Like everyone else I was caught up in Women’s World Cup fever. England had a very strong team (we were told) certainly good enough to win the trophy.

All our players were full time professionals playing for Premier League clubs Man City, Chelsea etc so naturally a great deal was expected of the England team.

They had a big-name manager in ex United star Phil Neville.

They had the experience of being third at the previous World Cup and had ‘come a long way’ since then.

The very name Lionesses suggested our team had the strength and aggression to destroy the opposition.

We were leading this great boom in women’s soccer. England had everything…we were the team to beat.   And that is exactly what happened…we got beat.

In the end we were lucky to get fourth place.

Too much hype.

When push came to shove England just were not good enough.

A few weeks ago while running a dog-training seminar in Missouri I was asked if I wanted to attend a Girls’ School Volleyball Tournament.

It was a new sport to me and I thought it might be fun to watch.

The hall was packed to capacity and the first thing that struck me was the attendance of a professional referee – not something you are likely to see at a school near you.

The hall had tiered seating, cheerleaders and a high-definition scoreboard.

At the end of each game the parents of the players lined up on court with the team and were each presented with a small bouquet of flowers.

It was incredibly professional and not unlike the kind of presentation one sees taking place at the Olympics.

It was a lot of pressure on those nine to 12-year-old girls with a huge crowd yelling and cheering from the stands but the pupils seemed to enjoy it.

I couldn’t help thinking it was miles away from what would take place in a small town school in the UK but it was wonderful experience for all those young girls aspiring to greater things.

I left in no doubt that the facilities, attitudes and standards of US sports start at the grass roots and at a young age (no jumpers for goal posts here).   ‘The US team were fitter than us,’ one UK TV pundit stated.

She was right, it was obvious to anyone who understands football.

If the Lionesses are going to be anything more than tabbies we need more realism and a lot less hype.

 

THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED

I’m a huge fan of California super group The Eagles and was thrilled when Mrs B presented me with two tickets to watch their latest tour at the Manchester Arena.

They were fantastic seats (any closer to the stage and I would have been on drums).

Frankly I don’t know how Mrs B managed to get such prime tickets and she’s not telling.

I missed out on the band’s previous UK visit as all the seats had been sold in the first ‘three minutes’.

So here’s my question…how is it possible to sell 9,000 tickets in less time than it takes to boil an egg?

You can’t get a drink inside the arena in three minutes but somehow they managed to answer the phones, take personal details, sort seats and process payments for thousands of tickets.

Even allowing for some corporate block booking it would be a mammoth achievement but it seems to happen at every event.

What’s going on?

 

FLYING THE FLAG IS A DEPRESSING EXPERIENCE

'British Airways is one of the world’s leading global premium airlines and a leading player in the airline industry serving more than 45 million customers in a year,’ so says the marketing hype.

So let me tell you what the ‘world’s leading global premium airline’ customer service is like at 8am on a busy Monday morning at Heathrow.

Arriving at Terminal 5 intent on buying a ticket to Manchester I was directed to the BA customer service desk.

At the time of my arrival there were 14 customers waiting and two BA staff on duty.

Thirty minutes later they had served just two customers.

As the queue grew restless a supervisor arrived and was asked by a client if he intended to help out.

His astounding reply was that he was only there in a supervisory capacity and would not man the desk.

At this point one of the two BA staff on duty decided to go on a break leaving just one to deal with the increasingly frustrated customers.

We were informed there was another BA customer service desk 200 yards away.

Unfortunately, after a mad dash to the opposite end of the terminal, that proved to have an equally long queue with only two BA staff on duty.

Under pressure from customers the supervisor said there was nothing he could do as that was all the staff BA management would allow him to have.

Is this the kind of customer service one would expect from an airline with annual revenues of £13 billion?

What’s the point of a multi-million pound marketing budget if all you can manage is four customer service staff at one of the busiest airports in the world?

 

By Guardian columnist Vic Barlow

vicbarlow@icloud.com