C:\My Documents\My Football Club

I first read about this site in an article on the BBC Sport website.

The idea of the website, My Football Club, is that members sign up and pay £35 a year to buy an equal share in a football club.

What makes this idea different to a club owned by a Supporters trust is that each member gets an equal vote on almost every aspect of the running of the club, from picking weekly formations, transfers to staff appointments, all backed up by reports from the head coach, videos of training and matches etc.
There won't be a manager as the members will in effect be both the manager and chairman (in a Football Manager kind of way).

The driving principle behind the idea is for football fans to be more involved with football in an age where some fans feel alienated by millionaire footballers, expensive ticket prices and hostile take over bids for clubs.

The site is waiting for at least 50,000 people to commit to paying £35 (which will give a purchase fund of £1.375 million) and when this is received members will vote on which club to try and purchase; the most popular choice at the time of writing is Leeds United.

I've already registered for the site as I think it would be an interesting project to the involved with.

So far 31,479 people have registered an interest - will you be 31,480?

Links
My Football Club website
BBC Sport article: Fans given club takeover chance

Ban on gay men giving blood? WTF?!

I learnt an interesting fact today: Despite the shortage of blood donors, gay men (or men who have ever had intercourse with another man) are discouraged in the UK from being blood donors and are actually banned in the US.

From what I've read, the reason is that men who sleep with other men are a high risk for HIV.
While on the surface this seems to be a sensible and valid argument, it ignores the fact that HIV is now widespread in the general population and not just limited to the homosexual community; this isn't the 80's any more.

Screening for HIV these days is supposed to be very accurate and can take just a matter of days to test, so the risks of getting infected blood is probably very small.

Personally I feel the ban is an example of institutional homophobia.

What do you think?

If you want more information follow the link to an article on Gaylife.About.com in the references which has more information (though does seem biased towards the gay view point).

References:

Nation Blood Service information on who can't give blood
Gaylife.About.com article: Gay Blood and Bone Marrow Donors

Album Review: Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing

As Avril Lavigne is my favourite female vocalist (my favourite male vocalist is Adam Levine of Maroon 5. I know, how similar are their names, [US teeny bopper] it's like - freaky!!), I eagerly downloaded her third album as soon as it was released on Napster, having loved her first two.

While promoting the album, Avril Lavigne suggested that the album had a more fun, brattier sound than her previous two albums (she even claimed she wrote the track "Girlfriend" while drunk).

Having listened to the album a few times since it's release, I'd definitely say this album is very different to the previous two. While they were filled with teen angst and melancholy, this album
is a lot more rockier.

Though the album lacks much depth in terms of lyrics (apart from Everything Back But You), this is probably intended and instead the album draws you in with it's very catchy and contagious choruses. You too will catch yourself singing on the bus telling the guy in front of you you want to be his girlfriend (not a true story, honest!).

On a side note, Avril's new husband Deryck Whibley's influence can be felt through some of the album with some very Sum 41 sounding production on a few of the tracks (see "I don't have to try "as an example) as he is quoted as being a producer of the album along with Dr. Luke (Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Lady Sovereign and Daughtry), Rob Cavallo (Green Day, The Goo Goo Dolls, My Chemical Romance, Jewel), Butch Walker and even Avril Lavigne herself producing some tracks. Travis Barker (of Blink-182 fame) also recorded the drums for the album.

All of this means that the music on the album is a decent standard; generally very pop-rocky and aggressive and the Sum 41-esque tunes bring memories of a time when Sum 41 were set to be the next big thing. Sigh...

On the whole the album is very good and fans of Avril Lavigne and pop-rock in general will not be disappointed.

- 3 Napsters out of 5!