Stuart Andrew Goodsir
I worked as a Team Leader for Language Assessment Consultants for the British Council in Beijing, China. Since November 2020 I´ve been happily retired following Raith Rovers & FC Barcelona.
Location Scot living between Edinburgh & Barcelona.
Achievements
Activity
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Until there is a cure it wouldn't seem there is much point. What is more important would be to work on explaining the possible consequences of lifestyle decisions, such as smoking and drinking, can be a major contributing factor to someone developing Alzheimer's.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I retired a year ago and have since taken up golf, playing 3 times a week, I also took out a year's subscription to Futurelearn and so far have completed courses on Football, Criminal Justice System, Criminal Forensics and a couple of courses about dementia and Alzheimer's. I also study Catalan at B2 level.
Having free time hads been a major factor,... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
A question springs to mind; Is the progression from one stage to another follow similar pattern in similar age groups, genders.....?
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I suppose using references in the present and past to reinforce the tasks at hand, which implies referencing the future isn´t much use. The use of visual stimulous is an important aid such as family photos and holiday snaps. Careful use of language, especially concision when giving/explaining instructions.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Inability to formulate speech
Difficulty in completing simple and or repetitive tasks
Recognising and understanding relationships -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
It joins the dots on showing why a person´s abilities deteriorate over time.
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As someone with a younger family member, who has alzheimer's, I found the 'How to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias' most interesting
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Thanks for both the visual and written material, extremely interesting.
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I help care for my sister , who has Alzheimer's , and hopefully this will help me understand the illness more fully as well as aid me in understanding best caring practices.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Hi , I´ve joined the course as I have a younger sister (66), who was diagonosed with Alzheimer´s in 2018. Hopefully the course will give me an understanding of the progression of the disease and as part of her support group how I can effectively support her and our family.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Most illuminating
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Notes should include:
Situation- Time & place
Team-
Equipment- PPEs, Testing
Measurements & diagrams
Correcting notes & signature -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Hi , Stuart here, retired in Barcelona. I try to do a course every other month. I have no science background, but would like to learn about forensic science.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Recently I did a futurelearn course with York University on the criminal justice system and thought this would be an excellent extension. Looking forward to studying with you.
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Interesting lead stories in the Guardian today, seems like nothing much has changed;
What makes it worse is the alternative venue for the final is Hungary, with its appalling recent history in civil rights...
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Excellent article Grant, as has been the material throughout the course. It really is the beautiful game, unfortunately marred by the people who run it at the top level. It must be hugely frustrating for those, such as the sponsors of the homeless world cup or the Spartan's outreach programmes, who are doing great things for the game to see the nepotism,...
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I do believe that it is more than just a game. At its basics, it is a sport played by 2 teams each wishing to win. What develops from that opens a whole can of worms. It is a source of constant debate; it can mark you both socially and culturally, it can intimate where you are from, what religion you are and to some extent your social class. It brings people...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
From Grassroots To Premier League: How To Become A Professional Footballer, Who needs stats when all you need is;
Love of the game
Ability
Outstanding work ethic
Social Discipline
Good Influences
Be PersistentWhat could be easier?
https://www.teamstats.net/blog/how-to-become-a-pro-footballer
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The treatment of workers and human rights records alone of both Russia & Kuwait should have kept them off the bidding list. However, with an organisation as inherently corrupt as FIFA this was never going to happen. Boycotts appear to be the only way to put a stop to these misappropriations of sporting events as was shown at the Moscow Olympics and to a lesser...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Great to hear that some clubs are returning to their roots and becoming more fan/community based. Although I'm not a fan it would be interesting to hear about a bigger club like Rangers cvould successfully transform into a fan based organisation.
As a socio/ season ticket holder at Barcelona FC I have been randomly selected (2.5% of the members pool) to... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
The main problem over the years in FIFA and its off-shoots has been the lack of transparency in its governance and accountability. A clear example of this is the CONCAF scandal which has been running for over 10 years, leading to its former president being ordered to pay 79 million dollars for embezzling tens of millions of dollars from the Confederation of...
