Player Profile: Jamie Carragher

Jamie Carragher is a true Liverpool legend. It is the only club he ever played for and he is regarded as one of the most loyal and successful defenders in Liverpool history, although he grew up an Everton fan.

The no. 23, nick-named "Carra" made his debut in 1996, and became a first regular the following season. Having mainly played as a full-back he later came to play in central defence, with the equally legendary Sami Hyypiä among others, when Rafael Benitez became manager in 2004.

As an England player he earned 38 national caps and was talked out of retirement for the 2010 World Cup.
Carragher's biggest honours include winning the FA Cup in 2001 & 2006; the UEFA Cup in 2001; the League Cup in 2001 & 2003 and of course the Champions League in 2005.
For the 2006/7 season he was elected Liverpool FC Player of the Year.

The Liverpool FC Museum has all of Jamie Carragher's medals, most of them displayed in a special case. Musuem Curator Stephen Done desrcibes the collection on the LFC website:

"The way Carra donated his medals to the Museum is typical of the man.
Jamie had just brought them in, dumped them on the desk and told them to give Stephen Done a call.
So off I went and there they were, in this bag. He didn't want a receipt or anything. He just told me to put them on show in the museum and walked off.

It was absolutely unbelievable. It is one of the great moments I have had here as a museum curator and shows just how down to earth and trusting our favourite number 23 is.
I have to say that I think it is one of the most exciting additions we have ever received.
For me, it ranks alongside the Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen collections that are already on show. /.../
It also illustrates how fantastic Jamie Carragher has been as a player."

Swedish club Utsiktens BK lost everything in the fire

Disaster struck the Göteborg football club Utsiktens BK on Sunday night when their club cabin went up in flames. Staff, fans and players were devastated. The cabin was one of many that are found next to the sports facilities of Ruddalen.

None of the other cabins were damaged. The suburb where Ruddalen, Västra Frölunda is located has been tormented by vandalism and worries for some time. Young punks have been setting cars on fire and assaulting the police and fire brigade. The city of Göteborg has lately been troubled with these scenes but lacks the ability to find a solution.

Utsiktens BK built their club cabin in the 1970's and kept pretty much their entire property there, kits, boots, balls, computers, etc. Sadly they have also lost the material culture of their history and heritage. All of their achives, old photographs, pennants and trophies. It's all gone.
To great extent Utsiktens BK has lost the physical evidence of their history and achievements. This is truly shameful and will scar the collective identity of Utsiktens BK. They are a small club but their loss of proud artefacts and tokens of fond memories is just as great as if it had happened to one of the big clubs.

The game in the Swedish Division 2 (fourth division) against Kållered om Monday was cancelled. Utsiktens BK was formed in 1935 and their current manager is Glenn Hysén, former central defender of Liverpool FC and the Swedish National Team.
A couple of weeks ago his son, who playes for Utsikten, Anton Hysén came out as the first openly homosexual professional footballer in Sweden. It was a milestone in Swedish Football.

Picture: The remains of the Utsiktens club cabin on monday morning, from GöteborgsPosten

Modern Football needs Museums to promote Nostalgia

Museums have a considerable place in the football world, in terms of promoting history and trademarks. The history displayed at football museums, especially at club museums have often been described as being one that promotes the past highlighting successes, wins and past glories.
Discussing history only in positive terms creates and ideal image of the past commonly known as nostalgia.

Mark Bushell, at the National Football Museum in England, has written his dissertation about the UK heritage industry, nostalgia and football terrace culture, in which he aims to establish whether football supporters have developed a need for nostalgia as a result of the commercialism, globalisation, bourgeoisification and the social and economic disruptions that has affected football in recent years.

The aftermath of the three arena disasters at Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough in the middle and late 80’s led to what is known as the Taylor report. This report recommended all-seat arenas which led to extensive refurbishments among the stadiums in the UK where more than 75% predated the First World War.
This meant huge costs, as the clubs had to pay themselves, and some clubs were forced to share home grounds.

When the FA Premier League was created in 1992, the top teams received a £304 million TV contract with British Sky Broadcasting which was the starting point for an escalating market and enormous sums of money in television revenues. The clubs have been developing in to business companies with shareholders demanding profits and with ridiculous player salaries, from the £15-20 000 a year, fifteen years ago to £30 000 a week for the top players.

Needless to say, the fans have been marginalised and have to pay a high price to be loyal to their teams. Chelsea raised the price of their season ticket almost eight times in six years and prices with other clubs have also been raised several hundred per cent (probably more now since 2000 when Bushell wrote his dissertation) and the loyal supporters are declining in attendance for corporate sponsors and wealthy fans who experience football as leisure (Bushell, 2000).

The trend is not as clear in other countries but it is apparent that the business aspect of football is rapidly increasing on the expense of the sport and all the smaller clubs. The past, for many fans and supporters does seem like a better place and the times before Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough are remembered with affection. Football museums can indeed be argued to function as a place for nostalgia where fans and supporters can be taken back to the days of old.
- excerpt from "Football is Forever", 2006.

Note: Today, 22 years ago, the tragedy at Hillsborough struck. 15 april, 1989
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