea after ishmael miller's injury. it was, however, revived by roberto di matteo after last year's defeat to nottingham forest. with a free-scoring mid-field, it was something that worked well and was still an enterprising and entertaining prospect when going forward.

there have been more popular teams at the hawthorns over the years than the club as it is now. and i've never really felt like the supporters were behind roberto di matteo the same way they were with either gary megson or tony mowbray at the heighth of their successes with the club. it is a wide held belief, for example, that there hasn't been a really solid all-around team since bob taylor and darren moore were with the club and the baggies began their long-time flirtation with the premier league. while more recently, many supporters have yet to come to terms with kevin phillips' departure for blues, which came about largely due to the chairman sticking to his guns on club policy towards terms of contracts offered to older players.





this year, however, i am expecting a mid-table finish, and i believe this to be the best albion team yet to be going into the premiership. by virtue of the process of elimination this probably makes the current squad the best west brom side since some time in the early 80s before the baggies were relegated from the old 1st division, not to return to the top-flight again for 16 years.

enough of the current team has seen life in the premier league before, and no doubt it will be much less daunting than the last campaign. expecially when everyone involved realizes the quality and potentials of this particular albion side compared to that of previous premiership campaigns.

while the management has made a number of excellent signings that will make the baggies a decidedly more defensive team, they still need another striker who can play the 4-5-1 formation. ishmael miller is still a bit of an unknown quantity at premiership level, and if simon cox can get into position he's capable of finishing with the best of them. players like gianni zuiverloon might even have an easier time with the decidedly less physical game of the premier league than that played in the championship. and there are many new faces in the squad that we have yet to see how the whole thing gels. it could all be a bit of a surprise!

WBA 1-1 Barnsley F.C.

live text replay



this really wasn't a match worth writing about. however, as good entertainers - and wanting to show they are still taking things seriously - the baggies started a full-strength squad, even though promotion was secure several weeks ago. the albion had a clear understanding of their professional obligations to other teams in the competition to try and get results from as many of their remaining fixtures as possible. for example, they gave sheffield wednesday a crack at championship survival by holding crystal palace to a draw at selhurst park last week.





while we are getting to see the likes of graham dorrans, chris brunt, roman bednar, robert koren, simon cox and ishmael miller in the side, there has been a real sense of diminished intensity about these last two games. certainly no-one wants to get pointlessly injured, and the tactic of playing a very technical passing and control game made it all seem a little like exhibition football. it was great entertainment when it worked and they managed to get a couple of draws where most teams would've rolled over and given up. but, by and large, it wasn't the most scintillating stuff.

i've got plenty of opinions concerning the situation of the baggies going into the premiership and where i think english football is going. a year and half's worth of writing a weekly blog on football has taught me a lot about the game from top to bottom. it's been a great year all around. hopefully, i will continue to improve.

Note on a Winng Streak (part 3)

WBA 3-2 PNE

live text replay



another day-trip to birmingham... a match involving two of the football leagues original founding members, and - as far as the first-half goes - probably the best 45 minutes of football i have yet seen at the hawthorns.

the match started off as a high-spirited affair that temporarily took on a kind of carnival atmosphere as the baggies went up 2-0 within the first ten minutes. fast, flowing football saw both sides creating good attacking opportunities early on asking serious questions of both goalies and their respective back lines. however, it was the albion who made the initial breakthrough.




ben watson scored his first goal in west brom colours through a build-up of long-range inter-passing between robert koren and ishmael miller. the return ball from koren deflected off a north end defender, sean st. ledger, and broke opportunely for the on-loan wigan mid-fielder to pounce and blast home from about 5 yards out, just on the 6 minute mark.

a few minutes later, and with the hawthorns beginning to buzz, graham dorrans, taking the ball just inside his own half and leisurely advancing, spotted chris brunt open and in space upfield. he delivered a brilliant and casually placed ball forward into space, and brunt, timing his run to perfection, caught out the lily-whites' off-side trap and easily beat andy lonergan for the second time in 5 minutes. it was beginning to feel as if we were going to be treated to a vintage baggies' goal-scoring clinic.

the first half would eventually provide the five-goals that made up the final score-line, and within minutes we were all brought back down to earth with a thump as the lily-whites mounted an effective attack requiring scott carson - playing well and back on home turf after his ironically poor performance in earning a clean-sheet against swansea - to make an athletic diving save on an open header following a dangerous cross from ross wallace to palm the ball away to safety. on the ensuing corner-kick, however, preston full-back, sean st. ledger, shook off his marker to head home wallace's in-swinging delivery from point blank range. 2-1 to the baggies...



