NEWPORT 0 NATO 2

One of a growing list of unforeseen side effects of the NATO summit in Newport is that neither Newport County nor the Newport Gwent Dragons will be able to play at home between August 27^th and September 7^th because of security considerations. While many Newport residents attitudes towards the sporting sides in the city can be described as fickle at best, the growing implication is that the ‘lock down’ for the two day summit (which comes with a 10 day security operation) may well make life for residents somewhat challenging at best.

Coming soon - NATO tanks on Rodney Parades lawn?

With potentially some 60 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, attending the summit outside the city, security will be understandably tight. This suggests that the security surrounding the summit (which is being held on 4-5 September at the Celtic Manor Resort) will have a serious impact on ordinary people’s everyday life. This latest sporting development follows the news that the city is already potentially facing such disruption that the Labour in Newport run City Council has considered closing Newport schools for the two days summit.

The city council has already warned of significant traffic delays and has told head teachers that closing their school is a serious option in what is the first week of term. For the record, Newport has 48 primary schools and nine secondary schools. Just to add to this heady if chaotic mix, along with the disruption to everyday life the City will also be the backdrop to anti NATO protestors and protests. There has been much talk about the potential opportunities and benefits to the city for hosting the summit but, the concern is that as with the prestigious Ryder Cup, once over, any medium to long term legacy may be relatively minimal. 

A GLASS HALF FULL...

While I am having a good Christmas with families, friends and loved ones, I am missing out on football due to waterlogged pitches with the County fixtures at Rodney Parade v Barking (on the 22nd) and Hereford (away at Edgar Street) on the 29th December falling victim to the rain. Honestly there is only so much Borgen you can watch! One belated Christmas present that did arrive was a good away win for Swansea City at Fulham, hopefully a few more wins will follow shortly. Cardiff City remain on top of the Championship, hopefully they will join Swansea in the premiership.

Newport county and Wrecsam remain (at present) respectively second and third in the Blue Square Premier (both sides meet at 7.45pm on Friday 4th January (at Rodney Parade). Football tribalism aside I want success for the other Welsh football clubs (and Welsh football period). I want to see Swansea City do well this season, and Cardiff City join them (preferably not via the play-offs) in the Premiership next season. I want to see Newport County (as Champions) and Wrecsam (as play-off winners) promoted as Champions from the Blue Square Conference this season. I hope that Colwyn Bay manage to stay in Blue Square North and see no reason why Merthyr Town can also not get promoted again this season.

Reguardless of the code, sporting success on the field is difficult enough but made more difficult by the economic situation, which hits costs and attendances. What would be nice would be better all round media coverage for Welsh football (outside of the Premiership and the Championship) for the rest of us. S4C’s Sgorio does an excellent job on Monday evenings but BBC Wales despite a significant improvement in recent months, could do better. Better media coverage would be good for the game in general and the clubs specifically. Here's hoping that the second half of the County's season continues as it has in the first half.

My optimism (the sporting kind) goes beyond the round ball game to rugby and I am ever hopeful (being a season ticket holder) that the Gwent Dragons (“Don't pass the ball to opposition players and kick it between the posts, not past them”) and Newport RFC will turn the corner between now and the end of the season. At a regional level I think that we need central contracting with the WRU running the show, with four regions along the Irish model - while they may not know it - the time of big egos and big moneymen has passed.

COMMON SENSE

Newport County v Bath City

The decision to move the Newport County v Wrecsam game to the evening of Friday 16th March (and possibly to Rodney Parade) to avoid an unnecessary clash with the Wales v France game on the Saturday shows what can be achieved with the application of a little commons sense and practical thinking. Its just a pity that some common sense cannot be exercised when it comes to arranging fixtures in the RaboDirect Pro12 – why on earth some of the Welsh regions ended up playing fixtures against Scottish sides, when Wales and Scotland were playing in Cardiff escapes me.

This is something that was raised by Rick O'Shea on the alternative commentary of the Glasgow v Scarlets game (which was played in Scotland) last Thursday evening, amongst others. Surely it should not be that difficult to plan it so that teams play corresponding fixtures with either Scottish, Irish or Italian sides in and around the Six Nations. When I buy my Newport County season ticket I get a complete list of fixtures from mid August to April, it is not like that with my Dragon season ticket - all you get a a couple of months of weekend focused date. It does to seem to be possible to produce a full fixture list for a league that contains twelve teams in advance - this has always struck me as odd, especially as this seems to be possible for almost every other sport (on the planet), some of who's leagues contain a great deal more than twelve teams.

