Boston Red Sox owners set to buy Liverpool FC

Fans are unhappy with how Hicks and Gillett are

running the club. (Image courtesy of teamtalk.com)

This is an update to my previous blog post (on 24th September) about Liverpool’s rising debts. It seems the Liverpool board has finally found a solution to their financial woes. This article from Bloomberg says that the owners of the American baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, will take over the beleaguered club – for 300 million pounds.

Bloomberg is one of the world’s major news corporations, so we can believe this piece of news. Reporter Tariq Panja has done a decent job too.

There's tension in the story - which is good. It seems that current co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, oppose the deal and the real reason is that they aren’t being paid 600 million pounds. Perhaps Panja could have mentioned something about this reason. Why the two co-owners can’t stop the sale of their own club, could also have been elaborated on more.

The choice of sources is good though, and adds credibility to the story. There are quotes from Martin Broughton, the Liverpool chairman and from a spokesperson for New England Sports Ventures (NESV), the likely buyer. Chairman Broughton has a direct influence in Liverpool’s affairs and NESV has just won the bid for the club, so their views would add interest to the story.

The providing of supporting facts are good too, because this gives concrete information to back up the article – like the new owner’s plans for the Anfield stadium. There’s also mention of the future stadium’s capacity, plans to win trophies and wipe out debts. This makes the article more informative.

Those who haven’t been following the issue can understand the story readily too, because Panja has provided adequate background information – like details of the Red Sox. This is good, as reporters shouldn’t assume their readers have been following the issue throughout.

Providing email addresses of Panja and the editor at the end of the article is a good tactic - it is ideal for online readers to inquire more about the story - and for the writer to obtain feedback.

Ancelotti desperate to win?

Strategy will be important to Ancelotti this Sunday.

(Image courtesy of The Sun)

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti’s father has just passed away in Italy, but according to this article from BBC Sport, the manager will still be presiding over Chelsea’s big match with London rivals Arsenal, this Sunday – and barking orders from the sidelines as usual.

This is interesting news because I think it shows Ancelotti’s desperation to win this game – even to the extent of rushing back immediately from his father’s funeral on Saturday. Every league match not won for Chelsea, means more points dropped in the league competition - and Ancelotti is worried.

This is probably a sad time for Ancelotti, so the reporter was right not to have interviewed him, even though a quote from Ancelotti might have added more depth to the story. The reporter is being ethical because Ancelotti would be grieving right now and not in a mood to speak to reporters. However, in the story, there is a short statement extracted from the Chelsea FC website, which helps to provide more information about the death of Ancelotti's father.

But the reporter could have obtained a quote from assistant manager Ray Wilkins about Chelsea’s chances of winning this Sunday – after having suffered their first defeat of the domestic league season last weekend. This could have strengthened and added variety to the story as well as helping to break up the descriptive text.

Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, I think the simple mugshot of Ancelotti is appropriate. Even though a picture of Ancelotti’s father, Giuseppe, on his deathbed might have been more relevant to the story angle, I definitely agree with the reporter not to have included such a picture – it’s simply not ethical to have done so.

But the WHY of journalism is missing because the article fails to address why Ancelotti will definitely be present at the Arsenal match this weekend – despite his father’s death. Wouldn’t he want to spend more time together with his family in Italy? We may assume that Ancelotti is too desperate to win against their London rivals, or that this could be an effort to impress his hard-to-please boss, club owner Roman Abramovich. But we can’t be sure.

Liverpool not going bust?

Will Hicks and Gillett still be smiling next year? (Image courtesy of icnetwork.co.uk)

The debts of Liverpool FC may be rising, but according to this article by BBC Sport News, the club’s managing director Christian Purslow is confident that the club will not go bust and that there are still parties interested in purchasing the beleaguered club.

This is a very significant piece of news because Liverpool is one of the world’s most-supported clubs with over 200 official supporters clubs worldwide – even in places as far away as Azerbaijan, Mauritius and Tokyo. So a story on the future of such an established football club definitely has impact – simply because many fans worldwide would want to know about this.

