Angry fans

OUR football correspondent LIAM MACKEY is back in top form and full of energy.

This week Let’s hope that the Cork City situation

is resolved; FIFA and UEFA need to monitor transfers; Image rights for Rooney;

Terry takes the blame; Seedorf is the man not Beckham; David Gill has a job to

do, but; Hiddink for Anfield and Rafa for Juventus; Avram Gran’s to sort

web of off shore accounting; Tapping of players; Fabregas surrounded by donkeys;

Fabregas doesn’t need to move.

The Letter of the Week goes

to Red Devil, Limerick. Get in touch with your postal address and our magnificent

prize will be winging its way to you before you know it.

LET’S

look at a “little” domestic issue for a change Liam, and hope that all

the uncertainty over the future of Cork City is resolved for once and for all.

It’s always been one of the best supported sides in the country and it wasn’t

that many years ago when we were playing Champions League football. Let’s

hope the final problems can be resolved and we can leave the turmoil of recent

years behind us and move forward into the new season.

Cork rebel, by email

MOST

of the financial problems involving football clubs seem to involve the financial

management of transfers and the complex payment systems which accompany them.

There’s even a row this week over the transfer of Shay Given to Manchester

City. Surely it’s not beyond the wit of UEFA, the FA, FIFA, the FAI and all

the other authorities to put a properly audited and transparent system in process.

Players have to be registered, couldn’t the money involved be vested with

some trusted third parties who have to make sure that the payments are met, who

is making them, and who they are being made to?

Peter Doyle, Cork, by email

OUR SHOUT: Transparency is precisely what FIFA's Transfer Matching System

initiative is supposed to provide. It's still being rolled out across the world

so the jury remains out but when it comes to money I suspect the devil will always

be in the details. As for Cork Rebel's dream - it looks like just getting through

today will be a challenge in itself.

LET’S look at a “little” domestic issue for a change Liam, and

hope that all the uncertainty over the future of Cork City is resolved for once

and for all. It’s always been one of the best supported sides in the country

and it wasn’t that many years ago when we were playing Champions League football.

Let’s hope the final problems can be resolved and we can leave the turmoil

of recent years behind us and move forward into the new season.

Cork rebel,

by email

MOST of the financial problems involving football clubs seem to involve

the financial management of transfers and the complex payment systems which accompany

them. There’s even a row this week over the transfer of Shay Given to Manchester

City. Surely it’s not beyond the wit of UEFA, the FA, FIFA, the FAI and all

the other authorities to put a properly audited and transparent system in process.

Players have to be registered, couldn’t the money involved be vested with

some trusted third parties who have to make sure that the payments are met, who

is making them, and who they are being made to?

Peter Doyle, Cork, by email

OUR SHOUT: Transparency is precisely what FIFA's Transfer Matching

System initiative is supposed to provide. It's still being rolled out across the

world so the jury remains out but when it comes to money I suspect the devil will

always be in the details. As for Cork Rebel's dream - it looks like just getting

through today will be a challenge in itself.

DID I read correctly that

Wayne Rooney is being paid £760,000 per month for image rights? Wayne Rooney?

What must image rights be worth for a good player who’s also good looking?

Limerick Red, by email

OUR SHOUT: No, you didn't read

that correctly. It's pretty obvious that should have been £760,000 per day,

surely.. By the way have a red card to match your name and, oil-painting though

you doubtless are yourself, a green one to match your look of sheer envy.

DIDN’T take long (until last Saturday) for the British press to get

their knives into the next England captain for playing away. Is he going to resign

now? Can’t we set this game to music?

Larry O’Toole, Tallaght,

by email

OUR SHOUT: I think Duran Duran beat you to it.

.

GOOD to see that John Terry, writing in the Chelsea programme, acknowledged

that both the Everton goals at Goodison Park were his fault. Seems like turning

over a new leaf has to start with accepting responsibility for your own actions.

Mike O’Donnell, Tipperary, by email

OUR SHOUT: It

also helps that cameras are on hand to capture the evidence, if you get my drift.

.

AFTER that FA Cup bore-in at the City of Manchester Stadium it’s clear

that City are little more than a second rate team without Bellamy and Tevez. Yet

these are the two players who were said to be too similar to play in the same

team. Roque Santa Cruz has contributed nothing since his over-priced transfer,

another good reason why Mark Hughes’s judgement should have been open to

scrutiny.

