Russell Rambles

Well yet again I am writing about hockey, but as explained in my past post it is a very crucial time for the survival of the sport in the UK. When I posted my views I didn't expect such an over whelming reaction of support, the engagement was fantastic and hopefully can be the start of the game changing. Anyway, on the back off that post I have decided to write 3 more in depth pieces on the topics covered and try suggest a reasonable solution. Where better to start than the domestic structure, in particular the National leagues.  The Issues The National League has been around since 1974 and is meant to be the pinnacle of the English club game, but in reality how many children grow up wanting to win the Premier League? Very few that is for sure. Let's compare that to the Dutch or German systems, most kids have two goals: get an international cap and win the top flight. For example, a junior playing at Kampong dreams of winning a title with their home town team, just look at what...

Bad owners or bad regulators which is worse. It's something which is very rarely discussed. Fans and pundits alike will quickly blame the owners (rightly so), but the very fact they are allowed to make a difference is down to the governing bodies, they are the real issue and yet face very little backlash. To explain my point I am going to use a local club to me...Sheffield Wednesday. In 2014, Dejphon Chansiri bought the club from Milan Mandarić. At which point he would have been subject to the fit and proper test or as I like to call it, the micky mouse tick box. He passed this easily I am lead to believe and here is the first issue. The test isn't fit and doesn't prevent bad owners and for some reason this test is never changed. It's simple really, when you sell a business you do your due diligence, you review the business plan and you assess the funds available. The EFL in this instance should have performed a stress test on the business plan and ensure that even if y...

4 Olympic cycles, 50 million received in funding, 3 medals It's a worrying statistic, even more so when you consider only one of those medals was a gold. If you work it out it's 16 million per medal. The 2012 bronze and 2016 gold could be argued that it was down to GB falling lucky and having an incredible team, but as those have largely moved on the gap between GB and the rest of the World is stark. This is just the stats of the GB team, the main issue for me is England Hockey as Wales and Scotland already seem to perform above their level with lot less funding. Having been involved with the sport since the age of 7 it is clear that within England Hockey we are at breaking point, the next Olympic cycle could easily determine the future of the sport within the country. A good plan and restructure could see us become a leading nation once again, neglect and persistence with things that aren't working will see us be over taken. To highlight this point, look at the progression...