Whilst all supporters of Manchester United, the greatest football team on the planet, and England are celebrating and congratulating Wayne Rooney and wife Coleen Rooney on the birth of their first child, wild speculation rages as to the origin of the name of their son, Kai Wayne Rooney. Media speculation has it that the name is anything from one of the characters from Mortal … [Read more...]
The Good, The Bad and The X Factor
The X Factor is many things: a compelling spectacle; Simon Cowell's brilliant idea of getting the entire United Kingdom to do his A&R for him; a chance for ordinary people to get an extraordinary opportunity; an opportunity for a lot of people who really ought to know better to talk a whole load of rubbish; fantastic entertainment; a depressing process that prizes generic … [Read more...]
Ebbsfleet United – A Different Kind of Football Club
Possibly as an antidote to the increasingly pervasive influence of big business in football, I have recently joined the over 30,000 football fans from 122 different countries that have invested the modest sum of £35 a year to own our very own football club, Ebbsfleet United. The members of MyFootballClub.co.uk bought the club for £600,000 in February 2008 and just three … [Read more...]
Football is Big Business
Three years ago I started a tiny blog all about Manchester United, the World's Greatest Football Team (copyright © 2008 Christopher Rose), stunningly titled About Manchester United. Due to a whole ton of reasons which will one day be chronicled elsewhere, I haven't been keeping About Manchester United (™) up to date, but it features match reviews and news stories about the … [Read more...]
$23 Billion “Lost” In Iraq
According to an investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme, as much as $23 billion (£12 billion) of US taxpayer's money has gone missing. The money has been lost, stolen or simply just not accounted for by as many as 70 private US companies. The BBC reports that the US Justice Department has imposed official gagging orders on court cases against some of the top US … [Read more...]