Kovy To Join Football Club... and more ...
One of our sporting life big boys, Heikki Kovalainen, is making new waves in the football world. The news is that our own ”Kovy”, from Suomussalmi here in our northlands, is to join Norwich City football club soon. Remember too that you heard it here first. This news is not from Helsinki or Rovaniemi. This news is our very own scoop. Stop that giggling in the back rows, please. We are trying to break wind-E-news. Breaking wind at my age is not always easy.
Kovy has joined the Lotus team and begins to understand the power of tradition. Lotus is one of the Formula One greats and just the mention of names like Andretti, Clark, Fittipaldi, Graham Hill, Moss, Peterson, Rindt and Senna should give any sports fan a big memory or two. But our own Kovy has taken on more than past Grand Prix names. He has taken on the local tradition of Lotus and Norfolk and Norwich. Lotus is a Norwich and Norfolk thing as Kovy now knows. He knows this now after last week. Now you know it.
Where is this Norwich and Norfolk? If you ask that kind of question you really do need to get out more often and get a life. Get a laptop and travel to the worlds of the green and yellow. No I am not a secret tourist agent. Yes I have been to Suomussalmi. Lots of yellow and green there too.
Lotus team colours are, of course, green and yellow. Kovy is becoming a ”Canary”. Norwich City football club also play in green and yellow. Of course. Such is local tradition. Such is Norwich and Norfolk.
It comes as no surprise then to find out that Lotus boss, Tony Fernandes, is keen to keep up this Norwich and Norfolk tradition so that the green and yellow image sings to all ears like a canary bird on the wing. Fernandes is saying that his Lotus car might well soon be seen at Norwich City football ground. He is also saying that Lotus is a Norfolk and Norwich thing and if Norwich City FC wants to discuss new investment with him then his phone is open for them. (a few insiders at Norwich smile at this and only say that such talks have already started).
It may not be long before our Kovy from Suomussalmi will kick a football for Norwich City. But, of course, he will have his car along with him when he does it.
So if Kemi and Tornio football clubs want to see a Norwich City FC X1 return for a summer deal then you now know where to start the negotiations. Why not? If you do not then that bunch of amateurs from Rovaniemi will step in quick.
and more ...
After my last Sporting Life article I did receive some feedback. Was I saying that the health and safety regimes at the Olympic Games in Vancouver were wrong to demand safety? Did I think that the death of one competitor was ok?
In reply to the above let me say two things. First I would never write to disrespect the death of anyone. But second let me say that those that fly down the Luge course do so with full knowledge of the damned risks. In all these risky sports the participants, especially at Olympic levels, know, full well, the dangers. Nobody forces them to jump on a luge and shoot down an icy track. Some sports are dangerous. Fact. Such is the nature of the beast. Live with it.
What also shocked many people was the cheating claims involved in this luge event. Could it really be possible that the home base, Canadian, team had extra training runs for the practices? Could there be cheating involved in the Olympic Games? Sorry to say this again but: such is the very nature of the beast.
A few years back I was sat in a team leader meeting on the day of a World Championship competition. We all sat there listening to a complaint concerning the Italian team getting to know the lay-out of the slalom course many hours before the other teams. (the course lay-out should be secret until official practice sessions begin). We all sat there and talked. We talked this cheating-game until the chair banged a small hammer to say it was time for a break. We would take a coffee and a cake and relax. Time to think? Rubbish.
In effect what happens then is pure politics. Deals are done. The games must go on. What amazes me is that people get shocked about all this. Such is the nature of the beast. As we used to say: ”If you cannot take the bullshit then you should not have joined the team”.
Why did I write about sport right now? Well, it seems that everybody else does so why not. This sporting life is often like a virus. Such is the nature of the beast. Such is breaking wind-E-news.
Steve Bowles
