Columnists Archives - Page 31 of 78 - Inside World Football

David Owen: How I fell out of love with Holland’s 20th century boys

Dear Holland,

I’m sorry, but it’s over between us.

Along with millions of other school kids, I became besotted with you 40 years and a week ago – on 19 June 1974, the day of the Cruyff turn. It was a difficult time: Sir Alf Ramsey’s World Cup-winning team had broken up and England hadn’t made it to the 1974 tournament in West Germany. What is worse, Scotland had. Into this emotional void strode coach Rinus Michels’s team of strutting demigods headed by Johan Cruyff,

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: The £6bn black hole that could bring financial fire for football

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“The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them.” Job 1:16, King James Bible

It is very unlikely that, 4,000-odd years ago when Job is said to have walked this earth, there was any such a thing as insurance. Even if there was, and even if the old boy had kept up with his premiums, his sheep and his servants might still not have been covered anyway.

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Day 14 Match stat pack: NIG v ARG, BOS v IRA, HON v SUI, ECU v FRA

June 25 – Groups E and F play to conclusion with Nigeria needing to avoid defeat against Argentina to be Africa’s first, and potentially only, representative in the last 16. Though Iran will be looking to do the same for Asia. The Swiss need a good win over Honduras to beat Ecuador into the next round, assuming the South American can overcome a high flying French team.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Why the system, not Hodgson, is to blame for England’s problems

One of Roy Hodgson’s favourite writers, Stefan Sweig, killed himself in Petropolis, a town near Rio in 1942 despairing of where European civilisation and culture was headed. Now what has happened to Hodgson in Brazil does not bear any comparison with what Sweig was going through as the fight with Nazism raged in Europe with no definite indication that this evil could be defeated.

Those of us who write about sport often use absurd,

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Inside Insight: Und dann kommt die FIFA und klaut 0.09% !

Die Unken haben gerufen, und was ist geschehen? “The best world cup ever”, meinte ein ITV Sportskommentator. “Die besten Fussballspiele seit Jahrzehnten”, meinte ein anderer Kollege aus deutschen Landen. “Korruption aller Orten”, heisst es allerdings in einschlägigen Kreisen.

Die FIFA soll also nicht bloss Fussball organisieren, behüte! Sie soll sich um soziale Anliegen und um soziale Gerechtigkeit kümmern, soll das lösen, was korrupte Regierungen von links nach rechts offensichtlich nicht zu lösen vermögen.

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Day 13 Match stat pack: ENG v COS, ITA v URU, JAP v COL, GRE v COI

June 24 – Final matches in Groups C and D see all teams, bar England, as contenders for places in the Round of 16.

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World Cup Shorts: A case of mistaken identities and unfortunate snap shots

Brazil eye

June 24 – English head for the beaches as the Mexican wave rolls on and a Scolari look-a-like fools a reporter and a nation

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Day 12: Final round previews: ESP v AUS, NED v CHI, BRA v CAM, MEX v CRO

June 23 – The final round of group games kick off today with Groups A and B playing to conclusion. The two matches in each Group match will have the same kick off times.

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Day 11: Previews and pre-match stats: BEL v RUS, ALG v KOR, USA v POR

June 22 – Closing second round matches have all sides needing a win for qualification security. The final round of group games starts Monday with each group’s matches kicking off at the same time.

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Day 10 previews and match stats: ARG v IRA, GER v GHA, NIG v BOS

June 21 – Africans play for survival and continental pride while the battle of the Boatengs sets up a family feud. Meanwhile, expect Messi to march on in Belo

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Why progress should not hold football back

With the World Cup in Brazil being the first in which Goal Line Technology (GLT) is used, to ascertain whether a ball has crossed the line, its effectiveness – and using similar aids, to reduce other refereeing errors – will certainly be a regular talking point.

And not just amongst fans, as the animated conversation between Didier Deschamps and Luis Suarez, the managers of France and Honduras, over Les Bleus’ second goal, in their 3-0 win in Group E,

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Day 9 pre-match stat pack: ITA v COR, FRA vs SUI, HON vs ECU

June 20 – Italy are on the longest goal streak of any team in the World Cup but they need to beware an underestimated Costa Rica; the last three France vs Switzerland games have been drawn; Honduras have yet to win a World Cup game but Ecudor can expect a muscled approach.

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World Cup shorts: Football, music and religion. Three passions, one feeling

football and church

June 20 – From foaming at the mouth to foam on your boots, Brazil 2014 is providing the lot. INSIDEworldfootball chief correspondent Andrew Warshaw is in Belo Horizonte awaiting the arrival of Lionel Messi and his mates. Here are some of the other things that are occupying his agenda

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Hertha Berlin – what it tells football about tapping into a new world of riches

“How does it feel to have a trillion dollars burning a hole in your pocket?” Andrew Blackman, the Wall Street Journal

Not since the conquistadors discovered Potosí, Bolivia’s famed silver-ore mountain and “Cerro Rico”, has anyone known the answer to the question Blackman rhetorically posed this week. But with the data-cruncher Prequin estimating that private-equity firms now hold $1.141 trillion in investible funds, the managed-investment arm of the financial-services industry seems to have a fair idea.

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Day 8, round 2, pre-match stats: COL v COI, URU v ENG, JAP v GRE

June 19 – Didier Droga has already proved he should never be written off as Ivory Coast carry a continent’s hopes. Uruguay and England, Japan and Greece are must-win face-offs.