www.red11.org DAILY NEWS
Date: Tue 21 Dec 1999 07:11 GMT
Mail: barry@www.red11.org

This Issue:
1. Rivaldo pips Beckham to become European player of the year
2. Theatre Dreams News - Literature & Fiction
3. Sorry Posh but David is happy to stay at United
4. Why I'm Red... by Ezra
5. BECKHAM IS HAPPY, INSISTS DAD
6. Telegraph's Monday report
7. Geordies are eyeing up Butt
8. United Cup pull-out hits TV as well

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MANCHESTER UNITED DAILY NEWS Tues 21st Dec 1999:

Webmaster comment:
  At 09:55 20-12-99 +0200, Tukiainen Tero wrote:
  >Does anyone have a clue, why Nicky Butt´s goal was disallowed ?
  >Just wondering.    Tero
The final score was 4-2 because Nicky Butt's goal was flagged offside by
the linesman although he was clearly onside.  Just one of those things that happen
sometimes in football. No goal.
Final score: West Ham 2-4 UNITED
Many news sources got it wrong :)
Cheers Barry & Bill at The Theatre Of Dreams

News for Oz fans:
ABC Shops in Australia have a video of the treble.
These can be brought online from www.abc.net.au

* If you have an article for this MUFC Daily News bulletin
   please mail it to  Thanks!

*** Remember our December Competition!
To enter first download 1 meg here
    http://www.red11.org/mickz/mufc_snow.exe
Lets see how far us REDS can get, I already made it to Level 2 
Proof here: http://www.red11.org/mickz/level2.jpg
The best 3 efforts will win a copy of the NEW book 
"European Glory" by RED NEWS edited by Barney Chilton
Eyewitness Accounts of United's 1968 & 1999 European Triumphs
A book celebrating the amazing events in the Nou Camp on May 26th - retails at £7,95
Enties to the competition must include an attched screen pic as proof of
your efforts  mail to barrylee@post3.tele.dk GOOD LUCK  Comp closes 24th Dec 1999

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Red Devils' Webstation  - danlim@mailexcite.com Danny Lim, Malacca, Malaysia.
URL:  
This is the place for rantings, ravings and reverence 
(well, mostly reverence) of the marvelous football institution known 
as Manchester United FC ! Man United's All-Time Greatest XI and the 
Red Devils' Hall of Fame ! Great Manchester United Line-ups in 
History The Manchester United Squad United in Transition 

Taken from The Worldwide Manchester United Fans Webring - 400+ RED sites!
 http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=manufan;list

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Click On pic - for latest interviews from OT

Rivaldo pips Beckham to become European player of the year

By Football Unlimited  Monday December 20, 1999 

Barcelona's Brazilian forward Rivaldo has been chosen as the European
Player of the Year. Manchester United and England midfielder David Beckham
came second in the poll, organised by France Football magazine.
Rivaldo, who guided Brazil to the Copa America and Barcelona to the Spanish
league title, was the second Brazilian after Ronaldo in 1997 to receive the
award. He earned 219 points compared to Beckham's 154. AC Milan's Ukrainian
striker Andriy Shevchenko came third with 64 points.

Rivaldo came fifth in the same poll last year and takes over from France's
Zinedine Zidane, who had his 1999 season marred by a knee injury.

"I hope I can live up to the expecations of the voters but everything that
has happened this year has made me very proud and happy," Rivaldo said.
"I'm very satisfied with everything I have done with both Barcelona and
Brazil. However I must pay tribute to my team mates who have been vital in
helping me win these honours."

Beckham's teammates also acquitted themselves well in the poll.
Roy Keane came   sixth with 36 points
Jaap Stam         11th with 13
Peter Schmeichel  17th with  6
Ryan Giggs  joint 21st with  3
Andy Cole   equal 26th with  1

Kanu -arse came joint 23rd with 2 pts
Ginola          joint 26th with 1 pt

more.....

Rivaldo voted player of the year 
Barcelona's Brazilian forward Rivaldo has been chosen as the European
Player of the Year, organisers France Football said on Monday. 

