Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on Nov 19, 2013 16:46:23 GMT
I thought this was shocking. Taken from Rod Liddle's column in The Sunday Times, headlined 'A Spurs victory that is nothing to crow about.
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THE average attendance at Fleet Spurs, a minor football club in Hampshire, is somewhere between 20 and 30, but i ought to point out right now, in case any expensive lawyers are reading, that these are not necessarily all paying customers. Indeed at one recent match the official attendance, meaning those who paid to get in, was two. Fleet Spurs, then, are not one of the country's bigger clubs. they reside third from bottom of the Sydenham Wessesx League Division One, unless they won yesterday against Hythe and Dibden - I haven't had time to check, apologies.
A while ago the club contacted the rather more famous Spurs, Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League, with a view to arranging a charity match for veteran players. How the big Spurs reacted is quite salutary, really, and tells you something about what the game has become.
One of Tottenham's eagle-eyed little monkeys, in the legal or marketing department, noticed that Fleet have a cockerel on their club badge. A strutting cockerel, I suppose you could call it. It's been there for at least 60 years - the club was formed not long after the end of the Second World War and played friendlies against a profusion of military teams.
The big Spurs did not like what they saw. They, too, have a cockerel on their club crest and, Spurs being active participants in the modern, commercial world had registered the silly bloody bird as a trademark back in 2006. They contacted Fleet and told them to remove the cockerel from their team shirts forethwith, or extremeley punative legal action would be taken against them. This Fleet felt it had no option to avoid, at a cost of £4,000. This might not seem much money in the world of football....but for Fleet Spurs it's a crippling amount. "We haven't got a penny to our name." said Brian Sheppard, the club chairman. "It's been quite stressful, we just felt really intimidated by the heavy handed approach."
Some functionary at Tottenham, meanwhile, explained "...it can undermine our ability to stop other unauthorised people who use our logo for commercial purposes, such as counterfeiters." The unnamed functionary decribed their decision to take action against Fleet as "common-sense." Really? "Arse-headed" comes to mind rather more quickly.
Do you accept the "counterfeit" argument offered up by the Big Spurs as a "commom-sense" reason for sticking the boot into Fleet? If you do, does the "counterfeit" argument really outweigh the "grotesque bullying" argument? The one good thing about this is that hopefully Big Spurs will get lots of adverse publicity which might, in some way translate into a loss of revenue. Because that is the only thing that seems to matter any more.
So wish Fleet Spurs luck and it may be that this battle with one of football's giants invigorates their season. But if you want to know how the big clubs regard the grassroots of the game, the cockerel saga tells you all you need
A while ago the club contacted the rather more famous Spurs, Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League, with a view to arranging a charity match for veteran players. How the big Spurs reacted is quite salutary, really, and tells you something about what the game has become.
One of Tottenham's eagle-eyed little monkeys, in the legal or marketing department, noticed that Fleet have a cockerel on their club badge. A strutting cockerel, I suppose you could call it. It's been there for at least 60 years - the club was formed not long after the end of the Second World War and played friendlies against a profusion of military teams.
The big Spurs did not like what they saw. They, too, have a cockerel on their club crest and, Spurs being active participants in the modern, commercial world had registered the silly bloody bird as a trademark back in 2006. They contacted Fleet and told them to remove the cockerel from their team shirts forethwith, or extremeley punative legal action would be taken against them. This Fleet felt it had no option to avoid, at a cost of £4,000. This might not seem much money in the world of football....but for Fleet Spurs it's a crippling amount. "We haven't got a penny to our name." said Brian Sheppard, the club chairman. "It's been quite stressful, we just felt really intimidated by the heavy handed approach."
Some functionary at Tottenham, meanwhile, explained "...it can undermine our ability to stop other unauthorised people who use our logo for commercial purposes, such as counterfeiters." The unnamed functionary decribed their decision to take action against Fleet as "common-sense." Really? "Arse-headed" comes to mind rather more quickly.
Do you accept the "counterfeit" argument offered up by the Big Spurs as a "commom-sense" reason for sticking the boot into Fleet? If you do, does the "counterfeit" argument really outweigh the "grotesque bullying" argument? The one good thing about this is that hopefully Big Spurs will get lots of adverse publicity which might, in some way translate into a loss of revenue. Because that is the only thing that seems to matter any more.
So wish Fleet Spurs luck and it may be that this battle with one of football's giants invigorates their season. But if you want to know how the big clubs regard the grassroots of the game, the cockerel saga tells you all you need
We are not worthy!