Archives for September 2009

You can usually tell something is a good idea when lots of people tap you on the shoulder to point out that it was their idea first.

It was a bit like that in Stratford on Tuesday when yours truly, a healthy smattering of fellow hacks, assorted top brass and 47 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls assembled to mark the launch of "Team 2012", a joint venture to raise funds for Team GB's London war chest.

That £304m chest, you may recall, was about £50m light after government attempts to raise money from the private sector - the "third stream" - raised precisely zilch. Not only was this a bit embarrassing, it also left lots of London 2012 dreams in limbo.

Eight Olympic and four Paralympic sports, all initially told to ramp up their efforts in preparation for London, saw their budgets slashed: training plans were shelved, support staff let go and athletes, desperate to continue, were forced to take out extra loans.

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In the spirit of reconciliation between the BBC and News Corp (and to show James Murdoch not everything we do online is "chilling") I would like to draw your attention to a recent advertisement for The Sun's soaraway salon of soccer scribes, Harry Redknapp, Terry Venables and Ian Wright.

The billboard in question was for Wrightie and it was situated near West Ham's training ground in Chadwell Heath.

Above a toothy shot of the former Arsenal and England centre forward, a caption in quote marks said something about too many mediocre foreigners in the Premier League holding back young domestic talent: good, knock-about, back-of-cab stuff.

You might have missed it but Carlton Cole didn't and it got him thinking. "I can relate to that," the Hammers striker told me, which is hardly surprising given his stop-start progress to Premier League stardom and Fabio Capello's England squad.

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