Birmingham Mail - Sport

It’s a bit rich to call owners ‘fit and proper’ Oct 15 2009

I GET the feeling that if Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Attila the Hun turned up at St James’ Park, St Mary’s or Meadows Lane or wherever in a Panzer tank to annex, sorry, take over a football club, then they would still be deemed fit and proper people by our football authorities.Read

The colour of money behind bad new kits Aug 13 2009

IT was as if it had never been away. We had Fergie ranting after a match and a referee who thinks consistency relates to cement or porridge and has nothing to do with football.Read

Reality TV the answer to this tired formula Apr 02 2009

JENSON Button has managed to breathe a bit of life into a tired old sport.Read

Chambers has tainted every victorious run Mar 12 2009

THERE was something distasteful about Dwain Chambers winning the 60metres at the European Indoor Athletics Championships.Read

Losers have a special place in our hearts Nov 06 2008

WHY do we have such an obsession with losers? Is it because we can identify with them – we see them as some sort of soulmate?Read

US billionaire’s bounty just cheapens the game of cricket Oct 30 2008

IS it just me or does the Stanford Super Series have the same sort of appeal and wow factor as an Estonian National Under-23 tractor pulling final qualifiers?Read

Premier chief Richard Scudamore is obviously not in the 'no' Oct 16 2008

WHAT is it about those in power that they cannot understand the simple concept of no.Read

A Ham-fisted insult to the poor relations of football Sep 25 2008

I DON’T think it would stretch exaggeration too far to say that if a Premiership club such as ... say, Sheffield United ... had brought in a couple of South Americans in murky financial and contractual circumstances, with a few porkies chucked in to muddy the waters even further, and then been caught bang to rights by the League, they would be playing their football somewhere around Conference North this season.Read

Why Setanta is a saviour for England fans Sep 11 2008

I MUST admit I am not one of those moaning about Setanta holding the rights to England’s away games.Read

Michel Platini is bang on the money Sep 02 2008

MICHEL Platini might lose a little in the translation as UEFA President but he does seem to have caught a dose of the same malaise that seems to have afflicted most soccer administrators – the old foot in the mouth.Read

Time-wasting rules just add insult to ‘injury' Aug 28 2008

IT WAS remarkable that tennis player Ilie Nastase managed to play as well as he did considering his serious stomach complaint.Read

Time to dive into the Olympic drama on the box Aug 14 2008

DON’T you just love the Olympics? We are currently going through the old leap-year sports – the ones that appear on telly every four years – with the BBC doing cartwheels whenever a Brit appears adding a double somersault with twist if there is a medal as well.Read

Bid-up TV is what greedy cricket is after Aug 07 2008

NOW let me get this right. The ECB, having seen snouts become gold-plated in football thanks to the Murdoch shilling and with the Ashes cheers still echoing through the Long Room, sell their soul, if not to the devil then at least to one of his representatives on earth for as much moolah as they could carry.Read

Premiership posers fail to inspire Aug 05 2008

IT HARDLY seems a couple of months since we had John Terry doing his big girl version of Midnight in Moscow as Manchester United lifted the Champions League trophy but time flies when you are having fun – just ask England’s cricket team.Read

The Premier pack running low on credit Jul 31 2008

IT LOOKS as if the credit crunch might even have hit the Premiership where clubs have only splashed out a paltry £231million on players this summer, less than half the £475milliion spent in the last close-season merry-go-round.Read

Boo-boys are wrong and Gareth Barry right to seek a move Jul 24 2008

NICE to see the Villa fans working so hard to change Gareth Barry’s mind about wanting to go to Liverpool.Read

Olympic torch will quickly be extinguished Jul 11 2008

Olympic torch will quickly be extinguishedTHE hybrid, low-carbon emission eco-friendly Olympic bandwagon is starting to pick up pace.Read

Sometimes winning isn’t everything Jul 03 2008

THERE are rare shining moments in sport which show it is not the winning that is important but the way you win.Read

Del Boy’s Beijing blinder Jul 01 2008

Del boy’s Beijing blinderWITH Euro 2008 out of the way we can sit back and tune the old 42in plasma into something we are actually taking part in (i.e. we didn’t have to qualify) – the Olympics.Read

Cricket chiefs are asked to bail out the PM Jun 26 2008

FINALLY we have broken off sporting ties with Zimbabwe although the Government, as always, made sure it was someone else’s prints on the gun when they told the ECB they did not want next year’s tour to go ahead, leaving Lords to do the dirty work and risk legal action.Read

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Paul McGrath

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