Daily Mirror - 30.08.2019

DM1ST
mirror.co.uk/sport FRIDAY 30.08.2019 DAILY MIRROR^59

ANDY DUNN

Britain’s best Sports Writer

r.co.uk/sport

FORTY miles down the

road from Bury Football

Club, Liverpool Football

Club has its own pressing

problem.

Its attempt to trademark

the city’s name – yep, the

actual name of the city – is

meeting some resistance.

For a start, Joe Anderson (a

Blue, it has to be said), Mayor

of the grand old place – with

its maritime folklore, its rich

cultural history, its proud

working-class foundations, its

unmistakable identity, its

Beatles, its Boys from the

Blackstuff, its music, its

comedy – is against it.

When the idea was first

revealed a month ago,

influential fan group Spirit of

Shankly expressed its own

opposition.

Even after meeting with

club officials, the supporters’

organisation said that

opposition would continue ‘on

moral, social and ethical

grounds’.

The club’s idea to trademark

the Liverpool name is based

purely on commercial

grounds. “We are trying to

protect LFC against large-

scale counterfeiting

operations,” said Peter Moore,

the club’s chief executive.

On its website, the club

reaffirmed: “The LFC Brand

Protection team work

tirelessly to protect our

supporters, partners and LFC

itself from those that wish to

exploit LFC.”

To protect some supporters,

more accurately.

There are swathes of

supporters who cannot afford

genuine LFC merchandise

and replica kits. So-called

‘fake’ gear might break some

sort of law but it is all some

hard-up fans can afford, no

doubt. Merchandising is huge

business, for the elite clubs in

particular.

You can understand why

they have ‘Brand Protection’

teams, hunting down

counterfeiters. No one is

suggesting counterfeiting is

some sort of noble enterprise.

And Liverpool’s plan is not

unprecedented. Chelsea and

Southampton have done

similar.

Also, the club – which gets

so much right on AND off the

field – has stressed the

trademark would only be ‘in

the context of football

products and services’.

But American-based

tycoons, for whom LFC is part

o f a sporting portfolio,

trying to stake

some sort of legal

claim on the name of

Liverpool is just not a good

look. Particularly in an age

when so many lower league

clubs are struggling and one

has gone to the wall.

This sort of trademark

thing might be standard

practice but it just looks like a

rich club wanting to get

richer. Bury’s expulsion – and

let’s hope that can be revoked

at some stage – has put

Premier League wealth into

sharp focus.

It is an easy link, for sure.

And just because Bury has

had charlatan owners, why

point the finger at well-run

high-end clubs? We get that.

The English Football

League is the most culpable

organisation for its failure to

block unfit and improper

owners.

But the fact remains that

when the top tier of English

club football has raked in tens

of billions of pounds over the

past couple of decades, the

benefits should be felt

throughout the game’s

pyramid.

But Premier League

solidarity payments to League

Two clubs, for example,

currently stand at £450,000 a

year and are likely to be

reduced.

Only regulation will change

that.

Without English football’s

fantastic footballing pyramid,

there would be no Premier

League.

Let’s stress this again.

Liverpool and every other

successful Premier League

club has no responsibility for

reckless ownership of lower

league clubs.

But Bury’s fate has rightly

put Premier League riches

into stark perspective.

After all, right now, the

good folk of Bury might well

not have a football club to

support, never mind one

trying to trademark the place

in which it exists.

ACCORDING to Gareth Southgate,

Manchester City have said John

Stones, who returned to training on

Wednesday after a muscular

problem, would not be ready for

England duty tomorrow week.

Meanwhile, Phil Foden, referred to

by his club manager as “the most

talented player” he has ever seen,

has only had 10 minutes of

game time this season.

And Kyle Walker,

preferred ahead of the

£60million Joao

Cancelo at Manchester

City, has made way so

that Kieran Trippier can

be reintegrated into the

England squad and the development

of two youngsters, Trent Alexander-

Arnold and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

So Stones, Walker and Foden

might all feature for the Premier

League champions this weekend, but

not for England in their upcoming

Euro 2020 qualifiers against Bulgaria

and Kosovo.

This latest England squad is an

intriguing one.

But maybe England chief Gareth

(above) knows something that Pep

Guardiola does not.

Gareth won’t

Pep up Lions

WHETHER you consider him a flat-

track bully or not, Romelu Lukaku

was a proven Premier League

goalscorer and is a record-holding

striker for a national team that is

ranked No.1 in the world.

Whether you consider

Lukaku (left) a petulant

busted flush or not,

Alexis Sanchez has

130 caps and is one

of Chile’s greatest-

ever players.

For Manchester

United to let both of them go at the

same time could be seen as bold. It

is bold.

It could also be seen as reckless.

But, with Chris Smalling seemingly

also sent packing, you cannot say Ole

Gunnar Solskjaer has not got the

courage of his convictions.

Bold Trafford

Beeb drops ball

BEN STOKES is a certainty to win the

BBC Sports Personality of the Year and

the England one-day cricket world

champions will be team of the year.

And when the Beeb has to go cap in

hand to Sky to scrounge some

highlights of Stokes (right) and his

achievements, it will be a reminder

of how the national broadcaster

scandalously threw in the

sporting towel a long time ago.

Major joy ahead for Rory

YOU might not have noticed

but Rory McIlroy won a golf

tournament that

involved a mere 30

players last weekend.

The victory earned

McIlroy £12.3million.

But 2019 will be

remembered as another

year – the fifth on the spin –

without a Major for the most

prodigiously talented golfer of

his generation (left).

As his performance at

the Tour Championship

in Atlanta should have

shown had anyone

been watching, that

is a run that cannot

go on.

He will be back in the Major

groove in 2020.

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BRIANA WILLIAMS will face

an anti-doping disciplinary

hearing after testing positive

for the banned diuretic

Hydrochlorothiazide.

Williams had been due to

compete in next month’s World

Championships in Doha, having

finished third in the 100m trials at

the Jamaican National

Championships.

All sadly routine? Not quite.

Williams is 17 years of age.

It is hard not to despair.

AS the tedious Nick

Kyrgios continues his

antics at the US

Open, well done to his

vanquished first-round

opponent Steve Johnson.

“Do you want to play

****ing tennis or host a

s*** show?”

Johnson was talking

about that particular

match... he might have

been talking about

Kyrgios’s career.

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