For the Footiecall team, this has probably been the most epic weekend in our short history.
Firstly to be given the opportunity to be part of the Manchester United / DHL Tour of South Africa was amazing. We were able to give away 2 tickets & 2 hampers to a lucky follower in Durban....we also gave away about 9 tickets to the Open Session in Cape Town, over Twitter, Facebook & the blog.
For us though, the main prize was being chosen to be part of the media who got entry into 3 of the 4 events that United had in the City. Here's a brief summary of what happened this weekend, who we saw, our meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson & our chat with Rio Ferdinand.
I had written out entire paragraphs of awesomeness about the weekend, but I've decided to let the pics do the talking. Right at the bottom there are some more pictures to look through, but our story begins on Friday...
Friday: We started off the day by heading to Ikamva - Ajax Cape Town's impressive training structure in Parow, Cape Town. Man United had sent a small delegation through to Ikamva in an attempt to give back to the kids in the community. It took us a good few minutes to recall where we'd seen our first celebrity before.....see if you can do better:
.....well? Yes that's right, Charley Boorman from "A Long Way Down". (it's a show on Discovery Channel we think). He was part of the Unicef delegation also down to work with MUFC and the little kids. Nice people.
Obviously our next celebrity blew (two of) our minds!!! The #7 legend of the Man United midfield - BRYAN ROBSON!!! Grey hair and all. We spoke for a short while before he started work coaching the kids. Great guy!!
We then shot off to Cape Town stadium to join Sir Alex Ferguson's press conference. The main table had some non-football people (Patricia De Lille & media folk) but it also had John Comitis, Michael Carrick & Sir Alex Ferguson.
The presser went as usual...openings from the un-important people, then Comitis & Sir Alex spoke about their expectations of the game & the tour. Nigel Pierce, the host, eventually gave us our time in the spotlight and we asked Sir Alex this...
Footiecall: "why have there been so few African signings for United? Is the quality not good enough for United? Are you afraid of losing them during the AFCON? Or is it the work permit issue?"
Sir Alex: "I'm not afraid of the AFCON, we've generally got enough depth to cope with that. There is quality in Africa but we want to get the talent while they're still young & put them through our training & facilities. There aren't many older African players who truly reach their potential while in Africa. The main problem is the work permits. To get a work permit for an 18 year old African is not going to happen for United. It's easier to get young Brazilians or Argentinians, but we'd never be able to get a work permit for someone that young from Africa"
Sir Alex spent about 4 minutes answering our question, so the above is a summary (we also had to translate his native Scottish language into English). We have an understanding of what Fergie was talking about though. If you aren't from the EU, you need a work permit to play in England. The work permit states that you need to play 75% of your country's A team games over the past 2 years. The country also has to be in the top 70 of the FIFA rankings. This is enforced by the British Home Office. For players like Kagawa who already come from a top European league where they played often, it's not so difficult. Fortune came from Spain, Djemba-Djemba from France & Manucho had been playing for his country for 2 years before Man United signed him.
Clubs can appeal if they're rejected a work permit but only if they believe that the player is an exceptional case & are "able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in the UK". So you can see how it would be difficult for Man United to sign a young South African such as Ngidi. The grading system is slightly different depending on the country obviously. If South Africa had a stronger national team, we'd see more SAFFA's in the EPL.
We also got to meet the chief editor of www.manutd.com - Nick Coppack & the managerial editor, Gemma Thompson (pics further down). And while we enjoyed the open training session, we took time out to talk to the guy sitting behind us.....none other than Quinton Fortune who is following the team to China.
Firstly to be given the opportunity to be part of the Manchester United / DHL Tour of South Africa was amazing. We were able to give away 2 tickets & 2 hampers to a lucky follower in Durban....we also gave away about 9 tickets to the Open Session in Cape Town, over Twitter, Facebook & the blog.
For us though, the main prize was being chosen to be part of the media who got entry into 3 of the 4 events that United had in the City. Here's a brief summary of what happened this weekend, who we saw, our meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson & our chat with Rio Ferdinand.
I had written out entire paragraphs of awesomeness about the weekend, but I've decided to let the pics do the talking. Right at the bottom there are some more pictures to look through, but our story begins on Friday...
