So just how historically significant will it turn out to be?
The moment Neymar’s left-foot shot from 22 metres eluded Pletikosa’s outstretched hand, hit a post and trickled across the line.
‘It’s only a game of football’ is a line we have all heard before. Never could it be less fitting than Brazil’s opening match in the 2014 World Cup.
Defeat against Croatia, or even a draw, could have had nasty consequences on the streets of Brazil,
And so, with a final flourish, Sepp Blatter got out his cheque-book and wrote out a cheque for $200 million. No, the FIFA President’s closing gesture at this week’s FIFA Congress was not quite that dramatic. But his promise of $750,000 to all 209 national associations and $7 million to each of the six confederations has the same effect.
To which my question is this: has this $198.75 million of apparently extra expenditure already been written in to FIFA’s budgets?
As dusk fell over Sao Paulo’s spanking new stadium towards the end of the first half of the World Cup’s eagerly awaited kickoff, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his organisation must have felt the same as the rest of us.
Amidst a sea of yellow and a cauldron of noise, here was an opening match full of entertainment and adventure in contrast to the cautious, cat-and-mouse approach that so often fails to deliver at the start of the biggest sporting show on earth for fear of errors being made and confidence being damaged.
June 12 – You might not believe it but in the hype and excitement around tonight’s World Cup opening match there is in fact another team on the ptich with Brazil. They are called Croatia, they come from Europe and they might be the rollover that the script has writen for them. For each match of the World Cup, in partnership wth the Association of Football Statisticians and its 11.11.com website, we will give you an at-a-glance guide to stats,
“Trade has all the fascination of gambling without its moral guilt.” Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy
When five of FIFA’s six commercial partners spoke out against the most recent corruption allegations surrounding FIFA, people across the world held their breath. Could the sponsors withdraw their financial support for FIFA? Could this effect revolutionary change at football’s world governing body?
Well, what does history tell us? Three years ago almost to the day,
When Sepp Blatter took to the stage during the gala opening of FIFA’s Congress in Sao Paolo and strutted his stuff with one of Brazil’s most glamourous models, it rounded off an eventful day for the 78-year-old FIFA president.
But not one that went entirely his way.
After a tub-thumping round of self-promotional speeches to his loyal followers among five of FIFA’s six regional confederations, and hearing gushing messages of support come flying back,
So, the world is surprised and shocked by what informed followers of the African game and its politics have known, through the grapevine, for ages – that Mohamed bin Hammam, the former president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), spent significant sums of money to create a sphere of political influence amongst the continent’s federation presidents.
The spread sheet and emails published by the Sunday Times of London, revealing the sums spent on lavish Qatari and Malaysian vacations for several FA chiefs,
There was good news and bad news for European club football in the financial story of the 2012-13 season, as compiled by professional services firm Deloitte in its latest Annual Review of Football Finance.
The good news is that, whether as a consequence of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative or for some other reason, top-tier clubs in the five big west European football markets of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, do seem to be managing their financial affairs more sustainably.
There is nothing like a western-orchestrated attack on one of its member federations to put Asian football’s nose out of joint and provoke a strong response.
Over the past few days, both the head of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman Ebrahim El Khalifa, and Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, Asia’s Olympic supremo, have joined forces to roundly condemn the corruption allegations being hurled at Qatar over its 2022 World Cup bid.
“The Turks have a homely proverb: they say ‘the fish stinks first at the head’, meaning, that if the servant is disorderly, it is because the master is so.” Sir James Porter, Observations on the religion, law, government, and manners of the Turks
Considering its position as regulator of a game so steeped in laws, regulations and statutes, certain elements running FIFA have been disorderly for a long time.
Brazil v Croatia. 5pm local time. São Paulo.
What a relief it will be when the first ball is kicked. When the world is reminded what the fuss is about. That there’s historic football to be played. We hope and expect it will bring great joy to hundreds of millions because we’ve become all too familiar with the negatives. Oh those negatives.
The riots, the protests, the huge political and social concerns over the money spent,
The material published in the latest Sunday Times expose has sparked renewed calls for Joseph Blatter, FIFA’s 78-year-old President, to stand down. This is not remotely surprising. And, indeed, I concur there are strong arguments for his current term being his last – even though, in the real world, he still looks well-placed to sail triumphantly to a fifth term from 2015.
I also think, though, that the question of Blatter’s personal future tends to distract attention from the more important issue.
So UEFA will register its protest about events in FIFA by sitting down in Sao Paulo at next week’s Congress just as Sepp Blatter, as is widely expected, announces that he will stand for another term as President? My goodness what a protest. This I am sure Nyon thinks is the Lionel Messi moment for the men in suits when a wonderful shimmy delivers a beautiful, game changing goal. Don’t you believe it.
In fact when I heard about this UEFA protest against Blatter I merely flicked open my cuttings book and went back to another FIFA Congress,
Un passo avanti, e adesso il burrone è proprio davanti a noi, basta solo che si voglia vederlo. Nel lento cammino che avvicina sempre di più la violenza del calcio italiano a quella del Sudamerica, il 3 maggio 2014 è stata una data che non dimenticheremo. Dopo i feriti per risse e coltelli, adesso si è arrivati anche alle pistole. Una infatti ha sparato prima della finale di Coppa Italia tra Napoli e Fiorentina dopo un agguato da parte di ultrà della Roma a quelli del Napoli.
For three and a half years, ever since FIFA president Sepp Blatter opened the proverbial envelope and pronounced the word “Qatar” to a tense auditorium in Zurich and millions more following proceedings worldwide, hardly a week has gone by without the hosts of the 2022 World Cup being forced on the defensive amid a spate of corruption claims.
Time and again, just when they think the furore over their fourth round landslide victory in December 2010,