Newsletter #1032

Details on pre-season ticketing are now released with one or two taking full advantage of the expect demand by setting high prices. Vuoso has made his loan move to Santos Laguna a permanent one and Club physio Rob Harris has left the Blues.

Tonight we have opinion on the Sky games, youth academy and fixtures request.

OPINION: SKY LIVE SCHEDULE

I’ve just read the Sky Live Schedule that’s been released for now up to Christmas, and it’s laughable. Reading through the list of games, I had a nasty feeling that we’d been relegated.

Not only are we the last club in the Premiership to be televised, but by the time we’re on the box (Norwich Home 1st November), Newcastle, Portsmouth and Liverpool will all have been on four times, whilst Chelsea, Man Ure, Palace and Arsenal will have been on three times.

Also, the November 1st game will be Norwich’s third appearance on Sky, all away from Carrot Road, whilst Portsmouth’s four appearances are all at home. I know there’s always a preference to the Premiership challengers in the back end of the season, and that’s understandable, but there’s no excuse for such an imbalanced schedule before Christmas. I think that before Mr Murdock makes these decisions he should consult with Hannibal and BA, the crazy fool.

OPINION: WASTING RESOURCES

It’s great that Jim Cassell is backing home grown talent, it’s just a shame that Kevin Keegan is not prepared to give some of them a fair chance, and if the manager feels that Stephen Elliot deserves no more than to be given away for free, then what is the point?

For a club abundantly in debt, you would have thought it a priority to bring good youth players through in order to challenge for a first team place.

OPINION: HRISTOV

No need to hope or worry that Marian Hristov will join City, he just signed a three year contract with Wolfsburg. I suppose that is good news, because, although I like his commitment and his distribution, I think he is too slow for Premiership football.

OPINION: PRE-SEASON TICKET DETAILS

Bury – MCFC 21/7/04

Cash turnstile, £10 adults, £5 concessions.

The following are all available from the Ticket Store:

Doncaster – MCFC 24/7/04

£15 adults, £7 concessions (seating) and £13 adults, £5 concessions (standing). There will be cash turnstiles available on the day for standing.

Hull – MCFC 28/7/04

£15 adults, £7 concessions, only 1,800 tickets received.

Wolves – MCFC 30/7/04

£13 adults, £7 seniors and £5 juniors – 1,500 tickets received.

Reading – MCFC 2/8/04

£10 adults, £5 concessions, 2,000 tickets available from 12/7/04.

REQUEST: FIXTURE LIST FOR PALM

Last year some kind soul sent information of a website where you could load the fixture list straight to your Palm / Hand computer. This was very useful but unfortunately I didn’t bookmark the site and I now I can’t find it. Can anyone help me?

MCIVTA FAQ [v0304.07]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Don Barrie)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org
Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org
Technical problems (Paul)        : paul@city-fan.org
FAQ (David Warburton)            : faq@mcivta.city-fan.org

[1] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings.

[2] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.uit.no/mancity/ is the unofficial Manchester City Supporters’ home page. Created in 1994, it is the longest running of the Manchester City related web sites. Back issues of MCIVTA are also hosted on the site.

[3] What is the club’s official web site?

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

[4] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=111845&Title=International+Supporters+Club&lid=Membership).

[5] Where can I find out about the fans’ committee?

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. It has its own website, http://www.mcfc-fans.com/ containing info about forthcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous gatherings.

[6] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

The GMR pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/gmr/sport_intro.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://www.mcfctv.com/, whilst an alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/englandprem/cal/index.html.

[7] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premiership games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://canadatvsoccer.tripod.com/Fixtures.htm, http://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, and http://www.soccertv.com/.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1288602 also provides a guide to pubs in the USA showing football.

[8] What’s the music the teams run out to?

At the start of the 03/04 season it was actually a mix of two tracks: Starting with “O Verona” (from the film “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”) leading in to “Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten remix)” by William Orbit. The first part is available on the movie soundtrack (volume 2) and the second is included on a variety of CDs such as Kiss House Nation 2000, Galaxy Hit Mix, Cream Live, Ibiza Chill and Dance Nation 4.

Currently we use a selection of different music, which seems to change each game.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.uit.no/mancity/players/

[11] Can I buy shares in the club?

Yes you can: Shares in Manchester City PLC are traded on OFEX. The latest prices can be on found the OFEX web site http://www.ofex.com/ (registration required) or in the business section of the Manchester Evening News.

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/.

[13] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Damian Quinn, Stephen Webb, Roger Haigh, Martin Price, and Adrian Howarth for the Satellite TV info.

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in MCIVTA are entirely those of the subscribersand there is no intention to represent these opinions as being thoseof Manchester City Football Club, nor of any of the companies anduniversities by whom the subscribers are employed. It is not inany way whatsoever connected to the club or any other relatedorganisation and is simply a group of supporters using this mediumas a means of disseminating news and exchanging opinions.

Heidi Pickup, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: