Forget the football

Type in Uefa and the word “racism” into Google, and prominent search results tell us the view of European football's governing body. Uefa wants us to know it says no to racism. In fact, in 2013, its member associations “pledged to step up their efforts to eliminate racism from football” altogether. It's all rather grand, but what we know is that in recent weeks Uefa's self-congratulatory stance has been greatly undermined. Revelations from the England Under-17s World Cup-winning forward Rhian Brewster have once again highlighted the perniciousness of the problem.

Brewster's experience of racist abuse represents unacceptable treatment of a young man just trying to do his job. The player has been praised for unequivocally relating his experiences, which have been free from the euphemism so many would have preferred the shadow home secretary Diane Abbott to adopt when she shared that, last year, she had been called a “n----- bitch”.

In an interview with my colleague Daniel Taylor for the Guardian, Brewster frankly outlined the racist abuse he both witnessed and suffered while playing for Liverpool in Uefa Youth League matches and for England. Called the N-word and subjected to monkey chants, the 17-year-old has understandably lost faith in Uefa, whose responses to these incidents have been pitiful or nonexistent.

Uefa says it encourages referees to “stop, suspend or even abandon a game if racist incidents occur”. Players found guilty of racist behaviour can receive a 10-match suspension, and stadiums can face closure if this applies to fans. Uefa recognises the power it has to drastically change the experiences of young black players. However, for now at least, it seems disinclined to use it. It is an obvious dereliction of duty. The hope is that today – the first day its offices have been open since 22 December – the governing body will stir itself into more forceful action.

Slogans, though easy to cobble together and flash at millions of people, are empty. Like a sticking plaster for a virus, their flimsiness is obvious when set against the task of healing. It is a lesson the Italian football league painfully learned last October. The president of Lazio football club, Claudio Lotito, had players wearing T-shirts declaring “no to antisemitism” accompanied by a picture of Anne Frank. An excerpt of her diary was read at every Italian league match during the same week. Yet some Lazio fans sang fascist songs while making salutes during the reading. The horrified prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, called the scenes unacceptable. Quite. The trouble is in how governing bodies, clubs, fellow players and not least the fans act in solidarity to underscore that such behaviour is intolerable.

One way to do so is by not distancing the English game, run by the FA, from the routine instances of racism experienced by black and minority-ethnic (BAME) players. To focus solely on Uefa's failings is to miss the point of Brewster's interventions entirely. Yes, much progress has been made: in Brewster's interview it is clear he hasn't experienced in England racist abuse of the kind encountered in matches against Russian and Spanish teams. Still, players continue to walk out on English pitches subjected to such abuse. Anecdotally, others refuse to sign to the youth wings of certain clubs because of the rampant racism associated with their fans.

BAME players make up a quarter of players in English football's four divisions yet account for a miserable 4% of senior coaches. It is the same footballing establishment that last October couldn't admit it had failed in its duty of care to the England player Eniola Aluko. And it is the same leadership that couldn't quite bring itself to find anything wrong with racist texts sent “privately” between Iain Moody, now Colchester's head of player resources, and Malky Mackay, currently caretaker manager of Scotland and the performance director of the Scottish Football Association. The controversy eventually blew over, and both white men's careers in football continued, once the word “banter” was used to explain their seemingly indefensible interactions.

Who had the best Premier League results over Christmas

Mauricio Pochettino may have been disappointed with a 1-1 draw at home to West Ham on Thursday - but no team won more points than his Tottenham side over the Christmas period.

Pochettino's men had won their first three fixtures over the Christmas and New Year period, defeating Burnley, Southampton and Swansea, but had to settle for a point against their local rivals.

That point was West Ham's fifth from their last four games - a return boss David Moyes will be happy with after taking charge in November with the club in the relegation zone.

Liverpool have also had a good run of form since they kicked off the festive football with a 3-3 draw at Arsenal on Friday 22 December, beating Swansea, Leicester and Burnley.

Despite seeing their record-breaking winning streak come to an end with a draw against Crystal Palace, Manchester City have matched Tottenham and Liverpool's haul of 10 points from their past four games to maintain their commanding lead at the top of the Premier League.

Of the 'Big Six', Arsenal and Manchester United have come away with the fewest points, adding just six to their tally.

This season's surprise package, Burnley, have had one of the toughest Christmas schedules, and defeats to Spurs and Liverpool and draws at Manchester United and Huddersfield means they have the joint-fewest points from their past four games.

