Columnists Archives - Page 63 of 78 - Inside World Football

David Gold: There are so many compelling reasons for the watching the London 2012 football tournaments

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Football at the Olympics is greeted with a shrug here in Europe. Sales of tickets for this summer’s Games in London demonstrate that point illustratively. A total of 1.5 million tickets for the football went back on sale at the end of November, months after the mad dash for seats in the original ballot. With 8.8 million tickets overall for the Olympics, this represents a significant share given that it is one of only 26 sports.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Refereeing gaffes are making a mockery of football

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Michel Platini’s Financial Fair Play may finally deal with the financial doping the UEFA President feels is ruining the game. But there is an equally serious crisis confronting the game which Platini and other football administrators refuse to address.

This is the failure by football’s bosses to deal with the events on the pitch where almost every game is blighted by incidents the referees do not spot. These then become the subject of calls for disciplinary inquiries by frustrated managers,

Andrew Warshaw: Never before has Swiss football dominated so many column inches

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The stereotypical view of Switzerland is a country of chocolates, cuckoo clocks, mountainous beauty, cheese, private bank accounts, watches and rigid efficiency.

Having lived there many years ago, I discovered several other things, both good and bad. Flexibility was never one of the authorities’ great strengths but on the plus side I was struck by the contrast of quiet serenity allied, perhaps surprisingly to some, to a thriving cosmopolitan culture, depending of course which city you are in.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: English football will do itself no good by continuing to rubbish the Europa League

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The amount of muck poured on this competition reminds me of the words Kelvin MacKenzie said to John Major after he had taken Britain out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). As MacKenzie recounted to the Leveson inquiry on the press, as the hapless Prime Minister rang to ask the then Sun editor how he would treat the news, he replied, “Prime Minister, I have a bucket of shit by my desk and I am about to pour it on you.”

Columnists

David Gold: African Nations Cup is Gabon’s chance to prove it can organise a big competition

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When Brazil came to town in November for a friendly at the newly constructed stadium in Libreville, Gabon, the African Nations Cup organisers were hoping it would serve as a useful preparatory exercise ahead of the start of the tournament in January.

It was just as well.

A tropical downpour prior to kick off left the pitch virtually unplayable, whilst the game was delayed by 20 minutes due to a power failure.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Liverpool’s American owners need to step in and take control of the Suárez affair before it’s too late

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Liverpool should be very careful that the club does not allow its handling of the Luis Suárez affair to get out of control. It is one thing playing the victim card as it has been on this issue. But situations like these acquire a momentum that makes what seems like a carefully planned journey to get sympathy turn into a train crash. Liverpool is perilously close to that and the events in the match against Oldham on Friday are a further warning of the consequences of the present Liverpool behaviour.

Archive

David Owen: FA report on Suarez shines light on lengths players go to gain competitive advantage

Like other writers, I spent the first two hours of 2012 engrossed not in a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, but the intricacies of the famous October 15 altercation between footballers Luís Suárez and Patrice Evra.

And a right riveting read the 115 pages of findings drawn up by the Independent Regulatory Commission that imposed an eight-match ban – subject to appeal – on Suárez, the Liverpool striker, turned out to be.

It aroused in me all manner of reactions –

Andrew Warshaw: Blatter needs to publicly respond to Warner’s allegations

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Revenge, the old saying goes, is a dish best served cold.

The proverb suggests that a vengeful act is more satisfying as a considered response when it is least expected.

Jack Warner may, over the years, have had a reputation for spontaneous outbursts of rhetoric but the wily old fox appears to have timed his latest tirade to perfection. In other words, just as his old mate Sepp Blatter – no longer on his Christmas card list – is trying to clean up the organisation.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Blatter’s turn towards Europe shows him at his best as he attempts FIFA clean up

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Could 2012 be the year when football finally begins to accept that it can longer disregard the wider world?

2011 has been the year of the great “no”. The game tried hard to carry on with the fiction that all of football’s problems can be solved behind the front door of the family mansion irrespective of what the outside world may expect.

It has always been curious that the world’s most popular game is so conservative and resistant to change.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Tottenham’s de-listing from the stock market highlights uncertainty amongst English clubs

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Tottenham Hotspur’s decision to de-list from the stock market deserves more than to be buried in the footnotes as one of those curious things football club directors indulge in.

Not only is it a reversal of a policy that Tottenham inaugurated more than 30 years ago, but it also highlights that modern English football clubs have just not worked out what is the right structure for them.

What a contrast to the continent where German,

Andrew Warshaw: Suarez and Terry race rows shows English football won’t sweep racism under the carpet

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Two prominent Premier League footballers, two cases of alleged racism, two dramatic verdicts. Season of goodwill? Not for all of us.

In the space of just 24 hours, the issue of racism between players on the field has plunged the English game back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: The gulf that separates the American and British sporting model has yet to be bridged

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In the last few weeks, readers of the sports pages of British newspapers may have been forgiven for thinking we are facing another American revolution. Having given the distinct impression that they had joined a new order of sporting Trappist monks on crossing the pond, American owners of English clubs have suddenly become as voluble as teenagers let out of school. Or at least two very prominent owners have.

Yet what they have said shows that there is still a vast gulf between the old world and the new when it comes to sport.

Archive

David Owen: These boots are made for scoring – how the Nancy Sinatra rule is going to change my life

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I latched onto a major story on Friday.

This was the day, remember, that Britain turned its back on Europe.

That tensions ratcheted up at the Climate Change summit in Durban.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: FIFA should fear new mood after International Olympic Committee investigation

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The wider impact of the investigation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Ethics Commission into Joao Havelange, Issa Hayatou, Lamine Diack, three of the most powerful men in world sport, cannot be overestimated.

The treatment of the three men may not appear all that drastic. But there is a message here about the way the IOC is prepared to react to the demands that the administrators of world sport and, in particular, football must become more accountable and transparent.

Archive

David Owen: When all is said and done, Havelange was one of the towering figures of 20th century sport

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The weekend reports claiming that João Havelange had resigned as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) brought to mind two images from recent IOC Sessions.

The first is from Copenhagen in 2009.

The Brazilian, who as FIFA President once shared with the late Juan Antonio Samaranch the billing of ‘Most Powerful Man in World Sport’, is inviting fellow members of the IOC club to Rio de Janeiro to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2016.