Aston Villa 5 – 1 Birmingham City (Photos)
My photos from the game – Villa thrash Blues 5-1 on April 20th 2008, I watch from the Director’s box, sitting behind England manager Fabio Capello, having met Villa chairman Randy Lerner. Good times!
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- The Villa Faithful – Villa Park
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- Fabio Capello – England manager
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- Free Stuff!
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- Director’s Lounge Invite/Pass
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- Sexy Villa Notepad!
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- Director’s Box Ticket
The 1.6 billion dollar handshake
Today was a good day. My beloved football team Aston Villa thrashed local rivals Birmingham City 5-1 at Villa Park and I was there. (Full match report).
I’ve been lucky recently and have been able to go to a couple of games courtesy of a friend of a friend who has hired an executive box at the ground for the season. Today the box we are usually in was booked by someone else, so we were upgraded to the ‘directors experience’ corporate package – something my brother Stat who is a die-hard Villa fan (and goes to every home match) wasn’t too keen on the idea of – he likes to ‘keep it real’ – where as I on the other hand, will lap up any corporate hospitality on offer!
I arrived after the other members of our group had been on a tour of the stadium (I have a bad back and didn’t fancy the walking/standing, plus I’d been on the same tour a couple of years ago), just in time for the food – a full English breakfast…most welcome at 10:45am. We were dining the Director’s Lounge, surrounded by football legends, former Villa Owner/Chairman Doug Ellis was on the table next to us and former player/Birmingham City manager Trevor Francis was nearby. In fact the room was full of legends, many of whom I recognised, but couldn’t name. Midway through the food we were asked to go and collect the champagne from Villa legend (and former England international) Tony Morley, who played in Villa’s 1981 European Cup winning squad – a proper Villa legend, and a really nice guy!
Fifteen minutes before kick-off everyone in the room started looking at the door and whispering – it soon became apparent why – the new England manager Fabio Capello had just walked in. He kept to himself, perched on the end of the bar eating a bowl of soup, but before long people were queueing up to get autographs and photos with him, which he seemed quite happy to do – despite his soup being left to going cold!
Not long after the crowd dispersed it was time for kick off. We went to our seats in the directors’ box, which is outside but sectioned off from the rest of the crowd and I found myself only a few seats away from Capello. The first half was brilliant and by half time we were 2-0 up.
We retired to the director’s lounge for a half-time drink, and as I walked into the room a couple of the other guys in our party were talking to the new Villa Owner/Chairman, American billionaire Randy Lerner. Seeing as he was a few feet away and seemingly happy to chat I wondered over and joined the discussion for a few minutes – we chatted about the difference in English and American football (he also owns the Cleveland Browns NFL team) and sport in general – he seemed to be a really nice guy, and very happy to chat with every day Villa fans. We shook hands with him and returned to our table, feeling rather pleased with ourselves.
Before long the second half was upon us and it just kept getting better! Villa bagged another 3 goals in the second half (Blues managed 1 – but that didn’t really count!) – we completely out-classed them and the crowd went wild each time we scored. I was having to take it easy as jumping up and down with a bad back wasn’t such a good idea – but this was the game of the season, and we were beating Blues 5 bloody 1!
As the game drew to an end the Villa faithful cheered the players from the pitch, happy in the knowledge that Blues were most likely going to be relegated and the 5 goals their deadliest rivals put past them today must have hurt, a lot!
Up the Villa!
The end of ticket touting in the UK?
According to this Guardian Unlimited article the UK Government may actually be about to get serious about ticket touting (scalping for you US people) and put laws in place to stop it. I certainly hope that something is done about this problem sooner rather than later.
The touting issue is something that as a regular concert goer I feel very strongly about, and I feel it has been allowed to get completely out of control in recent years, particularly with the rise of online auction sites such as eBay, which despite all their claims of innocence are making the situation much worse whilst raking in millions of pounds in the process.
There are those who insist that they should be entitled to re-sell something they have bought at whatever price they want, just as they can with other items, however in this instance it has been proven that this isn’t a case of a few people re-selling tickets because they can’t attend an event – it has become a multi-million pound industry run by criminal gangs, endorsed by supposedly honourable organisations (such as eBay), and the only people losing out are the fans who want to see the acts (or sporting teams) they follow.
I don’t think the proposed ‘protected events’ idea which would mean that for certain events ticket re-selling would be banned goes far enough. Why should this ban only apply to events of so-called ‘national importance’? Surely it is just as important that a consumer isn’t ripped-off when trying to buy tickets for a concert by an unknown band as it is for example an England International football game, or a major tribute concert?
What we need is a complete ban on ticket touting, it should be made illegal to re-sell a ticket for any event unless it is sold for face value through a government run website. Such a website would mean that all sellers, re-sellers and buyers would have to register their contact details and could therefore be held accountable if they tried to re-sell above face value.
This kind of system would mean an end to ticket touting, something that everyone other than those profiting from it want to see.
Have you ever been the victim of a ticket tout? Ripped-off on eBay? Do you regularly buy tickets from touts or online re-sellers? Would you like to see touting banned? Or maybe you think re-selling should be allowed to continue un-monitored?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Your Brazil Name Is…
England might be out of the World Cup, but at least we can have some with the ‘brazilname’ generator. Just click here, enter your forename and sirname and you’ll get your very own Brazilian Footballer name! Make sure you share yours in the comment section!
Not wanting to get too carried away with football, the next post won’t be World Cup related – I promise!
Regards, “Clarkinhosa”
[tags]Fotoball, World Cup, Brazil, England[/tags]
England Out.
Yet another England World Cup dream in tatters. Yet another loss to Portugal on penalties. Yet another injury. Yet another bad decision by a ref. Yet another red card.
Millions of words have been and will be written about this World Cup, so there’s not much I feel I can add. The above photo of David Beckham sums it up really.
[tags]England, World Cup, Germany 2006, Portugal, Football, David Beckham[/tags]