Rivaldo, who guided Brazil to the Copa America and Barcelona to the Spanish
league title, was the second Brazilian after Ronaldo in 1997 to receive the
award. 

Manchester United's David Beckham was second. The England midfielder was
among the leading favourites after his team won the European Cup, the
Premier League, the FA Cup and the Intercontinental Cup titles. 

Rivaldo earned 219 points to Beckham's 154. 

The Brazilian, who was fifth last year in the same poll, takes over from
France's Zinedine Zidane, who had his 1999 season marred by a knee injury. 

"I hope I can live up to the expecations of the voters but everything that
has happened this year has made me very pround and happy," Rivaldo said. 

"I'm very satisfied with everything I have done with both Barcelona and
Brazil. "However I must pay tribute to my team mates who have been vital in
helping me win these honours." 

None of the three best-placed players of 1998, Zidane, Ronaldo or Croatian
Davor Suker, are featured among the top 10 this year. 

Until 1994, the award was open only to European players but since 1995 it
has been given to the best player of any nationality playing in a European
league. 

Rivaldo had already been voted world player of the year by readers of World
Soccer magazine. 

AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko of Ukraine was third with 64 points. 

Click On pic - for all latest pics from OT


Theatre Dreams News - Literature & Fiction

http://www.red11.org  presents:

NEW today at the Theatre Of Dreams - Manchester United FC Literature & Fiction
Contributions are welcome - mail: barry@www.red11.org

Have you ever written any fiction or literature with some Manchester United
relevance?

If so, pass it along to us and we'll glady make it available to the world
of United supporters.

Poems, short stories, novels, biographies, you name it. As long as it's
United related, and non-pornographic, we'll be happy to make it available.

The very first contribution is now running at
 http://www.red11.org/mufc/literature.htm

A Modern Fairy Tale - by Linda Harvey 

Part One
Once upon a time, in a land known as the Land of the Willow, lived a young
girl child. Once, long ago, when this land was given its name, it was a
pretty place - of fields and a clean, sparkling, fast-flowing river. But in
more recent times, dark mills and factories had come to this part of the
land and the river. The river, that had once brought its bounty from the
Irish sea, through the cursed lands of the scouse tribes to the West, had
become dank and malodorous with chemicals and poisons spewed out from the
brooding mills along its banks. The Land of the Willow had become an ugly
place, filled with gloomy streets of poor houses - covered in soot and dirt
- and the children who had once played in the meadows amongst the daisies
and the buttercups now played barefoot in the dirty streets, amongst the
refuse. 

But the girl child was different to many of these. She did not see the dirt
and dust around her, she saw a world of magic. Where others saw only
concrete, she saw tiny patches of green grass pushing their way through
cracks in the paving slabs. Where others saw only broken down houses, she
saw the vivid wild flowers growing in the gutters and in the back yards.
Where others saw noise and squalor in the dockyards by the river, she saw
sailing ships and the magic of far-off lands. Whilst others had their eyes
fixed on the dirty streets, she sailed away into clear blue skies, to the
lands of her imagination. 

Every week, on the day before the Sabbath, the child would visit her
grandparents in that part of the land surrounding the Hall of Ordsall.
There she would sit on her grandfather's knee and hear tales of a magic
place. A place not far from there, where the most handsome and talented
young men in the land would be called to do battle. They were tales of
courage and romance, of passion and devotion, of loyalty and love. She was
enraptured, carried away into a land of lords and knights, righting wrongs
and fighting for honour. Even though she had never seen any of these men in
battle, their names and their images filled her dreams: Sir Duncan, the
strongest in the land; Sir Roger their leader, who no-one could pass; Sir
Thomas and Sir Dennis who broke the hearts of lesser men; Sir Robert, a
young man who would one day become a champion amongst champions; Sir Harry,
the brave, who put the good of others before his own. 

