Not quite sure what this has to do with Rudiger, unless he applied to be a ref but got turned away because of his colour?
Let me explain how it works. The premier league and Fa put adverts in local papers asking for people to come along for an interview to be a premier league ref..
Everyone turns up and waits to be interviewed, a bit like the X factor auditions, they employ two burly doormen with skinheads and doc martins laced up to their knees, to stand at the front of the queue.
They only allow white people in for the interview and throw the black and Asian people down the road by the scruff of the neck.
Didn’t you know that?
Or maybe, just maybe, not many black/Asian people have shown any inclination to become a ref, or those that have, didn’t quite make the grade.? Just a thought.
Na mate definitely racism.....eh Sol buddy....
Soon after 10.30am on a cool and cloudy day in Hertfordshire the man with 73 England caps to his name, and who was once regarded as one of the finest defenders in the world, starts putting the cones out. It is a striking sight, but for
Sol Campbell this is the new norm of life as an aspiring coach and, if all goes well, top-level manager.
Campbell is in the formative stages of gaining Uefa's A licence – the second-highest qualification available after the pro licence – which he is pursuing via a course with the Football Association of Wales that involves the former centre-back sharing a classroom with 23 others, including his old
Woolwichteam-mate Patrick Vieira, and carrying out practical sessions in his own time.
Given the success he enjoyed in the red half of north London it is not a surprise Campbell has chosen to hone his coaching skills at Woolwich's London Colney training base, where he, Vieira and the other Invincibles of 2003-04 grew as individuals and as a team.
Campbell would later speak in
bitter and rather sad tones about how he ultimately feels he will have to begin life as a coach overseas as "there are no opportunities" for him in this country due to a combination of racial prejudice and a relationship with the English Football Association that he describes as "broken". But on an autumnal morning, he is at first a picture of focused contentment.
The 39-year-old has coached a mix of the club's Under-18 and Under-21 players more than 30 times already and was back on Monday for another session. Out on pitch four of the Premier League leaders' vast 11-pitch complex, Campbell is abuzz with intensity and concentration as he puts the cones out, plants mannequins into the turf and, quite literally, moves the goalposts as a group of 21 youngsters, which includes the 18-year-old defender Isaac Hayden and the Spain youth international Héctor Bellerín – both of whom featured in
Woolwich's Capital One Cup victory over West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday – warm up under the watch of the fitness coach, Mark Armitage.
"Coaching is definitely different," says Campbell, who retired from playing in May 2012 following spells with Tottenham, Portsmouth, Notts County, Newcastle and, most gloriously, Woolwich with whom he won two Premier League titles and three FA Cups. "I've got the knowledge but it's about communicating that to others in a manner they can understand. There's an art to that and the more you practise, the better you get."
With Armitage having completed his "speed work" with the group, Campbell takes charge at 10.50am, spreading the boys across a section of one half of the pitch, where the manikins have been placed, and instructing them to pass four balls among themselves in rotation. "Sharper lads, sharper," he shouts, before demanding they "move their feet". Shortly after, Campbell adjusts the routine so that the players now have to pass the ball with a single touch around the manikins.
"The manikins were placed in positions to encourage the lads to play passes from different angles, which was meant to get them looking wide and playing wide," Campbell later says. "That was what the whole session was about; building possession and getting the ball out wide. As a player I was taught the importance of working four or five passes within your team and then stretching the play. That's something I believe in strongly as a coach."
Campbell speaks of his love for "tricky wingers", which catches the attention coming from a man who built his reputation on being a formidable defender. "I've always felt wingers, more than any type of player, can change a game," he says. "I saw that first-hand at Woolwich where Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires did a fantastic job for the team in wide areas, overlapping, putting crosses in. They were crucial to our success. If you also look at Barcelona; they might not play with traditional wingers but
they want their full-backs to get up and down and stretch the play. It's a key part of football."
The emphasis on possession and width is even more defined in the second routine Campbell puts on, at 11.05am. The boys are split into two teams, one in blue bibs, the other in white, and again using a section of one half of the pitch their task is to string a minimum of 10 passes together before chipping the ball to a team-mate located in one of the "end zones" at either side of the designated area. With so many players using such a small part of the pitch the ensuing contest is unsurprisingly frantic, yet also fascinating, requiring those involved to think quickly, pass quickly and, most importantly, seek space on the fringes.
our game is rotten with it.........Mm?
