AUTHOR: James Dowen

JUST WILLIAM: Return of the Shops

Hello and welcome back after a short absence!

To use some office speak, I hope that this column finds you well!

First things first, two friends of the column are in for huge congratulations. Firstly, Fergal O’Brien and his whole team for passing 100 winners this season – a fantastic achievement by any standards, especially with the shortened season.

And then the cultural sage Phoenix Andrews’ achievement of submitting their thesis!

What I Am Reading…

These superb stories on the collapse of the European Super League:

Firstly, this by Grace Robertson on the one key reason behind the League’s failure:

https://onfootball.substack.com/p/one-reason-why-the-super-league-failed

The inside track from Rory Smith and Tariq Panja:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/sports/soccer/super-league-soccer.html?smid=tw-share

And Miguel Delaney:

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european-super-league-news-chelsea-city-b1834797.html

Matt Honeycombe-Foster’s round up on what’s going on in London, which is essential reading given the amount of sorties around lobbying and corruption at the moment:

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-london-influence/politico-london-influence-lobbying-inception-let-freedom-ring-tech-bro-sunak/

Johnathan Burn-Murdoch’s story on how vaccines are working against COVID:

https://www.ft.com/content/d71729a3-72e8-490c-bd7e-757027f9b226

Becky Barnes’ new newsletter, The Uplift – which is packed with good news and great book reviews. Highly recommended if you want to brighten your day:

https://theuplift.substack.com/p/settle-in-the-uplift-is-here

What I Am Listening To…

Again, lots on the European Super League, starting with this constructive breakdown from the World Football Index, featuring friend of the column Jasmine Baba, Alan Feehely, Jonathan Fadugba, Mark Doyle, John O’Sullivan and Sam Leveridge:

Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn’s Stadio episode:

All of the nominees for the Radio Times Moment Of The Year at the 2021 Audio and Radio Industry Awards:

https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/radio/arias-vote-2021/

The last two episodes of LEFT/OVER, firstly with Tom Usher on football:

And secondly with Dawn Foster on The Guardian:

Restrictions, Restrictions, Restrictions…

I’m pleased to return to this column with good news regarding COVID. The vaccines are working brilliantly – and the rollout cases are continuing to stay at a reasonable rate, with a solid testing system to back them up.

We have a sensible looking roadmap which everyone seems to be enjoying and, with any luck, we’re less than a month away from sitting inside a pub again. As part of that easing, you can now also bet in person – something which I’m sure will be a relief to many punters who still prefer hold card cash, or the excellent service of our very own shops at Star.

That experience is inevitably dampened, however, when there are no live sports pictures, no chairs, time limits, and a maximum of two visits per day.

I’ve written about the need for COVID restrictions in the past – and for racing and betting to accept them with good grace, considering the political atmosphere at the moment – but surely these have to be favourite for the most pointless measures, considering that shops are already limited in terms of capacity, and that there are no time restrictions upon many other forms of non-essential retail. Or maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, thankfully there’s less than a month to go until we can watch races at the bookies again *fingers crossed!*

The Not So Super League

The sudden collapse of the European Super League – and what a result that is for domestic and European football – is sure to go down in history.

What happens now is sure to be crucial – many fans have pointed out correctly, that clubs have had points deductions for a whole host of reasons over the last two decades.

I can’t help but think about this point, from Wolves fan and football judge Nick Goff:

The Best Chef of Them All

This year’s Celebrity MasterChef has been priced up by our TV judges, but I’ve already had my first result of the year – being able to know seven of the contestants beforehand (Bez, Dion Dublin, Gavin Esler, Joe Swash, Katie Price, Melanie Sykes, and Penny Lancaster for those interested).

Given that they go 8/1 the field, any help in finding the real winner is gratefully appreciated…..

Bear Scares

One of the benefits of being obsessed with polling is the weird and wonderful survey results you’ll see, and the conversations that spring from them. I think it’s fair to say that YouGov is the world leader in this, and there are few more joyous pieces of internet discourse than the thread below.

https://twitter.com/JJDodders/status/1385019830257000450?s=20

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

William

Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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