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Harry Redknapp’s success at Portsmouh will always be tainted by the club’s subsequent struggles, writes Colin Farmery

February 2012 was a more eventful month than most for fans of Portsmouth. While their club was lurching towards a second administration in two years, Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric, the former manager and chairman, were on trial for tax evasion charges relating to their time at the club.

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The football world had a lot to say on the London riots. Paul Campbell believes not all of it was sensible

When the violence on the streets of north London began to spread across the country, it was inevitable that football would play a part in the discussion. Like most people, the football writer Ian Ridley watched the news and felt helpless. Unlike most people, however, Ridley thought that the game could somehow save the supposedly broken Britain.

“At times like these, you can feel helpless and peripheral in the sports pages, which always used to be known in newspapers as the toy department,” said a mournful Ridley in his Express column. “Maybe football can play its part in repair and healing, however. The thugs have won a battle. Let us hope they don’t, metaphorically, win the war… As the opium of the masses, it is far healthier than any liquid or substance. Or internet obsession.”

While Ridley bastardised the writings of Karl Marx, Henry Winter drew attention to the teachings of that other political heavyweight, Rio Ferdinand. Without sounding at all worried about the implications of his statement, Winter claimed that Ferdinand’s “voice certainly carries more resonance on inner-city streets than any politician’s”.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that those working in the football industry afford the game such importance. But it is a little concerning. Men who know a lot about kicking balls aren’t necessarily going to be great at constructing government policy, as Ian Holloway proved in the Independent. The Blackpool manager used his media platform to call for the rioters to stop smashing up shops and be more like Paul Scholes, “who went through his whole career without even a whiff of an off-the-field issue”. Holloway also pinned some blame on the media, arguing that “if the TV cameras weren’t there and we didn’t know about it I don’t think the rioting would have sparked up anywhere else”.

Holloway wasn’t the only football manager with an opinion. The Sun carried a double-page interview with a “sad, sickened and angry” Harry Redknapp, who blamed the riots on a breakdown in family values. “When I was 12 or 13, boys would meet their football manager dressed in a blazer or at least a pair of trousers. Now some of them turn up to see me wearing a pair of jeans with their arse hanging out. They just don’t care.” Stan Collymore called for help: “I want to know where the musicians, actors and rappers are at a time like this?”

With the great and the good of the football universe calling for action, it was left to a man still playing the game to offer some sense. David James, writing in the Observer, wondered how young people could relate to footballers at all: “While it is true that most of us have had a council estate upbringing, most now live away from those communities, enjoying a lifestyle that is light years from the kids we are talking about… Are people really going to listen to a millionaire footballer living in a plush mansion telling people who are struggling to make ends meet on a council estate to calm down?”

James went on to suggest that long-term engagement with a community would make more sense than taking a few seconds to type “Stop the violence” into a mobile phone. With this thought in mind it was heartening to see Peter Crouch and Benoît Assou-Ekotto involve themselves in the clean-up along Tottenham High Road. Football isn’t the opium of the masses and an involvement in the game doesn’t bring with it statesmanlike authority. But footballers, like everyone else, can help their communities most when they’re a part of them.

From WSC 296 October 2011

Tottenham Hotspur could play an important role in local redevelopment after the London riots but it’s not clear where their priorities lie, according to Alan Fisher

The spark that ignited urban disturbances across the country, Tottenham suffered more damage than any other area. As well as extensive destruction of property, up to 200 people were made homeless and a leisure centre provided emergency shelter, food and clothing for families who lost everything. As the rebuilding begins, the role of a football club in the community will be tested as never before.

Tottenham is an area of considerable social deprivation. Tottenham Hotspur, regularly in the world’s top 15 clubs in terms of annual income, falls within a ward that is among the five per cent most deprived in England, while in Tottenham as a whole 80.3 per cent of children live in low-income homes.

The burnt-out Carpetright store heavily featured on the news is a few hundred yards from the ground but the club remained unscathed apart from some damage to the ticket office. Tottenham High Road, the main route to the ground by car and public transport, remained closed for several days, causing the postponement of the season’s opening fixture against Everton.

It was natural that local people and politicians should look to the club as a major partner in the future. Victoria Hart lives on the High Road and spent a long Saturday night reassuring a frightened and bewildered six-year-old as the troubles raged outside her window.

