Columnists Archives - Page 59 of 78 - Inside World Football

Mihir Bose: Blatter is the sort of showman who likes to surprise his audience

You don’t know what to expect when you interview Sepp Blatter. For a man who wanted to be on the stage since he was a child, he has always been the sort of showman who likes to surprise his audience. A book of Blatter sayings would be an instant bestseller.

Yet what struck me when I had a long chat with him at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich last week, is that there seems little love lost between him and Michel Platini,

Andrew Warshaw: Time waits for no man, not least when it comes to Chelsea’s short-termism

Andrew Warshaw_IWF

Here we go again – just like clockwork. Only this was arguably the cruellest cut of all.

Six months after winning the greatest prize in European club football – the one Roman Abramovich craved from the moment he walked through the door – Chelsea have brutally cast aside the manager who brought it about, one who gained legendary status virtually overnight.

Time waits for no man, not least when it comes to football’s mantra of short-termism.

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David Owen: Two years on from World Cup bust-up, Goal payment signifies that FA and FIFA have kissed and made up

David Owen_in_IWF_tie

Suddenly the 2018 World Cup bidding campaign seems a very long time ago.

At its conclusion in December 2010, relations between the world’s oldest Football Association – whose candidate, England, was among the losers – and FIFA, world football’s governing body, were at a low ebb.

Yet today finds Joseph Blatter, FIFA’s long-serving President, dropping in on St George’s Park, the FA’s new national football centre at Burton on Trent in the English Midlands.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: To say that the FA is not institutionally racist does not mean there are no glass ceilings in football

The debate on racism in football has now descended into absurd levels. On one hand, we are having accusations that the Football Association (FA) is institutionally racist. On the other hand, there are those who argue, and this includes some very powerful figures in the game, that Chelsea should never have made a complaint against Mark Clattenburg.

Both positions are absurd. Let us first deal with the Chelsea situation. As is very clear from what Bruce Buck,

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Delroy Alexander: No more monkey business

Delroy-Alexander Nov_11

As United States President Barack Obama swept back into power, I felt a real surge of pride because young, old, white, black, gay, straight, Hispanic and people of all dispositions had voted once again to make a man of colour the most powerful person on the planet.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that perhaps my own footnote in history might not be any of my professional deeds. Rather a sporting happenstance that saw me become Malia and Sasha Obama’s first “soccer”

Andrew Warshaw: Will UEFA come down on Serbia enough to cut out racism in football once and for all?

Andrew Warshaw_IWF

Throughout this week, UEFA has been trying to spread the message that racism – indeed any form of discrimination – has no place in European football.

Champions League and Europa League games were dedicated to transmitting the message that the fight against racism will be given utmost priority.

The campaign could not have been more timely, with racism at the forefront of the game following not only the John Terry affair but,

Columnists

David Gold: There’s still much to do to prepare Russia for the 2018 World Cup

David Gold_-__IWF

It may still be six years away, but the first major milestone of the Russia 2018 World Cup was reached this weekend as FIFA announced the 11 cities and 12 stadiums that will host matches at the tournament. The world knew that Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Saransk would be staging games. The news of note was that they would be joined by Kaliningrad, Samara, Rostov-on-Don and Volgograd. Yaroslavl missed out,

Andrew Warshaw: Has Terry jumped rather than waiting to be pushed?

Andrew Warshaw_IWF

John Terry says his decision to quit playing for England broke his heart but will the footballing public be as sympathetic towards him as he might hope?

Whatever the verdict in his Football Association (FA) disciplinary hearing, there seems little doubt that at the end of Terry’s international career, opinion will be split over the legacy he left and how he should be judged.

Terry’s announcement, three months short of turning 32,

Andrew Warshaw: After “indefensible wait to get to the truth” more must be done to secure justice for the Hillsborough victims

Andrew Warshaw_IWF

A huge stone has been unturned and a whole lot of worms have been found crawling about underneath.

This is just one of a number of emotion-packed remarks I have heard on radio and television in the wake of the new Hillsborough stadium disaster report that revealed such a monumental cover-up and which has rightly made worldwide headlines.

So overwhelming was the stench of corruption uncovered by those who admirably and painstakingly produced the stomach-churning fresh evidence that some of the relatives of the 96 fans who died at Hillsborough are reported to have fainted when reading about the slurs on their sons and daughters,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Could the collateral damage of FIFA’s reform be the loss of Britain’s home teams?

It was always to be expected that the London 2102 Olympics would see a Team GB in football for the one and only time in the modern era. This was inevitable given the vehement opposition of the Scots, and the lukewarm response of the other home nations; fearful that an Olympic Team GB will mean the end of Britain’s unique position in world football, the only country with four teams.

But while Team GB in the wider football world will never come about,

Archive

David Owen: Cardiff City will always be big men with silky touches playing in blue shirts to me

David Owen_-_IWF

Now that I’ve seen the pictures, I am ready to believe it: Cardiff City are playing this season in red shirts (Heiðar Helguson, pictured below left, in the new shirt).

It feels wrong – like archery at Lord’s or Usain Bolt doing the polevault.

My personal image of Cardiff will always be caught up with Jimmy Scoular’s team that so nearly made it into the top tier of “English” football in 1970-71.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Football, with its herd mentality, could learn from Olympic sports’ willingness to share information

The Olympics always puts football in the box, if only for a brief two-week period.

Indeed, the very nature of football’s participation in the Games, with teams composed of players who hope to aspire to be the best, but are not yet the best, give it the status of an interloper. And as if to emphasise this status, football starts even before the Opening Ceremony. In the wider world, it may be the greatest of all sports,

Columnists

David Gold: It looks like UEFA’s financial fair play initiative might just be working

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Financial uncertainty is hindering the pre-season preparations of La Liga outfit Málaga. Despite being bankrolled by its wealthy Qatari owner, players’ wages have, reportedly, not been paid.

The club is also on the brink of losing its best player, the Spain international Santi Cazorla (pictured below, centre), to Premier League side Arsenal. A number of Spanish newspapers have also reported that Málaga’s owner Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nassar Al-Thani is looking to sell the club.

Andrew Warshaw: Team GB continue to break new ground for British women’s football

Andrew Warshaw_-_IWF

Thirteen years ago, during a trip to California, I watched the United States beat China in a nail-biting penalty shootout at the famous Rose Bowl to clinch the women’s World Cup amid intoxicating euphoria.

It was an awesome spectacle in front of a staggering 90,000-plus crowd – made even more so by Brandi Chastain becoming an overnight celebrity by ripping off her shirt at the finish and swinging it in the air, pictures of which were immediately flashed around the world.

Columnists

Philip Barker: Britain played its last Olympic football match in 1971 when no-one really cared

Philip Barker

When Ryan Giggs (pictured below) led the Great Britain team out against Senegal at Old Trafford yesterday, it was their first competitive Olympic match for 41 years.

In those days, the game in England was still divided between professionals and amateurs and Great Britain were drawn to play Bulgaria in their quest to reach the Olympic Games in Munich.

Charles Hughes, a coach at the Football Association (FA) and the manager of the England amateur team was put in charge.