Ultra Culture
A documentary about Italy’s ultras
For my final postgraduate project I was given the task of producing a 30-minute radio documentary. Shocked by the stabbings of Mancheter United fans in Rome and the killing of Italian police officer, Filippo Raciti, in February by the “Ultras”, I decided to investigate this unique set of football fans.
What followed was months of research and trips to Italy and Manchester to gain interviews with, amongst others:
Steven Fitzsimons: A Manchester United fan who was almost stabbed to death in Rome by an ultra.
Ultras: I spoke to ultras from Lazio and Livorno, two teams with sections of fans who indulge in political extremism.
Giancarlo Abete: The head of the Italian FA.
Paddy Agnew: A respected Irish journalist who has been reporting on football from Italy for over 20 years. His brilliant book, Forza Italia has a chapter on the Italian fan culture.
John Foot: A UCL lecturer who has authored the magnificent English-language history of Italian football, Calcio.
I hope you enjoy the documentary, I certainly had a fascinating time making it. What I aimed to do was to clarify what an ultra is and what they stand for. As you will find out they form an integral part of Italian football culture and have been misunderstood by some elements of the British press. All feedback is most welcome.
All material © Neil Barker and ©BBC
“An overhyped moneyspinning festival of tedium”
One of my favourite writers is the acerbic Charlie Brooker of the Guardian.
Now he freely admits he knows nothing about football and despises it to the extent he defines the sport thus:
“an overhyped moneyspinning festival of tedium in which the world’s thickest millionaires kick a rubbish ball round a poxy field to the wonderment of an audience of foghorning cretins.”
In the light of tonight’s woeful display by England in Tel Aviv one wonders if Brooker’s caustic prose could act as a testament of enlightenment.
Only an act of internal revolution at the FA can now rid us of this Eriksson-McLaren axis of incompetence and that is about as likely to happen as Mr Brooker spontaneously proclaiming a love for the “beautiful” game.
A foot like a traction engine
My fledgling career as a sports hack took on a new dimension this week with my debut presentation of a sports bulletin in the studio.
So now is your chance to get a load of my ugly mug describing the University of Westminster’s sporting adventures.
It was a pleasure putting the package together and filming it but the whole thing reminded me a bit of Alan Partridge’s calamitous sports roundups from The Day Today .
It may not quite hit the heights of his World Cup ‘94 countdown and I must get round to persuading my tutor to construct a “soccermeter” in the studio but it is a start.
As the great man said himself: “The proof is in the pudding and in this case the pudding is a football. Booof. Eat my goal”
Going back to the roots
Here is a report I did investigating accusations from our university football team that they were verbally absued and threatened in a match against Acton Town police.
Sports journalism does not get any more local than this!
For a full written report of the incident please click here
Imitation is the highest form of flattery
One of the main reasons for my relative inactivity on this blog over the past few weeks is having to quickly submerge myself in the world of TV journalism.
Just when we thought we had mastered the art of radio journalism the focus has now shifted onto the visual form.
Working with two media (audio and visual) is challenging and creating news packages does require a lot of leg work.
We are now producing a live news bulletin three times a week and the fruits of our labour can be viewed on our BBC inspired website: WNOL
My first testing of the televisual waters a few weeks ago brought me to investigate Wembley stadium and how its design may not be as original as we first thought. Enjoy!
Not quite having our poppadum and eating it!
A false start to the second week on the Midday News at Five Live.
We arrived to be informed that the station would be taking live commentary from Melbourne of Andy Murray’s Australian Open clash with Rafael Nadal, which was due to commence at 10am.
This placed us in the unusual position of having to produce a show that in all likelihood would not make it to air.
This likelihood became a near cast-iron fact when Murray’s match was delayed until 11am (or midnight in Australia).
Despite this we did go through the motions of stitching together a good hour of news. I was in charge of booking a guest from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to update us on the marooned ship off the Devon coastline.