“We all feel very damaged by the riots and the destruction around us. We want to retain a pride in Tottenham but it’s difficult when the press perception seems to be of a locality where a riot was ‘just bound’ to happen. I hope the football club, being one of the really identifiable places on the High Road, can help us to rebuild. And I mean that more emotionally than financially.”

Early signs were positive. Spurs chairman Daniel Levy swiftly committed the club to “help with both the physical clean-up of our area and the longer term rebuilding of community spirit”. The fans responded too. Many travelled to Tottenham on their spare Saturday to labour alongside local people as the clean-up continued, while an internet appeal of behalf of 89-year-old barber Aaron Biber raised over £35,000. The refurbished shop was opened by Peter Crouch, looking decidedly nervous as Biber hovered behind him, clippers at the ready.

Otherwise, it has been left to Benoît Assou-Ekotto to respond on behalf of the players. The full-back is fast attaining cult status among Spurs fans for his dashing performances and grounded attitude. He travels by Tube, for goodness’ sake. Conscious of his own impoverished upbringing, he readily grasped both the dismay of local people and their resolve to put matters right. It remains to be seen if Spurs are similarly in close touch with the needs of the community.

Like many clubs, Spurs are proud of their outreach work. In 2007 they invested £4.5 million in a foundation working in sport, education and with the unemployed. Yet the local impact is questionable. Mark Perryman, co-founder of Philosophy Football and a season-ticket holder, trenchantly dismisses the club’s performance in the 25 years he’s lived locally: “The club makes the name of the borough known worldwide but otherwise I don’t see what it gives the area. Away from the ground itself the club’s presence physically is almost non-existent and it’s painfully obvious how disconnected the club is. It’s just not a significant institution in the community in which I live.”

His words apply to many Premier League clubs. Spurs’ popular soccer coaching schools reach out to the relatively affluent suburban fanbases in Hertfordshire and Essex rather than the estates around White Hart Lane. Also, some of the highest ticket prices in the country mean locals cannot afford to watch their team. “London clubs aren’t London clubs, they’re Home Counties clubs. Those who can afford season-tickets don’t live in inner London. There may have been a connection a generation or so ago, not now,” says Perryman.

At the same time as he talks about increased community engagement, Levy is actively exploring a move away from Tottenham entirely. Economics overrides history or community responsibility when it comes to the board’s preferred option of a new ground to replace the venerable but creaking White Hart Lane on the Olympic Park site. This which will be cheaper to build and generate greater income from non-football activity. Undeterred by a ruling in favour of West Ham, they are taking it to a costly judicial review later this year.

The alternative is a 56,250-seat stadium next door to the current ground, plus housing, a hotel, supermarket and, crucially, improved transport links to reinvigorate the area. Supporters groups such as We Are N17 campaign to stay in Tottenham but the project now takes on a significance greater than merely preserving the club’s heritage. It’s an ill wind, and the recent problems will strengthen both the political pressure to stay put and the case for substantial regional growth fund and enterprise zone bids to boost business and cover a proportion of Spurs’ costs.

Talking to residents, the club is clearly part of their lives and has the potential to act as a focus for their determination to rebuild relationships as well as bricks and mortar. The stadium project, important though it may be, is not in itself enough. Spurs must reach out and engage with a willing community of which it is a part. As Victoria Hart says: “We always needed the club but we need it a whole lot more now.”

From WSC 296 October 2011

Georgina Turner is sick and tired of an inane background hum – constant chirrupings from the extra in the commentary box

“I’ve got to say that to get away with that in such a hostile environment, you’ve got to count your chickens” – the wisdom of Ray Wilkins, following Peter Crouch’s second bookable tackle early in the first leg of Real Madrid v Tottenham Hotspur.

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Taylor Parkes explains why watching the centrepiece of ITV's primetime World Cup programming was not an enjoyable experience

The separation of football and the intellect isn’t always a wholly bad thing, but too many people make a career of it. Put that thought to the guilty men – including almost everyone who works in television – and the chances are they’ll scoff. “It’s only a laugh – that’s what footy’s all about, isn’t it?” Well… no, that’s not what “footy” is all about, not exclusively.

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