Archive for July 26, 2020
The Final Curtain
The extraordinary 2019/20 Premier League season has come to its end on Sunday. Liverpool have won the PL for the first time since their last First Division title in 1990 with 99 points. That means that the Reds have got one point more than last year’s champions Manchester City (98), but remained one point short of the 100 points City amassed two years ago.
The three other Champions League spots go to runners-up Manchester City and to Chelsea and Manchester Utd.
The 39 points West Ham have won are nothing to be proud of, but the Hammers finished the season very well, losing only one in seven games within the last weeks. Hence they have avoided to be part of the bunch of three that had to fight relegation until the last day of the season. The Irons’ final result was a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa. For the for latter this result was enough to stay in the Premier League. Bournemouth (despite winning at Everton), whereas Watford and Norwich are relegated.
Jamie Vardy claimed the Golden Boot for the first time with a total of 23 goals and Kevin De Bruyne won the 2019/20 Playmaker award matching Thierry Henry’s total of 20 assists for Arsenal, which he set in 2002/03.
“Losing only one game in seven is not bad considering we lost a couple of games when we came back from lockdown,” manager David Moyes reflected at the end of this season. “You have to say we’ve been in really good form since then and I can’t praise the players enough for how well they’ve done, because their attitude has been great and every day they’ve been at it, and even the boys who’ve not been in the team have been excellent.”
Declan Rice has been crowned 2019/20 Hammer of the Year.
West Ham United’s ever-present England international midfielder received nearly 50% of all votes cast by the Claret and Blue Army, winning the prestigious award after finishing as runner-up in each of the previous two seasons.
The 21-year-old held off the challenge of runner-up Angelo Ogbonna, who enjoyed a strong season at centre-back, with ten-goal forward Michail Antonio in third place.
Manager David Moyes was full of praise for Declan and for his other players as well:
“Everybody talks about Declan and he’s played all the games, all the minutes and he’s done incredibly well. He’s improving, he really is, he’s getting better as a young player and we want to make sure we keep making him better because I want us to have a good young team.
“The likes of Declan have been so good, Tomas Soucek has joined him, Issa Diop at the back, Jarrod Bowen and young Ben Johnson has come back into it the last few weeks – I’ve got to say the signs are there are five or six good young boys and we can use that as a framework to build on, coupled with two or three good experienced players we’ve got, hopefully we can start to see a side for the future!”
The 2020/21 Premier League campaign will kick-off in just seven weeks’ time. Let’s hope Declan Rice will stay and West Ham United can take the momentum of a strong finish to the 2019/20 season into the rapidly approaching new season.
Come on you Irons!
100 Jahre Salzburger Festspiele und 100 Jahre Bundes-Verfassung
Dass die Salzburger Festspiele trotz des Coronavirus heuer stattfinden, ist mutig und richtig.
Ihre Präsidentin Helga Rabl-Stadler (Bild) hat es mit der ihr eigenen Beharrlichkeit geschafft, dass die Festspiele im Jahr ihres 100-Jahr-Jubiläums – mit all den Corona-bedingten Einschränkungen – stattfinden können.
Diese Jubiläum fällt mit 100 Jahren österreichisches Bundesverfassungs-Gesetz zusammen: Am 22. August 1920 wurde der erste “Jedermann” in der Fassung von Hugo von Hofmannsthal unter der Regie von Max Reinhardt auf dem Domplatz aufgeführt, am 1. Oktober 1920 beschloss das österreichische Parlament das bis heute gültige B-VG, mit dem von Hans Kelsen die moderne Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit begründet wurde.
Bei einem spannenden Symposium am 24. Juli 2020 wurde in Salzburg unter dem Titel “Verfassung der Kultur, Kultur der Verfassung” an beide Gründungsakte erinnert.
“Die Kunst ist eine Schwester der Demokratie”, sagte Maja Haderlap in ihrer Ansprache. Auch in Ausnahmezuständen müssen Kunst und Kultur stattfinden!
Dass es die Salzburger Festspiele im heurigen Jahr gibt, ist ein wichtiges Statement. Ich hoffe, dieses Beispiel wirkt weit über sie selbst hinaus und hat positive Auswirkungen auf die Ausübungsmöglichkeiten für Kunst und Kultur in ihren verschiedensten Formen. Auch Kunst hat “Systemrelevanz”!
Link: https://www.vfgh.gv.at/medien/Grabenwarter-Der_moderne_Verfassungsstaat_als_Garant_.de.php
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