Too Fat...Lose Weight...or Get Fined!

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Bet that's not on the Official West Ham Site!

BBC = Slim down or be fined, West Ham warn striker McCarthy

McCarthy has failed to make an impact since joining West Ham
West Ham striker Benni McCarthy has been told by club co-owner David Sullivan to lose weight or be fined.

The 32-year-old has failed to make an impact since joining in February and missed out on a place in South Africa's World Cup squad because of his weight.

"It's like a jockey being overweight. He can't ride a horse and no-one is going to pay him," said Sullivan.

"I think we are fully within our rights to say 'you are not honouring your side of the contract'."

Sullivan said the former Ajax and Blackburn striker, who is South Africa's record goal-scorer, was being put on a weight-loss programme.

"We are not being unrealistic. We've given him a target of losing a kilo (2.2lbs) a week. He has to lose five or six more kilos," he said.

"He is training very hard so he must be eating or drinking something very wrong. Short of spending 24 hours with him, we have to assume that.

"You expect him to turn up in a state to be a footballer. We are not starving him. It's just don't eat ice cream, don't eat cakes, don't drink wine."

McCarthy is unlikely to be included in manager Avram Grant's squad for the opening game of the new Premier League season, away to Aston Villa on Saturday.

newsvote.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8913353.stm

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Daily Mail has it a little different

MAIL
Chewing the fat with Benni McCarthy: West Ham's chunky striker is on a mission to lose weight...
EXCLUSIVE By Matt Barlow
Last updated at 1:29 AM on 13th August 2010

Comments (3) Add to My Stories Benni McCarthy is shrinking — and, for once, a tale of vanishing pounds at Upton Park will come as music to the ears of David Sullivan.

It was Sullivan who ‘outed’ McCarthy in May, revealing how the striker’s body fat had soared to 24.2 per cent.

‘Benni McCarthy is nearly as fat as me,’ claimed West Ham’s 61-year-old co-chairman, frustrated by a poor return on a £2.5million signing.

McCarthy had not arrived in great shape, due to lack of action at Blackburn, and then injured his knee on his debut. Things got worse when he failed to make the South Africa squad for the World Cup finals but the 32-year-old returned early for pre-season and is working hard to shift some of the bulk.

Worth his weight in goals?: McCarthy needs to start delivering on West Ham's investment
‘I eat well but it doesn’t matter,’ says McCarthy as he takes a break between sessions at West Ham’s training ground. ‘Me, I’m the type of person who, if I don’t train hard, I
pick up weight. With my bone structure, body structure, if I don’t train with intensity, I will get bigger.

‘When you’re injured, you can’t train. For three weeks, I was told to stay off my feet, just come in for treatment. I couldn’t go in the gym. If I was on my feet, my knee would just swell up.

‘I started to get worried because I know I pick up weight quite easily. I was out for five weeks, just doing rehab on the knee. When I started training again, I could tell I was too heavy, two or three kilos too heavy, and I didn’t train at the same intensity I normally would do. I didn’t feel right.’

It wasn’t the first time McCarthy had been admonished for piling on weight. Six months before Sullivan spoke out, Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce ordered him to slim down to win back his place in the team.

‘I used to eat the wrong things at the wrong times,’ admits McCarthy. ‘Carbohydrates, you can’t eat at night. You eat it during the day and burn it off when you train. If you eat it at night, you store it and get heavier. That was my problem.’

ROUND NUMBERS
The Body Mass Index (BMI) of Benni McCarthy was measured in May, with his level of body fat recorded at 24.2 per cent. Here’s how he shapes up:

Recommended body fat percentages:
5-12 — Healthy male athlete
20-25 — Desirable for most middleaged
males (less than 20 is deemed
underweight for middle-aged males)
27-30 — Overweight
30+ — Obese

There is still work to do. McCarthy accepts that himself. His latest body-fat measurements have been around 16 per cent, high for a professional athlete, but the striker is starting to feel sharper again, thanks to his programme of work with physio Andy Rolls and fitness coach Eamon Swift.

He scored his first goal in West Ham colours during a pre-season friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach and is out to show new manager Avram Grant he has not lost the instinct which helped him become a European champion with Jose Mourinho’s Porto in 2004.

‘I feel much better,’ says McCarthy. ‘I’m training hard and sleeping a lot. People say, “You can sleep when you’re dead”, but if you don’t sleep enough you’ll pay the price. I’ve set certain targets for myself. By the start of the season I want to be down at 12 or 13 per cent. That’s normal for me.

‘I was taught from early ages at Ajax that you play how you train. You try to give 100 per cent in training and you take the good into a game.

‘You always get players who don’t train well but rise to the occasion in a match. (Ricardo) Carvalho was the worst trainer ever at Porto but he’d be the best player in a match. He was fortunate to have a manager like Mourinho who understood him. If he had someone else in his career he would not be where he is today.