It also satisfies the newsworthy criteria of prominence because Liverpool has won the English domestic league 18 times. This story is timely too, because not only is the club currently in heavy debt, but they aren’t doing well on the pitch either – and are now lying 16^th in the league table. Last season, they finished seventh.

The interviews with Purslow and Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks are highly relevant to the story because they are Liverpool’s top management. Their quotes are therefore applicable to the news angle. However, it might be interesting to have had some conflict in the story by speaking to Liverpool fans as they may provide some opposing point of view – this is one newsworthy criteria the story lacks.

The usage of the pull-out quote by Purslow about “any incurrence of indebtedness by Liverpool Football Club needs full board approval” is relevant and helps reinforce the news angle too.

But the main image of Liverpool fans at a game does not match the accompanying picture caption that the fans “want to see the back of the club's current owners” because the caption signifies tension, but the picture looks too calm.

Overall, this is a very important story.

Walter Smith: Rangers to beat Man United

A tough game ahead for Walter Smith this week. (Image courtesy of Daily Mail)

As you probably know, the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) is just about to start. This is Europe’s premier club competition where the best clubs in the continent compete against each other for glory.

The article this week – from BBC Sport news, focuses on the Battle of Britain, which is the eagerly-awaited clash between English giants, Man United, and top Scottish team, Rangers. There are comments from the Rangers manager, Walter Smith. In the article, he talks about his club’s form and predicts that Rangers will have a tough task ahead of them to contain the firepower of their English opponents. This prediction helps to add strength to the story.

There are also views from the Rangers chairman, Alastair Johnston, about Rangers’ good away form. This provides the reader with a contrasting opinion. The article blends in Johnston’s comments well with Smith’s – without awkward transitions as it goes from one point of view to the other. However, it would have been interesting to add further conflict to the story with a quote from the opposition – Man United manager, Alex Ferguson.

It is interesting that this story does not consist of any photos, but instead has two videos. As these are more interactive than photos, this would probably help to engage the online reader more. The first video is on Smith talking about their chances of beating Man United. The second one is on Johnston saying how they are looking forward to playing Man United and hoping that rioting fans will not cause a problem. However, upon watching the videos, it seems like the author has simply summarised the videos rather than interviewing the two parties concerned. While this is good for those who may not have the time to sit back and watch the videos, perhaps it would have been more beneficial to the reader if BBC could have used the videos instead, to back up their story, rather than using them as a focus.

In this article, though, the five ‘W’s and ‘H’ of journalism are present. This is good, as it keeps the story focused.

Van der Vaart: Too Overconfident?

Tottenham's new signing, Rafael van der Vaart, is confident about

winning silverware. (Image courtesy of Goalymoly.com)

This story on the English football portal http://www.premierleague.com/, is about Tottenham’s new signing, Rafael van der Vaart. He talks confidently about winning silverware with his new London club, Tottenham Hotspur.

The article is based mainly on an interview with the player. References to Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp are made, but it would have been more credible if Redknapp was quoted, too.

The writer has given the reader some history as well. For example, he comments that van der Vaart started off as a promising youngster with the world at his feet. However, he has not lifted a major trophy since 2004 after winning the Eredivisie (Holland's top football league) trophy with his first club, Ajax. This extra information is good, as it helps the reader to understand the player a bit more.

I also liked the interactivity with the series of pictures of van der Vaart - because it engages the online reader through the clicking of the arrow buttons.

However, not all the interactive pictures in the series match the captions. For example, the second picture is a mugshot-style photo of van der Vaart dressed in an Oranje jersey and the caption says that he moved from Real Madrid to Tottenham. Using an image of him in a Real Madrid jersey would have been more relevant.

But the story definitely follows the newsworthy criteria of good journalism. The timeliness factor is satisfied because the English transfer window has just closed. It has prominence because van der Vaart is from a big Spanish club. There's also proximity because http://www.premierleague.com/ is targeted at primarily an English audience so they would be interested in the comments of a big-name football player who has come to ply his trade in England.

