‘Erbstein: The triumph and tragedy of football’s forgotten pioneer’

Many might not like it but sport will always find itself linked to politics, not just how sport and in particular football are run but linked with national and international politics.

Here in England during the 70’s the Far Right used football as a way to recruit members and 40 years later the EDL and other Far Right groups have attempted to repeat that feat whilst Cameron like Blair have been quick to declare their love for the game and ready for the quick ball juggling photo shoot.

In Europe and closer to home in Scotland and Northern Ireland, nationalist, sectarian and political groups have aligned themselves with football clubs as a shared identity has often seen to be beneficial for both sides.

If anything in England we have been fortunate that no football clubs have ever found themselves linked with any political group, even if politicians have been involved with the clubs (Notts County, Coventy and Chelsea as examples).

But from the birth of football in the late 19th and early 20th Century, football teams in Europe have been linked far closer to political groups and movements, with many of those clubs toady still associated with the same groups, this is particularly so in Italy and Spain. Central European clubs have also had their political links, but after 1945 all were linked to various arms of the communist structure, some of those clubs today still have left leanings (as in Berlin) where others have since found themselves adopted by Far Right and Nationalist groups.

But football can also help in breaking down barriers, with war waging in Ukraine, football still continues with people still working hard to keep the clubs from the breakaway region of the Crimea in the Ukrainian Football League.

But by studying football in the 20th Century we can also increase our knowledge of European history and after (that long) preamble it brings me to the subject of this post, a review of one of the best football books I have read and a book that is as much about European history as it is about the beautiful game.

The book is ‘Erbstein: The triumph and tragedy of football’s forgotten pioneer’

Erbstein was a Hungarian footballer, one who seemed to make up for his lack of skill and finesse by his hard tackling (dirty) style of play but where he may not have been the greatest player in terms of skill it was soon noticed that he was an outstanding leader. Hungary would become one of the greatest teams ever seen in the 1950’s but even before World War 2, Hungarian football was a leading player with a new style of play coming from Austria/Hungary – ‘Danubian Football’.

His leadership came to the fore, not in Hungarian League football but with a touring Jewish side to the USA, Erbstein was a leading member of the ‘Maccabees’ as the Jewish tourists became known.

The team was part of a Zionist movement that wanted to show a different side to being Jewish, as anti-Semitism spread across both Europe and the US.

The tour to the US proved that Erbstein was not only a great leader but also a coach with much potential and it was to Italy the Hungarian went to use these skills.

More worryingly for me the book documents the many political upheavals happening in Europe at that time and you can see similarities with the way Europe is today, from Italy passing legislation that only Italian players could play for Italian teams, the movement of towns and regions between countries as some and more disturbingly the need to blame a minority for the financial trouble many found themselves in.

I could write for ages about this great book but I would rather you discovered that for yourself by reading it, but we find Erbstein in Turin and starting to create a great team to rival their city rivals, Juventas and the two Milan teams, but the rise of fascism leads to Erbstein attempting to escape to Holland with his family but captured by the Germans but he then uses his football contacts (and diamonds) to gain a passage back to Hungary but eventually even there he ends up on the run from the Nazis.

Erbstein and his close family survive the holocaust and after the war he returns to Turin to take the ‘technical director’ role at Torino where he becomes the architect of the ‘Grande Torino’ the greatest football team in the world at the time, a winning run of Italian League titles, providing all 10 outfield players for the Italian national side for a game v Hungary and a team that was invited to travel all other the world to play in prestigious friendlies.

It was on the return to Turin from one of these trips (to Lisbon) that ‘Grande Torino’ lost their lives in a plane crash above the city.

So if you buy one football book this year make it this one –

‘Erbstein : The triumph and tragedy of football’s forgotten pioneer’ by Dominic Bliss, from Blizzard - £10 – www.blizzard.co.uk

Being disingenuous - something Ipswich Tories are expert on!

If there is one subject the local Ipswich Tories are expert on it is on being disingenuous, but it seemed quite comical when they accused us (Labour) of being disingenuous.