‘I want to come back and work my socks off because this is the club that employed me. They thought I was the player to get them out of the mess they were in last season and I thought I could do it.

‘Then, unfortunately, I got injured. I’ve never been injured in my career and I was devastated when they said six to eight weeks.’

Looking up: McCarthy, pictured at West Ham's Chadwell Heath training ground, wants to repay the club's investment
McCarthy returned to action before the end of the season but his poor physical condition was a problem. He accepts Sullivan’s comments about his weight, saying: ‘If you can’t take the pressure, you shouldn’t make football your profession.’

And he also understands why South Africa manager Carlos Alberto Parreira left him out. ‘I wasn’t angry,’ says McCarthy, his country’s all-time record scorer with 35 goals.

‘In six months leading up to the World Cup, I never really played. I was surprised to be called into the 30-player squad. Then, when you get there, you think, “Maybe, with the experience you’ve got, you might make the 23”. But it didn’t happen like that. I wasn’t devastated.’
The wide role: McCarth'ys weight led to criticism of him last season...
Flab fighter: He has been working hard to lose fat in pre-season...
Target man: The aim is to be as slim as he was in his early playing days
McCarthy may be shrinking but his personality is large. ‘I don’t need to prove anything to anyone but I do want to show people what I can do,’ he says. ‘Winners go home and they get the prom queens. You get nothing when you’re a loser. Winners, you see their missus, top class. All the best-looking women want winners.’

Then it’s back to the training pitch for the second part of another double session.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1302576/Chewing-fat-Benni-McCarthy-West-Hams-chunky-striker-mission-lose-weight-.html#ixzz0wWNUomQ6

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The Guardian's Knowledge Asks...

The Guardian/James Dart
Have any footballers been transfer-listed or sacked for being overweight?Plus: Footballers under hypnosis (2); the best name to give your baby a chance of pro football; and lying clubs. Send your questions and answers to [e-mail]

After Sol Campbell's unfortunate photograph, I was wondering – has a player ever been given the boot by a club after his manager said he was too fat?" muses Jim Cordes.

The Knowledge

It's probably lucky that William Foulkes strained into his shorts in a bygone era; can you imagine him turning up for pre-season these days tipping the scales at 24st? Not that the goalkeeper himself cared, once saying: "I don't mind what they call me as long as they don't call me late for my lunch." Nonetheless, Foulkes was never ditched for being too big-boned, unlike Neil Ruddock, who would eventually have weight clauses inserted in any contracts offered to him.

When Ruddock joined Crystal Palace in 2000, the chairman Simon Jordan recalled that: "Harry Redknapp told me to make sure I had a weight clause in his contract – 98 kilos, or whatever. And if he's over that then fine him 10% of his wages. That is the only way to ensure you get a fit and focused Ruddock." Amid struggles to meet the weight limit, Ruddock's contract was cancelled by mutual consent a year later, before the bulky defender moved on to Swindon.

Things were no better at the County Ground, even after Ruddock lost a stone, and in August 2002 he was transfer-listed for being overweight (it was reported he could not fit into any of the 86 pairs of shorts owned by the club and had to have some custom-made). "The manager, Andy King, has indicated that the player is not fit to play first-team football," sniffed the chief executive Mark Devlin. "He is also unable to complete a full training regime alongside the other players." Ruddock eventually left, winning £57,000 in unpaid wages at an employment tribunal in December 2002.

In 2005, the Albion Rovers striker Mark Yardley left in acrimonious circumstances, claiming the club were attempting to ditch him after newspaper reports he was troubling the scales. "Yes I am overweight, but I am not 20st, that's nonsense," he said. "I have not played a competitive game since last November so I am obviously not match-fit. But I don't know where all this talk came from about my weight."

Reader Matthew Vierboom recalls the case of Michael Keane, "who was sacked in 2008 by St Patrick's Athletic and it pretty much ended his career. He had a trial with Dundalk FC later that year but they didn't offer him a contract and he hasn't played professionally since." The Eircom League disputes resolution committee ruled that St Pats were wrong to sack him and the Irish Independent said Keane was "set for a six-figure windfall".

Weighty issues transcend continents, and the Vasco de Gama manager Renato Portaluppi had to battle bulging members of his squad in 2008. He eventually decided to fine any players unable to shed excess pounds. "A footballer only learns in two ways: when he loses his place in the team or when he is fined," declared Portaluppi, setting a $164 levy if they failed to shed the inches around their midriffs. "Players eat a lot of junk. Everyone needs to be down to their ideal weight."

Any more for any more? You know the address.

COLD CASE DEPT: FOOTBALLERS UNDER HYPNOSIS (2)
"In light of the imminent cinematic release of the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats (imminent in Australia anyway) and its depiction of the US military attempting to harness psychic abilities, I was wondering if there has there ever been a football manager (or player) who has attempted to do the same; and if so were there any reports of this being a success?" wrote Tim Grey earlier this year.

