Football Food For Thought / Dan Fitch / 30 July 2009 /

The days when friendlies were arranged with a view of getting players match fit, are long gone. Dan 'The Betting Man' Fitch looks into the big business of the modern friendly.

When I was a kid it wasn't as easy to keep up to date with the latest news from your favourite football club.

Before the internet and blanket TV coverage, entire games would be viewed via the medium of Ceefax, with nails being chewed all over the country, as fans suffered the agony of waiting for the page to update and reveal a possible goal.

Another way of getting to the bottom of what was going on was to ring a premium rate phone service like Clubcall. As a youngster, I would furtively call the Spurs Clubcall service, where for the bargain price of 25p a minute, I could be updated on the progress of Tottenham's pursuit of some no-mark like Terry Phelan.

Ceefax and Clubcall were also one of the only ways to find out the scores of pre-season friendlies. Back in those days, Tottenham would generally play a number of warm up games in Scandinavia. The logic was that the Scandinavian leagues would have already kicked off and therefore their teams would be fully fit and provide a real challenge.

I'm not sorry to see the end of the days when I had to rely upon Clubcall and Ceefax for information, but I am sorry to see the back of the days when common sense was applied, when clubs arranged their pre-season friendlies.

These days it's all about money. This summer, I have been bombarded by emails from Tottenham Hotspur PLC, in which they have implored me to but tickets to the Wembley Cup, where I could see Spurs take on Barcelona and Celtic.

The miser in me couldn't quite bring myself to pay top dollar for a friendly match and was I glad that I didn't when I saw the Barcelona team. The likes of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, were nowhere to be seen, with Barca instead choosing to play a bunch of kids, whose ink was still dry on their YTS forms. They still played us off the park, of course.

Spurs were also humiliated against Celtic, but were no doubt very well financially remunerated, for suffering such an experience. Whatever sum of money Spurs were paid though, obviously wasn't enough, as on the Monday morning the team were being flown to China to compete in another meaningless tournament.

With just a couple of weeks until the start of the season, can anyone really argue that it's in the best interest of a team, to be flown all the way out to China and back? Imagine would damage the lack of leg room might have done to Peter Crouch, had he signed early enough to make the trip.

And what far flung teams do you find when you arrive in the Far East? West Ham and Hull. Two sides that Spurs will play within the first week of the season kicking off. If I relied upon stock phrases like Richard Littlejohn, I'd say that you couldn't make it up.

These pre-season tournaments aren't completely pointless though. Watching Spurs struggle without their centre-backs, has shown that the current price of [2.24] for Liverpool to win at White Hart Lane on the opening day of the season, could be good value. Having seen Hull struggle to beat Beijing Guoan on penalties, the [4.8] for them to finish rock bottom, also appeals.

It's not just the clubs that are eager to line their pockets in the Far East. It's the Premier League as well. The race to be the number one sport in China is up for grabs and the Premier League is having to be proactive in organising these sort of tournaments, to ward off the threat of organisations such as the NBA.

Manchester United are the biggest football team in Asia and were willing to almost get themselves blown up, to enhance their brand on their recent pre-season tour.

Michael Owen was amongst the goals on tour and can be backed at [13.5] to be top scorer in the Premier League this season. Given the amount of chances he will get at United, I wouldn't rule this out, but because of his injury record, the price remains poor value.

I suppose that for the time being, we should be grateful that these trips to the other side of the world are currently only taking place in pre-season. If the Premier League gets their way, eventually there will be actual league games taking place in Asia.

When that day comes and they inevitably make the games pay-per view only, I may revert to watching matches on Ceefax again.

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