I don’t often say this, but three cheers to the Football Association (FA) for signalling its desire to continue sending teams to the Olympic football tournament. I just hope that at some point it becomes possible once again for a Great Britain Olympic squad to be genuinely British.
When it comes to serious doping allegations at the highest levels of the sport there has to transparency and the presentation of as much information as possible. Performances like that of the legendary Mehmet Scholl witnessed on German television this week are surely counterproductive.
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” Nelson Mandela
In Europe at least, falling is an ever-present risk in the game of football. Relegation makes it so. Every year in four of the top-five leagues in the UEFA jurisdiction, 15% must lose their top-flight status. It is a devastating emotional blow for all who suffer it but, due to the riches available to that division in England,
My father used to say that public memory is notoriously short. He was referring to politics not football but that holds very true for the round ball game as well. And herein lies a contradiction. There is nothing that arouses greater fury in football, both among the fans and the media, than the hire fire policy of chairmen and the board of struggling clubs. The moan is that the money men who always know the price of everything and the value of nothing want instant success and just do not understand that success in football takes times.
“If you look at the German TV market, it will not be possible any time soon for the Bundesliga to sell its rights for that much money.” Christian Seifert, Bundesliga chief executive
Investors looking for safe havens for their money in these troubled times have stampeded into German sovereign debt. The rationale is that the strongest economy in Europe will never default on its borrowings and so there is no risk to the investor’s capital.
Leverkusen’s much criticised coach Roger Schmidt, after coming away with the only German victory in this week’s Champions League matches, has shifted pressure off himself, and in so doing focused attention on Stuttgart which might be the next club to make a coaching change. But even more unstable than the Bundesliga in Germany’s coaching sack race is Germany’s second tier.
The cries of foul may have receded slightly since football’s most open secret – a winter World Cup for Qatar in 2022 – was all but confirmed, pending being rubber-stamped by FIFA’s executive committee. But the resentment in some quarters will linger for weeks and months to come.
So there is a limit to the power of the English Premier League. Indisputably the most entertaining, popular money-spinning league in world football, the world does not, it seems, revolve around it. At least not yet.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over: FIFA’s ruling Executive Committee is not expected to rubber stamp its task force’s recommendation until next month and the big European clubs employ so many of the world’s top players these days that their bargaining power should not be underestimated.
Ennio Flaiano, uno dei più famosi sceneggiatori del cinema italiano (basti pensare la collaborazione al capolavoro di Federico Fellini, “La dolce vita”), parlando dell’Italia amava recitare questa battuta: “La situazione è grave, ma non seria”. Ecco, la si potrebbe riproporre senza problemi nel descrivere il momento del calcio italiano, che sta attraversando una nuova crisi istituzionale.
Before anybody starts throwing stones, let me clarify: there is no racism in English football only. But there is racism in England as a whole.
In October 2013, the Daily Telegraph wrote this headline and leader:
“Madcap proposals by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini to increase World Cup finalists to 40 just do not add up – Sport’s top men claim that world Cup finals should be open to more nations but it is just another political football being kicked about by the hierarchy”
The paper continued to say:
“Under the madcap World Cup expansion plans dreamed up by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini,
He can certainly talk a good game – in three languages in fact. And if prizes were given for glossy manifestos he would already have the keys to Sepp Blatter’s private office in Zurich.
“I don’t want to be a thief of my own wallet.” Johan Cruyff
It is hard to imagine the nation that produced Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp ever giving its name to something negative in football. But then Dutch Disease is an economic concept.
The FIFA Presidential election has absolutely nothing to do with public support, or indeed media backing. Around two fifths of nine tenths of NOTHING. I reiterate that after an in-depth Talk To Al Jazeera interview to be aired over next few weeks with Prince Ali, the candidate considered the main challenger to Sepp Blatter.