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More interesting for me is that many players are getting involved in their local club communities. Perhaps lockdown has given individuals and collectives time to look around them and work out ways that they can offer support to those who support them each week. Great examples of this are Marcus Rashford's work on meals for kids, Peter Crouch & Thierry Henry...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Unfortunate that England will be playing all of their games at home i.e. Wembley. It's a big risk at the moment and I'm not sure how British people will react when fans from other countries will be travelling around Eurtope and then trying to get into the UK for the final stages.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
question that we could perhaps finish on is to ask the question, is football still the people’s game?
is football still the people’s game? Following on from Stephen's excellent insight into financing of football, the answer is obviously not when looking at the upper echelons of the European game. The big change, as he explained, has been twofold, the... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I'm very much in the camp of the movement Contra al futbol modern/ Against modern football;
https://www.facebook.com/Contra-el-f%C3%BAtbol-moderno-1666837993561324/
This is best exemplified by the German 2nd division club St Pauli, which has the following philosophy:
St. Pauli were the first club in Germany to integrate a set of Fundamental Principles to... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Continued;
is a part of the society by which it is surrounded and so is affected both directly and indirectly by social changes in the political, cultural and social spheres."
is conscious of the social responsibility this implies, and represents the interests of its members, staff, fans and honorary officers in matters not just restricted to the sphere of... -
There seem to be a few success stories where wealthy owners have ingratiated themselves with fans, which I'd say is more to do with luck e.g. the relationship between the Srivaddhanaprabha/King Power family and Leicester City supporters or vast individual wealth, irrespective where it comes from, to chuck at a club with not too much pedigree such as Abramovich...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Who should own football clubs? The obvious but rather utopian answer would be... THE FANS. Looking forward to see how the debate develops.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Very enjoyable and educational. It is a pity there is little or no interaction between participants and those running the course. Hopefully this can be improved on in the final week.
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I was interested in the final article about men´s health. It is generally the case that if you start going to watch football with your mates in your late teens alcohol consumption will be a part of the ritual. Alcohol and football unfortunately go hand in hand, certainly in European culture. Football hooliganism was rampant in the past and is still a major...
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Again I would like to report that it is impossible to access the extended readings section indicated at the end of 5.16.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Good luck
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
i think the film Invictus showed very clearly, as well as being historically accurate, what sport can contribute to the political stage. Great to see SA being awarded the World Cup, thoroughly deserved.
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It´s great to see what clubs and voluntary organisations are doing to use football and other sports to give a safe haven to children, however at the end of the day responsibility lies with governments to sort out the ever increasing refugee crisis. It is the countries in the west, such as the UK, that are propping up dodgy regimes and terrorists through their...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
A fantastic side effect of Covid and lockdown has been the enormous upsurge in people exercisinjg in the open air. The beaches near my home in Barcelona are packed from the early morning with people doing volleyball , football, keepie uppy, beach raquets, jogging, muscle building, surfing and a whole lot more. On the positive side it looks like it is here to...
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Great initiative, although I do hope they won´t be doing away with the half-time pie and bovril at Scottish grounds.
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It´s unfortunarte that the last and next world cups were awarded to countries with little or no democratic traditions. If sport is to be used as an influencer those who control it must be squeaky clean in their motivations. It will take FIFA and UEFA a long time to bury their past mistakes and choices of those who lead them.
I agree it is encouraging to see... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
While working for the British Council in China I got to know a bit about soft power and football. The Premiert Skills manager did an excellent job in reaching out to coaches and kids all over China, for more information on the project;
https://premierskills.britishcouncil.org/premier-skills-china -
https://colgadosporelfutbol.com/en/la-rivalidad-espana-gibraltar-en-el-futbol/
Bit ropey the translation. -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
As a Barça supporter it was frustrating to see them change their sponsorship from UNICEF to the Qatari Foundation/Airlines especially in light of the negative press that country has received over its treatment of foreign workers, who are building the infrastructure for the world cup. Hopefully commentators and fans at the WC will voice their concerns about the...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Very heartening to read about so many projects based around football going on in the developing world.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
This set of cases from different countries provides you with further examples of work that uses football in a development context - Source.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
FOOTBALLFORDEVELOPMENT.NET
footballfordevelopment.net
There is nothing here
There is nothing here. Please try the search.Search ... Another missing link?