On the same day as a local Tory activist accused us of being disingenuous he also wrote a further post about his year ahead where he seems to be the master of the ingenuous comment. He attempts to claim that local Tory councillors were instrumental in the refurbishment of a local park. Local Tories were involved but so were all the local Labour councillors in North East Ipswich but all the hard work for the refurbishment was done by local residents and it is Jim Jenner and his friends who should take all the credit. If any councillor deserves any praise it is Labour’s Sandy Martin who helped fill in the application for a grant from Viridor.

Where all councillors were involved is the support the scheme was given by the local area committee, a structure the Tories have never supported. A point that has been mentioned before on other blogs such as Ipswich Spy, back in February, ‘Spy’ commented;

“Tories in North East Ipswich seem to have got themselves a bit confused. Pushing out a new leaflet, and promoting one of the stories on the Ipswich Tory website, they celebrate funding from Viridor and the “NE Committee” for somewhere called “Cherry Tree” rec.
Presumably they are celebrating the funding provided through the North East Area Committee for the Cherry Lane Recreation Ground. Not only did they oppose Area Committees (and they voted against them again last week) but they also don’t seem to know where the recreation ground in question is. If they’re going to use this to promote their new Bixley candidate, Eddy Phillips, they’ll have to up their game.”

But it is no surprise that local Tories seem to want to take credit for anything and everything even if they were just partners or not even involved at all as their MP, Ben Gummer seems to be the master of taking credit for all sorts. If you believe everything bit of expensive literature from the Tories pushed through your door, you would have thought that it was Mr Gummer who singlehandedly raised every penny spent on the town in the last 5 years. But interestingly very few mentions of Ipswich Academy in recent leaflets as promised educational improvements have failed to materialise not that seems to have been noticed who claimed in his ingenuous post that one of Mr Gummer’s achievements is (sic) ‘education improved’ !! As the bag carrier for the Education Minister does Mr Gummer see different Ofsted results to the rest of us?

Happy Christmas

From my former Regiment- The Royal Green Jackets - thought it would be poignant as this year we remember the centenary of the start of the First World War

Happy Christmas to Rushmere residents and all readers of this blog!

Plenty of hot wind - where is that turbine when you need it?

This week our neighbouring council, Babergh turned down a planning application for a wind turbine. The application was originally meant for two turbines one of which would have been on IBC owned land. That plan was dropped so the application was just for one turbine on farmland owned by a well known Suffolk family (who included amongst their clan, a Suffolk Tory MP)

The Tory leader in Ipswich, Cllr Cenci was quick to take to social media to tell everyone that the application had been turned down and was also quick to mention that no South West Ipswich Labour councillors had attended.

Cllr Cenci has campaigned for more than a year to see the turbines not built but she was never that keen to mention that she was part of the executive that had signed the deal with the turbine company originally. She was keen for the council to renege on the contract even if it meant that the council would be then liable for costs and a possible compensation claim.

With family living in an area that would have been able to see the turbine from their houses I know that some residents were actually keen to see the turbine but the Tory leader was keen to see the turbine rejected. Where this desire sits with Mr Cameron and his ‘Green’ credentials, I am not sure.

But even forgetting that Cllr Cenci had been a member of the executive that had signed the contract with the turbine company what annoyed me was her tweeting about the non attendance of Labour councillors at the Babergh planning meeting. What she seemed to forget was that on the same day was the Ipswich Planning meeting where 4 South West Labour councillors were attending, but she seemed to think they could miss the meeting (the one they are elected to serve on) as it was just ‘a run of the mill’ planning meeting. Not sure the residents of Brunswick Road would agree as the committee examined an application to build a house in what many would call a ‘back yard’ development.