I also had the slightly lighter story of the UN’s proposals to introduce an international standard for poppadum production; a story that was simply unavoidable given Jade Goody’s Big Brother outburst last week.
Have poppadums ever been so firmly fixed in the nation’s consciousness!?
We managed to record and interview with 2006 Masterchef finalist, Daksha Mistry, but on returning to the newsroom it became so patently clear that we would not have a show today that I did not even bother to edit it down.
So all that was left was to remain looking busy, just in case either Murray or Nadal got a freak injury and we were thrust unexpectedly on air.
As you will all know, this did not happen and we were instead treated to a thrilling showdown from two shooting stars of the tennis circuit. It was amazing how many people in the newsroom were transfixed on the game despite being paid to be primarily concentrated on news.
I suppose this was just testament to how captivating the game was.
Friday’s proceedings had left me in a buoyant mood. I was entrusted with covering three stories - exploding Innocent smoothies, research into Unexplained Underperformance Syndrome in athletes and high pressure car washers doing damage to car tyres.
I managed to book three competent speakers on each issue including the co-founder of Innocent smoothies, Richard Reed (no no the shoe bomber!), whose office is just down the road from Television Centre.
Not only was it great to actually have a guest there in the flesh in the studio but he also came equipped with bags brim-full of smoothies for our team. You cannot fault their PR offensive when faced with having to explain why some of their bottled drinks were exploding (it was due to fermentation in heat).
Just before transmission it did get a bit hairy having to meet and greet Mr Reed, settle him in the studio, then go back to my desk to hurriedly edit a complex interview with Portsmouth University professor, Dr Paula Robson-Ansley, on why athletes’ genes may provide the answer to why they suddenly (and hitherto unexplainably) become fatigued when performing at their peak.
Somehow it all came together as it always seems to do on the show. The key is not to get too flustered by it all.
The day before was the final installment of the News and Sport Festival and a veritable smorgasbord of BBC journalistic talent was on display once again.
Director General, Mark Thompson, was there defending the license fee settlement in front of Jeremy Vine, who fielded some barbed questions.
This was juxtaposed with a more cuddly interview of England manager Steve McClaren conducted by Adrian Chiles. In fact it could not have been more soft in comparison, with McClaren’s dulcet tones barely audible at some points.
Earlier in the day the owners of distinctly more punchy voices - football commentators Jonathan Pearce and Alan Green - were in attendance.
The former gave a commentary masterclass where it was surprising to learn how Pearce still feels he is learning the trade of television commentary, despite having been involved with it (at Five and the BBC) for over a decade.
Perhaps he was being overly self-critical. At least you cannot fault the man on his research and preparation for each match. Just a brief look at his notes he had made for the Manchester United - Aston Villa FA Cup tie made me wince with astonishment.
Every player on his A4 sheet of paper had a box next to their name crammed full with statistics including their entire career history, scoring record, height, weight, date of birth and numerous other trivia nuggets.
Those of you who feel that commentary is just turning up to a match once or twice a week and spurting out waffle are sadly mistaken. Protagonists like Pearce take it as a passion, if not obsession, and leave no stone unturned. It truly is a trade to be admired.
Another issue raised by Pearce, which cropped up in a later forum, was how much personal opinion should be included in a commentary.
I think it is fair to say that the standpoints of Jonathan Pearce and Alan Green differ somewhat as the Northern Irishman was all to ready to allude to when talking about football punditry.
He said he would be averse to altering his strident form of commentary in favour of a more “impartial” view of events and would continue to enrich the BBC with his superlative, if sometimes criticised, style.
He may be the pariah of Manchester United fans but I believe Green’s integrity and bravura forms a template many other journalists just toeing the line could learn from.
Rugby Union player turned pundit, Matt Dawson, put this debate into context by reminding us of how difficult it can be to tell the truth and slate a player if he has performed poorly, especially when it could be a friend and former team-mate.