just past the half-hour mark, and the team's playing good stuff at both ends of the pitch, graham dorrans restored the albion's two goal lead scoring one of the goals-of-the-season on a spectacular free-kick from 35 yards out that flew into the top right-hand corner of the net, leaving andy lonergan again with no chance whatsoever. the carnival atmosphere and prospect of a high-scoring win for the baggies was back on.

this was re-enforced as dorrans - making the finest individual move of the match - weaved his way to the bi-line down the left wing and delivered a cross that ishmael miller really looked like he might have done better with, ultimately heading the ball wide of the preston goal. the baggies looked to be just buzzing with attacking menace at this point.

however, just before the end of the first half - and similar to chris brunt's goal at the other end - preston striker, neil mellor, found himself in space and on the end of a through ball that split the baggies' defense and beat the off-side trap. finding himself one-on-one with albion goalie, scott carson, the preston striker pushed the ball to the outside, past the sprawling keeper and shot home from a sharp angle to restore the lily-whites single goal deficit.



despite conceding two-goals in the first half, scott carson, had a much improved performance from the mid-week match at swansea, and was responsible for several fine saves as well as being quick and decisive about coming off his line to clear - something which had given him definite problems at the liberty stadium on the previous tuesday.

while goals and attack were the theme of the first-half, defense and good goalkeeping were served up as second-half fare. while the baggies have never been famous for holding on to single-goal leads, scott carson and company did an admirable job at doing just that for the last 45 minutes. with a good deal of fine football played in the middle of the park, neither team was really able to penetrate deep enough in attack to cause any real danger in the final third, and the sure hands of both scott carson and andy lonergan picked out anything that came their way.



as i made my way back down halford's lane to the hawthorns station and the trains back to west birmingham, i was feeling an exaltation at my team's performance since i had been in the country and attending matches. i couldn't remember anything in my life having gone so well. i had come hoping to see at least two victories and perhaps a draw. i had no worries about the next fixture, which would be my last live match - and my last visit to the hawthorns - of the season. i had been to the hawthorns four times now and attended one away match. i could boast that i had never seen the baggies beaten or played to a draw. in looking forward to the coming match with coventry city i knew - and with a sense of absolute assurance - that providence would not betray me now.

WBA 3-0 Leicester City F.C.

live text replay


when these two teams met in the reverse fixture back in the early months of the season, newly promoted leicester city were a surprise form team and - along with newcastle united - were the best footballing side that the baggies had had to play up until that point. west brom won that encounter by a score of 2-1. it was one of their rare single goal victories and one of the toughest matches won.

as the two met this last week at the hawthorns, the albion were now the form team of the division, who may still challenge the mighty toon for the division title, and leicester city are a club that have surprised the critics, over-achieved on the season, and are now desperately clinging onto a place in the playoffs despite a recent run of poor form.

whatever happens, both teams can be proud of their accomplishments this season, and both have been a real credit to english league football. leicester city for bouncing back from the curse of having tried to compete in the premier-league then suffering the increasingly frequent double-relegation that follows; and the albion for being the only real "second-division" club left in england - and thus, for both better or worse - a team in a class all their own.



while the 3-0 score-line - provided by the returning james morrison with a contribution of two goals from baggies' stalwart, robert koren - was certainly flattering to the albion, and unfairly diminishes any good football city played on the day, the baggies probably deserved this - but more for the good fortune that becomes part of a winning team's habit and character than anything else.

it is quite normal for football fans (and albion supporters more than most, it's probably fair to say) to hit the panic button at two games lost in succession, or a three or four game winless streak. they tend to imagine the worst and faith in their team is always at its lowest when entertaining a 1-0 lead; but the baggies did, in this match, transcend the usual pressure and pessimism that comes with the possibility of imminent success in professional football.

a month or so back, when west brom lost to bristol city and QPR, then were knocked out of the FA Cup by reading, the online albion message-boards started filling up with negative posts about both the team and gaffer, pointing out how roberto di matteo's MK DONs had suffered a late season loss of form, which cost them missing out on automatic promotion and ultimate loss on penalty kicks in a first-round promotion playoff to swansea city. i even saw posts on the BBC 606 which were direly predicting that that the baggies wouldn't even make the playoffs at this rate, and that they just weren't good enough!



