Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
Just before they start their speeches, I can see the two candidates sitting next to each other chatting away, laughing and smiling, both give off a very friendly, sociable vibe.
McGladdery spoke first and immediately said he wanted to revolutionise sport at York and underlined his commitment to always fighting for us and to get the best deal for us the students.
His main policies are working to reduce the membership fee by lobbying the university for more money, as well as turning the sports tent into a permanent structure with heating, walls and proper separation. He hopes to achieve this by summer 2012.
He also hopes to use the college sport models at Durham and Bath in order to increase participation, as it is both free for students and will push up standards across the university, although the last two points seemed to rephrase something Asfahani had already mentioned during Q&A.
McGladdery spoke quickly and with urgency and seemed to fashion himself as the fighting underdog, with all his references to battling for us the students. One of his strongest points, in the Yorker’s opinion, was promising to work towards the Imperial Sport model where gym membership off-peak is free, and it is interesting that he disagreed with Asfahani, who thought the money could be better used elsewhere as not everyone uses the gym.
Asfahani seemed like a content man, speaking powerfully yet in a relaxed way. But I was very impressed when he stressed that he was not happy leaving office until he had tackled three main problems he sees with York Sport – membership facilities and funding.
He emphasized that York Sport was about students on the ground putting in so much work for their teammates. He reiterated his commitment to eradicating the York Sport membership fee. He pledges more space for storage in both Hes East and West, currently a serious problem. In addition, he promises to put in place plans for a new competition against Durham, featuring colleges from the two universities, in an effort to increase participation in college sport.
He was keen to emphasise his vast amount of experience in having set up and captained the American Football club, been Chair of Langwith and having participated on various York Sport committees, and of course, his year in office already.
Both men are very qualified for the job, and the Yorker is very much looking forward to interviewing them next week, and will wait until then to make up it’s mind as to who to back…
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