Now I myself have tweeted about the absence of opposition councillors at meetings – but these were at our own councils meetings – the meetings that we are elected to serve on not those in another District. I mentioned this to Cllr Cenci as she had failed to attend a housing panel the week before, she had a valid excuse as she was working – but maybe the other Labour councillors who were not at our own planning committee were also working. But if Cllr Cenci is now going to be checking the attendance at meetings I hope we may see a Tory at the next East Housing panel, as not one of the 6 Tories in East Ipswich could attend, we did receive belated apologies from one but you would have thought one of the other 5 could have substituted. So maybe Cllr Cenci needs to make sure her own group turn up for meetings before she highlights the lack of Labour councillors at a meeting that they did not even have to attend!

My week ahead, 15 - 20 December 2014

Monday 15 December, 4pm – Culture and Leisure portfolio meeting
7pm – Labour Group

Wednesday 1t December, 20m – Visit to Military Charity at Imperial War Museum

Thursday 18 December, 6pm – Borough Scrutiny meeting

Saturday 20 December, 10am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

Last week I mentioned that the meetings I was planning to attend during the week have been poorly supported by the Lib Dems and the Tories in the past. Well, the pattern of non-attendance continued.

The first meeting on Monday was the Culture and Leisure working group – an important meeting as we were discussing the budget but the Lib Dem member failed to turn up or send their apologies but I am sure that will not stop the Lib Dems commenting on the budget in the New Year. At least the Tories did turn up if at times it was embarrassing for them when discussing having to cut spending on items that should in truth be funded by the Tory run County Council.

By Thursday the non - attendance bug had spread as we had our final Housing Panel meetings of the year, the East Panel saw both the Tories and the Lib Dems fail to turn up or tend their apologies and the South West Panel was also devoid of opposition councillors. At least the Tories from the North West did turn up for the panel meeting but it was disappointing that not one opposition councillor was in attendance later in the evening for the 2014 Tenant Awards.

The panel meetings were also the first opportunity for both councillors and tenants to discuss the planned council rents for next year, even know there was a lack of Tory councillors at the panel meetings I am sure it will not stop them criticising us when the subject of council rents comes to full council.

Interesting to see if the Lib Dems turn up for Scrutiny this week!

On a more positive note, it was good to join 6th Formers from Northgate School on Saturday as they planted fruit trees on a piece of land near Sidegate Lane. The pupils with help and funding from the Borough Council and the Area Committee have turned a piece of waste land into a small community garden.

My week ahead, 8 - 14 December 2014

Monday 8 December, 7pm – Culture and Leisure Working Group

Wednesday 10 December, 6pm – East Ipswich Housing group

Thursday 11 December, 6pm – Area Committee Chair meeting

Saturday 13 December, 11am – Tree planting at community allotment, Inverness Rd with Northgate pupils


Christmas is getting closer but the fast pace of life continues and it is still meeting after meeting as this is the time of year when we become focused on setting next year’s budget.

I hope the opposition groups decided to become involved in the budget setting procedure; we have offered them the opportunity to contribute over the last three years with differing results. Some working groups have seen the two opposition groups fully contribute but other budget setting meetings have seen little contribution.

We were never offered the opportunity to contribute when the Tories/Lib Dems were in power but we felt from the start that it was important to involve all councillors.

Which make the comments from the Tories about secret deals and behind closed door meetings so unbelievable. From talking to a number of Tories, when they were in power their own group were not even informed of what was going on, all the power sat in the laps of a only three councillors.

We also have an East Housing Panel meeting this week and it has been noticeable that in the last 18 months the opposition groups have started to attend. Maybe they were given a hint that attending maybe a good idea after their former Housing spokesman made a comment at Full Council that indicated he did not even know that certain Tory councillors were members of the Housing panels.

Suffolk SAY

Tonight I joined colleague Sandy Martin in attending and youth community event at Northgate School - was brilliant to hear what our young residents think and was so impressed in their view that mental health should be an issue given much more consideration by both schools and councils.

I look forward to further meetings and also for those young people to get more involved in the North East Area Committee.

We are lucky to have such passionate young residents in this town - thanks to @SuffolkSAY for their involvement.