The five 'W’s and ‘H’ of journalism are also present. But it might have helped to put the ‘WHY’ higher up in the story though, because readers would be intrigued on why van der Vaart thinks he's able to win silverware with Tottenham. So it may frustrate readers to have to read through almost the whole story before they can find out this information.

Overall though, it is a good effort by the author.

Premier League managers help Capello

Capello is stumped by England's World Cup disaster. (Image courtesy of islandcrisis.net)

Managers of top English Premier League clubs are concerned by England’s World Cup disaster earlier this June and they are actually offering their help to England manager Fabio Capello, according to this article by the Guardian.

I was taken aback by this piece of news as I have always thought of the English club managers as being more interested in winning silverware for their own club. They have always seen international football duties as being a chore and that it distracts their players especially in the middle of the busy football season. I remember last season when Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was complaining about his star striker Robin Van Persie returning injured from international duty - so news of the club managers wanting to help England's head coach was really surprising.

This short story is interesting, but it seems to have consisted of only a single interview with Richard Bevan – the chief executive of the League managers' Association. Other sources should have been interviewed. Managers such as Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson and Wenger are mentioned in the article as having written a letter of advice to Capello but this is not backed up with comments from these coaches themselves. Even a short interview with one or two of these managers would have given the story more depth.

The visual showing a backdated picture of a glum Capello at an England match conference could also have been made more relevant to the story by replacing this with one of Capello being surrounded by a few English club managers.

This article seems to have been copied and pasted several times onto different news websites through a Google search. The Guardian seems to have done this too, as they credited Bevan’s quote to another newspaper, the Telegraph. This makes me wonder whether the facts were checked before the article was posted online because of the changing media landscape and the rush for news institutions to deliver the latest breaking news.

But overall, this is an informative article and the five ’W’s and one ‘H’ of journalism are present.

The 2010 Champions League Draw

Tottenham has been drawn into a group with... Inter Milan.

(Image courtesy of inquisitr.com)

You would probably be aware that the draw for the group stage of the Champions League took place early this morning. The results of the draw, and who each of the 32 clubs will face in Europe’s top football club competition, is given in this BBC Sport website story today.

Being English-based, the website naturally focused on the competition’s English representatives. This is evident because apart from the bit about Real Madrid being pitted against AC Milan, most of the story has an English connection. Even the managers of other continental clubs are interviewed with an English twist, such as Marseille’s chairman saying that he’s looking forward to welcoming Chelsea to France, rather than whether Marseille themselves will progress from their group. It would definitely make the story more balanced if there was a wider representative of non-English clubs talking about their own prospects.

But the headline focusing on Tottenham facing Inter Milan is quite appropriate because amongst the four English representatives, Tottenham are the only ones who are making their debut in the Champions League. So most BBC Sport readers, including those who are not Tottenham fans, would be interested in finding out whether the draw was fair to the London club. Thus, using the photograph of Tottenham celebrating their entry into the Champions League group stages, is relevant because it ties in with the news angle.

But the article lacks a comment from either Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp or Tottenham players about their prospects. As Tottenham is the angle of the story, at least one Tottenham quote should have been obtained.

Overall though, the story is pretty informative, providing not only information about the draw, but some background history, such as the fact that Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has a good relationship with Scottish club Rangers manager, Walter Smith, because the latter was the English club’s assistant manager six years ago. However, the amount of background research could have been more extensive.

Arsenal’s approach to spending

Wenger prefers to buy youngsters. (Image courtesy of The Telegraph)

We all know about Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s policy of choosing to develop young talent rather than splurging on big-name players. According to this article by BBC Sport's Editor David Bond in his blog, other big clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are so inspired by this policy that they have decided to implement it too – because of the financial benefits. This indeed is a timely topic as many Premier League clubs are now tightening their spending because of reducing income sources.