In another forum blogging was discussed. One top tip given by the head of BBC Interactive, Pete Clifton, was to keep your blog continually updated.
Oh well, it is evident that I still need to take this message on board.
Hopefully I will spare you from these gargantuan posts in the not to distant future!
Bungs, mad cows and a Dutch master
It’s not every day that you get to spend time in the company of Jeremy Paxman, David Blunkett, Polly Toynbee, the makers of the X Factor as well as sporting gurus such as Head of BBC Sport, Roger Mosey, Garry Richardson, John Inverdale, Kevin Gearey, Mihir Bose and Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore.
This potpurri of media denizens was laid on as part of the BBC’s News and Sport Festival in White City today, which was not only a display of the corporation’s journalistic might but also a chance to debate some pertinent matters concerning the Beeb.
Having been granted two days off from my work at Five Live I was at liberty to fully exploit this information gold-mine whilst also coming face to face with some of my journalistic heroes.
All of the seminars I attended were superb but the one that related most to this blog was entitled Investigating Sport: An Own Goal? where John Inverdale chaired a panel of guests including the BBC’s new Sports Editor, Mihir Bose (freshly poached from the Daily Telegraph), sports reporter Gabriel Clarke and the aforementioned Richard Scudamore.
The discussions centred predominantly around the Panorama bungs investigation (aired back in September) and whether it was correct for the BBC to make such a programme considering the aggravation it has caused their sports team, especially on Match of the Day.
Bolton’s Sam Allardyce and Portsmouth’s Harry Redknap have boycotted BBC interviews since the programme implicated them as protagonists in the affair, adding to the most notable abstainer from BBC advances, one Sir Alex Ferguson.
Whilst some audience members thought that this kind of investigative reporting stirred up more trouble than it is worth the general consensus was that the BBC is duty-bound to plough this furrow and uncover malpractice in this country’s sports.
Despite receiving a mild grilling from both panel and audience, a candid Richard Scudamore allayed fears that the BBC’s position in bidding for Premiership rights may be compromised by criticism of that footballing brand by underling that all bids are judged solely on financial terms.
He also revealed that whenever he meets Sir Alex Ferguson he constantly pleads with him to re-establish media contact with the BBC.
The refreshing aspect of this forum was that the overriding feeling emerged that it was the corporation’s job to do its utmost in investigative sports reporting and not just sweep the issues under the carpet due to anxiety over losing prized rights to sporting events.
In a media world where Sky presenter Jeff Stelling, gets rapped for asking Sam Allardyce live on air if he takes bungs it is heartening to know that there is still place for quality probing journalism on sport. A genre that Sky feels “does not interest their customers”.
The BBC is taking the opposite view by expanding in this field. Mihir Bose’s appointment is the first element in this strategy, which will hopefully flourish with the forthcoming sports news programme to be hosted by Gaby Logan.
The BBC may have its critics but its commitment to hard hitting sports journalism definitely impresses me.
This was all a world away from my activities at the Midday News yesterday. A great chunk of it was set aside for Tony Blair’s monthly press conference, which, despite not being too inspiring, was live and worthy of taking the show’s first quarter hour.
After that we managed to stitch together an eclectic mixture of stories, including the one I had to work on about a farmer’s herd of cattle which was in the process of being slaughtered.
The surrey farmer, Percy Podger, had unfortunately fed his cows pet food containing rabbit and bonemeal. This has been outlawed since the outbreak of mad cow disease and DEFRA were left with no alternative but to kill his entire herd in order to prevent their meat entering the food chain.
It was my duty to research the story with the BBC’s rural affairs editor, Tom Heap, and then call Mr Podger to get his reaction.
Despite the farmer having just witnessed all of his 68 cows being taken away for execution, he was willing to be questioned and we pre-recorded an impassioned interview with the show’s host Dalya Raphael.
This came out at around nine minutes so it was then my job to edit this on the BBC’s VCS software (basically a stripped down version of Cool Edit Pro for you audio geeks out there) down to around two-and-a-half minutes.