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Very interesting to hear the speaker´s views on the power of football on the home, national and international stages. I´d be intersted to find out if these same clubs help their own supporters in times of need, such as the unemployed cancer sufferer, do/should clubs have schemes to help fans in financial straits defer or reduce the price of season tickets? A...
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Not sure if there is much hope for football for hope as it appears to have dissappeared from view around 2015, which is a pity as it seems to be involved in a lot of good projects such as; ´´benefited 450 programmes run by 170 non-governmental organisations in 78 countries, serving hundreds of communities and tens of thousands of people throughout the world....
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Bill Shankly once said ‘ Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.’ We’ve just read that football has been the cause of war, resulted in footballers trying to intervene to stop a civil war and that acts as a soft power to exert persuasion, which in some ways shows...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Trained teaching assistants, Dan Gerrard, Mark Johnson, Neil Spiers and [Hector Mackie]will, as usual, be joining in the comments and discussions throughout Week 5.
Will the assistants be coming on for the second half or are they being held back for the penalty shootout?
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I'd like to comment on point 3 about football and immigration. I think that foreign players, especially those from North and Sub/Saharan Africa, have little influence in the general public's view on immigration policies outside of their club environment.
The last year has been positive for clubs in the Premiership for example, with consciousness raising... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Again I am having problems accessing the links; You are invited to look in more depth at the Routledge readings at the end of Week 4 (if you have time). This takes you to the course presentation page (or am i doing something wrong?)
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Great week of study. Lots of new material to re-read and think about. Thanks for the intro to the Homeless world cup.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Braw !!!!
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Anther inspiring interview, don´t know what brought me nearer to tears, finding out Scotland had won the world cup or the amazing tale of Afghanistan in Melbourne. I´m sure the bidding process and allocation of the world cup venue will be much more transparent than those of Russia & Qatar. Shame on you FIFA.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I wrongly assumed that FIFA & UEFA wouldn´t support the Homeless world cup. Happy to see that at least UEFA have been involved.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I love football, especially live games be it in the Camp Nou, Starks Park or watching a kick about on the Meadows, however I find it abhorant that countries like Qatar are allowed to exploit immigrant workers with impunity. There have been numerous reports highlighting the plight of workers building the WC stadiums, but conditions only seem to get worse. Here...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
As the interviewee said it is a disgrace that Qatar was allocated the WC for 2022, especially after the dodgy dealings around the way in which Russia won the vote for 2018. Here´s hoping that both Blatter and Platina get sent down for a long period of time, although I´m sure this is very unlikely to happen.
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For me it has to be MESSI. I´ve been lucky enough to see much of the following:
He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won a club-record 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
It is good in some ways that the Ivory Coast restricts under 18s from playing abroad, ensuring that promisi ng young platers get to work and play together. It also helps that clubs from the ´big 5´ run academies and camps throughout Africa: https://barcaacademy.fcbarcelona.es/es/sobre-nosotros/mapa . FIFA & UEFA should be doing more to help the game in Africa...
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From 2000 to 2012, Brazil was one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world. Brazil, however, has one of the most unequal economies in the world. In 2017, the economic crisis, corruption, and lack of public policies increased the poverty rate and many became homeless. Six billionaires alone in Brazil are richer than more than 100 million of the...
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I think that Socrates would be turning in his grave, if he knew how much had been spent on the Olympics/World Cup extravagances. There are obvious benefits for the local population in terms of improved infrastructures and refurbished stadiums for fans. The long term is probably more difficult to assess. Has the quality of life of the favella dwellers, who...
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Unfortunately for China monery doesn´t buy success at international level. Until they develop a strong coaching structure starting at primary/secondary school level they will continue to struggle to develop home grown talent and reach the finals of the Asia or World cup. They might look to their near neighbours South Korea and Japan for some tips.