SLEEPING IN THE ARMCHAIR FOR WALES

To be honest, it did shock me, even though it shouldn't – just to clarify I am not talking about Newport County's away win against Gateshead (and the much needed three points). I am talking about the news that the Con Dem Government teamed up with the party formerly known as New Labour to arguing against using European funding to electrify the Great Western Line to Swansea.

The potential new funds are part of the Connecting Europe Facility which is a 50 billion Euro scheme rolled out by the European Commission (at the end of last year) which includes some 10 billion Euro's which are specifically ring-fenced funding for transport schemes in Cohesion Fund areas such as West Wales and the Valleys. To be honest this is long overdue and would actually mean if implemented properly that people would see something physical on the ground as a result of the commitment of EU funding.

The funding aims to make improvements to trans-national links between EU member states in the next European budget period from 2014 to 2020. The EU Commission report makes specific recommends in relation to transport schemes in what are termed ‘Core Corridors'. The reason why this should interest us here in Wales is that , Corridor 8 shows links between the Republic of Ireland, the UK, France and Belgium, with upgrading of the Great Western Main Line from Swansea through Cardiff and Bristol to London one of their recommendations as a pre-identified project.

Bonus you would think – something useful that will bring actual benefits to transport links within part of Wales. Apparently not, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat UK Government and the Labour opposition both argued against this European funding in a debate last Thursday and as we are aware the Con-Dem government have entirely refused to electrify the railway line beyond Cardiff.

By now it should be pretty clear by now that none of the London based parties have any concept of the Welsh national interest. Welsh and British national interests have now diverged, whatever the British national interest its not even wildly related to our national interests. Our country would get a far better deal when it comes infrastructure funding as an independent country inside the EU than we do as part of the UK.

Rather than arguing against EU funding for Wales, the UK Westminster Government should be prioritising efforts to tap into this funding to electrify the railway line to Swansea and to the West Wales coast and including Milford Haven port as a core link for trade between the Republic of Ireland, Wales and the European mainland. Clearly as far as the London based Parties are concerned there are no Welsh priorities, something that can also be said for the Labour Government in Cardiff, who appear to be busy sleeping in the armchair for Wales.

A WELCOME RETURN!

Newport County AFC in action last season

I warmly welcome the news that Newport County will play in this seasons Welsh Cup after they accepted an invitation from the FAW to play in the Welsh Cup. County, Wrecsam and Merthyr Town have signed up, but, sadly Colwyn Bay, Cardiff City and Swansea City have foolishly in my opinion declined their invite. Historically Newport County have played in 3 Welsh Cup finals and won the cup in 1980 beating Shrewsbury Town over two legs in the final.European glory followed with games against Crusaders and Haugar followed by an epic couple of games against Carls Zeis Jena in 90/91. Newport County finished as runners-up twice (the last time was in 1987). County have not played in the competition since the 1991/92 season when they were forced into exile following their refusal to join the newly formed League of Wales. The 12 Welsh Premier League clubs, as well as County and Wrecsam, have all received byes into round three, Merthyr go in in round two. Bring it on!

A FUNNY OLD GAME?

A Saturday without football (save for the big game tonight with Barcelona v Manchester United) gives me pause for thought. As does the news that the BBC may seriously reduce its coverage of events (sporting and otherwise) in Wales is not good news. If the 'Welsh' focus is watered down and the number of programme opt outs reduced to a bare minimum - then people may wonder why bother at all.

Taking football for a moment, if you follow football in Wales and here I mean outside of the top flight and the league of Wales then the coverage you get if you are a Wrexham, Newport County, Colwyn Bay or a Merthyr supporter can be pretty minimal to start with. Any further reduction in coverage could effectively make our sides invisible. BBC Wales (well the BBC Sports at least rather than BBC Wales itself) did wake up a bit to the existence of Newport County AFC when they lingered close to the play off's this season, but, largely I suspect because of Wrexham.

Over recent years the absence of results (let alone any match reports - save when playing against Cardiff, Swansea or Wrexham in the now defunct FAW Cup) on the BBC Wales News bulletins, was long been noticed (and noted) by people in the South East whether they were supporters or not. There was a degree of parity (admittedly only a degree) of coverage of results which most people would expect with two Welsh sides being at the top end of the same division.