my fellow supporters confound me sometimes, as i have never doubted for a moment that the albion were going to finish second if not win the division outright! you can be as negative as you like, but roberto di matteo has done a brilliant job at managing the resources available to him this season. for the most part - and with rare exception - his team selection, attacking formation, and real-time match tactics - although occasionally baffling to the average punter - have been a superb example of economy and intelligent management. he's developed a good system, has inspired both the team in learning how to win in style, and re-invigorated the spirit of many of its individual constituent components, as well.

i hope, at very least, with the baggies now looking more likely challengers for the division title than playoff candidates, that the supporters can relax their customary pessimism and really enjoy the last few games of the season, looking expectantly to the day - which is soon to come - when the baggies clinch automatic promotion back to the premier league. because i seriously have my doubts as to how enjoyable that's actually going to be!

In Search of a Cultural Underground

what am i doing here? why do i spend the time i do on pursuing my overwhelming interest in the baggies? what is a native born north american doing blogging, making videos, posting photographs, joining websites; as well as managing and subscribing to e-mail groups in the name of a team he's never seen play at home; who play in a place that is 1500 miles away from where he lives, and that he's never actually been to; and in a country he hasn't visited in 35 years? what's it all about, eh?

i recently read a book called the cult of the amateur by a guy named andrew keen. basically it is a propaganda piece that proposes that blogs, wikis, social networking, and the digital world are destroying our economy, our culture and our values. in fact that is the sub-title of the book: how blogs, wikis etc. ... this is a book for people who are familiar enough with computers - and may come in contact with them at work and in basic home use situations - but are otherwise not particularly knowledgeable users, who are often enough frustrated by these environments and who might be predisposed to mistrust or dislike the computer, internet and digital media in general. in other words: there is a fair market waiting to hear such a critique. the trouble is, this impulse and interest is essentially borne out of fear, and creates a desire for critically biased attitude toward its source. in this case: that which we don't understand.

he made some basic mistakes, i think, or rather omissions in his thesis. i agreed with many of his starting points and foundation criticisms. for example, wikis - that is, user editable information, in the form of online compendiums, such as an encyclopedia, are - by nature - an unreliable source of information. the problem, as he rightly points out, is that editors with opposing agendas may delete and replace good information with bad information - or express an opinion in their entry that conflicts with that of a previous editor and their contribution.

with a major entry about something like McDonald's restaurants, or Wal-mart, for example, you are apt to find constant and highly biased edits and re-edits, made by those who have vested interest in one side of a propaganda message or another. what he failed to point out, is that where articles and information concerning large corporate and political organizations are often inaccurate, poorly written and/or misleading; the minutiae and localized information concerning the purely cultural (literature, music, sport, science, film, TV) is very often excellent - and the fact is, the more esoteric the subject, the better and more accurate the information. in fact, it is sometimes the only place that this information appears - such is one effect of the digital media revolution: the expansion of content and detail.

but mr. keen is not particularly interested in the localized (what he refers to ironically and sarcastically as: "democratized") or the esoteric. while he is careful to not promote particular corporate brands over others, it is clear enough that he thinks disney does a fine job giving us entertaining and high-quality cultural products. for him, this level of excellence is what our culture is about; and, therefore, needs to be protected from those who would make inferior product, or edit new material from it. for example, mr. keen, calls file-sharing "piracy". when you can't make your point by discussing or referring to something by its proper name; and thus need to bestow upon it a title which is designed to plant specific, highly charged images (either negative or positive) in the perception of those receiving the message, you are then engaged in flagrant, unadulterated propaganda. what sounds better to you: "let's discuss the ethics of file-sharing?" or "let's discuss the ethics of piracy?"

i also agreed with him that blogs are not efficient - or accurate - at delivering news - and certainly a home-blogger could never compete with a professional news agency at delivering news from its geographical source. but here again, he has missed the point: blogs are not for reporting news, but are (or rather, should be) personal, diverse and engaged editorials on culture. at their best, they are localized opinion about the news, and report on otherwise unnoticed effects of that news in localized areas of the culture. for example, what's it like trying to follow a team that regularly plays outside the premiership when you do not reside in the UK? this situation presents concerns and questions of freedom, accessibility, ethics and culture that the average supporter of manchester united or real madrid never have to deal with.

