Rooney new deal - Manchester United

Over 15 million per year, for five years for Rooney's services, they are having a laugh. The record sum that Manchester United are reported to have agreed with Wayne Rooney is madness. Not only is he not worth it, it is going to be the ruin of Man Utd. The club missed the boat in January when they could have sold him to Chelsea and made good money and reduce their players costs in one move. In addition the profits from the sale could have allowed some good new blood to be added to the squad and resolve some of David Moyes's problems.

The record sum dwarfs bankers bonus, and I would wager that Rooney has no performance criteria included in his contract. Even if he does not play he will be still paid, I suspect that only if he commits gross misconduct will he be penalised with a fine, a mere fraction of his salary ( it will probably be tax deductible). I would not mind to much but I am also sure that tax specialist will have worked some way in which Rooney will never pay anywhere never the 50 percent tax rate he should.

This all points to the fact we should do something now to control player costs to stop clubs making these fatal errors of judgement. I know there some small controls in place to minimise wrong doing within football club finances, but I think it should go much further and set caps on salaries. Many will think this will restrict the business side of football, but I believe the money can be better spent on the development of the youth programmes and bringing through new home grown players. Let's face it we don't have many Rooneys in the country.

Winter Olympics Snowboard Cross

Snowboard Cross - now we are talking exciting exhilarating sport, pure racing like athletics, first past the post but with all the thrills and spills of downhill skiing. I have just watched the quarter final through to final races for women's snowboard cross, and was amazed at how exciting this sport is. It is like BMX on snow, the six boarders start form a gate and head down the course of jumps, kicks, knuckles and drop offs and the winner is the first past the post.

None of this judging on style and technique, you have just got to get to the end in one piece. As our competior Zoe Gillings found out what you must do is finish. In her semi final race she just missed out qualifying for the final by a board tip finishing fourth, she was third until the last jump where the Italian overtook her. The amazing part was she had a slow start, and was lying a distant fifth, but with a few mistakes by other boarders, a missed edge, a poor line etc, she moved up to third and had a great chance of making the final. This unpredictability of the outcome makes this the most exciting racing I have seen so far in the Olympics. 

The only negative of this racing is poor TV direction. Unfortunately the Russian TV production was not up to it. Poor camera positions and direction that followed the leaders missing all the action further up the hill. Only three finish where are the other three you ask, yes they fell but were missed by the TV crew, we got good slow mo's of the winners last jump though.

Winter Olympics Sochi 2014

I have just sat down to watch Lizzy Yarnold in her skeleton bob event at the Sochi games. Is this indicative of the importance of the Winter Olympics in our minds with only a small team of less than hopefuls to watch. We have this habit of only watching / supporting our own rather than watch the sport. I have limited my viewing to those sports where you win with a better score or time rather than be judged. My watch list includes curling, downhill and skeleton bob. I am also sure I will watch some ice hockey as the final gets close. 

This of course is not a dig at the athletes but a question of why do we participate in sports where we have no facilites and no snow? If you are fortunate enough to have loads of cash then you can travel to the cold spots and train, but I think it is all over rated and really think the funds could be better directed at traditional sports, where kids can take part in at an early age and still have the opportunity to do it later in life. If you think about the the 30 billion dollars spent by Russia to stage these games it brings into persepctive how good London 2012 was. The Russians have presented great facilities and appear to have organised everything very well but surely the price is too high. I am not sure there will be a legacy for winter sports here once the games have gone. The chances are better with the World Cup and F1 track coming up in the next few years.

I hate to be a kill joy but I think the Olympics for these sports is too much, they already have their own world championships and world cups. It is a bit like football at the Olympics, it is a joke, everyone wants to watch the top pros and not the Tuvalu team.