Columnists Archives - Page 19 of 78 - Inside World Football

Osasu Obayiuwana: African rule changes ensure there will be no change

A sad, very disturbing, fact remains constant, over the decades I’ve covered the African game, which is fuelling my deepening pessimism about its future – the ruthless cultivation of a reactionary climate that is extremely hostile to the desperately needed transformation of CAF, the continent’s governing body, into an organisation that will finally command the genuine respect of the global fraternity and use its political capital in the interests of those it ought to primarily serve.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: The hard times are over – Villa is no longer a bleak house

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

Sixpence a year of overspending was all it took to bring misery to the burghers of 19th Century London, as Wilkins Micawber famously observed. Although life in the Premier League today could not be more different to that of Dickensian England, Micawber’s lesson is well heeded,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: So what will Blatter do after May 29?

No, this is not a joke question but a very serious one. The jokey part of it is that once on the afternoon of May 29 in Zurich, the national associations re-elect Sepp Blatter for a fifth term as President, the 78 year old will cavort on stage possibly with a football as he acknowledges the hosannas of his followers like a medieval monarch. He has done that in the past and, as in 2002,

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Competitive balance – when big club share they are caring for themselves

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” Babe Ruth

The fans of football’s middling clubs must go to games right now with heavy hearts. It’s that time of year, the one where those teams who are wrapped in the unambitious security blanket of mid-table are already thinking more about their holidays than points tallies.

Massimo Cecchini

Massimo Cecchini: The Parma case Il caso Parma

If it was not a true story, the so-called Parma Case could make you laugh (or cry). Take a Serie A club, with a significant history (their roll of honour includes one Cup of Cups, one UEFA Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, three Italian Cups, one Italian Super Cup), located in one of Italy’s richest geographical areas and see if you make it fail, but not at the end of the season – this unfortunately actually happened to important clubs like Florence,

John Yan

John Yan: When Team China meets the Voice of China 当中国之队遇上”中国好声音”

When a huge volume of capital enters an industry, the impact can be overwhelming, the industry can be changed from top to bottom. At least this is what football fans in China would expect to happen, as capital is changing the outlook of football, particularly under the big change in circumstances for the game as it becomes a hot area in Chinese society.

Archive

David Owen: Gillespie to Rummenigge – the next stage of Club vs. Country

It was interesting to read the recent report to the effect that European Club Association (ECA) head Karl-Heinz Rummenigge believes that football’s perennial club-versus-country tug of war is now receding.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Tech giants will soon make their play in football’s rights bonanza

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“Sin el futbol, mi vida no vale nada (Without football, my life is worthless).” Cristiano Ronaldo

It turns out that you do not have to be a two-time FIFA Ballon D’Or winner to take the view that football is the be-all and end-all of life. There are millions upon millions of people with a fanatical devotion to football and/or its clubs and billions more who take at least a passing interest in the game we love.

Archive

Inside Editorial: Whistleblowers, fraudsters and bumboys. Just another day in football

On Monday Insideworldfootball ran a story titled ‘Whistle blown on FIFA whistleblower fraudster Mersiades’. The story was a pick-up from German public broadcaster ZDF’s interview with discredited Australian whistleblower Bonita Mersiades.

To re-cap the important part of the story: Mersiades, one of the FIFA whistleblowers in the FIFA World Cup bid investigation, has Australian court convictions for defrauding an Australian government department that employed her.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Time to consider Euro expulsions

I don’t envy the position UEFA are in with hooliganism on and off the pitch in their territories. It’s easy to criticise. What would you do? But I know what I’d like UEFA to consider when they read the referee’s report and decide in action. Something radical.

John Yan

John Yan: China breaks its reform mould 改革，挑战的开始

This could be the beginning of a new era for football in China, this could also be a new chapter in the history of football the sport. On March 16, the first Monday after the National Congress, the central government issued this document: The Overall Reform Plan For Football In China. It would be hard for us to find out a similar precedent that the national council would issue a formal policy, which covers up to 50 different issues in the football industry,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: How the Premier League’s ‘second tier’ hurts English football

The Premier League cannot get it wrong? Or can it? You would have thought that with no English clubs in either of the European competitions the Premier League will be just a little bit concerned. But not Richard-Scudamore, soon to move from long standing chief executive to executive chairman.

Archive

David Owen: The Gill and Dyke Show, and why protectionism isn’t the answer for England

Watching developments in English football can be a trying business, whether we are talking on or off the pitch. So it is characteristic that a week which brought a big step forward in manoeuvring a respected English voice on to the sport’s top table should also have featured a proposal from the boss of the Football Association that would, in my opinion, represent a significant backwards step both for the Premier League and the England team he is trying to strengthen.

Martin Volkmar: Expect the unexpected from Niersbach

From journalist to the most important official in German football: Wolfgang Niersbach has never planned his upward career path and would have liked to save the job in the FIFA Executive Committee.

Andrew Warshaw: Blatter escapes bruised but not battered from lion’s den

On the surface, sitting in the front row and surrounded by many of those who want him out, Sepp Blatter showed little emotion. On the inside, as the way he has ruled Fifa for 17 years was picked apart by the three candidates bidding for his job, he may well have been seething.