so, who else is better prepared - or sufficiently engaged, for that matter - to report on the problems of following the baggies from an international perspective, and in a world where digital media and FREE software are a major issue, than someone who is engaged specifically in these questions? by his omissions, the reading of someone like mr. keen helps one to define what one is actually doing when engaged in these endeavors. i may only be read by a handful of people, at the moment - and i am not a professional writer of any sort - but the point is (and i can only hope) that what i say has meaning to this handful of people... but then again, i don't do a lot of mainstream promotion of my activities. football may seem to be a funny place to be looking; but i am seeking a cultural underground - i want to see a revolution... a genuine and authentic experience! i want freedom! i want what is possible and in all of its constituent integrity. in other words - and specifically in terms of digital media and technology in general: let software be unencumbered and let it be free to do its natural work!

so, what i am doing here - with my blogging, video editing, e-mail and forum posting - is to report on something - in a highly editorial fashion - that no one else can, and define (at least in some small part) who i am in all this! i am taking an active part in a major cultural shift - as digital technology increasingly creates a folkloric culture from that which once was all big business. while by mr. keen's definition of the word - i am indeed a "pirate", as - and at very least - much of my blogging consists of photography, video and graphics that i have taken from news agencies, DVDs, the internet, etc. and reused here without permission. as well, i often remove the copyright stamp on an image in order to improve the quality and usability of the photo to the public at large. while i freely admit to all the things i have done - i have never hijacked a ship, nor taken part in bloody thievery, murdering, kidnapping or mutiny on the high seas, so i would suggest that mr. keen's description of my cultural behavior in the world of digital media is a prejudiced, unnecessarily dramatic and flowery; as well as wholly inaccurate characterization.

the other thing that mr. keen pointed out in his book - and where we do not diverge at all - was the functional uselessness of DRM (digital restrictions management) software; in that most "piracy" occurs not through the posting or copying of un-protected files on the internet; but direct peer-to-peer sharing of purchased (and subsequently "ripped" or copied to hard-drive) files acquired from a licensed commercial purchase or rental.

the only sector of main-stream culture that has found any extensive use for DRM is in the distribution of broadcast materials which have a short, high-impact first life, but are of relative little interest in second-life. this would be a characteristic of most news and sporting events.

what i mean by this is, a film has a first life - that is the market into which it is initially released. nowadays that could be theatrical first run, or straight to DVD rental and/or pay-tv markets. after this, it has its second life: rerun in repertory movie-houses, distribution on broadcast TV, and the re-selling of the DVD as "used" and also made available for private use home rental. in this sense, the second-life of cultural information is usually much longer than its first, although of a diminished impact and dispersed interest. news, sports... this is media content that has the most high impact in its first life, as it demands immediate attention to receive the content. this kind of information rarely has much of a second life, and when it does, it is invariably by virtue of a specific event having been exceptional or out of the ordinary: landing on the moon, a president's assassination, a substantially unexpected result in a sporting event... this all happens quickly, and the information goes into varying levels and forms of second life almost immediately.

a top-flight english football match has - with the greatest and most notable of exceptions, and up until quite recently - had a fairly non-existent second-life. in the world cup, with time-delays and games played half-way around the world, a big match might have a global first life of about 16 hours; provided that the local news agencies do not report scores from games ahead of time, so that people watching are able to enjoy the experience of a time-delayed match during its first-life. i remember world cups where this was common practice and you would be warned on the regional news if they were going to show the score before the broadcast of a game. because once the report of the final score is received, the information has entered second-life and is immediately and massively diminished in worth. anyway, i still think the real money (and focus) should be TV, shirt-sales and general merchandising. everything else should be free access - like the traditional radio broadcast. just as the online live text commentaries are on the BBC - so should their audio commentaries be available to an international audience. i could even accept the idea of a small licensing fee payable online for the right to listen. they should just not be using DRM that ties accessibility of a stream or file to a particular software; because, as a computer user - you should always be free in what choice of software you care to use, and how you care to use it. anything less is a kind of tyranny.

which is why i am so surprised that the premiership, football league, and the BBC guard their information products so diligently; and don't differentiate when thinking about an information product's first and second life. i try to remain faithful to the albion, and am always hopeful and put trust in the idea that they will do things more authentically and ethically than other organizations. for example, i am so proud that my team - and uniquely so among professional teams - wear sponsor-less jerseys; proving the worth of shirt-sales over advertising. however, in terms of media licensing the albion use a slightly more restrictive model of content control than most other clubs. in the premiership and football leagues, each club has a website for which they - as a group and in a collective agreement with their governing bodies - employ the services of a content management company called performgroup; who develop and maintain the cookie-cutter WORLD template websites for all clubs that operate under this agreement. that is to say, almost every premiership and football league team; as well as six or seven conference teams, who must have private deals with them, and who also use the WORLD website template.