What sort of coverage can we expect for Colwyn Bay (promoted this season) and Merthyr (also promoted this season) when the sports budget amongst other things may be seriously reduced. 6 out of 10 and 'A marked improvement on previous years, but room for improvement' would be my mark for the BBC Sports coverage of the County and 10 out of 10 for S4C's Sgorio's coverage (which was pretty good). one question though remains to be resolved when will BBC Radio Wales finally change its jingle / trailer which still annoyingly refers to 'Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham' only?

A SIMPLE QUESTION OF COMPETENCE?

I and a fair few other people (no doubt) have always had mixed feelings about the competence levels of the Welsh FA over the years, recent developments in relation to the allocation of tickets for the Wales v England (European Qualifier, to be held on Saturday March 26th) to Newport County AFC, Wrexham and Colwyn Bay Fans, have merely reinforced my and no doubt other peoples doubts about the competence of the Welsh FA.

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STATEMENT FROM NEWPORT COUNTY AFC (ISSUED 8th March 2011)


In the last 24 hours there have been some disturbing developments with regard to our tickets for the Wales v England.


Yesterday morning Phil Morgan confirmed for the fourth time with the ticket office at the Welsh FA that out tickets had been allocated and were en route. When the post arrived mid morning there was a letter from the Welsh FA, dated 3rd March, stating that due to an administration error we were to be allocated NO tickets for the match. Phil rang back straight away to be told that their ticket office had been repeatedly looking at the wrong database and that we were to be allocated no tickets.


To clarify :


1. Newport County were assured at the beginning and on multiple occasions during the process that there were no issues with the number of tickets required.


2. Newport County contacted the Welsh FA prior to the 1st closing date of 31st January to arrange delivery of applications and monies in person. We were told that the date had been extended to the 18th February. We asked if the currently held applications had to be submitted and were told no, to collate them all together prior to the 18th as there were plenty of tickets and we were guaranteed our allocation.


3. Newport County delivered our ticket application and monies in person to the Welsh FA prior to that closing date and were assured that we would be given the full allocation.


4. Various personnel at Newport County have been assured on three subsequent occasions by the Welsh FA, including yesterday, that this was the case.


5. That the Welsh FA have cashed the presented cheques for the applications indicating that the applications had been accepted.


6. Newport County have made attempts to speak to both Welsh FA Chief Executive Jonathan Forde and Commercial & Marketing Manager Ian Davies today - we were informed that they were not available.


We will keep you fully informed of all conversations once the Welsh FA have replied, but if you wish to progress the situation personally can we suggest :


1. Call the Welsh FA on 029 2043 5830 to clarify the situation.


2. Jonathan Forde is Dave Brookes' guest on the Real Radio Sports phone in tonight [ 8th March ] for an hour 6 - 7 ( 0845 1052106). He may well be able to clarify the situation whilst on air.


Please do not call the club office at present. The volunteers who worked so hard on behalf of the club and the Welsh FA to sell and co-ordinate these ticket sales have no more information than listed above and we will publish more information as soon as we have it.


Chris Blight
Newport County Chairman


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Newport County AFC have become exceptionally good at regularly communicating with their fans (I am one myself) it's such a pity that the Welsh FA is not that good at it, not to mention other things...

CHAMPIONS!

Congratulations to Newport County AFC who won promotion (and firmly secured the Blue Square South Championship) to the Blue Square Conference last night, with a 2-0 win over Havant & Waterlooville, with 7 games to go! An excellent evening (with a bumper 4,224 crowd) and fantastic season!

NEWPORT COUNTY

And finally BBC Wales (well the BBC Sports at least rather than BBC Wales itself) has woken up to the fact that Newport County AFC (under the management of Dean Holdsworth) are on the brink of securing promotion to the Conference. Over recent years the absence of results (let alone any match reports - save when playing against Cardiff, Swansea or Wrexham in the FAW Cup) on the BBC Wales News bulletins, has long been noticed (and noted) by people in the South East whether they be supporters or not. Perhaps BBC Wales will finally take notice, when the County are promoted they will be in the same division as Wrexham, so a degree of parity of coverage of results would only be expected. And lets not forget Colwyn Bay (who are also chasing promotion to Conference North).

Of course we are, however dealing with BBC Wales, so don't hold your breath... anyway Come on the Port!!!