My 2 minutes of fame

The Toon may find themselves in dire straits at the moment, a predicament that can at best be defined as unprecedented. But there was a time not so long ago when the club was flying high in the Premier League, as I remarked in my earlier post after we were condemned to Championship on the final day of the season. In retrospect, this seems like a minor annoyance to a football club regarded by many as one of the top clubs in England. The 'Save Our Seats' campaign talked about in the article below was indeed an embarrassing development for the club, and while the 'Save Our Sites' campaign never really took off, it was something that saddened me as fan. What may I be talking about? Well, I used to run my own unofficial toon fan site back in the day and one day some legal representative contacted me to remove the club's logo on the website. I protested by writing back to the club, posting to fan forums and they suggested I write to some of the local newspaper editors. And so I did, and much to my delight they decided to run a story on me.

And so I ended up in the Sunday Sun of England's north-east one fine Sunday with my picture, imagine that. The article is quoted below:

Toon chiefs leave teen crestfallen

Newcastle United have been accused of bully-boy tactics after bosses showed the red card to a teen fan's website.

Magpie-mad Raza Abbas is furious after officials told him to remove all images with the club crest.

The 17-year-old, a fan since 1995, was told he was infringing trademarks ... and the clampdown could hit fans worldwide.

Raza, who lives in Karachi, Pakistan, said: "I am a diehard fan and I run an unofficial website."

"A couple of days ago the FA's legal representative contacted me and asked me to remove images that display the club crest."

"There are a lot more disturbing things on the web the authorities should be dealing with, rather than trying to stop sites with inoffensive material.

"They said that the use of the club crest imples that I am connected to Newcastle United.

"How they failed to notice the huge 'Unofficial Website' notice is beyond me!

"It is just utter nonsense that loyal fans are treated like this."

The matter could spark an embarrassing Save our Sites campaign against the club still trying to live down the Save Our Seats fiasco.

That campaign was launched in October 1999 after plans were revealed to move 4000 season ticket holders to make way for corporate clients.

The matter ended up in court where the club claimed a hollow victory.

A Newcastle United spokesman said: "The FA Premier League has a legal department which looks after the intellectual property of all the Premiership clubs.

"We have to establish parameters to protect our trademarks.

"There are so many of these sites and it is difficult to know who are the genuine fans and who are the commercial entities making money out of the club.

"Anyone using club trademarks gets a very polite 'cease and desist' letter.

"We have got 15 different trademarks and protecting them costs a fortune.

"There are other ways for people to show they are a Newcastle fan."

The "unofficial" website in question here is located at: http://nufc.host.sk/old/. I stopped updating it quite a while ago as I got busy with college n all. I still have that shirt though, an original Toon home replica of 2000-01 season.

Humiliation

The ignominy of relegation has come to pass. My worst fears have materialized and the unthinkable has happened - the Toon are down :'(! I was surprised by the lack of fight shown by the team at the death knowing that a goal was all they needed to stay up. But maybe it is for the best. The tumultuous fortunes of this club need desperate sorting out and maybe going down was the best way to come back up stronger and better. But it is painful as hell nevertheless. I've been following them ever since Big Al moved there from Blackburn ... and it's been a topsy turvy ride. Two 2nd place finishes behind ManYoo; the slump that followed; the resurgence under Sir Bobby ... but never in my wildest dreams had I thought that things would get this bad.

In the process of going down, we've set new records for teams that have been relegated. Apparently, we're the club with the highest attendance to have gone down (50,000) and possibly the club with the highest wage bill. It remains to be seen who the reigns will be handed to. Personally, I would like for Big Al to keep the job and for Ashley to get the eff out asap. In nine months since he's taken over we've had 4 managers and a disastrous campaign affected by boardroom troubles culminating in this humiliating day. A mass exodus of players will undoubtedly follow, and the onus will be on local talent coming through the ranks. When the toon will return to lock horns with the big guns of the premier league is anybody's guess.

Oh my Toon!

