Football is just a business, isn't it?

For years I've heard people around me constantly slating the beautiful game that is of course, football. Originating in England the sport has flourished since the 1800s and although the game has changed considerably since those days, football has always been firmly fused in the hearts of British people. Its no surprise then that today football in England is a multi billion pound industry.

It was inevitable that Football was going to head in the business first, sport second direction, its an ideal global platform for some of the worlds richest powers to flaunt their wealth. You don't have to look very hard to see why owning a football club might be an attractive prospect for a businessman. Merchandise, tickets, television deals, sponsorships, sales around the ground, it all adds up to serious money. A stadium holds 40,000 people who each have a pint of beer before the match on a Saturday. Charge them £3.80 for that beer and you've made £150,000. Over the minimum of 19 games you play at home that's £2.8million on beer. That's before you even take into account the £40 they've paid for their ticket and the shirt they're wearing. Its big business and I can't blame anyone for wanting a piece of it, I mean, I would.

The best club owners and chairmen are the people who remember that football is still a sport. Business has no place on a football pitch just as football has no place in a boardroom.

I've always thought a good chairman will look after the administrative side of the club, the money, the sponsorship, the stadium. A manager is hired to run the squad, the players. Hire the right man in this position and you're onto a winner. What happens on the pitch influences your turnover at the end of the year. So it pays to bring the best in.

I've always thought that the front of a football club is the badge, the manager and the team. While the chairman will inevitably be a known name too, it's bad news when they're in the news more than their team.

In 2007, the Newcastle United fans were beginning to lose patience with chairman of the time Freddie Shepherd, it was time for change. Enter SportsDirect tycoon Mike Ashley.

Upon becoming the owner of Newcastle United (having paid a cool £134million), Ashley made several moves to win over the notoriously demanding Geordies including re-hiring Toon legend Kevin Keegan as manager, sitting in the terraces with the fans and even appearing on television downing a whole pint of beer in a Newcastle United shirt. To some extent he appeared to be succeeding in his aim at the club, but it wasn't long before he started showing signs of another plan for Newcastle. Dennis Wise, another Londoner, was drafted into the 'Director of Football' position at Newcastle. This unprecedented appointment sent confusion ringing around St. James' Park. As a Chelsea player, Wise was not one of the fans favourites so it seemed a peculiar move introducing him to the boardroom. The fans were starting to ask questions, the Ashley/Wise 'Cockney Mafia' were becoming unpopular and fast.

This was the beginning of Mike Ashleys money making scheme at Newcastle United. He would buy in previously unknown, dirt cheap but genuinely good players and make money off them. Sebastian Bassong was bought for £500,000. He was sold for £8 million following the clubs shameful relegation.

He didn't stop there.

The sacking of manager Chris Hughton, the selling of Andy Carroll and club captain Kevin Nolan, the ill-treatment of '2010 Fans Player of The Year' Joey Barton, the freebie signings and of course the appointment of 'Yes-man' Alan Pardew concrete the fact that Ashley is building his empire to a very strict, financial specification. Was Hughton too ambitious? Was he going to ask for too much money? Was Nolan cost effective? More money? What about Andy Carroll? Ashley flew him to Liverpool in his own helicopter. Says enough. As for Joey Barton, I sincerely hopes he manages to stay at Newcastle United, but if he must leave, do it next season for free.

Ashley invested a lot of money in the club but now, his only priority is to recover his investments. It's a football club, not a discounted clothing store. He's disappeared off the radar and is controlling from HQ (located in London most probably) the one way flow of cash into his pocket. Newcastle fans are going to have to get used to the idea that Newcastle United is nothing more than Mike Ashleys cash cow. Don't bother getting too attached to Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa or Sylvain Marveaux because they'll be sold in January for £12 million a piece to Liverpool.

Ashley is an example of how money is ruining football and I'm not referring to players wages. They may be running round in gold plated Calvin Kleins and writing off a Ferrari weekly, but the Barclaycard Premiership is still the most exciting, most watched league in the world.