Friday: We started off the day by heading to Ikamva - Ajax Cape Town's impressive training structure in Parow, Cape Town. Man United had sent a small delegation through to Ikamva in an attempt to give back to the kids in the community. It took us a good few minutes to recall where we'd seen our first celebrity before.....see if you can do better:
.....well? Yes that's right, Charley Boorman from "A Long Way Down". (it's a show on Discovery Channel we think). He was part of the Unicef delegation also down to work with MUFC and the little kids. Nice people.Obviously our next celebrity blew (two of) our minds!!! The #7 legend of the Man United midfield - BRYAN ROBSON!!! Grey hair and all. We spoke for a short while before he started work coaching the kids. Great guy!!
The presser went as usual...openings from the un-important people, then Comitis & Sir Alex spoke about their expectations of the game & the tour. Nigel Pierce, the host, eventually gave us our time in the spotlight and we asked Sir Alex this...
Footiecall: "why have there been so few African signings for United? Is the quality not good enough for United? Are you afraid of losing them during the AFCON? Or is it the work permit issue?"
Sir Alex: "I'm not afraid of the AFCON, we've generally got enough depth to cope with that. There is quality in Africa but we want to get the talent while they're still young & put them through our training & facilities. There aren't many older African players who truly reach their potential while in Africa. The main problem is the work permits. To get a work permit for an 18 year old African is not going to happen for United. It's easier to get young Brazilians or Argentinians, but we'd never be able to get a work permit for someone that young from Africa"
Sir Alex spent about 4 minutes answering our question, so the above is a summary (we also had to translate his native Scottish language into English). We have an understanding of what Fergie was talking about though. If you aren't from the EU, you need a work permit to play in England. The work permit states that you need to play 75% of your country's A team games over the past 2 years. The country also has to be in the top 70 of the FIFA rankings. This is enforced by the British Home Office. For players like Kagawa who already come from a top European league where they played often, it's not so difficult. Fortune came from Spain, Djemba-Djemba from France & Manucho had been playing for his country for 2 years before Man United signed him.
Clubs can appeal if they're rejected a work permit but only if they believe that the player is an exceptional case & are "able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in the UK". So you can see how it would be difficult for Man United to sign a young South African such as Ngidi. The grading system is slightly different depending on the country obviously. If South Africa had a stronger national team, we'd see more SAFFA's in the EPL.
We also got to meet the chief editor of www.manutd.com - Nick Coppack & the managerial editor, Gemma Thompson (pics further down). And while we enjoyed the open training session, we took time out to talk to the guy sitting behind us.....none other than Quinton Fortune who is following the team to China.
Saturday: The game has been documented by so many already that there's no need to go through that again...Bebe the saviour #BEBElieber
We once again sat in a presser with Sir Alex and posed him this question:
Footiecall: "Tyler Blackett & Robbie Brady look good for US but are still young. With Fabio going out on loan and Zeki Fryers off to Spurs, are WE going to sign a new left-back?"
Sir Alex: "Evra's played nearly every game for us over the past few seasons. He's clocking up something like 45 games a season. It's incredible really. The guys we've brought with on the tour are really good & we've got a lot of faith in them but they're still only 18 & 20 years old. To play at that age in the Premiership is difficult & that's why we rely on loan deals to strengthen the guys before starting them in the top team. I'm not sure why Zeki wants to leave, but he's currently on trial with Tottenham. I'm not sure how that's going for him. If Evra gets injured we'll have a real problem on our hands."
So it sounds as if United aren't in the market for a left-back. At this point the SABC asked us not to refer to Manchester United as "we". They said it's disrespectful to the other journalists. Luckily we have DSTV so we don't really care what the SABC said. WE WE WE!!!
We then met up with Rio Ferdinand for an informal chat....
Footiecall: "Hey Rio, is it true that Anderson speaks better English than Kagawa?"
Rio: "hmmmm, nah mate, it's the other way around. Kagawa speaks better English than Ando. Ha ha, true story I swear."
Footiecall: "Hey Rio give me a hi-5 please"
Rio: "sure"
We shook hands instead. All in all, we felt extremely privileged to be involved in the tour with the give-aways. We got to see United live as a Footiecall team. We met some legends & the current captain, and of course, the highlight was the presser with Sir Alex Ferguson.
No comments:
Post a Comment