Bond’s research is adequate and this helps to back up his interview with the Arsenal Chief Executive, Ivan Gazidis. For instance, he includes figures to make the story more sound, such as the fact that Arsenal’s turnover is now more than 300 million pounds per year. But he should have included the sources of these figures to give credibility.

Bond’s article focuses on a single interview with Gazidis about how he supports Wenger’s approach, so it might have helped if Bond had a quote from Wenger himself to verify the statements made about the Arsenal manager. Perhaps comments by other Premier League managers on the merits of Wenger’s approach may have given differing viewpoints too.

Bond should have explained more about Uefa’s new ruling though, and how it supports Wenger’s policy, rather than just bringing in a single sentence that says the ruling limits “the amount owners can invest in their teams.” The writer definitely assumes that readers know what he is referring to. Those who did not read about the new Uefa ruling might be confused at what is being discussed.

It is also interesting that Bond has actually embedded the actual interview footage into his article rather than just having say, a picture of Gazidis. This highlights his interactivity with his online readers and shows that he is embracing the new forms of technology that are available to him.

But overall, this is a pretty well-written article.

Official Premier League ball unveiled

The 2010 English Premier League ball. (Image courtesy of soccerlens.com)

The match ball for the upcoming season’s English Premier League (EPL) has recently been launched. This is designed to be the world’s most accurate and consistent ball, reports the EPL news portal www.premierleague.com.

The article is well-researched and consists of detailed information about what makes the new Nike ball superior to last season’s one. The story is short and simple – nothing too complicated. One point though – it may be interesting to have said how the ball was tested and by whom.

There are two sources mentioned in the story – one was a goalkeeper – Stoke City’s Thomas Sorenson. His view is useful because a goalkeeper needs to handle the ball quite often and so having him say that accuracy of the ball is the “best yet” provides some valuable input to the story. The other source was the General Manager of Nike. However, his comments extolling the virtues of the ball, may be biased, as Nike developed the ball. Perhaps a quote from another player or manager may be beneficial - maybe someone who talks about a weakness of the ball.

The first picture, which is a close-up shot of the ball, is good. But the other two pictures displayed are not so relevant - these show Javier Hernandez and Aaron Lennon, who are not even featured in the article. A photo of Sorenson might have been more appropriate instead, because he was the player who was quoted. But it is good that the author presented the pictures in the form of an interactive slide-show format to engage the online reader.

It is interesting that the article includes a link to a gallery of Nike balls for the past 10 seasons. The gallery includes information such as how many goals have been scored with each season's Nike ball. Such interesting facts would engage avid football fans and entice them to click on the link.

New 25-man squad in EPL

Will Tevez be axed at Man City? (Image courtesy of top-footballer.com)

The English Premier League (EPL) in football (soccer) is enforcing a new 25-man squad rule where each club can use only a maximum of 25 players above the age of 21 this season, according to this article by The Mail Online. This ruling would definitely affect the league’s rich clubs, which have big squads. Quite simply, they would have to sell off quite a few of their millionaire players. This is an important news story - it affects the cream of English football.

What the new rules are and how these would affect the league’s wealthiest clubs, such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, are explained in detail. The story is also presented in an easy-to-read style with the interesting use of colours and visual images. However, a recap of why the rules are necessary has not been explained. This would have been beneficial to readers.

The story could also have used more sources. Apart from Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp and another unidentified manager, the journalists do not appear to have approached other parties for interviews. A quote from the English Football Association (FA) or a football pundit like ESPN’s John Dykes would have helped give more interest and credibility. Also, a comment from FIFA’s Sepp Blatter, the originator of the rules, would have added more value. However, the fact that a leading tabloid newspaper in Australia, The Daily Telegraph (which has a large sports fan base) has a similar online article, shows that the story has substance.

The big, eye-catching action-oriented pictures used also helps to reflect the mood of the story. For example, the photo showing injury-prone Manchester United’s Owen Hargreaves looking on anxiously, while his manager, Alex Ferguson, is checking his watch, implies that perhaps Hargreaves' time is up - and so he should start looking for a new club - as he may be axed from the team.

Overall, a good story.