Declan Leahy, Cork, by email

ALL the attention

will be on David Beckham if he gets onto the field tonight to play Manchester

United at the San Siro, but we should really be watching another Milan midfielder

– Clarence Seedorf, one of the all-time greats. I remember when Milan knocked

Manchester United out in the semis a couple of years ago. Kaka got all the headlines,

but Seedorf bossed the game. One of my favourite all-time players, and brilliant.

Patrick O’Brien, Clare, by email

OUR SHOUT: Valiant

effort Patrick but all the attention will still be on David Beckham tonight, even

if he doesn't get on the field.

I CAN’T feel very sorry for David

Gill after he was cornered by United fans when taking part in a debate on football

finances at an English university. We’ve got a right to be disappointed about

the contradictory statements he made following his original stand against the

Glazer takeover. Sure, he’s got a job to do, and it’s a well-rewarded

one, but as the club’s principal officer he should expect to be held to account,

and explain why he has changed his mind about the merits of being one of the most

indebted clubs in the world. He should, perhaps, have been grateful that only

two critics turned up rather than the 200 wearing Cantona rubber masks in the

Ken Loach film. One thing I am sure of, is that if United do not have a successful

season, and this is coupled with a further increase of ticket prices, and a failure

to invest the money United will need to replace the likes of Neville, Scholes

and Giggs, then the future protests against the Glazer ownership will increase

in momentum. United’s worldwide fan base could turn against the club’s

administrators.

Red Devil, Limerick, by email

OUR SHOUT:

Prize-winning Letter of the Week

.

GUUS Hiddink for Anfield? Rafa Benitez

for the newly re-opened Stadio delle Alpi next season? It has a certain logic

to it, doesn’t it? But would Hiddink sign on for a club so mired in financial

uncertainty as Liverpool. There have got to be easier jobs for a man of 64.

Stephen O’Neill, Dublin, by email

OUR SHOUT: The big

question is how will the bould Guus find time to manage Liverpool when he's also

managing Nigeria, Turkey, China, Herenveen and - let's start another rumour here

- Cork City?

WAYNE Bridge really ought to get a grip. Does he think

that refusing to talk to John Terry will help his chances of getting into a World

Cup squad?

Michael Gallagher, Waterford, by email

OUR SHOUT:

Time for the boys to kiss and make up. Get me Max Clifford! And a long lens snapper!

.

FAIR play to Avram Grant for his Perry Mason-style plea bargaining in court

with the English tax authorities which resulted in a seven-day stay of execution

for Portsmouth. Can he do as much now to cut through the web of offshore accounting

and let us all know what exactly has been going on with the 2008 Cup winners.

Niall Walsh, West Cork, by email

OUR SHOUT: "Web of offshore

accounting. Web of offshore accounting. Web of offshore accounting." If you

say it often enough, you start to hallucinate. Try it. It's better than the stuff

in the head shops.

WHEN English clubs “tap up” other players

they do it through middlemen and clandestine meetings in hotels, or as in the

case of John Terry, by text message. In Spain they simply stick it on the front

pages of their tame house newspapers, as Barcelona have been doing with their

pursuit of Cesc Fábregas. What’s the difference actually? The result’s

the same.

Patrick Keating, Limerick, by email

OUR SHOUT: You'd

never find us doing that sort of thing here, writes Liam Mackey, who has recently

been linked with the New York Times, the Washington Post, Pravda and Ireland's

Own.

.

IT’S little short of a crime to have a player like Fábregas

surrounded by clodhoppers like Bendtner and Denilson. That is why Wenger has to

invest some significant money this summer to ensure that talents such as Cesc

and Van Persie do not toil alone. Otherwise I could see us losing them.

Gooner-in-Cork,

by email

JUST a couple of points about all the propaganda around Cesc.

He’s only 22. He doesn’t need to move for several more years yet. Iniesta,

probably Barcelona’s most important midfielder, already plays in his position

which will likely mean bench time, just as he gets for Spain. The Spanish league

is rubbish with only Barcelona and Real Madrid capable of winning it. He’s

on a long-term contract, he’s captain of a major European team who don’t

need to sell him. And if they did it would be for a fee at the Kaka and Ronaldo

level. Can football in general and Spain in particular with one of the most broken

economies in Europe, afford another round of that? I don’t think so.

Paul Murphy, Mallow, by email

OUR SHOUT: Always nice to hear

from Arsene.