But most of all, she loved the tales of Sir Edward - the young knight who
had come from humble parentage in that same part of the land. Sir Edward,
who had magic in his feet, and who had been called only two seasons ago to
cross the river and fight for the honour of the Land of the Willow.
Sometimes, on golden days which would light her dreams for many nights to
come, the girl child would see Sir Edward from afar. She would gaze in awe
as he strode along the dirty streets, turning them into a land of dreams
and beauty and she would vow that one day, when she was grown, she would
gather her courage and she would cross the river, to the place where the
mighty Scottish king reigned and where his young knights brought magic to
the people of this dark and wicked place. 

But then, on a cold day in midwinter, when the girl child had lived barely
10 summers, darkness descended on the Land of the Willow. Having beaten all
before them on the island of which this land formed a part, the young
knights travelled across the seas, in search of a silver cup known
throughout the continent as the Holy Grail. Honour and glory followed in
their wake, and they were only a short passage of time away from grasping
the Grail for the first time when, on a snowy field, in the land of
Germany, a fiery cataclysm engulfed them. Eight were slain and many lay
wounded in that far-off place. There was mourning all over the land, but
nowhere more so than in the Land of the Willow, where the girl child lived,
because young Sir Edward was amongst those who had perished. Soon after,
the dead were returned to the place across the river where they lay for the
passing of one night. At the rising of the sun, Sir Edward's body returned
to the land of Ordsall and there was crying and wailing in the streets and
many hearts were broken. 

No longer did the girl child see the grass between the paving stones, no
longer did she see the flowers in the gutters, no longer did she soar away
into the lands of her imagination. Now, as if for the first time, she saw
only the dark mills and factories, the dirt and the soot, the refuse in the
streets. And she was sad, because the magic had deserted the Land of the
Willow. 

Despite the loss, her life went on and the girl child continued to grow.
After a few more summers had gone by she finally crossed the river and
discovered that there was still magic being made there after all. Young Sir
Robert was now by Sir Dennis' side, again breaking the hearts of lesser
men, and Sir Harry the Brave was there on the field of green. But they were
now being joined by many new young knights. A call had gone out across the
land and across the sea for knights to join again the quest for the holy
grail. Some came from close at hand - Sir Norbert and Sir Brian had
travelled barely a few miles, but others came from afar. Sir Patrick and
Sir Denis came from the far north, whilst from across the Irish sea came a
young knight, of barely 17 summers, who some said bore the magic in his
feet that the girl child (now a young woman) had heard about at her
grandfather's knee. This was Sir George, and she saw that he did indeed
carry the magic with him. Her heart lightened, as did the hearts of all who
were there to witness the return of the magic to the Land of the Willow. 

Finally, after 10 summers and winters had gone by, on a night of glory in a
land far to the South, the elusive Grail was borne aloft by the Scottish
King and his young knights. Everyone in the land celebrated late into the
night but also many a soul was sad and many a heart was aching as they
thought of the young knights who had perished on the long journey. 

To be continued... 

Copyright © 1999 by Linda Harvey. 
All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission of the author 
http://www.red11.org/mufc/literature.htm
Click On pic - for latest interviews from OT


Sorry Posh but David is happy to stay at United
John Parry 

David Beckham will not allow wife Victoria or anyone else to drive him out
of Manchester United, according to his father. 

Ted Beckham insists his superstar son is not about to demand showdown talks
with Sir Alex Ferguson about an improved contract or to flee the Old
Trafford nest for sunnier climes. 

Victoria - Posh Spice - sparked fresh fears about the England star's future
at the weekend by claiming: "I think that playing abroad is something he
would like to do. 

"I'm going between London and Manchester, so at some point he will move." 

United captain Roy Keane's new £50,000-a-week deal, which shattered the
club's pay structure, has left Beckham in the shade on a 'mere' £22,000. 

But Beckham senior says his son's income - almost doubled by sponsorship
deals with Brylcreem, Adidas and now Pepsi - is more than enough and that
he does not feel shortchanged. 

"It's like this all the time and there are always people trying to stir so
much stuff up, but I don't think there's a problem. 

