Tag: england

It’s Coming Home….

Dare I say it? The original song said 30 years of hurt and, believe it or not, that today stands at 58 years of hurt! So is it finally coming home? Who would have thought, the final of the 2024 European Championships would be between my country of birth and the country I’ve lived in for 34 years. So where do my allegiances lie, I hear you ask.

England’s head-to-head record against Spain is played 27, won 14, lost 10 and drew 3. Probably the most memorable was in 1996, in the quarter-finals of the Euros. It was a 0-0 draw and it went to penalties. There was the iconic Stuart Pearce penalty and the David Seaman save from Miguel Angel Nadal, the uncle of Mallorca’s favourite son, Rafa Nadal, meaning England won. In fact, the last time they played together was in 2018 in the UEFA Nations League, and I was there. England won 3-2 in a game played at the Real Betis stadium in Seville. 

These are two teams that have made it to the final in totally different ways. Spain have sailed through all of their games, never really looking in trouble, whereas as England have stuttered their way through. Remember England were literally 30 seconds away from going out to Slovakia in the last 16 and along came Jude Bellingham who of course is well known to all the Spanish, playing for Real Madrid. 

Spain’s 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, who plays for Barcelona, scored possibly the goal of the tournament so far against France. But what I love about him is he said before the tournament began, “I’ve brought my homework because I’m in 4th grade. I have classes on the web and I hope my teacher doesn’t fail me!”

A great example to all youngsters that your education comes before anything. 

So who am I supporting? In the words of John Barnes……

“Catch me if you can

‘Cause I’m the England man
And what you’re looking at
Is the master plan. 

We ain’t no hooligans, 
This ain’t a football song, 
Three lions on my chest
I know we can’t go wrong.”

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi, or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

The Euros 2024

The Euros started last night in Germany, in the group stages they’ll be 3 games each day which to any football aficionado is heaven. So here’s my definitive rundown of the winners and losers and who might surprise a few people. 

Firstly, the partisan bookies have England surprisingly as favourites even after that friendly defeat to Iceland. They’re closely followed by France, Germany and then come Portugal, Spain and Italy. I’ll let you know my pick at the end, and I promise that all this was written before last night’s game. 

Group A: Germany, Hungary, Scotland, Switzerland 

Germany as the hosts are one to look out for. But are they the team of years gone by and are they undercooked as they haven’t played a competitive game in quite a while? For me, they have enough to get through the group and if the crowd gets behind them, they should be one to watch. The Hungarians are the dark horses, remember they gubbed England 4-0 in the Nations League not long ago. Scotland have done extremely well just to qualify and will have great support from the Tartan Army. However, injuries to key players may have ruined their chances of qualifying. Switzerland are an ageing team, which could work for or against them. 

Group B: Spain, Croatia, Italy, Albania

This is the so-called group of death. Spain has a good mix of young and old, normally slow starters, they may grow into the tournament. The Italians are the holders, of course, after beating England in the final. Since then, though, they’ve had managerial turmoil and only just scraped through qualifying. Croatia are another team mixed with young and old and were the 2018 World Cup finalists. Albanian are competing in only their second ever Euros. They won their qualifying group and could cause a surprise. 

Group C: England, Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia

What team wouldn’t want Kane, Bellingham, Rice, Foden and Saka in their starting eleven? England’s problem though will be in defence, it may be a case of you score four, we’ll score five. Serbia’s goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic plays for my local club Real Mallorca, and they could be a surprise in this group. Denmark, of course, were surprise winners back in 1992, but not sure if they have enough this time round. Slovenia are definitely the outsiders in this group, and It will be their first major tournament in 14 years, following the 2010 World Cup. 

Group D: France, Poland, Netherlands, Austria

France are in most people’s eyes the favourites, and any team that contains Kylian Mbappé will have a chance. Poland, who have not missed a European championship since making their debut in 2008, will look to get through the group stage for a second time after reaching the quarter-finals in 2016. The Netherlands are the team with the most third place finishes in the Euros, another team that could go deep into the competition. Austria, have played only10 games at the European Championships, having featured in three previous editions of the tournament, reaching the last 16 once at Euro 2020.

Group E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine

Not much has been said about Belgium as they’ve disappointed with such a good team in so many previous tournaments. If I was a betting man (which I’m not) then I would have a wager on them. I’m sure many people would love to see Ukraine do well because of their current situation, but I think they’ll do well to get out of the group. Romania, who will play in their sixth European Championship, were a surprise package in the qualifiers, remaining unbeaten and topping their group, above Switzerland. Slovakia will play at their third consecutive European Championship and may struggle to reach the knockout stages after failing to do so at the last tournament.