West Brom, Everton and Southampton also managed just two points, after being unable to deliver their supporters much Christmas cheer.

The one thing missing from the festive football

“Why have you got a set of orange footballs?” asked my son as we went through my Subbuteo collection. “Just in case it snows,” I replied, safe in the knowledge that a game of table football has never been called off due to the weather. The joke was lost on him – he had no idea what I was talking about. In an era when you can seemingly buy any colour of ball you want, the significance of an orange ball appears to have bypassed a whole generation of fans. For them, the sight of an orange ball on a snow-covered pitch would probably be met with apathy. What's so special about a coloured ball?

Yet there was a time when a mere dusting of snow would send schoolboys up and down the country giddy with excitement at the thought of being able to use a ball that otherwise lay dormant at the bottom of their cupboards for the rest of the year. I remember forcing a relative out into a blizzard on a cold Saturday night in the late 1970s just so I could use my orange – albeit plastic – ball in the conditions for which it was intended. This excitement was equalled, if not bettered, when such a ball made an appearance at an actual match, generating a buzz around the ground the moment it was produced by the referee.

Perhaps it was the feeling that you were about to witness something out of the norm that heightened expectations but such games were inevitably more entertaining than those played the week before (although this had probably more to do with the weather conditions than the ball itself ). It also helped that a fair share of FA Cup giantkillings took place on a frozen pitch in front of the TV cameras with an orange football, which further added to the mythology.

Surprisingly, the novelty value was still going strong 40 years after the idea of fielding an alternative to the, at the time, new-fangled white ball during the winter months was first mooted by the Football League. The sight of Kasey Keller trying to come to grips with a tangerine ball when a blizzard blew up before a south London derby between Millwall and Charlton Athletic provided much hilarity at The Den in December 1995. And the press went into overdrive when Chelsea played Tromso of Norway in arctic conditions during their triumphant 1997-98 Cup Winners' Cup campaign. However, by then such sightings had become sporadic to say the least.

A succession of increasingly mild winters during the 1980s, coupled with improvements in under-soil heating, made the need for a “snow” ball all but redundant. Even when it did snow heavily, legions of fans would be employed to sweep the stuff off the pitch. Gone were the days when they only ever bothered with the touchlines. By the end of the millennium a new “hi-vis” yellow alternative that had been introduced for when the clocks went back had seemingly replaced the orange ball altogether.

A decade later and games were being called off not because of frozen pitches but due to “health and safety” concerns relating to the frozen concourses by clubs worried about possible legal action. As a result, the opportunities for using a bright orange ball have been few and far between, even though the official ball suppliers to both the Premier and Football Leagues still produce a version for use on snow-covered pitches.

Lowa football embraces the graduate transfer craze

This may make me a rare bird (or a birdbrain) in these parts, but I prefer pro sports over the college variety.

Don't get me wrong. I watch more college football than NFL on television. It's a wackier game, and more emotional. Plus, it's played in weirder locations than the pro variety. You'd never have heard of Tuscaloosa, Clemson or Norman were it not for their football powerhouses.

And, it's on at 11 p.m. on a Saturday, when I'm unwinding after covering a game at 11 a.m. on a Saturday.

Basketball-wise, if it's a regular-season game I usually have little interest in either the NBA or NCAA versions unless it's meaningful to doing my job. If it's an NBA playoff game or an NCAA tournament game, though, gimmee.

No, I like pro sports more because they don't pretend to be something noble. They're entertainment. They're raw commerce.

The players are the stars, not the coaches. Which means the players have certain amounts of leverage. Which is how the world should work. The people who draw the crowds get paid.

So I like the graduate-transfer rule in college sports. If you have earned a degree and still have athletic eligibility left, you can transfer somewhere if you continue your education there.

It's a watered-down version of free agency. Were I emperor of the world, all players could immediately play elsewhere the following season if they so chose. It would be chaos, and the players would be kings.

But that will never happen because the power is the power, and the power never has any intention of ceding the power. So, let's savor grad transfers. Iowa has certainly begun to do just that.

The Hawkeyes have dipped into the graduate-transfer pool again, with the addition of former New Mexico wide receiver Nick Quarells.

This is a relatively new avenue for Kirk Ferentz's program, but one it seems to now be embracing. Last year, the Hawkeyes welcomed punter Ron Coluzzi from Central Michigan, and he worked out beautifully for them.

Recently, Iowa added running back James Butler. Nice get. Butler is coming off two straight 1,300-yard rushing seasons at Nevada.

