It is only an idea at this stage but one which perhaps might work and should be considered.
For the last few months, seemingly everyone involved in football politics has had their say over whether the 2022 Qatar World Cup should be staged in summer or winter.
The latest voice to be heard on the issue is that of Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the FIFA-appointed expert whose inspection team went round the world in the build-up to the December 2010,
The anniversary of Hiroshima fell this week, as it usually does, in the middle of football’s silly season.
Millions for a few weeks consecrate every spare minute to fretting over what coloured shirt a dozen or so millionaires will be wearing next month; or to reading significance into meaningless matches.
Yet 68 years ago this happened.
It’s progress, I suppose.
If you’re a coach that recently delivered your country’s first Africa Cup of Nations trophy in nearly 20 years and also happen to be the only living player in the continent with the distinction of captaining your country to the same title, you would think that the least that could be expected is the prompt payment of your wages.
But that is not the case for Stephen Keshi.
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has failed to pay his salary for nearly half a year –
At home to Barnsley on April 9 Cardiff City picked up the point that would ultimately guarantee their promotion to the Premier League. But Mehmet Dalman could have been forgiven for sitting out the celebrations with his fellow board members in the Cardiff directors’ box.
Because 125 miles away in London David Green QC, the director of the Serious Fraud Office [SFO], was considering whether allegations over bribery and corruption at Eurasian Natural Resources Corp [ENRC] justified a formal criminal investigation.
What motivates footballers? Playing or their bank balance?
It’s easy for critics to say footballers are mercenary.
But it’s also easy to trot out the old adage: ‘players just want to play’.
I think we’d agree that for most young players, the chance to earn fortunes while doing what they love is a winning combination. But if one of these pivotal factors is removed, where does that leave a footballer?
On the face of there is nothing in common with sagas of Papiss Cisse and Gareth Bale. The Newcastle player did not want to wear a shirt carrying the logo of Wonga claiming that this was against his Islamic faith which prohibits profiting from money lending. Gareth Bale, by all accounts, merely wants to exercise his right to play for another club. And who can deny this right given how ideal this move must seem to a player at the top of his game?
The season has yet to kick off, but this is a big week for the Barclays Premier League.
On August 1, the seed sown in spectacular fashion just over a year ago by BT, a traditional telephone company, is scheduled to bear its first fruit with the launch of its BT Sport channels.
Two days later, BT Sport will begin its live football coverage with Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard’s testimonial match against Olympiacos of Greece.
When Lord Palmerston, the 19th century British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, made the oft-quoted comment that there are no “permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests”, in the cold-blooded pursuit of agendas, he certainly wasn’t thinking about the South African Football Association (SAFA).
But he jolly well could have been.
With barely eight weeks to the election of SAFA’s president and executive committee on September 28, the impending polls have reawakened old enmities,
Who’s going to win the Champions League this year?
Bayern? Barca? One of the newly rich clubs – a PSG or Manchester City?
Maybe an EPL club – Chelsea? Manchester United?
Or what about one of the teams who came through the second round this week.
Have we got technology wrong? I speak as one who has always believed that sport should use technology. Yet the events in the first Ashes Test between England and Australia have made me think that technology may be becoming a sporting monster. I am well aware that the use of technology in football bears no relation to cricket, given how different the two games are. But the question is how far do you allow technology to decide events on the field of play.
Not an easy thing to figure all of this out, admittedly. When Qatar won the hosting rights over several rival bidders who were pretty sure that they would have beaten the peninsular state in the middle of the Middle East, there was plenty of crying about alleged foul play.
Several investigations later, be they internal, overt or covert, executed by ‘official investigators’ (such as chief FIFA investigator Garcia, who, one hears, is about to throw in the towel in favour of kitchen utensils,
Football belongs to everyone. That’s basically the outcome of the recent decision by the European Court of Justice that ruled against the two football governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA. Formalistically, the case was about Belgium and the UK. Both countries had decided to declare football World Cups and European championships as ‘events of major importance’ and as such have to be broadcast on free TV channels. FIFA and UEFA both tried to avoid this decision,
不能容忍的灰色地带
经过伪职业足球在中国二十年的教育，我逐渐学会了辨析”假球”和”默契球”这些专有名词之间的细微差别，甫一听到都感觉不可思议且义愤填膺，对于那些骗子掮客，绳之以法是刻不容缓的。然而这样的场景一再重现——十多年前，”渝沈之战，绝对假球！”这样的标题，让我无比震撼，可是震撼完了之后，哪怕我们都没忘记这样比赛的存在，我们也只能在无可奈何中继续承受着。
所以社会公认：球迷是中国最苦逼的群落。现实的不堪与肮脏，或许你还能找到一些办法排遣和缓释，可足球本来是给大家一个闲暇时聚众的机会、让社会群落在聚众的环境下找回部分心理平衡，然而中国足球显然只有让你心理更严重失衡的作用。
如此的弄虚作假，光天化日之下进行，手段拙劣嚣张，所以有人说天津辽宁这样的”默契球”，”比’假球’技术含量低多了”。在严格的职业足球环境里，这样的职业比赛，呈现给观众的就是一种具备观赏价值和地域归属感的产品，从而换取观众支付的门票现金、通过电视观看的收视率，并且将这些关注度在第二级市场上形成转化，得到广告赞助收入。社会契约关系，是职业体育商品化的属性组成。天津辽宁的比赛，倘若被认定是”默契球”，那么就是对所有观看这场比赛的现场观众、电视观众以及中超乃至足球所有观众的一次欺骗。这样的欺骗，本质上和售贩假冒伪劣产品，有何差别？
Louis Paul Mfede, the influential, classy midfielder in the Cameroonian side that reached the quarterfinals of the 1990 World Cup, died last month, at the relatively young age of 52.
But as sad – and shocking – as his demise was, the cause of his passing is far more surprising. Mfede died of a lung infection, which he was unable to treat at a Yaoundé hospital, because he could no longer pay for his hospital treatment.
So now we finally know where we stand on the 2022 World Cup. More importantly, so does Qatar.
Six months ago, I wrote that every time FIFA was asked whether it would sanction a winter tournament, it gave the same answer: only if Qatar, as host nation, officially requested it. I also wrote that every time you posed the same question to the Qataris, you also got the same answer: only if they were formally asked to switch by FIFA.