What a story! Loads of Money. Qatar! One tournament every two years. A project including big names such as Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool and the best football players worldwide. What a dream of a football league!
The story run by The Times of London has all the ingredients of a fairy tale for adults. And like the lovely stories for kids, it was freely invented. At least, all available information so far suggests it.
It is always tempting in sport to draw huge global lessons from one defeat or victory. That is a temptation that should be avoided for the simple reason that sporting victories or defeats on their own do not signify vast changes. That only emerges if they are part of a consistent pattern over several seasons.
The most potent example of this was provided by Barcelona. Before their match against A.C. Milan many were prepared to write their obituary.
Question; which international defender with over 100 caps had to start their career washing the underwear of Denis Bergkamp and his Arsenal team mates?
Surprise surprise it wasn’t a man. England’s Casey Stoney was a senior player for Arsenal when she had to do laundry to supplement her income.
That was in 1999 so how far have women in football come since then? Well let’s say there’s still work to do on the field –
But for the incontrovertible geographical fact that Marrakech is in Morocco, I would have argued, to the death, that the just concluded Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which I attended, took place in Kim Jong Il’s Pyongyang, North Korea.
Speech after speech at the Palais De Congres eulogised its president, Cameroonian Issa Hayatou, who enjoyed the anniversary of his 25th year in power on Sunday, by securing a record seventh four-year term in office.
The island of Ireland is a place where history casts a particularly long shadow.
So perhaps I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am that so few people seem to know about a proud episode in the island’s footballing history that took place 99 years ago.
I first stumbled upon this years ago during one of my periodic trawls through the pages of an old Rothmans football yearbook.
With the centenary approaching,
新增三个赞助商，中超的市场经营板块，在新赛季开始前要好看许多了。打开中超官网，首页下方滚动的几个logo分别是：万达广场、耐克、三星、山东临工和雷曼光电。打开内页，会有哈尔滨啤酒、全体育传媒、CCTV5、新浪体育、体奥动力和五大连池等logo。三星之外，在联赛新赛季开赛前一周，还有华视传媒和神州租车两个新的市场和作者加盟。这样一个市场经营版图，至少logo数量，较前几年丰富了许多。
虽然中超的整体市场经营架构，仍然显得相对杂乱，CCTV5、新浪体育、全体育传媒这样的媒体合作伙伴，与其他市场商业合作伙伴，被混为一谈，但中超的市场号召力，连续三年逐年上升，是显而易见的事实。三星在春节之前已经明确赞助中超，传言为3年6000万人民币，之后还有在公交地铁等户外数字电视平台运营代理权的华视传媒，以及提供用车的神州租车。
The darkest hour comes before the dawn. It’s difficult to think of a club whose prospects look brighter than Bayern Munich.
May 20 last year; Munich airport. Hundreds of supporters, most but not all German, packed into the club shop. Bayern shirts everywhere, in bags and on backs. Not what i was expecting after events of May 19. But hiding or sulking doesn’t seem to be in the DNA here.
Bayern somehow threw away their chances to win their home Champions league final,
Until Tuesday, Issa Hayatou, in his 25th year as president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was, at least in theory, at risk of being at the end of an unfavourable decision, from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which could have stood in the way of getting another four-year term in office, that would take the Cameroonian’s tenure to a near 30-year stretch.
No longer. With CAS ruling that the case brought by Ivorian Jacques Anouma,
The resignation of Paul Elliott from the FA and other bodies because he used the “n” word in a private text sent to another black player and a business colleague, is both sad and revealing. It is sad because Elliott had, probably still has, the capacity to go from having played the game at the highest level into becoming an excellent football administrator. It is revealing because it shows how attitudes to race, and particularly use of certain racial words,
张吉龙，人称”龙哥”。但这”龙哥”只是一个花名，连江湖绰号都算不上。他曾经是亚足联第一副主席，也曾经因缘际会，由于国际足联高层的权力斗争，而升级为亚足联代理主席、国际足联执委，但他从来都不是”龙哥”，和龙头大哥的威势、前呼后拥的行头，相去十万八千里。行走在国际足球政治的江湖上，张吉龙谨小慎微、如履薄冰，在夹缝里为中国足球争取些利益，可他始终都是一个人在战斗。
张吉龙被”牺牲”、被”放弃竞选亚足联主席”，新闻并不是从国内媒体产生的。消息最早由法新社披露，然后其他亚洲媒体跟进，最后才流转到中国国内。当网络舆情一片汹涌，对于这样的”牺牲”和”放弃”，表达的不仅是不解，更是愤怒时，张吉龙已经在吉隆坡的亚足联总部收拾工作、收拾心情，虚席以待亚足联真正的主席主人了。他将回归到亚足联副主席的席位上，大概干到2015年任期期满。
体制内还有人羡慕乃至嫉妒张吉龙者——”他已经60岁了，本该退休，要不是他在亚足联有个职务，否则凭什么是他啊……”就退休年龄论，张吉龙比较其他体制内司局级干部，或许是幸运的，他能多干两年，只是这样的际遇，这样的含辛茹苦，这样的孤立无援，我不相信张吉龙会恋栈不去。
Every time you ask FIFA whether they would sanction switching the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the winter, you get the same answer: only if Qatar, as the host nation, officially requests us to do so.
And every time you ask Qatari organisers the same question, you also get the same answer: only if we are asked to do so by FIFA as world football’s governing body.
It’s a clever tactic,
“I don’t understand Twitter. I don’t know why anyone should get involved with it. We have given instructions to the players that nobody should tweet about Manchester United. We have to.”
Those were the words of Alex Ferguson in August last year, after an indiscretion by Rio Ferdinand on Twitter. He hadn’t even sent the tweet that insulted Ashley Cole, but had re-tweeted it with a laugh.
And so I am puzzled –
A revolution devours its own as history teaches us. Arsene Wenger, known as the Professor, should know that. But he seems to be oblivious to the fact that having been the greatest agent of change in English football he cannot stand still and needs to evolve if he is to move forward and not fall victim to his own revolution.
That Wenger has been the greatest revolutionary in British football cannot be doubted.
“Champions are made from something they have deep inside them, a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. BUT THE WILL MUST BE STRONGER THAN THE SKILL” – Muhammad Ali.
African football, with its wealth and depth of talent, undoubtedly has the skill to conquer the game’s steep summit – the World Cup –
The Asian Football Confederation, AFC, is trying one more time to get its house in order. After a dismal era under an omni(im)potent Peter Velappan (a GenSec who played president for far too long), a man with an often particular management style took over the helm: Mohamed bin Hammam was in charge, and in ways that widened many a nostril. What he created, at times against crude opposition, is a more functioning and more modern organisation in terms of competitions,