Over the last couple of weeks, the \u201cMarmite Test\u201d has been back in the news. If you don\u2019t know what that is, it refers to the \u201cdark brown yeast spread\u201d on sale in most supermarkets. You can easily recognize the bottles: They are small, squat with distinctive yellow, red, green and white labels. As\u201dRedbrick Research\u201d has pointed out, some people find the contents delicious \u2013 but for others, it\u2019s \u201cdisgusting\u201d.\u00a0 So you either love it or hate it.<\/p>\n
This \u201cTest\u201d is also frequently applied to people in the \u201cpublic eye\u201d. According to the \u201cYou Gov\u201d research executive, Tanya Abraham, in the London Evening Standard on 6th<\/sup> March, the Labour Party\u2019s financial spokesman, Ed Balls \u201cIs sometimes seen as a Marmite politician. While Labour supporters consider him to be an election asset, notable majorities of UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) and Conservative voters think he\u2019s a liability\u201d.<\/p>\n Another prominent example is the Chelsea FC Manager, Jose Mourinho. Though most Chelsea fans adore him, the followers of rival teams find him extremely irritating \u2013 partly because he\u2019s perceived as \u201carrogant\u201d, but mainly because he\u2019s been so successful. The UK\u2019s newspapers, of course, are ecstatic that he\u2019s back in London: His frequent controversial remarks help them fill up their sports pages. His fury was most recently directed at the referee of the 1-1 home draw with Burnley on February 22nd<\/sup> and Sky Sport\u2019s coverage of the match \u2013 for which he faces possible FA (Football Association) disciplinary action.<\/p>\n Mourinho has criticised UEFA for (in his view) not applying the \u201cFinancial Fair Play\u201d rules (designed to prevent clubs from spending more than they earn) equally to his nearest challenger, Manchester City. He depicted the \u201ctime-wasting\u201d by Newcastle (who inflicted Chelsea\u2019s first defeat of the 2014\/15 season, 2-1 on 6th<\/sup> December) as similar to \u201cputting a cow on the pitch\u201d. He\u2019s compared his own fluency in the English language with that of a previous Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, who (he declared) still struggled to say \u201cgood morning\u201d and \u201cgood afternoon\u201d after five years in England.<\/p>\n However, Mourinho is also known for his amusing remarks, especially at press conferences \u2013 which, he\u2019s admitted, he doesn\u2019t always find easy, but doesn\u2019t consider as pressure: \u201cBird Flu is pressure. So is poor people trying to feed their families\u201d. But football (he asserts) is not \u2013 even though he finds it \u201chard to live without titles\u201d.<\/p>\n UEFA\u2019s technical director, Andy Roxburgh, has described Mourinho as \u201ca very good communicator\u201d. Despite his current problems with Sky Sports, the Chelsea Manager seems to get on well with sports journalists. This is fortunate, as UEFA regulations required both him and the Paris St Germain manager, Laurent Blanc, to hold press conferences both before and after their Champions League game this week (which ended 2-2, thus eliminating Chelsea on away goals): Pre-match on Tuesday, not later than 8pm and attended by at least one, preferably two of their players, the post-match conference no later than 20 minutes after the final whistle. Chelsea also had to provide \u201cthe necessary technical infrastructure and services, including a qualified interpreter with a strong knowledge of football\u201d.<\/p>\n Another requisite was for the training sessions of the two teams to take place the day before the game at different times so the media could attend both for at least 15 minutes. Journalists were not allowed into the teams\u2019 dressing rooms before, during or after the match \u2013 though one camera of the \u201chost broadcaster\u201d was permitted to go in before the match \u201cto film the players\u2019 shirts and equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s mandatory for the home club to provide \u201can adequate number of covered seats for the written press in a separate, secure and centrally located area with a clear and unobstructed view of the whole pitch\u201d. It\u2019s not obligatory for all the seats to have desks \u2013 but if they do, they must be \u201clarge enough to accommodate a laptop computer and a notepad\u201d. The internet connections should be with \u201cdedicated networks\u201d and made available free of charge.<\/p>\n UEFA will earn an estimated 1.34bn euros from TV and sponsorship rights for the 2014\/15 Champions League and Super Cup \u2013 around 75% of which will go to the participating clubs. The positioning of the cameras is thus a key issue. For a \u201cknock-out\u201d match such as on Wednesday at least four cameras had to be located in the main stand on a platform at least 8 metres in length and situated exactly overlooking the halfway line and the pitchside camera placed in a way that did not obscure the view of the field of play for either the fourth official or the club representatives on the substitute benches.<\/p>\n The \u201ctunnel camera\u201d could only be used while the teams were making their way from their dressing rooms for the first and second halves. A \u201chigh\u201d camera installed in the stands enabled the penalty spot to be seen above the goal crossbar. There was also a whole range of other cameras, including reverse-angle, \u201cbeauty-shot\u201d, \u201csteadicams\u201d,mini-cameras directly behind (but not touching) the nets and others facing the 6, 16 and 20 metre lines.<\/p>\n Two areas behind each goal \u2013at least 10m long by 2m wide and extending from the 5m line towards the corner flag \u2013 had to be made available for the \u201clow and ENG\u201d cameras of the audio visual rights holders. These organizations generate a substantial proportion of Champions League revenue and thus their needs are considered paramount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last couple of weeks, the \u201cMarmite Test\u201d has been back in the news. If you don\u2019t know what that is, it refers to the \u201cdark brown yeast spread\u201d on sale in most supermarkets. You can easily recognize the bottles: They are small, squat with distinctive yellow, red, green and white labels. As\u201dRedbrick Research\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}