Oh boy, oh boy! What a difference a day makes. Just last week we were reveling in the aftermath of our victory over Boro, and now a week later courtesy of a harsh result - perhaps a bit undeserved - and there we are again, staring at relegation right in the face with only one freaking game to go! What makes it worse is the fact that it is out of our own hands now, so even if we win next week, it may not be enough!

Sunderland's game away to Portsmouth on Monday now becomes crucial for us, as a loss for them would leave the door open for overtaking them on the last day of the season. It's bad, real bad ... who would've thought of this day, Newcastle in the championship, no freaking way!

God help us.

Weekend of Sports

Being home and free has given me plenty of time to catch up on all the sports action going on nowadays. First off, football - my dear club Newcastle United aka the Toon Army are in dire straits at the moment. I cannot, for the life of me, remember them playing as dreadful as they are playing right now and nothing short of a significant increase in their quality can result in them staying up this season. Remember, this is a club that was playing European football only 2 years ago and finished as high as 3rd and 4th in 2001 and 2002 seasons under Sir Bobby Robson. It clearly proves that no club is too good to go down and that in the Premier League, fortunes can change very quickly. With a wage bill topping a whopping 70 million quid this year, and with no clauses in players' contracts in case of relegation, just goes to show how everyone who ran this club had no idea they would live to see this day, where relegation is a realistic possibility. Alas, all is not over yet and with a game against fellow struggles Middlesbrough on Monday night, things could still go our way. Alan Shearer wasn't exaggerating when he said this is possibly the biggest game for this club in a long, long time. And here I was thinking this honor would've been reserved for those famous meetings with Liverpool (3-4), Barcelona (3-2), Leeds (4-3) or ManYoo (5-0).

In other action, playoffs are in full-swing in the NBA and NHL. Carolina Hurricanes are leading the Boston Bruins 3-1 in their playoff series (much to my surprise, I must add) given the thrashing they received in the first game. Orlando Magic are also 2-1 up in their series against the Boston Celtics. Celtics barely got through their first-round series against the Bulls, who I thought played some great basketball and deserved to go through. Nevertheless, I'm rooting for the Magic to down the Celtics before they meet LeBron n co. God help them then :).

Finally, Formula1 - which has been nothing short of exciting this season. Who would've thought that with four races into the season Ferrari and McLaren would have no significant successes to speak of. The whole debate about the diffuser has marred this season for sure, and while some manufacturers are struggling to get their car running smoothly on diffusers and KERS, you would've thought they could've prepared better beforehand and done some homework in case the ruling didn't go their way (which it didn't). Nevertheless, Brawn GP have been a breath of fresh air this season and it'll be interesting to see whether they can carry this form into the next season. Williams, oddly enough, and Nico Rosberg in particular has been setting fastest practice session times in every other race this season but for some reason have failed to translate that into a podium position yet. I hope they do good this weekend.

All in all, an exciting weekend of sports action awaits us. While you may be going out and having a good time, I know where I'll be this weekend - glued to the TV! :) and did I mention its good to be home? Hell Yeah it is!

Dolphins Lose Again!

Too bad the Karachi Dolphins ended up being second-best to Sialkot YET AGAIN! Why is it that every team I support either performs miserably or fails at the very last hurdle? My beloved team Toon aka Newcastle United are struggling at the bottom of the English Premier League, my beloved country Pakistan is reeling from an economic crisis of epic proportions right now with no end to it in sight. Our president is proudly begging for a $100 billion bail-out, as if the rest of the world is waiting in the wings to help us. Frankly, they have enough problems of their own right now owing to the great economic recession that has engulfed the world. So don't hold your breath on that, but you know with all the doom and gloom surrounding the country at the moment, it was nice to see attention diverted to something fun and light-hearted, even if it lasted for just a few days. The harsh reality is that we will not see international cricket in the country for god knows how long and us fans will be starved of quality cricket for the foreseeable future. Also, our national team hasn’t lived up to its expectations lately (come to think of it, has anything associated with Pakistan done good of late?) and I would, personally, love to see them getting back to winning ways whether they play at home or abroad. I'd rather bet on them than on our President when it comes to turning around their respective fortunes.