"As far as both david and I are concerned, he's happy at United. Whatever
Roy Keane gets is his own business." 

Another happy player at Old Trafford is Dwight Yorke, who had looked a
shadow of his usual self in going two months without a goal. But a two-goal
salvo at West Ham was the perfect riposte. 

Yorke said: "You don't just become a bad player overnight but when you go
through a spell like that you have to be strong, take the rough with the
smooth and try hard to get back on the trail again as soon as possible. 

"Everyone was definitely up for it at West Ham and it was great to get back
to scoring goals." 

Ferguson also expressed his relief after his most expensive signing
rediscovered his form. He said: "Yorkie had hit a dry spell and every
striker needs confidence and wants to score. His performance will help
him." Yorke, 28, scored 29 goals in his first season at Old Trafford as
United romped to their historic Treble. 

He started this campaign in similar style, with four goals in his first
three games, but had scored only three times in four months before his
Upton Park brace. 

Johan Cruyff has intervened to end the saga of his son's lack of first team
opportunities at Manchester United. The legendary Holland striker and
former Barcelona coach has been sounding out Spanish First Division clubs
in a bid to end son Jordi's frustrating spell on the Old Trafford sidelines. 

The Spanish transfer window is open only for a month and is due to shut
down again on January 15 but Jordi could be left out of United's 23-man
squad for the World Club Championship in Brazil so he can sort out a move
back to Spain. 

The 25-year-old has failed to establish himself as a regular at Old
Trafford after signing from Barcelona for £1.4million three years ago. 
Click On pic - for latest pics from OT


Why I'm Red... by Ezra

I grew up a Cleveland Browns fan, being raised in that fair city. Went
to college, became a fan of the Mancunian band The Fall. A very good
friend went to Austria for university (German major) and, while in
Salzburg, fell in with two guys from rainy Manchester. Seems these guys
were mad about the Browns, which puzzled my friend. Why in the world

would they care about an average, thoroughly unglamorous American
football team? Their response was that it's much more fun and engaging
to watch a sport if you have a side to root for; arbitrary as it sounds,
they chose the Browns out of a sense of fellowship -- as they
(correctly) understood, Cleveland was in the north, had an industrial

base, was rather gray and gritty, and had pretty bad weather -- rather
like, they said, Manchester. So when I got bit by the footy bug and
started to follow the Premiership, a Manchester side seemed to be a
logical choice. Was impressed by the compelling play of the Reds, esp.
Schmeichel, Stam, and Keane. They just felt right.

Ezra
Seattle Red


Click On pic - for latest interviews from OT


BECKHAM IS HAPPY, INSISTS DAD

 Just days after Victoria Beckham suggested that her husband's time at Old
Trafford may be drawing to a close, David Beckham's father Ted has insisted
that the midfield star is not unhappy with his salary.
After Roy Keane signed his mega-money contract a fortnight ago, it was
thought that Beckham, who signed a five-year contract in August 1998, would
be knocking on Martin Edwards' door to ask for a pay rise.

"He's more than happy with Manchester United," said Ted Beckham. "It's like
this all the time and there are always people trying to stir so much stuff
up, but I don't think there's a problem.

"As far as I'm concerned and as far as David's concerned, he's happy at
United.

"Whatever Roy Keane gets is up to him and his agent who has got it for him.
I know that David is more than happy at United and there's no problem at
all on that score."

Beckham also has lucrative sponsorship deals with Brylcreem, Adidas and
Pepsi.
Click On pic - for all player stats from OT


Telegraph's Monday report

The Ferdinand and Giggs show
 By Henry Winter

THIS was another Upton Park game that will certainly be replayed - time
and again in the minds of the 26,037 present and on video-recorders from
Stratford to Stretford. Some of the movement contained during 90 pulsating
minutes pushed football towards the bounds of fantasy. It was that good.

It was a game that contained everything but an ineligible player, that
first showed Manchester United at their awesome, attacking best and then
gave an enraptured audience the stirring sight of a West Ham United side
breathing defiance and coming within a missed chance of equality.

