Columnists Archives - Page 53 of 78 - Inside World Football

Mihir Bose: It would be wrong to say there are no German lessons for English football

In the next few days we shall hear much about how the all German Champions League Final on Saturday is a game changer. True, the way Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund destroyed Real Madrid and Barcelona suggested a dramatic shift in power from Spain to Germany. But such conclusions, while both common and tempting immediately after the whistle has blown, rarely stand up to more considered scrutiny.

If a couple of matches can produce such dramatic football changes then why did the Manchester United-Chelsea final in Moscow in 2008 not leave an imprint on the game?

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: It’s up to you – New York New York…

‘New York , New York so good they named it twice’.

I’m pretty sure singer-songwriter Gerard Kenny wasn’t referring to soccer when he delivered this hit record in 1978, but suddenly the game will be all over the city.

New York WILL be named twice in the MLS have when the New York City FC franchise join the Red Bulls in 2015. The Red Bulls actually play in New Jersey but remember also the famous old New York Cosmos are about to re-emerge in the second tier of American football……

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David Owen: Ja, ja, it’s German week in London – but should we be congratulating the FA for its foresight in rebuilding Wembley?

Yes, OK, this is the German renaissance – and the juxtaposition of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in Saturday’s European Cup final certainly indicates that German football is doing something right.

But, in one small detail, the match is a notable coup for the English game: it is being played at Wembley, the second time in just three years that European club football’s flagship occasion has been staged underneath the now famous arch.

Jean Francois Tanda

Jean Francois Tanda: Swiss are taking anti-corruption reforms into their own hands

Deutsche fassung

Today, in Switzerland, corruption is only a crime when it involves state employees or – in the private sector – when it occurs in a competitive environment. This will change soon.

Last week, the Swiss government published a proposal to tighten their corruption law. Even though, officially, it does not target FIFA, it is clear that the new law is nothing else than a Lex FIFA.

Since 2006,

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Can the Lions rediscover their teeth?

Cameroon certainly broke new frontiers, as the first African side, in 1990, to reach the World Cup quarter-finals – a barrier that no other team has gone past – as well as making the most appearances by the continent (six) at the finals tournament.

But the Indomitable Lions are a shadow of their moniker at the moment.

With the failure of the four-time African champions to qualify for the last two Cup of Nations in succession,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Mancini’s sacking raises questions about the faceless men of football

It would be easy to say that the sacking of Roberto Mancini shows the short-term mentality that is now part of DNA of owners. If a manager, who secured City their first League title for over 40 years, can be sacked a year after that triumph, then no one in modern football is secure. Yet the Italian’s departure raises questions about the faceless men of football, they are all generally men, the people who really manage the club but who never,

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Fourth is the new first

What have Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Real Madrid got in common?

It’s not just that they were drawn together in the toughest group in the Champions League this year.

They also all finished a distant and disappointing second in their domestic leagues.

Dortmund can be excused of course. They have achieved miracles in the Champions League, and who’d really be able to keep up with Bayern Munich the way they have played throughout 2012/13.

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David Owen: Why Rooney and Europe are the big questions for Moyes at Old Trafford

In 2004-05, the most profitable club in the Premier League was unfashionable Everton.

How did Merseyside’s second club outperform more illustrious rivals such as Arsenal and Manchester United, let alone Chelsea, which ran up a £140 million pre-tax loss on the way to lifting the Premier League title?

Four words: they sold Wayne Rooney, the teenage prodigy who had made Europe sit up and take notice at Euro 2004.

This simple fact reminds us of how long the careers of Rooney and David Moyes,

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Has CAF’s ‘season of vengeance’ begun?

I have wondered, since March, after Issa Hayatou secured an unprecedented seventh term as Confederation of African Football (CAF) president in Morocco – with the ‘luxury’ of having no opponent to challenge him – when retribution will be visited upon those who challenged the controversial changes to the election rules, which made the Cameroonian’s continued stay in power a mere formality.

CAF’s disciplinary committee eloquently answered my nagging question, by handing a six-month ban and a $10,000 fine to Musa Bility,

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: The value of giving it a little bit of time to cook

If the case of Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson doesn’t serve as a warning to trigger-happy football club owners and chief executives, nothing ever will.

Three trophy-less years into Alex Ferguson’s reign as Manchester United manager the fans were restless.

But the board stuck by him in those dark days of 1989.

24 years and a record 38 trophies later – including 13 Premier League titles – it’s just about safe to say Ferguson repaid the club’s faith.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Sir Alex Ferguson, why we will never again see the like of him

It is a measure of how much Sir Alex Ferguson changed football that his retirement should have overshadowed the Queen’s speech and led to newspapers printing souvenir editions. It is hard to imagine any other football manager leaving his job, and that too at the age of 71, having such a profound impact. Indeed the amount of time and space devoted to his retirement suggests he is no longer regarded as a football coach but more like a statesman or world thinker who shaped all our lives.

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David Owen: Will football’s loss be horseracing’s gain?

News of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement brought to mind two scenes nearly three decades apart.

In the first, it is 11 May 1983 and I am with friends clustered around the TV in a cramped London apartment.

A strong Scottish contingent is hoping to witness a miracle: the humbling of Real Madrid by Ferguson’s new kids on the block from Aberdeen, a side built around the indefatigable Gordon Strachan and the formidable centre-back pairing of Alex McLeish and Willie Miller.

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Money rules The Game (what else is new)

Questions arise, and only the un-inducted don’t have answers. Why does football play such a central role in the world today? What is it that makes the wealthiest people in the world and the poorest sods alike flock to The Game religiously and cherish it beyond comprehension? What is it that makes football different, to the extent that pundits, writers and idiots alike make a living commenting about The Game, about those who own it,

Andrew Warshaw: A classic tale of football powerbroking

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa’s runaway success in becoming the new leader of Asian football – on paper only until 2015 but in all probability far beyond – was about as clearcut as you can get. But it nevertheless contained all the elements of a classic Shakespearean plot: revenge, intrigue, conspiracy theories, false promises – and just as many questions as answers.

Revenge, says the old cliche, is a dish best served cold.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Fuentes doping scandal taints football

Keeping Jose Mourinho out of the spotlight is near impossible. And his impending divorce from Real Madrid after a loveless marriage was the talk of Madrid and the football world when they failed to overturn the Dortmund deficit

But something more significant than football results – yes even the Champions league results, even Jose Mourinho’s future – had concluded in Spain earlier in the day.

The trial of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in Madrid.