"I'm a Gloucester City supporter," begins Simon Clark, "and on 22 August 1959 we tried hypnosis to see the possible winning effects on the team. Led by the celebrity hypnotist Henry Blythe, we proceeded to beat Merthyr Tydfil 3-1. We again tried this on 19 September 1959 against our great rivals Cheltenham Town, and went on to lose 3-1 to the Robins. The experiment was briskly ended! There's even a fantastic Pathe News piece about this interesting episode in our history."

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
"I've been wondering for a while what I should call any prospective son to give him the best chance of success at professional football," says Nick Pepper. "So my question is what is the most successful first name and surname in football in terms of trophies and titles won. I doubt there will be a conclusive answer, but my suspicion is that Steven is likely to be the best first name, while Cole seems to have worked out well for Andy, Ashley and Joe, if not Carlton."

"Although I'm inclined to say that, of Englishmen at least, Robert – shortened to Bob (by) – must top the bill (having provided World Cup success with Charlton and Moore, and exceptional managerial achievements for Paisley and Robson), I've no evidence of that," writesRobert D Marriott. "The most successful English player in terms of trophies won was Phil Neal, who collected four European Cups, one Uefa Cup, eight league titles, four League Cups, one European Super Cup, five Charity Shields, and one, er, Sherpa Van Trophy [while managing Bolton]. And no end of runners-up medals. What's more, his surname can be used too, so I'd expect a Phillip George Neal Pepper to be playing for England in about 20 years' time."

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
"I have just read this story on the Bradford Telegraph & Argus site," wrote Luke Thorne in 2008. "Are there any other examples of clubs so blatantly lying to their fans? Has any side just invented results or made-up heroic performances?"

Sean DeLoughry wrote to tell us about St Patrick's Athletic, who were not so much lying to their fans as lying to themselves. The 2001-02 season was an eventful one for Athletic. It began when they were deducted nine points for fielding Paul Marney, who, thanks to some paperwork errors, was ineligible, in the first three games of the campaign. An appeal against the penalty was successful.

St Pats, though, failed to learn their lesson and when just two points behind the leaders Shelbourne with two games in hand, were docked 15 points in March 2002 for failing to properly register the Ugandan international Charles Mbabazi Livingstone for the first five games of the season. St Pat's claimed it was a mere clerical error and that they had gained nothing by it, but the league stood firm – its decision was final. At the end of the season the club finished 10 points behind Shelbourne – without the deduction they would have won the title. But …

"St Pats declined to accept the decision, and awarded themselves a trophy," writes Sean. "Their programme and website still claim their phantom league title, although the Football Association of Ireland, and everyone else seems to think otherwise."

CAN YOU HELP?
"I would love to know what the largest terrace remaining in a British stadium is," writes Tom Hall. "Hill 16 at Croke Park is a whopper and surely the biggest in Britain and Ireland?"

"After hearing about Phil Mulryne training to become a Roman Catholic priest to go with Gavin Peacock taking a masters course in Divinity, I was wondering if any other ex-players have devoted themselves to their god after retiring," muses Tom Mann.

"During the Arsenal v Celtic Emirates Cup decider a colleague was convinced the 'singing' was taped as he could see no one actually moving their mouths and the sound was just too perfect. Can anyone confirm this?" wonders John Tumbridge. "And are pre-recorded crowd noises common?"

"In 1984, the American baseballer Dock Ellis famously admitted that his 1970 no-hitter occurred while high on LSD ('Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and I was pitching to Jimi Hendrix, who was holding a guitar ...')," notes Anton Dolicek. "His pitches were, not surprisingly, a little wild, but no batter got a hit. Can anyone relate a similarly groovy football story?"

"After looking at England's squad for the friendly against Hungary, I realised that two players in Fabio Capello's team, Ashley Young and Jack Wilshere, were born in Stevenage, not too bad for a town consisting of 80,000 people but surely not amazing either," writes Perry Hewitt. "Avoiding big cities, and limiting them to their own boroughs/communes/whatever, and also taking places like San Marino and Nauru out of the picture, what small town can claim the most internationals in one squad?"

"My local team, the Kansas City Wizards, are building a new stadium," begins Michael T Kruse. "Construction began in Kansas City, Missouri, and it gained the nickname 'Hillcrest Road'. Due to a cut in city funding, construction halted there and we expect the new stadium (with the supporters still referencing it by its monicker) to be opened in Kansas City, Kansas, next summer, roughly 25 miles away from its namesake street and in a new municipality all together. Is there any record of a stadium having its name based on a street so far away (I purposely say 'street' rather than 'location' to avoid the countless Emirates Stadium offerings)?"

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www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/11/footballers-transfer-listed-sacked-fat