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Follow the this link to access a ranking table for FIFA men’s football. ( The link doesn´t work). Is anyone maintaning the links? This is not the 1st time I´ve reported faulty links)
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I think that equal pay is important for both respect and equality for the
women´s game. -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I think a great takeaway from the article is that women are less likely to be corrupt than their male counterparts. With the ongoing cases of corruption ath the top of the game opening up places at the head of organisations such as FIFA, UEFA & aptly named CONMEBOL should be most welcome.
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While it is fantastic to read about the breakthroughs that women are making it will unfortunately take a long time to break away from the laddish image that football has.
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Growing up in Kirkcaldy in the 60s both my primary and secondary/high school had extensive all grass playing fields, which were exclusively for the use of boys to play football, rugby and cricket. Girls were marginalised to a couple of netball courts which were tarmac. At uni a large part of the campus was given over to playing fields as the Scottish School...
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Interesting to see how the women's game is developing. Much has been said and written about the strength of the American game but looking at the Guardian's table of the top 100 players in 2020
( https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2020/dec/08/the-100-best-female-footballers-in-the-world-2020 ) the vast majority of them are based in Europe, 4... -
Champions: It is more easy for clubs such as the big 4 in Enland, the big three in Italy, the big two in Scotland or Spain or even the big 1 in Germany to continually win either domestic or European honours. Once in a while odd things happen, unfortunately these are rareties, such as Notts Forest, Steaua București or Aston Villa win the European cup/champions...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I think most countries would now think twice about hosting the world cup because of the costs involved. Currently, with only a couple of months before the opening ceremony, it is still unclear if the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead. If it does/doesn´t it will definately be a financial disaster with many coumntries/star athletes threatening to pull out. There is...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Football champions of the world- The fans, as we´ve seen during the past lockdown year without them the game is just not the same.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Cheers Jose for the links.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Excellent so far! It would be useful if we heard a bit more from the tutors on the course (and from the participants) on what has been discussed. Thanks
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I can´t seem to open the link to the extended Routledge readings, can this be fixed?
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Total football was very much a Dutch invention and a beautiful one at that, but how that was derived from Dutch Culture I can´t see it . They do have some of the world´s worst football hooligans.
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I think the book will make interesting reading. I looked up some more info about Pat Nevin and think what he did after the Palace game was excellent. A white player supporting a black colleague in the 1980s was unheard of. Hats off to him as well as respect for his continuing on kicking racism out of football.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
China has learned thae hard way, that money doesn´t neccessarily buy success. Now they are changing their approach with less reliance on buying `supposed´ big name foreigners to bost the CSL. A more measured approach of salary caps, limited number of foreidn talent per team and modst importantly 50,000 football schools being set up over the next 10 years. A...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Having listened to Gavin´s talk it makes me even more proud of being a member of the club. As someone who would like to see an independant Scotland I sympathise greatly with the push for Catalan independance and something that the club agrees with too. I think it is important for clubs, players and fans to be involved in the community they represent, which...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I do think that the emergence of global football has had a harmful effect on thje national/local game. this is exemplified by the number of Brazilian players playing abroad:
The 25th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the presence of expatriate footballers in 137 leagues from 93 national associations at worldwide level. In... -
I think a local derby is much more meaningful for the fans and community than some of these invented super derbies are.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
As a fan I've seen two very different types of derbies:
Raith Rovers v Dunfermline/East Fife depending on the division the teams are in. The former is probably the more important due to the size of the two towns. In the late 60s & 70s there were always sell out matches. A more recent fixture in 2011 the game at East End Park had a crowd of over... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Talent, consistency, forward thinking, heart and soul, belief, commitment, natural talent and a big bit of luck
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The size of a stadium doesn´t matter unless it has atmosphere. I´ve been a regular at the Camp Nou since the 1980s and it can be embarrasing at times due to the lack of support from the home crowd. A feature of Spanish football is that there is no real tradition of traveling support. It only happens once a year at the final of the Kings cup. Both Hampden and...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
