Apparently, it's illegal to post a fixtures list without a license. That, my friends, is the crazy extent to which we live in nowadays, where my blog can get censored by a corporation demanding payment for publishing a list of fixtures that Arsenal are playing this season. It's crazy that my blog - which I run not for profit but to air my views on all things Arsenal, to allow a forum for people to discuss the current stories - can be censored. I have never advertised anything to my readers, nor do I intend to. I gain nothing financially for this blog, and I never want to. It's my way of sharing my thoughts and talking to you guys. However, I've been censored for displaying a list of fixtures, that helps me know who we're playing when. I could maybe understand this if I was pursue a business, but contrary to the freedom of speech, nowadays you've got to be very careful what you say, what you write.
So what can I do, except for taking off the fixtures list and waiting for the next corporation to tell me that I can't print the word "Arsenal" without paying the FA £100 everytime I do. Sorry for the rant, but it's border line ridiculous. Here's what the people who did this had to say:
The leagues have charged for publication of the fixtures since 1960.
- Under UK competition law all sectors of the same market have to be treated equally – there is no defined carve out for “not for profit” or “blogs”
- Therefore if the leagues want to continue to charge for use of fixtures to commercial sites they have to use the same rules for all sites competing for eyeballs on the web
- There is no legal definition of “not for profit” but there is a registered charity status which one can apply for and we would honour a charity discount (10%)
- There is no problem in mentioning past fixtures once they have been played, or league tables – at the moment the leagues allow free use of these.
- You can also mention the next fixture provided it is in the form of an editorial preview article (you cannot string a series of future fixtures together in a pseudo article).
- You cannot show a list of future fixtures without the appropriate licence otherwise we will chase you to remove the future fixtures
- You will need the permission of Arsenal before you can purchase a licence – the cost of the licence is £1.00 + VAT if Arsenal award you “nominated fanzine” status (they can only award this once per season).
- A single club’s fixtures cost £266 +VAT for editorial use, with the club’s permission.
And this apparently apples to a personal blog which is designed only to talk about my favourite subject, my passion, my club which is Arsenal. The freudin slip which is in the above is “commercial site”, which implies commerce which implies I make money. I’ll try my best to fight this – for principle only – but I am one person writing a blog – how far will I get?
Let the blog begin…
On to the main topic of today and that is our injuries. Talking to my mate JAT, we’ve been looking at the problem which is our injuries. Our last two games against Man City and Dynamo have seen us without some key players, and you’ve got to think why we seem to be the only top club with injuries every year.
Let’s take a look at who was missing against Kyiv and in brackets, let’s look at the corresponding players from the other clubs from the top 4.
Adebayor (Rooney, Torres, Drogba)
Eduardo (Tevez, Keane, Anelka)
Rosicky (Ronaldo, Riera, Joe Cole)
Nasri (Nani, Gerrard, Kalou)
Walcott (Giggs, Benayoun, Lampard)
Diaby (Carrick, Alonso, Mikel)
Sagna (Brown, Carragher, Bosingwa)
Toure (Ferdinand, Agger, Terry)
Now if you think about the other top teams and how they would fair if they had the players mentioned missing, would they be winning every game? Would they beat Kyiv at home? Would they lose to a fully fit Man City side? Yes, you can argue that Diaby isn’t the same as Alonso, but my point isn’t to compare like for like, but to compare how these types of injuries would affect other sides. But the other sides never seem to have these injury problems to the extent we have. So we’ve got to question why we have so many injuries. Let’s look at this logically:
- We are the most fouled against team in the league.
- OR we have too tough a training regime
- OR we have bad physios, fitness coaches
- OR we have injury prone players.
I don’t know the reason, but I’d say point 1 is statistically proven. 2 and 3 are said with no knowledge at all. And 4 can’t be true, as Rosicky, Eduardo and Diaby were hardly ever injured before they joined us. Some sources say that we’re very meticulous when we sign players. Supposedly we have one of the toughest medicals around.
Food for thought, hey?
So looking at our injuries, we’ve got Nasri, Adebayor and Sagna back for Sunday, three first team players, whom if fit, will all start against Chelsea and give our team a welcome dimension attacking wise and of course Sagna will give defensive stability to the team.
Our new captain Cesc, has been in the media and is determined to beat Chelsea. Check these comments out, they’ll make you proud:
“We want to get back into the title race, so we have to win. We could get some points back. The other teams have difficult games as well. We will see. Chelsea have been playing really well, the times I watched them, they have played good football with quick combinations. I respect them. Arsenal never go anywhere for a draw. We always go to win and Chelsea do the same. At the end of the season, we will see what we can achieve but at the moment we are in every competition. People can say whatever they want about the title race but we have only played 14 games. It is not over yet.”
It’s not over yet young Cesc, and I hope the team listens and puts in a performance in what will be a classic 6 pointer.
Okay, time to go, time to sleep.
Back tomorrow.]]>
