The Buzz Newsletter 18th March 2009 Coventry University

Photos: sxc.hu, cutoday.wordpress.com

18 March 2009

When a dream becomes a nightmare

W

ith the World Cup being staged in South Africa in less than two years time, African footballers are being increasingly put under the ethical microscope. On Thursday, as part of Coventry University’s ‘Africa Day’, the media lecture series, Coventry Conversations organised a special debate entitled, ‘Is football the new slavery’? Among those attending was MBE recipient Cyril Regis, a former Coventry City and England player as well as Chris Nathaniel who represents Manchester United and England international, Rio Ferdinand. The debate covered the exploitation of African players as they come to play in Europe, especially the Premier League, and the lack of support currently being offered to those players who ‘failed’ to make it in the elite leagues. Regis said that he did not consider current trends to be slavery, but instead “an exploitation of people’s dreams” which has been encouraged by the huge amounts of money often present in professional football. He added that the promise of enormous rewards for those players who succeed means that few wish to give-up on the dream, and those who do are often subject to a type of “familial blackmail”. This would see individuals remain in an industry regarded as punishing simply to support their families back home. Another area touched upon was the fraudulent actions of the many conmen who present themselves as reputable

agents, with one example being outlined. A family would be asked to pay around £3,000 to get their son(s) into a training camp or team in another country. If negotiations were successful, and the money paid to the agent(s), the player(s) would then be abandoned upon their arrival. Ade Daramy - journalist and broadcaster - said that these unscrupulous individuals were “selling a dream that very, very rapidly becomes a nightmare”. It emerged that many of these unsupported players are in actual fact illegal immigrants as a result of their ‘agent’s’ actions; Chris Nathaniel described these individuals as “opportunists, not agents”, adding: “wherever you get business, you’re going to get opportunists”. Organiser of Score4Africa, Oneyachi Wambo believes that

the fundamental solution to this escalating problem is to improve the regulations governing the game, and to plough some of the immense profits the games generates back into it. By Danielle Cox For more on this story and many others check out the CUToday blog at cutoday.wordpress.com

Extra, Extra! Read all about it - online „„ David Brookes, Editor of the Coventry Telegraph, said last week that the future of the newspaper industry would not be “exclusively on the web”, but that instead online and print papers should complement each other in this digital age. “The idea that the web will abolish print is far too simplistic,” he said. “It will profoundly change what goes into print, but thanks to the web I

Daniel Berry. The blog, which has recently moved, can be found at www.cutoday.wordpress.com. The site is easy to navigate and is a great source of information on upcoming events as well as reporting on University happenings. With over 1500 hits the new site is rapidly becoming

think that newspapers can be better, and those that survive will have to adapt.” That’s the challenge that CU Today has risen to over recent weeks, running an online blog that complements the print editions of the AD newspapers, the Buzz and Cu Today, as well as providing high quality reporting on an event-by-event basis. CU Today is primarily the work of under-graduate journalism students, administrated by two final year journalism students, Jason Craig and

very popular. If you’d like to submit any stories for publication in the A&D newspapers, contact Jason Craig and Daniel Berry at [email protected] or Danielle Cox at thebuzz@ fsmail.net

CU Today 

Reeves live at Coventry

Before moving to Mercia FM last July, Reeves started at the bottom, by making tea and rearranging his Boss’s office, to become deputy Programme Controller at his hometown station ‘Red Dragon’. With his breakfast show with Andy Goulding, he

Talente Cov d www.myspace.com/phatboyuk

is pushing to beat Chris Moyles in the ratings. It has emerged as the most popular show in Coventry in the mornings with around 160,000 listeners. This makes him 3rd after Moyles and Terry Wogan. With this he did warn this job “won’t make you a millionaire but it’s the best job in the world”. He like many of the audience started at a student radio station, so many listened intently as this was a man who started at work experience, and is now at his dream job By Alice Tester

If you’ve been unlucky enough to miss a Conversation, they’re available to download online at wwwp.coventry.ac.uk/podcasts

The student and staff newsletter of the Media and Communications department of Coventry School of Art and Design Edited by Danielle Cox Submissions are invited, please send any articles to [email protected] Thanks to John Mair, Jason Craig, Daniel Berry and Alice Tester

Pihoto: www.mercia.fm

„„ Mercia Radio producer, Tom Reeves, gave insight into the world of weekly breakfast radio, at one of three Coventry Conversations this week. Speaking to mainly Journalism students, Tom commented on the different jobs available “if you are willing to show your commitment”, even it means getting up at 4.30am every day. Yet did remind future graduates “competition is fierce, and jobs scarce”.

Coventry university band, Phatboy is playing at the Kasbah on the 20th March to celebrate the end of term.