the focus of their content control is DRM encoding of their streams and files so that they are only supposed to work with Windows Media Player in conjunction with Internet Explorer. this is true of their live audio commentary, as it is for their video highlights and news reports. despite the fact that i could make the ALBION WORLD demo page play the audio content using the native GNU-linux media software, and i could make some of the video work the same way - it seemed that ultimately i could not make most of the video work. anyway - and as i said in a previous post, i'm still not ready to spend the £39.99 to find out if i actually can access their live audio commentaries.

a fair number - perhaps even enough to constitute a majority (i've never counted) - of teams in the english premiership and football league have a licensing deal with the BBC, whereby the local BBC radio stations broadcast the home games of the club (or clubs) in their area. these broadcasts are all streamed live online through the BBC website, linked to the corresponding local home pages. for example: BBC Derby, BBC WM, BBC London, BBC South Yorkshire, BBC Suffolk, BBC Solent etc. etc. however, the BBC employs a type of DRM that restricts these streams from working outside the UK. in turn, the football club then uses this stream as live audio commentary available to subscribers of the team website's WORLD services. it is only through the club's website that the stream becomes available to international users.

matches from the blue square premier are not restricted in this manner. so, for example, cambridge united's home games are streamed all over the world through BBC Cambridgeshire; however, the peterborough united matches that are also carried on the same local, are not. i have no idea how the licensing works for scottish football, as my experiences with the SPL online streaming of audio commentary has no consistent nature. while inverness caledonia thistle and motherwell seemed to have their matches stream unrestricted to all international users - as i could always access their audio commentary online, and no restrictions warnings are posted; the majority of the other teams, like rangers, celtic, hearts and hibs, all had the same "UK listeners only" restrictions as the english leagues.

the baggies have opted for even further control than this, and do not have their home matches broadcast on their local BBC network. instead, they take full responsibility for creation of their site content and do their own audio commentary - or commission it from a licensed broadcast in the private sector (i.e. commercial or satellite radio)... perhaps they even use the beaconradio broadcast, for example? i've no idea, really, and would have to research it further to say. although, the impression i had from corresponding via email with a representative of the albion once, was that they themselves create a non-broadcast streaming audio commentary specifically for their own and unique use online.

my initial inquiry as to the use of DRM and the ALBION WORLD services was prompted by my own interest in the possibility of subscribing. with the baggies relegated again - and not much in the way of the football league championship on TV - i was motivated to look for a way to follow the matches other than the live BBC text commentaries. one of my questions - since i use no microsoft software whatever - was: did they believe it was ethical to make their content available only to Windows users? the albion representative - an otherwise prompt and pleasant correspondent - did not really answer the question, other than to state that DRM was an essential tool needed to protect the rights of paying subcribers (what?!?!); and that since microsoft operating systems are used by an overwhelming majority of computer users, they were obliged to cater to this market. i can only conclude that he did not understand the question, or believes "practical consideration" a component or necessary definition of the word, "ethical". as far as i understand - and with apples's new capability for running windows applications - the WORLD service will, for the first time, be available to mac users... still nothing mentioned for FREE software, though.

i may not have to worry though. we shall see, but it appears that SETANTA SPORTS CANADA will be broadcasting primarily championship matches this year. this will mark the first time that second-tier football has ever been broadcast extensively in canada. i have seen the listings for the opening weekend, and having lost a substantial percentage of its premiership rights, it seems they are going with the championship as their main content, and the rights for broadcasting the premier league appear to have been dispersed and re-assigned. i wouldn't be surprised if a new "soccer-specific" ESPN affiliate shows up on the airwaves soon. on the opening week of the season SETANTA SPORTS CANADA is broadcasting the season opener (middlesbrough v sheffield united) live on the friday evening. then, a live TBA early on the saturday morning followed by a live broadcast of west brom v newcastle united; with a time-delay repeat of the southampton v millwall match later that evening. on sunday, the coventry v ipswich match is to be broadcast live. nothing has really been posted in the way of listings for the premiership matches, yet; but, i'd be willing to bet that someone, somewhere is thrashing out the details right now.

yes, it's going to be another interesting year in english football and digital multi-media; and sometimes armed with nothing more than the BBC live text commentaries with which to follow the baggies in real time, there's still every reason for me to blog about the challenges of being a west bromwich albion supporter living in toronto... even if just for the sake of my own sanity!!!