“History… is the lesson and the example of the future,” Alphonse de Lamartine, Antar.
As one year rolls into another there is only the fading memory of what came before and an anticipation of what might be. Football’s cycles work to a different calendar, but it is worth considering how the lessons of 2013 might provide examples for what the future will hold in the second half of the 2013-14 season and beyond.
December 30 – A senior South African FA official has been accused of sexual harassment and soliciting sexual favours from a young female colleague.
December 30 – Cameroon football authorities are on a mission to Europe to try and boost their World Cup hopes.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 30 – Brazilian prosecutors want FIFA and the organising committee of last summer’s Confederations Cup to settle $2 million worth of claims for alleged ticketing irregularities during the World Cup warm-up tournament.
December 30 – Nazi salute or innocent gesture? Whichever it was, former French international Nicolas Anelka has caused uproar in both sporting and political circles for his unusual celebration after the first of his two goals for West Bromwich Albion during last weekend’s 3-3 Premier League draw at West Ham.
By Paul Nicholson
December 30 – The deciding game of the Malawi TNM Super League championship was abandoned after 61 minutes after fan violence leading to the death of one fan and many others left injured, six in a serious condition, on Saturday.
December 30 – Fluminense have been spared the embarrassment of being the first team in Brazilian Serie A history to be relegated the season after having won the championship.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 30 – UEFA President Michel Platini admits some of his policies, not least financial fair play, have made himself and his organisation unpopular but that he will not waiver from his determination to put European football on a healthier path.
By Paul Nicholson
December 27 – Proof that the English love their Christmas football was shown on Boxing Day in the Premier League with eight out of 10 clubs filling their stadiums to more than 97% of capacity, two stadiums being more than 99% full and only one stadium being below 90% in occupancy.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 27 – Controversial Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan (pictured) has extended his European operation by agreeing to take over FK Sarajevo in Bosnia’s top division.
December 27 – Brazil’s World Cup preparations were dampened with another infrastructural setback with the revelation that the 73,000-capacity national stadium in Brasilia has a leaking roof less than eight months after it was completed.
“Key ECB interest rates will remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time,” Mario Draghi, ECB president, reaffirming the 0.5% European bank rate on 1 August 2013.
Ever since the financial crisis first struck, central banks across Europe and beyond have been locked in an arm wrestle with the invisible hand of Adam Smith’s markets. There has been much talk of a zero interest rate policy,
Looking back through my Insideworldfootball columns throughout 2013 it struck me that with few exceptions, the subjects are actually bound by a common theme.
Whatever the story, without the angle, whatever the history and characters, and wherever in the world, there is one barely disputable rule of football 2013.
Winning is everything.
Hands up everyone who thought that Liverpool would be top of the Barclays Premier League at Christmas.
In truth, the Merseysiders are precariously perched: their next two games are away at Manchester City and Chelsea respectively. Lose those and they would probably be back below local rivals Everton and out of the Champions League places before the year-end. A New Year’s Day engagement back at Anfield against newly-promoted Hull then has the look of an ideal fixture with which to stop the rot – until you remember that the Tigers claimed their first-ever win over Liverpool on Humberside less than a month ago.
With just days to the end of the year, and his tenure as the chair of FIFA’s Independent Governance Committee (IGC), you would think Mark Pieth is extremely glad to be well rid of an assignment he admitted has been extremely difficult to manage – getting the game’s chieftains to radically change the way they do business.
In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Pieth was quoted as telling the German newspaper that he “would not take on the task again,