Humphrey Appleby

GPs get localised attention because speedway is a localised sport in Poland, despite the oft-repeated ridiculous claims that it's the 'biggest sport' when womens' basketball tournaments are able to adversely affect attendances (allegedly). Let's hope that if the sport has finally got a bit of real attention, that BSI don't manage to put on borefest, but there's always football to blame if they do...

That wasn't the point that was being answered. No-one denies that British speedway is organised and presented badly (and probably doomed), but the problems are much harder to fix than simply rocking-up and renting the Millennium Stadium once a year. BSI charges a lot more money for what is in reality only a slightly better presented product, where the actual racing is similar or worse standard than the EL, and where the venue may be changed at the drop of a hat. I've never turned up to any British speedway meeting to be told that it's being held 220 kms away the following day, nor to any event in an indoor stadium that's been rained off. The Cardiff GP is the flagship of the whole series and a lot of effort is made to ensure it comes over well, which is fair enough. However, I've also been to a few GPs in 'outstations' where the presentation and entertainment was no better than what you used to get at BSPA shared meetings at Coventry or wherever. The trick is of course, to get people to feel that it's all better than it actually is, whilst paying inflated prices for the privilege. They might have succeeded with some, although the static attendances over the past years might point to the fact that not everyone is so convinced.

You're comparing apples and pears. BSI has to organise a handful of events per year, with the pick of plum weekend dates, and with the top riders in the world who agree to ride for pittances because it's billed as the 'world championship'. The local organisation is also largely outsourced to local promoters who carry the financial responsibility for the events, which are effectively subsidised by taxpayers. Nobody would suggest British speedway is well run, but it also can't be run like the SGP, has to be self-financing and gets no help from government. And without domestic speedway (whether British or otherwise), there would be no riders for the SGP nor anyone paying a living wage to the riders to allow them their flight of fancy every couple of weeks during the summer. Quite aside from this, I think BSI do a very moderate job at running the SGP. Despite the hype and shills telling us how they've raised the bar, in reality they've done very little to raise the profile or more importantly the revenue of speedway, especially in comparison to what other minor sports have achieved through sponsorship, television and media rights. The sport is about where it was in the late-80s - 2 or 3 marque events held in city stadiums in front of similar sized crowds as then. The rest are held in pretty much the same countries and stadia they were always held in (with the exception of Australia and NZ - although there had previously been a World Pairs Down Under), in front of generally small crowds. The sport has not expanded in terms of audience, media interest nor leveraging commercial sponsorship despite at least being on television more frequently. This is even before we get to the fiascos of (nearly) cancelled and relocated GPs which was entirely down to very poor management of the local organisers - simply unacceptable for a so-called global sports management company. BSI has a turnover of about 9 million quid a year, of which about 3 million is profit (although around 1.5 million of that goes to the FIM). Even netball which has almost no media profile manages to do better than that, which puts the achievement into perspective. It would be fair to suggest the sport might be in an even worse state without BSI and the SGP, but let's not be fooled about how wonderful they are. They came into what was one of the worst organised professional sports, organised a bit of television money and leveraged some cash out of a Welsh government desperate to get events into their massively loss-making Millennium Stadium. Fair enough, you need to understand where the opportunities are and get some backing to underwrite your start-up costs, but it was nothing massively clever and not much has subsequently been built on the foundations.

Bydgoszcz has been bankrolled by its city council, but the city council has finally tired of the financial mismanagement at the club and pulled the plug on the funding. I suspect this also means no subsidies for GPs.

I think I'd have more tolerance if there wasn't the (semi-)official pretence from the shills each year that something is going to be done about the tracks.

So it's patently obvious the shape isn't conducive to good racing, yet the venue gets approved for a GP and we're told with a straight face that BSI care about entertainment. So which 'major soccer internationals' would these be, given that I don't see any listed in Tampere during 2015? Maybe the women's under-17s have a game...?

So excuses even before the event has been run... Did I imagine 'there will be re-alignments', 'alterations to the shape' etc.. etc.. that were promised after the last borefest? It's just utterly tiresome, and is why speedway is a joke amongst motor sports.