Group F: Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, Georgia 

It’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s last ever tournament, so will they send him out on a high? They are playing in their eighth consecutive Euros after securing qualification with a 100 percent winning record in their group. The Czech Republic will hope to find some form after an uninspiring qualifying campaign in which they finished second in their group behind Albania. Turkey, who are taking part in their sixth Euros, last reached the semi-finals in 2008. Georgia are the rank outsiders. They will participate in their first major finals as an independent nation, after they secured their spot in the tournament by defeating Luxembourg and then Greece in the play-offs.

It’s great that this tournament is on terrestrial television and therefore everyone can watch the matches. My outsiders are Belgium, my heart says England, but my head says the host nation Germany. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi, or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

The Nike Controversy

Last week I received a text that said “I predict you writing something on the new Nike England kit and flag.” Which made me smile, and in truth it would be amiss of me not to talk about it, as it created such a furore. If you’ve not seen it, Nike have produced an England football shirt with a purple, blue, black and red cross on the back of the neck. Changing the colour of the flag of St George was seen by most people as something you shouldn’t touch, and the public outcry is still running today. 

Firstly, for me, is it Nike (pronounced like the name Mike) or is it Nike (pronounced like the name Mikey). Well, it’s Nikey if you look it up. Founded in 1964, they have become the World’s leading apparel brand, worth $142.39 billion. The Nike tick and the slogan “Just do it” have become synonymous around the World.

Nike first signed a six-year deal with the English Football Association back in 2012, marking the end of Umbro’s sixty-year association with the National team. Umbro had been England’s official kit supplier since the 1950s, apart from an eight-year stretch from 1974-82 when Admiral took over. That was extended in 2018 to a twelve-year deal until 2030, said to be worth £400 million. 

I asked my two boys what they thought of the kit, and both were unimpressed and said why did they change the flag? Two boys who are 18 and 14 respectively and haven’t really been brought up with the flag of St George being part of our lives. In fact, both prefer the retro kits that England used to wear. 

High street retailer JD Sports has revealed that, for the first time ever, England’s away kit is selling better than the home kit. So, in my opinion, this is a great marketing ploy by Nike. Still sell the same amount of shirts but more away ones than home ones and next year produce a different one. And these shirts don’t come cheap, by the way, £124.99 in adult sizes and £119.99 for kids. With a deal lasting until 2030, what have they got to lose?

Remember that this is the same brand that didn’t want to produce a Mary Earps England goalkeeper jersey. They faced a widespread backlash and after mounting pressure, they relented and released Earp’s green long-sleeved Lionesses shirt for sale, with the product selling out twice in a matter of minutes. They’re not daft in the Nike marketing department, are they! 

Interestingly, England aren’t the only ones with kit problems. 

Germany has released a pink away kit, said to represent the diversity in Germany, but as you can imagine this has caused a bit of a rumpus. But the colour of the shirt was not the major talking point as far as the Germans were concerned. Last week, it was announced that the decades-long kit supply tie-up between German soccer’s DFB governing body and German sportswear giant Adidas, one of the most renowned technical deals in sport, will come to an end after the 2026 World Cup. And guess who’s taking over? Yes, you guessed it, our friends from Nike. Reports suggested that the Americans offered in the region of €100 million, almost double what their German counterparts at Adidas apparently offered. 

Even Spain has been caught up in a kit gate saga, although this dated back to 2017. German sportswear brand Adidas faced fury after critics claimed the colours of Spain’s national team’s shirt were too similar to the flag of Spain’s Second Republic – instead of its national flag.

Spain’s Second Republic spanned eight years from 1931 to 1939 and officially ended following the victory of nationalist leader Francisco Franco at the end of the devastating Spanish Civil War.

The republic’s flag featured a purple strip at the bottom of Spain’s red and yellow bands – and critics of the national team shirt drew comparisons due to the inclusion of a splash of purple down the shirt. 

Of the current top 10 in the FIFA football rankings, Nike produces the kits for France, England, Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal and Croatia. With Adidas producing the rest for Argentina, Spain, Belgium and Italy.