To give you some indication of the deadlines we work under, the final version of the edit was only completed halfway into the show and about ten minutes before the piece was due to go on air.
Despite this, the programme’s editors were pleased with my work with the story hopefully attracting a rural population who are under-served by Five Live and Mr Podger’s angry defiance of the authorities’ actions making lively radio.
All that is left is to leave you with a funny quip from the BBC’s sports correspondent, Kevin Geary.
In his seminar today on writing to sports pictures he decided to show us his finest hour. This came when covering a Frank Bruno fight in 1991 when he easily overpowered the hapless Dutch boxer, John Emmen.
The clip was shown of Bruno pounding his opponent to the floor and Geary’s accompanying script went: “Emmen took to the canvas as readily as Rembrandt”.
Boom boom.
Let’s hope one day I can achieve such sporting wit!
Up at 5 for Five Live
So after a Christmas and New Year of joviality and idle contemplation it has been back to the grindstone over the past few days.
Last week at university was spent composing assessed news bulletins, vox pops and news writing and the next two weeks will see all these skills I have garnered put to the acid test.
I am lucky enough to have bagged a two week work placement at BBC Radio Five Live, aiding the Midday News team in composing their hour-long show.
This blog will therefore take a slightly unlikely diversion over the next fortnight by cataloguing my daily duties at the Beeb.
The first thing to encounter today was the shock of having to tear myself from my bed at the ungodly hour of 5am to make it up to Television Centre in time for a 7 o’ clock start.
My eerie journey through the gloomy streets and tunnels of London was swiftly rewarded on my arrival when, after a few pleasantries with the 5 person team, I was immediately asked to crack down with some work and leaf through the morning papers for inspiration.
After gathering my thoughts it was time for the 8am team meeting to set the agenda for the show by thrashing out the big stories for the day. The meeting was focussed but fairly relaxed and I was impressed that my ideas were heeded.
Today was exceedingly straightforward regarding story selection and I was assigned to work on the reaction to a report by the King’s College Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, which painted a bleak picture of the Labour government’s record on tackling crime over the last decade.
My first move was to contact the Home Office to ask for the official reaction from a minister. This was (unsurprisingly) met with a blunt reply from their press office, which amounted to no more than “we will call you back”.
In the meantime I analysed the press release of the Centre’s report online and attempted to distill the salient points into a cue for the show’s host, Dalya Raphael, to read on air.
Still waiting on the Home Office reply, I then edited some audio received earlier in the day from the co-author of the report, Richard Garside. For the purposes of the Midday News this had to be no longer than twenty seconds.
It was slowly dawning on us that the Home Office were going to remain cagey on supplying a spokesperson for this story, perhaps fearing that the debate may get sidetracked onto the furore over the missing computer records for criminals convicted overseas.
This meant I had to track down the Tory line on the affair and they were obviously willing to play ball, by offering Shadow Minister for Police Reform, Nick Herbert.
One of the glories of working on a national radio show - in this case with a listernership of 1.5 million - was how willing people were to drop everything and give an interview.
Mr Herbert was only confirmed with half an hour to go before transmission began so I had to rapidly book him into a studio at the BBC’s Millbank studios for the live interview via ISDN.
All that was left for me to do now was to enter the studio and watch the show go out live.
My story had been bumped fairy high up the running order and it was satisfying to see (and hear!) my labours bearing fruit.
The show went very smoothly and pacily dealt with the main news, sport and business issues of the day so far.
The producers remained amazingly composed despite the frantic scurrying behind the scenes of contacting the guests, cueing the audio clips, keeping abreast of any breaking news and (most importantly) watching the clock.
This final element almost caught us out with an interview with the father of a Briton murdered in India having to be somewhat cruelly truncated due to time constraints.
Once the show was completed we all decamped to the main studio for a concise debrief and with that the day’s work was done.