Quarells is a graduate with two seasons of eligibility left. That's a sweet deal for an Iowa program that desperately needs ball-catchers.

Quarells had 11 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown last season for the Lobos. That's more career catches in itself than any wide receiver on Iowa's roster other than Matt VandeBerg.

Graduate transfers have been a significant part of the college basketball landscape for the last few years. Iowa State has added Hans Brase of Princeton, Jeff Beverly of Texas-San Antonio and Zoran Talley of Old Dominion this year alone.

Grad transfers have become more of a thing in college football lately, it seems.

Purdue has gained a half-dozen grad transfers since Jeff Brohm became coach after last season. They have arrived from Baylor, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Rhode Island, Northern Illinois and Western Kentucky.

Northwestern added offensive lineman Trey Klock from Georgia Tech and receiver Jalen Brown from Oregon.

Rutgers secured quarterback Kyle Bolin from Louisville, fullback Gus Edwards from Miami, and receiver Damon Mitchell from Arkansas.

Graduate transfer Chris Laviano left Rutgers for to play quarterback at San Diego State. That tells the world he not only is a college graduate, but he has common sense.

Memphis football is back – and it's a blast

Riley Ferguson has figured it out. He has figured out what it feels like to walk on to the football field and see Anthony Miller out there, ready to catch anything, and to see Phil Mayhue lined up on the other side, poised to make a defense pay for doubling Miller. To have Doroland Dorceus lined up behind him, or maybe Darrell Henderson, or possibly Tony Pollard. To have Sam Craft on his offensive team, as well as Damonte Coxie and Patrick Taylor.

"It's unbelievable, honestly," Ferguson said. "I'm like a little kid in the backyard with the best players in the neighborhood."

The best players in the neighborhood. And a coach who can draw up plays in the dirt as well as anyone.

So welcome to Memphis football, 2017. It's going to be good, yes. But it's also going to be something many people never thought Memphis football could be.

Fun. A blast. A wildly-entertaining civic happening.

Memphis football has become what Memphis basketball once was, what Grizzlies basketball has been for the last seven years.

"It's the best thing I've ever done in my life," Ferguson said. "I love it, being the quarterback at Memphis."

This is how everyone talks about the program these days, even if they're not the quarterback. The fans talk this way. The players talk this way.

Here's Spencer Smith, the punter: "It's fun every day, even if we're in there, and they're kicking our butts on the field or in the weight room. It's just fun to be here and be around this group of guys and around this coaching staff. It's fun every day regardless of what we're doing."

Much of the fun comes from winning games, of course. That's a prerequisite. But at least some of it comes from the way the Tigers win them.

They fling the ball all over the place. They set records upon records.

Last year, with a brand new coach and a brand new quarterback, Memphis racked up 6,028 yards (second all-time), 505 points (second all-time), 57 touchdowns (second all-time) and 34 touchdown passes (first all-time).

And, yes, the game of football is very different than it used to be. But it wasn't so long ago (2013, 2011 and 2010, to be exact) that the Tigers averaged 19.5, 16.2 and 14.4 points a game. Last year, they averaged 38.8 points a game, and this year could be even better.

"Definitely," Dorceus said. "We left a lot of plays, we left a lot of yards, touchdowns, off little mistakes that we made, not that the other team made, that we made. If we fix that, that's another 1,000 yards for us that we left out there."

Said Pollard: "If I played defense, I would be scared going against us because on offense, we have an unlimited number of players that we can go to and rely on in game-time situations."

Pollard is a perfect example of this. Along with Henderson, he may be the fastest player on the team. He showed that last year when he scored two touchdowns on kickoffs. But at receiver, he shares time with Miller (who had 95 catches for 1,434 yards and 14 touchdowns last year) and Mayhue (a 6-3 monster who catches everything) and Craft (who has already scored 17 touchdowns over the course of his career) and Coxie (who may have the best physical tools of any of them).

At running back, Pollard has to fit in with Dorceus (who has 1,881 career rushing yards) Henderson (who is simply electric) and Taylor (a 6-3 battering ram who was second in rushing as a freshman).

So you understand why Ferguson is so pumped, and why fans are pumped right along with him.

"There's literally nothing a defense can do to be right if the quarterback makes the right decision," Ferguson said. "The defense can never be right. There's always an answer no matter what the defense does. Literally, there's nothing the defense can do as long as we're on the same page and make the right decisions."

So here's to being on the same page in 2017. And here's to making the right decisions. And here's to the return of Memphis football, which is suddenly the most fun team in the neighborhood.