The problem is that football is just a business to the people in charge. There are a few chairmen left in the top flight that still truly do it for the love of the game. But look at Ashley, The Glazers, Sheikh Mansour, Fenway Sports Group, Abramovich. Of course some people are never going to complain: Manchester City fans, Chelsea fans etc but where's the fun in being able to buy anyone you want?

I just hope that other chairmen don't follow in Ashley's steps because I don't want to see the best league in the world turn into nothing more than a talent breeding ground for Europe.

I know I'm probably just feeling sorry for myself because my teams closest rivals are looking more ambitious than we are, but I guess I'm finally starting to accept that football is nothing more than a business now, and that is has been for several years now. Forgive me though, where is the last place you look? Under your nose.

Next season? I'll be supporting Whitley Bay FC.

My face on a plane... Now I'm really flying

I have to admit I really do dislike the usual boring and often suspicious looking adverts that appear on facebook these days. They're usually quite accurate in terms of your interests but are rarely legitimate looking. A few weeks back one of these adverts grabbed my attention. I can't remember the exact text but it was a KLM advert with something like "Inspire us..." I was intrigued so I went against my usual beliefs and clicked on it.

It turns out that it was a competition. The idea was that you took a photograph of yourself from facebook and made a 'delft' style tile. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, Delft pottery is blue and white pottery which originated in Delft, Southern Holland. You can't go to Holland without seeing countless delft clogs and windmills being sold in the tourism shops.

I thought to myself why not. So I chose a photograph of myself and inserted it onto this template. The "Inspire Us" part of the competition was covered by the motivational message you had to include on your tile before submitting to the competition. I chose a fairly generic and cheesy phrase, but it did the trick.

I received an e-mail last week notifying me that I was one of the winners (4000 of them to be precise) and that the prize was my tile being used on the fuselage of a Boeing 777. My face on the side of an aeroplane, an aeroplane that will be travelling around the world. It's not a 42" inch 3D television and it certainly isn't £166 million pounds but I still think that its quite cool.

They included a video in the e-mail. Its a video of my tile being stuck onto the aircraft

http://www.tileyourself.com/?h=81bc530a-09cc-4b28-924d-c7053a8cda59&l=uk&utm_source=makingoff&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tileyourself

Back on track, my last two years...

After a difficult two years in Salford my original target has finally been achieved and my University career can finally take off (pun intended!).

In 2008 I watched all of my friends pack their bags and set off for the four corners of Britain where one by one they would eventually start to forget about the small town they'd left behind. In high school, I remember a teacher saying to me that in 10 years time I would be lucky if I still spoke to just 2 of the people I was sat in that same classroom with in 2006. I remember thinking at the time that she was talking absolute nonsense and that my group of friends were unbreakable. Having said that, they packed their bags. I signed on the dole.

At the time, my heart was set on flying commercially but I was determined to go about it the least academically demanding way possible. I would constantly hear my father say "You're always wanting to take the easy way out, the easy route, the easy life." I could never fully get my head around this, what was easy about working in a full time job whilst saving up large amounts of money to learn to fly? What was so easy about doing your ATPL via the modular route rather than fighting it out for the few (part) sponserships available? The answer is that none of these things are easy, but that wasnt his point.

I was never really enthusiastic about school and as a result my studies suffered. I never 'skived off' or disrupted a classroom, but I was lazy and I was unmotivated. Some would blame the school, some would blame my family cirumstances at the time but I would blame myself. I've always been a firm believer of the fact that you learn your own lessons in life. To do this, you have to learn from your mistakes and you'll never do that until you finally accept that you've made them.

I might have painted the picture slightly worse than it actually was, but that depends on which way you look at it. I left sixth form with 2 A-Levels which to some would be a life changing achievement. In terms on Higher Education, it's not so groundbreaking, if I were to study any sort of Aviation based course I would have to study an access course first, I wasnt happy.

