Saturday 23 April 2016

Cheers, Oscar.

Dear Oscar,

I'm writing to thank you very much for inviting me to celebrate your birthday last night. Since you haven't replied to my Facebook message I thought I'd go down the more public route and try and wake you up from your hangover. Maybe having 6 Jaegers at 9pm is not the best way to start the night?

I can say I certainly had a top night. Having somewhere decent to go out in Fallowfield makes nights out so much easier. None of that bus journey into town and darting around Manchester in the cold. Just a simple 2 minute walk there and back coupled with a cheeky trip into Kebab King and the night is done.

Hope you've moved from passing out on the floor.

Lots of love,

Ollie x

Friday 22 April 2016

Why blog?

After blogging yesterday and having a chat to Shieuerz about recording our lives in such a way, I've decided to try and blog on consecutive days for what must be the first time in months.

When I started this blog my intention was to just make an account of what had happened on a day-to-day basis, whilst occasionally having a deep thought and getting that down in a more thoughtful blog. When you lack the audience and lack the interesting factor then it's hard. I'm at university and, contrary to popular belief, there is work to do in first year! Factor in everything that I do outside of studying (golf, tennis, football, refereeing) as well as socialising and you have a pretty hectic schedule with little time for a blog.

Blogging/vlogging has become more and more popular recently. Shieuerz and I were discussing why people do blogs/vlogs, especially without a large audience. We concluded that we just do it for ourselves, using it as somewhere to just keep a record of things. If people read it, great, if not, then no worries. I know my life isn't that interesting to many people, which I'm fine with. I like it and that's just about all that matters.

I wish I could blog something interesting every day, but my life is not interesting enough and I just don't have the time! I'll be picking up on this again in the near future.

Ollie :)

Thursday 21 April 2016

Is referee abuse acceptable?

This morning I read that Roy Hodgson, manager of the England football team, has said that Jamie Vardy's reaction to being sent off by referee Jon Moss was "understandable". The BBC article is here (and note that I'm not interested in his opinion on whether or not Vardy dived):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36095979

A brief summary: The Football Association (FA), who employ Hodgson, has charged Vardy with improper conduct for his actions following his dismissal. I have no idea what Vardy said but let's just assume he said some 'choice words' to Jon Moss and was gesticulating aggressively towards him (which I have seen for myself on Match of the Day). Again, I'm not interested in what happened during the game, I'm interested in Hodgson and what he's said.

So Hodgson has publicly disagreed with his employers, but what is more concerning is that he appears to be condoning conduct towards referees that may be abusive, insulting or offensive in nature. If Vardy gets away with the conduct he showed on Sunday, what implications does it have for football in general? I have no doubt that this will worsen the attitude towards referees that is already bad enough. There are enough things that have fed through from the top of the game to the grassroots level that have had a negative impact, and the attitude towards referees is certainly one of them. When I was at a referee's meeting yesterday, we were told that no one in the Premier League has been sent off for offensive, insulting or abusive language in the past 6 years. I have absolutely no doubt that Premier League footballers have said worse things to referees that I have heard at grassroots level and not even been spoken to about it.

It's certainly made me think about how I want to approach this sort of attitude in the future. I'm not sure why Hodgson would even respond to such a question in the first place - surely if you have a different opinion than The FA then you'd just shut up and keep it private? Absolutely bizarre to me.

Ollie
I'm on Instagram too now, @chowerz