Is that starring Liam Neeson...?

You can't draw any conclusions between the 70s and now. World Cups only had 14 qualification places (given the hosts and holders qualified automatically), and whilst there were fewer competitive nations around in that era, most of the best teams were still to be found in Europe. Nowadays with 31 places up for grabs, it seems just about any mediocre nation can qualify. It would be fair to say that whilst England does regularly qualify for World Cup, it has underachieved down the years. You'd put the English League in the top 4 or 5 in the world, yet we have a solitary World Cup success to show for it. By contrast, Brazil has won 5, and Germany and Italy 4 each. Even the great historical underachievers Spain not only managed one World Cup, but three European titles as well.

Sponsoring the 2 minute clock is 'major sponsorship'...?

West Auckland beat the mighty Juventus in a similar embryonic tournament back in the day.

If he's taking on the FIA then he doesn't even know what sport he's in.

I think it's no problem if no money or only prize money is involved, but maybe the authorities have tired of speedway flaunting the regulations?

Boo-hoo. Hardly like Tommy Knudsen was some sort of angelic rider on-track.

Thought Mauger only 'mentored' Nielsen from about 1986 onwards when he was still trying to win his first World title.

It's not always the case. Did Hans Nielsen or Erik Gundersen go off the rails at any point? Did they even need any mentoring?

No, the right thing for the 'speedway establishment' to do is wait for the verdict as to whether he's actually guilty of not. If there was a flaw in the testing process, then cannot be conclusively proved he was over the limit the following day regardless of whether he'd had a beer or five the night before and he admitted it. Of course, the ridiculous rants of Muddlo are not helping matters, not least because he seems to be incriminating the bloke.

There are also the regular trolls though who seem to revel in inciting negative responses.

Indeed, but the fact remains that bonus points inflate averages and penalise team riding if used for team building. They also make wages unpredictable, at least with respect to standard points money.

Indeed, but it could be argued that's part of the luck of the draw, although for European competition, you could use group results and/or seedings to favour a particular team when deciding who plays at home in the second leg. Maybe away goals really should count double, just to give TWK a coronary...

I know, but idiot commentators and reporters keep saying it. Actually, I think the official UEFA regulations do refer to 'away goals counting double', but obviously only if teams score the same number of goals. Interesting though, there's an increasing body of opinion that the away goals rule should be abolished.

Less of an issue for the reserves though, as they might (and often did) pick up extra rides in the meeting. It was problematic though when one of the reserves got injured, which was not an uncommon occurrence. 7 riders with 2 reserves and everyone having programmed rides is unfortunately not very conducive to a balanced heat format or regular programme rides.

Cricket is inherently complicated - the lbw law is notoriously complex, the scoring is not straightforward if you include all the different types of extras (explain the difference between byes and leg byes, and 5 wides to the uninitiated), and let's not even get started on Duckworth-Lewis! The offside rule in football and the erroneous 'away goals count double' is also not exactly simple, and yet both sports are followed by millions. Yes 3-2-1-0 is simple, but it creates problems with team racing, particularly with respect how to reward riders who team ride. I've also always thought it wrong that teams can gain a point by having both riders come last in a race. If a different scoring method was something people were used to, then it wouldn't be that hard to grasp. For me it would further reduce the concept of team speedway to individual racing, and even in a 4-3, the second and third riders might still want to defend against an opposition rider. There's nothing wrong with drawn heats and drawn matches in my book - it's the problem of adequately rewarding riders who team ride, but eliminating the inflationary effect (in terms of wages and averages) of bonus points.

Yes, but the team doesn't score the bonus points, so they would (and did) inflate the combined team average if included for team building purposes. Bonus points would generally inflate a declared 1-7 by about 5 points, but teams with better team riders would be penalised more. In the worst case scenario, a team could add 14 bonus points to its team average! For me, the scoring system in team speedway should be changed so that points are only awarded for beating opponents, then the problem of bonus points goes away.

How would it actually be proved for which state a rider is eligible? I assume it goes on residence rather than birth, but what if a rider claimed to be residing in another state?