It was a game constructively governed by a referee, Uriah Rennie, who used
sense not censure, that had at its core two fine young home-grown
footballers, the dazzling Ryan Giggs and a Rio Ferdinand proving he can
play the stopper as well as the sweeper.

For the technical quality of the football, the match ranked with Chelsea's
early-season Stamford Bridge annihilations of Sunderland and Manchester
United. For sheer entertainment and chances created, it rivalled Leeds
United's breathless 4-4 extravaganza with Everton.

What really made this game on Saturday so compelling was West Ham's
reaction to a 20-minute pummelling that should have seen the match halted
on humanitarian grounds. United's quick thinking and quicker passing
sliced through Harry Redknapp's men with brutal ease.

First-time touches sent a mesmerised ball zig-zagging from Paul Scholes to
Roy Keane to David Beckham and on to Dwight Yorke's head: 1-0, nine
minutes. Soon the ball was speeding between Gary Neville, Teddy
Sheringham, Beckham, Scholes, Yorke and into Giggs, whose flicked finish
was delicacy itself: 2-0, 13 minutes.

The siege intensified. Beckham and Yorke again terrorised West Ham's
defence, forcing a panicky clearance by Neil Ruddock that Giggs, almost
apologetically, threaded back in: 3-0, 19 minutes. Game over? Not a
chance.

Roared on in deafening fashion, West Ham looked to three men for
inspiration: Ferdinand, Marc-Vivien Fo and Paolo Di Canio. The resistance
movement was underpinned by Ferdinand, no longer the gambolling gambler
with possession but the very model of a mature centre half.

Blameless for any of United's goals, Ferdinand averted real humiliation by
blocking and tackling, dominating the air and never over-elaborating. From
an England perspective, Ferdinand dispelled doubts about his ability to
operate in a back four, where one slip can prove costly, rather in the
two-tiered three-man defensive trap.

"He can play in a four or a three," said Redknapp, who had dropped his
usual wing-back approach to double up (albeit unsuccessfully) on Beckham
and Giggs. "Rio is a fantastic defender: he's got everything." He can also
step into midfield more productively than any English central defender.

In front of Ferdinand, Fo came to terms with the runs of Keane and Scholes
and gradually made central midfield a more even contest, his influence
proving vital with Frank Lampard dis- appointing.

The real catalyst to West Ham's fight-back was Di Canio, the Italian
craftsman who made it 3-1 with a fine right-footed volley after Ruddock
had headed down Steve Lomas's pass.

The noise was unbelievable, two sets of fans screaming for more goals.
Seven minutes after the break, Fo won possession, Marc Keller guided the
ball forward and Di Canio danced around Raimond Van Der Gouw to score: 2-3
and pass the ear-plugs.

Ten minutes on came the game's defining moment as Di Canio ran at Van Der
Gouw again but the Dutchman saved. Di Canio beat the pristine surface in
frustration and United, as they often do, sped off to score a fourth, the
ball racing from Beckham and Scholes to Giggs, whose cross was turned in
by the exceptional Yorke.

"Di Canio is distraught," Redknapp said. "He said to me, 'I let you down'.
I told him, 'you never let us down'. He got us back in the game with two
great strikes, the volley and the magical goal." Yet the feeling remains
that Di Canio should have squared to the unmarked Lampard.

But United deserved the points for their opening brio. "Their passing and
movement was outstanding," Redknapp reflected. Football's authorities
should also replay this tape, marvel at United's high-speed technique and
appreciate what can be achieved with a break from football as United have
just enjoyed.
Click On pic - for the history of MUFC 1892-1976


Geordies are eyeing up Butt
 (Teamtalk)
Reports on Sunday have suggested that Newcastle boss Bobby Robson is
preparing a shock 5million swoop for Nicky Butt.