A super club like Real Madrid have had more than one helping hand over the years. Historicallly Real Madrid were the team of the Spanish state, which allowed them to buy De Stefano even though Barcelona had already signed him. Much of their most recent wealth was attained in rather dodgy circumstances;
´The dodgy deal between Real Madrid and the local... -
Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
It is the great dilemma for many clubs, go for the easy fix by buying in or nurture local talent through youth academies. I also think it shows the clear difference between managers who are willing to take a chance with their youth and those who haven´t, good examples being Guardiola and Mourinho. I was surprised how extended are the tentacles of some clubs...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Football clubs, certainly in the lower leagues are an integrated part of the communityy as shown by the Spartans and Mathare. In my home town Kirkcaldy, the local club Raith Rovers have always attracted a wide sample of different groups , be it women/men, children/adults, poor/rich, disabled/abled. The club is run on fairly democratic lines, which is reflected...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
MYSA appears to have many parallels with the Spartans but on a much bigger scale and with many more challanges ot face. It is interesting that their philosophy is ´MYSA is dedicated to enhancing social proficiencies through the teaching of football.´ Also good to see the work that it does has been recognised internationally and the financil support it receives...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
The work that Spartands do in the socially deprived areas of Pilton and Muirhouse is fantastic, something that bigger clubs with more resourses should be involved in. It has been interesting to learn about their involvement in other areas of social welfare such as the dental health programme, homework clubs, mobile pitches and employing community workers...
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No matter what Xi Jinping, the Chinese president and big time football fan, says I doubt very much that China will become a major player in international football for a very long time. CSL clubs come and go quite regularly, the most significant being the demise of Jiangsu three months after they won the super league title in 2020. For a look at the current...
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What is MYSA?
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
It was a pity they couldn´t follow-up witha win in the league to guarentee them Champions league football next season.
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Rivalries-This is where live football and attending matches comes into its element. It´s been a disastrous year all-round because of Covid and as a sport football has probably suffered most. Local derbies, such as Celtic-Rangers or Boca Juniors-River Plate, League derbies such as the Él Clasico´ between Barcelona and Real Madrid or Manchester United-Liverpool,...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Thanks for an interesting week, looking forward to part 3.
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Here is a possible negative example
I worked in Beijing form 2013-2020 and during that tme I was a season ticket holder for 5 years of Beijing Guoan, the main club in the capital. Football, from my knowledge, in China was quite inward looking until in 2016 Carlos Tevez signed for $820,000 a week, or approximately $40 million for the year he played in China.... -
Interestingly he didn´t mention fans when talking about ´a Football Stakeholders´committee´, unless they were the ´and so on´ tagged on at the end. I also feel a bit dubious of the claims that Infantino and his counterpart in UEFA Aleksander Čeferin are the new brooms that will sweep clean. A couple of examples of this are related to the Champions League and...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
With the recent attempted split from UEFA over the champions league by the Super League 12, what we might see is a prolonged struggle between those who have the power i.e. Fifa and its six confederations and those who have the money, Big club owners and their backers in the media, finance, marketimng and merchandising industries. the European Super League...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
I think the best league in Europe is the German because of the 50+1%, which means that season ticket holders are important to the clubs and have a large say in how they are run. Money can buy success, if you have lots of it or if you are prudent. It is also you are in it for the right reasons, hence the backlash, mainly against American owners inthe recent ECL...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Unfortunately having the world´s greatest footballer, as is the case of Barcelona, could in the end lead to your financial downfall. The incredible salary he receives has a knock-on effect on other players in the squad , the salaries they receive in no-way represents their skills or standing in the football hierarchy. This means if they are to be sold on,...
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Stuart Andrew Goodsir made a comment
Excellent presentation and a very good final question, Is football still the people´s game? I think unfortunately not as fans are now way down the pecking order in importance to the success of clubs.
It´s mind boggling to hear about the salary ratio for top clubs and the crippling effect this can have to teams in the EPL who are relregated or to those clubs... -
Was football global in 1930?-No. in 2014? Yes if you included the qualifying matches that took place for the 32 teams to get to the finals. Some stats:
Tournament details
Dates 15 June 2011 – 20 November 2013
Teams 203 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played 820
Goals scored 2,303 (2.81 per match)
Top scorer(s) Belize Deon...