I find all this criticism of the shirt funny as we don’t really celebrate St George’s Day on April the 23rd, in fact English people celebrate St Patrick’s Day more. But you may have read earlier in the week that, due to a new initiative by the Calvia Town Hall, there are four days of St George’s celebrations this year in Palma Nova, which is great to see. Details can be found in the Majorca Daily Bulletin and at the Town Hall. We at Pirates are offering 50% off of our Main Deck seating that week on Wednesday 24th of April and Friday 26th of April. 

As for Nike, it seems to me they will keep on pushing the barriers and creating controversy, as it doesn’t seem to be affecting them. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

A Sneaky Airline Scam?

December the 6th is a holiday here in Spain and is known as Constitution Day. Celebrating the anniversary of the country’s current democratic constitution that was installed in 1978 after the fall of the Franco dictatorship. With the present problems in Spanish politics you might be forgiven to think, is there a possibility we’re going return to those dark days? Now I could carry on but politics really isn’t my bag and I thought it why bore you any more than I already do. 

As it’s a public holiday it was standard to find out that the flight prices for this week were horrendous, so I decided to go back to the UK last week for a couple of days to see my family. Why is it in the winter they make you walk miles to the gate at the airport when the rest of the gates that are closer are closed?  I wrote in October that the age of the No-Frills airline had ceased to be and they are doing their best to rip you for whatever they can get. More about that later! As I was only going for a couple of days I decided on the airlines ‘small bag policy’. I watched with great interest one staff member at Palma airport who was like a hawk stalking his prey trying to catch anybody he could with the wrong sized bag. I’m sure these people get off on causing misery to others and I’m sure they’re probably on a commission to catch as many people out as possible. That stand they have at the check-in desk has definitely got smaller, you’re lucky if you can get a Lidl paper bag in one of those things. But I was fine with my little Nike bag that I’d borrowed from my Son and had used on countless occasions throughout the Summer.

I had been offered a ticket to see the Arsenal in the Championship League that night but I was worried that if I landed at 17.00 which I was due to do, I’d be hard pushed to make it to the theatre of dreams by 20.00. Well if ‘London Stansted’ was actually in London and not in deepest Essex then maybe I could have done. As I left the plane I was greeted by a Siberian temperature of minus something. When you’ve been used to 20 degrees and above all year in Mallorca, this was quite a shock. Having picked up my hire car and safely negotiated the first roundabout which is always a nightmare when driving on the other side of the road, I was on my way up the M11 to Cambridgeshire. Or so I thought. All of a sudden we ground to a halt and we didn’t actually move again for a whole hour. I managed to listen to the whole Arsenal game on the radio before I reached my destination. Visiting and spending some time with my Mum aka the Duchess,  my Sister and friends is always great but never long enough. 

And so to my return. Now most airlines encourage you to download their apps so you can do everything on it but they are different when it comes to checking in. With some you can check-in when you want but with one particular one if you choose not to buy a seat they won’t let you check-in until 24 hours before. At that point i’d been asked a thousand times whether i’d prefer to pay for a seat which I politely declined. But this time something new occurred which hasn’t happened to me before and is obviously another one of their stealth taxes. A message came up on my phone which read ‘This is not a mobile boarding pass, you must collect your boarding pass at the airport check-in desk.’ Another message popped up which read, ‘Get your boarding pass now and avoid queueing at the airport by adding a seat’. Or otherwise known as, we know you’ve declined to pay for a seat a thousand times so we’re going to stitch you up and make you wait at the airport for a boarding pass. Which I dually did but what was the point and  what happened to us beginning to become a paperless society? This was a story that was picked up the mainstream media, the Sunday Mail had a story at the weekend and BBC news contacted me for a similar story they were running. 

It didn’t end there. That trusty Nike bag which I’d travelled with all summer with no problems all of a sudden wasn’t the right size for Mrs Jobsworth at the check-in desk. There are other names I could call her but she wasn’t having any of it. I asked why she hadn’t stopped the guy in front of me, ‘ oh he’s priority’ she snootily replied. It was pay £46 or start walking so I had no choice. That £46 was in fact more than I paid for my flight and I’m sure that when I scanned my boarding card a message came up on her computer saying. ‘Passenger refused to buy a seat even after we made him wait to get his boarding pass so feel free to stitch him up!’ 

In a week when Shane McGowan sadly passed away ‘Happy Christmas your arse’ was a perfect riposte when handed my receipt. 

It might be Christmas season but goodwill to all men isn’t a message that this airline is sending. Oh and just for the record the airline in question? It might not surprise you to know was Ryanair and because it’s winter time other airlines were not available. 

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com