So in general a delightful first day. I am glad that my capabilities are being fully recognised and I feel that this is surely the best way for me to gain the most out of this experience.
Let’s hope that tomorrow is just as zestful and rewarding.
It’s high time I got some sleep!
A Standing Debate
Over the last few weeks I have been investigating the issue of standing at Premiership football matches.
My efforts have culminated in the following 4 minute audio package including interviews with important figures in this deabte such as Amanda Matthews from the Stand Up Sit Down campaign and John De Quidt, chief executive of the Football Licensing Authourity.
I hope you enjoy the piece and any feedback is most welcome.
Biscuit baron is bait for more Blatter ballacks
One vital piece of football news got lost amongst last week’s copious build-up and subsequent fallout from England’s abysmal start to the Ashes.
Eggert Magnusson’s £85 million takeover of one of this country’s most venerable footballing institutions - West Ham- did not go uncovered but definitely should have been examined more by the broadsheet press.
The Icelandic biscuit baron’s takeover of the East End side means that six Premiership clubs are now in foreign ownership.
With many football clubs being publically listed companies, there is nothing wrong with international investors coming into the English game and West Ham fans are predominantly delighted that Terrence Brown has finally exited the chairman’s seat at the Boleyn Ground.
But change is not necessarily a good thing and motives of investors must be closely scrutinised.
One comment last week from an influential figure in the world game summed up my sentiments entirely.
On the face of it the plea that “we need to be careful football doesn’t end up in the hands of the people who want football to serve them instead of them serving football” oozes rationale.
At least it does before you realise it was uttered by one Joseph S. Blatter.
Now most football fans know that the FIFA president is a slippery individual and Blatter openly acknowledged his image of chief pariah by avoiding the presentation of the World Cup in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on July 9th for fear of being roundly booed once more.
We have all heard rumours of corruption at football’s top table but it was not until I had read Andrew Jennings’ exhaustive account of FIFA’s skulduggery in his book, FOUL!, that the hearsay was finally confirmed.
Jennings has spent years investigating FIFA to the extent that he is now officially persona non grata at the game’s governing body.
Through his bulging contact book he managed to get his hands on FIFA accounts, which made illuminating if not sickening reading.
Corruption has been at the heart of FIFA ever since the Englishman Sir Stanley Rous ceded governance to the more media and business-savvy Brazilian Joao Havelange in 1974.
This succession ushered in a more ruthless, commercial ethos into the corridors of FIFA’s Zurich HQ.
Sepp Blatter has reveled in this environment, worming his way to the top and once there, lavishly rewarding himself.
And this is why I seriously challenge the veracity of Blatter’s reservations about football serving its administrators.
In fact this remark reeks of hypocrisy.
Blatter has amply taken advantage of FIFA funds, meant “for the good of the game”, by treating himself to numerous luxurious trips abroad with all the deluxe trimmings.
In fact he is on another one of these jolly-ups right now, headlining the football business convention, Soccerex, in Dubai.
He continues to sanction a daily spending allowance of $500 despite reportedly earning an annual salary in the region of £1.7 million.
Jennings also reveals how Blatter plundered FIFA funds to bankroll his presidential re-election campaign in 2002.
This clearly put him at an advantage over his independently-financed rival Lennart Johansson and also severely contravened FIFA rules.
So far Blatter has yet to pay for his flagrant corruption but gradually, with the help of imperious investigative reporting by journalists like Jennings, football fans are wising up to Sepp’s sleaze.
The brazen criticism of the Premiership’s foreign owners on the day that Magnusson put pen to paper reaffirmed Blatter’s boundless arrogance.
The first signs look promising but it is far too early to say whether Magnusson and his dollar billionaire backer, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, keep their promises and enrich the English game.
They may be foreign, inevitably there will be doubts, but they will have to do a hell of a lot wrong before they even near the league of sleaze in which Blatter is the sole competitor.
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