Back to 2008 when I was unemployed. 5 months went by and the job seeking was becoming more soul destroying by the day and I was suffering as a result. My usual optimism was ruined and I was starting to wonder whether I'd have to seek employment loading suitcases onto aircraft to work in my chosen industry. In March, a company called Derichebourg phoned me offering me employment cleaning aircraft cabins. It was exactly what I was hoping for, full time and airside at Newcastle Airport. I enjoyed the job and I made some good friends, but it wasnt sustainable as a means of funding flight training, I had to do something fast.

In August I was still working the night shift and thouroughly enjoying it but the Aviation industry is cruel, and I was staring down the barrel of redundancy. As soon as the schools go back theres no call for the level of staffing the summer season usually requires. In October, seasonal contracts are terminated. I couldnt face going back on the dole, so I considered everything. One morning after work, I stepped off the metro and instead of heading for my house, my bed, sleep... I headed toward my old school. "Mr. Williamson, I need your help with UCAS, I'm applying again" It was a call that in the end made itself, there was no way I could carry on like the way I was, inbetween jobs, no real future. I was going to University after all. I worked out my notice at Derichebourg and although I was a year late, I packed my bags with and left for the North West. I was to study a Physics foundation year before progressing onto Aviation Technology.

I had settled in nicely in my 6th floor halls of residance flat. I had made some good friends and I was enjoying my independence. I thought it was the life changing experience I needed to get myself back on track towards my career as a pilot and it was, for the first month or two. With independance becomes responsibilty and you can do whatever you want with it, as much or as little. I had became absorbed in the lifestyle that is so often highlighted in the nations press associated with modern day university students. I can't remember when it happened but suddenly, having a good time became a higher priority than turning up to lectures, to revising for exams. I have to admit, I did enjoy it alot of the time but ultimately I paid the price for this lifestyle choice. I failed.

This hit me hard, I never wanted to study the Foundation Year in the first place. I wanted to study Aviation Technology with Pilot Studies. My A-Level results were the problem. I was faced with a problem. How is this failed year going to look on a CV? I had no real choice. I had to re-do the year and I had to pass.

The following academic year. I moved into a shared student house with a few flatmates and friends. I have two sets of friends at univeristy, my party friends and my friends. I had the option of moving in with my party friends, but what would be the point in that? I might as well of packed my bags and travelled back to Newcastle.

I joined the badminton club and was quickly made captain. This was vital at the time as it was focusing my attention on something more worthwhile than night clubbing. Around that time, ironically in a nightclub I met the girl who was to months later become my girlfriend. I had certainly started this academic year the way I meant to carry on.

I passed my first semester, everything was going to plan. My badminton team werent doing so well in the league tables but I was still enjoying playing, the new friends, the socials, the feeling of being part of something. I wasnt enjoying the company in the house as much as anticipated but this was something I was able to overlook.

In February, arranged to meet up with the girl I met in the club back in September, I had been punched a couple of times in a needless attack and she had helped me on the night. We ended up staying in touch. We'd been talking every now and then, I was keen to meet her face to face once again. I was nervous and sceptical but we got on so well on the first day that we spent the following week in each others company. That sunday evening, she was my girlfriend.

Hannah was the final piece in my puzzle, the cherry on the cake that brought me total happiness and I'm glad to say that I'm madly in love with this girl. In the last week I've also been informed that I've passed this year and as of September will be studying BSc Aviation Technology with Pilot Studies.

As I've said, you learn your own lessons in life. You only move forward if you make mistakes and the last 2/3 years of my life have proved it. Of course I've had help from my parents along the way which I appreciate, I couldnt have done it without my Mum and Dad.

When you've hit rock bottom you certainly never want to be there again and I certainly feel now that when I say "I'm going to fly commercially" I will be taken seriously, I won't be lauged at. Because I've proved to myself and to the people around me that I can achieve anything I set my heart on. This post may look to people that I've done nothing with my life, but I disagree because the life experience I have gained is priceless.

I am a student at the University of Salford, I am the captain of the badminton team, I am a team leader at Mint Staffing Solutions, I am a loving son, uncle and boyfriend with a loving family and girlfriend and I am a trainee pilot.

I am currently in Newcastle for the summer but for once I am wishing the summer away. Bring on September because my life begins then...