Blue Union chief hoping to get the club onside

On the march: Dave Kelly (centre with megaphone) leads the protest.
Image ©2011 Adam Wareing

THE LEADER of the Everton FC pressure group, the Blue Union, expressed hopes, ahead of yesterday’s protest, that the club and its supporters can work together in finding new owners.

He also urged the club’s board to “stop treating the fans with suspicion”. 

Frustration among Evertonians comes after high-profile failures to find investment, while top players have been allowed to leave and none have been signed for a significant fee in two years.

On the day the Blues faced Wolves, Blue Union boss, Dave Kelly, 53 mentioned that the opposition’s former chairman loved the club so much that he sold it for £10.  

He said: “I’m not advocating that Bill and the board relinquish their shares and their control for £10, but what I’m saying is, if you genuinely love the club, don’t look to make money out of the club. Let's move the club forward as one, let’s do it jointly. We all want the same things after all.” 

He added: “I believe that the fan base is one and the only asset that this football club’s got left, they’ve actually sold every other asset that it owns, and they need to stop treating the fans with suspicion.”

Everton’s CEO, Robert Elstone, expressed his disappointment that supposed in-fighting e-mails were exposed on Everton fan sites in his recent blog on the club's official site.

He said: “...certain individuals claiming to be Evertonians have made attempts to undermine the people of Everton Football Club by actions almost every one of us would find wholly unacceptable.”

He added that the biggest difference would be made with everyone working together.

The protesters were loud and clear with their message to Bill Kenwright, chanting: “Let go if you love the club.” 

But, as reported by Andy Lewis on Evertonfc.com, Mr. Kenwright has said: “...they want an owner with much more money…that is exactly what I want and exactly what I spend most of my life working on.”

Blues fan, John Harrison, 59, a social services manager, from Norwich, disagreed with the demonstration.

He said: “It’s completely pointless. There’s people saying “Let go if you love the club”, but you can’t just give it away.

"If we carry on under [manager, David] Moyes —  without being destabilised by fan protests —  we'll end up top half of the table, which is kind of doing better than we deserve to do on the resources we’ve got.”

However, some fans are far less optimistic. Paul Cotterill, 27, who works in insurance, believes Moyes may lose patience. 

He said: “I don’t see why he would want to stay. He’s got no money.” 

He added: “If this board don’t change or find investment, there’ll be relegation for Everton.” 

   Dave Kelly Interview by Adam Wareing

Gamers heed the call of the year’s biggest title, and take a shot at the violence debate

Ghillie, not chilly: CoD fans brave the cold for the midnight launch.

Hashim Khan,19 (left) Adrian Mooney, 20 (right).

Image ©2011 Adam Wareing

LIVERPOOL’S trigger-happy gamers, who turned out in their legions for the midnight deployment of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, believe that parents, not game developers, need to take more responsibility in fighting violence.

No stranger to controversy, Call of Duty’s realistic depictions of combat and slaughter regularly get the alarmists up in arms.

Modern Warfare 2, released in 2009, gained as much press attention for its opinion-dividing airport level, ’No Russian’, as it did for any record-breaking sales figures or high review scores.

The optional mission involved the massacre of hundreds of civilians, with the most disturbing element being the fact that the player, a deep-cover operative, was free to participate.

Zoë Clapperton, 19, an Apple Store worker from Lancashire, believes that violent games can impact young people who “haven’t got a mature mind” and that violent behaviour comes from the environment a person has grown up in.

And CoD veteran, Julian Hughes, 25, from Liverpool, believes the way in which parents relate violent behaviour to their children is also significant.

Kids are often getting their hands on games like Call of Duty — it’s a regular occurrence to have to mute their irritating, shrill little voices in online multiplayer lobbies.

Yet, while it’s a parent’s prerogative as to what they expose their child to, Call of Duty requires a certain level of emotional maturity to put its violence into context.

Granted, the ‘No Russian’ level from Modern Warfare 2 can be skipped, but any child left alone to make that decision may not have the self-discipline required to steer clear.

Dave Lyons, 34, a supervisor at Sony Format QA, from Liverpool, said: “...it’s an over 18 game, and a responsible parent wouldn’t allow them access to it”.

Modern Warfare 3 has also managed to hit the headlines with some shocking content. A cut-scene where a child is killed by a van explosion serves to mirror the harsh reality of present day terrorism.

CoD fan, Paul Robinson, 25, a warehouse worker, from Liverpool argues that children are already desensitised to violence from other areas of life. He said: “You go to school and you’re getting shown footage from World War II and there’s people dropping dead all the time...”

Dale Phillips, 19, from West Bromwich also added: “I think it’s a big mass-media thing, war, at the moment.”

Tests have shown that violent games can have a significant affect on the brain, as shown in a 2005 study featured on Sciencedaily.com.

René Weber, assistant professor of communication and telecommunication at Michigan State University said that, for the subjects in his experiment, there was “a causal link” between playing a first-person shooting game and brain-activity patterns that are considered a characteristic of aggression.
 
According to a 2004 study for the Journal of Adolescence, by D.A Gentile, Paul J. Lynch, Jennifer Ruh Linder, and David A. Walsh: “Playing violent games increases aggressive behaviours…and decreases prosocial behaviours.”

Another finding was that parental limits to violent game play resulted in a decline in fights and arguments, as well as an improvement in school performance.

Mumsnet.com believed the topic was “very interesting“, and pointed out some forum posts on their site where there have been mixed views.

One parent wondered whether people thought it was unreasonable that they disagree with their partner playing Modern Warfare 2 with their 10 year old son.

A user called “Mutt“ said: “You're dead right - it is irresponsible and frankly ignorant to think it is an appropriate game for a 10 year old to be playing.”

However another user, called “squeaky toy“, said: “What sort of influence do you think it would have on a sensible, intelligent child?

"I played space invaders when I was 10. I didn’t think I was an alien."

Each installment of Call of Duty gathers revenues that would make any Hollywood exec or music mogul ecstatic. 

According to Brian Crecente on game site Kotaku.com, in the first 24 hours, Modern Warfare 3 raked in more than $400m in the US and UK alone, shifting around 6.5m copies.

The main draw is the game’s highly addictive and accessible online multiplayer modes. Dave Lyons said: “...its obviously a kick to kill people who are real life players...I want to use my cunning to outsmart somebody else, or have quicker reactions.”

On the release night, like many of the other people in the queues, Dave was intending to play the game through to the early hours.

He said: “...I know there’s going to be my friends online as soon as I go back. I know there’ll be a few familiar faces there waiting to send me an invitation to join the game.”

Zoë was also eager to get home and play it, as she added: “I’m gonna complete it tonight!”

With this game being so massive, there is no doubt that parents face an un-winnable war in keeping the kids away, so perhaps supervision, moderation and guidance, is the most effective strategy.