The news of Roy Keane's new contract at Old Trafford has fuelled
speculation that Butt may be allowed to leave. Robson knows he must sell
players before he can draft in new recruits and Franck Dumas, Marcelino
and Silvio Maric all look poised to leave very shortly. All of which could
fund a big money signing, and Butt may be the target later in the season
or next summer.
Click On pic - vote now in our MUFC WEEKLY SURVEY


United Cup pull-out hits TV as well
By Neil Wilson 

Manchester United have ended the greatest year in their history top of
another league table. In the last year of the old millennium they were
without question the most popular sporting attraction on our television
screens. 

Whether United profit from FIFA's world club championships will be seen
next month but the huge cost to the FA Cup of their absence is revealed
today. Millions of television viewers will be lost to ITV and Sky. 

If there is one thing more apparent from television's annual sporting
charts for 1999 than the drawing power of football as we enter a new
century, it is the popularity over all other football clubs - and all other
sporting events - of Manchester United. 

Soccer matches occupy all but one position in television's top 10 sporting
audiences this year, and the men from Old Trafford occupy seven of them.
The same is true for Premiership games shown on Sky Sports. Its five
largest audiences were for matches involving United, four at the end of
last season, one that opened this campaign. 

Is it any wonder that ITV showed more of United's games in the opening
round of this season's Champions League than Arsenal or Chelsea? Or that
United appeared on BBC's Match of the Day last season more than any other
club? 

Indeed, the only surprise is that Sky chose to show Arsenal once more than
United last season - but even then United were shown more often than any of
the other Premiership clubs. 

You can understand, then, why Sky and ITV fumed in private when the FA
allowed its major drawing card to take a season out of its Cup, their
humour not improved when screening rights to United's South American
odyssey were sold to BBC. 

'We have always said that why we choose to show United so often is because
the figures tell us that is what television audiences want,' said Jeff
Farmer, ITV's executive producer of soccer. 

'We get good audiences with other clubs but it is no secret that we get
more with United. They draw the biggest audience because they have the
widest following. It is not a London thing or a Liverpool thing. There's a
national demand.' 

United led soccer as close to a clean sweep of the top 20 charts as there
has ever been. They figured in nine of the 10 most popular events, 17 out
of the 20. Only the Grand National, the Brazilian Grand Prix and one day of
the World Athletics Championships denied their monopoly. 

And because of soccer, ITV enjoyed its best year for sport. 'Sensational,'
said Farmer, and his immodesty is understandable. 

Three years ago, ITV had only three programmes in the top 10. It was a
channel struggling to find its way after losing boxers Naseem Hamed, Frank
Bruno and Nigel Benn to Sky and being well beaten by BBC at Euro 96. 

Now it has taken Formula One, the FA Cup and Des Lynam, and the BBC finds
itself with only four spots in the top 20 - largely because of its failure
to win the rights to live soccer, something which new director-general Greg
Dyke has conceded he cannot afford to change. 

BBC comes into its own outside the soccer season. Fifteen of the top 20
audiences for non-soccer programmes were on the two BBC channels - ITV's
five entries were for two sports, rugby union and motor racing, won from
BBC - and it featured six different sports, an indication of its wider
portfolio and its strength in summer. 

But in autumn, BBC's figures start looking as threadbare as the trees. In
the months of September, October and November, ITV filled 23 of the top 24
spots, BBC squeezing into the list only with a delayed recording of the
Euro qualifying tie between Scotland and England, an event 'loaned' to it
by Sky. 

And it must be worried about its prize spring event, the Grand National, a
chart-topper for many years but down this year to its lowest audience of
the decade, a drop in eight years of around 40 per cent. Could it be worse
still next April without Lynam? 

Still, 2000 should be good news for BBC. Next summer it has the Olympic
Games and a share with ITV in the finals of Euro 2000, for which England
qualified by the skin of their teeth. 

And to launch the new millennium, and at a cost of £5million, it makes its
live soccer comeback. 

The FIFA world club championship may be a mickey mouse event but with
United in the principal role, this year's audience figures suggest it will
be a mouse that roars for BBC. 
Click On pic - for an MUFC interactive QUIZ!