Columnists Archives - Page 70 of 78 - Inside World Football

David Owen: Compelling night of theatre as schmoozing hits new heights

In one corner of the room in one of Switzerland’s plushest hotels, the unmistakable figure of Chuck Blazer, FIFA’s Tweeting Executive Committee member, holds court.

On the other side of a large Christmas tree, a Boys’ Own triumvirate of David Beckham, Gary Lineker and Fabio Capello cluster around a small coffee table.

Nearby, English Premier League boss Richard Scudamore has been doing his bit, engaging the Asian Football Confederation chairman and Qatari ExCo member Mohamed Bin Hammam in earnest conversation for quite some time.

Columnists

Rodney Marsh: United States a certainty to host 2022 World Cup

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The destination of the 2018 World Cup finals is about to be revealed in Zurich, and for my money that destination will be Spain-Portugal.

But however it turns out, there is no doubt in my mind where the 2022 finals are heading – the United States.

The US withdrew their bid for the 2018 World Cup because, according to the chairman of their bid committee, Sunil Gulati, they had no chance of winning it and they want to concentrate on bidding for the World Cup after that.

Archive

David Owen: Time for a changing of the guard at FIFA

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The BBC’s Panorama programme told us nothing new about the 2018-22 World Cup campaign.

But it underlined the need for a changing of the guard in FIFA’s upper echelons.

World football’s governing body plainly has no intention of further investigating the nature of links between football officials and the ISMM/ISL sports marketing organisation which collapsed nearly a decade ago.

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David Owen: English football’s coming national inquest

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Once the white smoke from FIFA’s conclave of cardinals has dissipated into the clear alpine air on Thursday (December 2), the way will be clear for an almighty inquest into the way English football is run.

The disappointing nature of the national team’s 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa has ensured this inquest will happen whether or not England’s bid to stage world football’s flagship tournament in 2018 succeeds.

But,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Years of neglect cannot be made up for in a few months of hectic lobbying

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Should England not win the 2018 World Cup, and that must be considered a possibility, then I suggest the starting point for the post-mortem should be a thin orange and blue FIFA booklet called the Committees Directory 2110. This lists the people who sit on the various FIFA committees.

These committees are the powerhouse of the organisation. They range from World Cup organisation, to referee administration, the technical development of the game, player status,

Archive

David Owen: World Cup bid race is beginning to hot up

As we approach the final week of the contest to decide where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be played, in just the last day or so it has emerged that:

● British Prime Minister David Cameron is to spend the best part of three days in Zurich, lobbying for the England 2018 bid. This after inviting Jack Warner, one of the most influential FIFA Executive Committee members, to lunch.

● Russia’s Government are making final plans for a visit to the Swiss city by Vladimir Putin,

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David Owen: Bans will reinforce FIFA reputation for sleaze

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So now we know. The conclave that will assemble next month in Zurich to decide where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be played will be at most 22 strong.

Though some might think this appropriate – it is after all the same as the number of players who take to the field for a game of football – the suspensions of Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii will clearly reinforces the reputation for sleaze with which FIFA has long been saddled just as the attention of the world is once again about to descend upon it.

Columnists

Rodney Marsh: England 2018 World Cup bid is “mortally wounded”

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The FA have just written to FIFA to try and repair the damage caused by the Sunday Times and forthcoming BBC Panorama investigations into World Cup bidding. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think the letter will make an iota of difference, although I hope I’m wrong, because I would dearly love to see the World Cup come back to England.

But FIFA is desperate not to make a mistake in awarding the 2018 World Cup,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: David Cameron must invoke spirit of Sir Alex Ferguson for England 2018 to win World Cup

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Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous comment “football, bloody hell” made after Manchester United did the treble in 1999, could well apply to the World Cup bids. Had a script-writer presented this scenario, it would have been rejected out of hand.

The script has as a key player a man who scored the winning goal against England nearly 30 years ago, and has seen the English bid team effectively apologising for the UK media.

The key question is: can David Cameron do what Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær did for Manchester United in Barcelona and conjure up an England victory?

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Liverpool story still has a long way to run

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Liverpool fans should not delude themselves into believing that now the Gillett-Hicks regime is finally over, and peace reigns at Anfield, that it will bring success on the field of play.

Yes, Roy Hodgson’s team is rediscovering the art of winning again, but the simple equation – a happy set up equals playing success – is a myth.

For a start, despite all the players’ talk of how their heads are “turned in”

Columnists

Rodney Marsh: England will drop out of top 20 countries by next World Cup

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England hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the 2018 World Cup finals when the vote is revealed in Zurich next month.

I make this assessment for two reasons.

Firstly, the negative press that has surrounded the English bid, which has been staggering and continues to be staggering.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: FIFA still runs football as if it were a cottage industry

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Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, and many of his fellow executive members, may console themselves by saying that the crisis that has engulfed the organisation – both familiar and depressing – is all the fault of the dastardly British press and its nefarious ways.

They could not be more mistaken. They should look within themselves and ask why, having made the world’s most popular game into such a cash cow, they fail to run it like a proper corporate organisation where decisions are not only reached in good time,

Archive

David Owen: Ultra-realism and why World Cup bidding contests as we know them might soon be consigned to history

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For Australia, Ben Buckley spoke about a “No Worries World Cup”.

Alexei Sorokin said Russia would be ready to show “the new country” it had become.

But, for my money, much the most interesting presentation of the three World Cup bidders that spoke at this week’s International Football Arena was that given by Yuuichiro Nakajima of Japan, the only one of the trio, by my judgment, with little chance of winning.

Archive

David Owen: The gloves are off in the fight for the World Cup

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Tuesday was the day that the gloves came off in the battle to stage the 2018 World Cup.

By making a formal complaint to FIFA, England 2018 signalled to its arch-rival Russia that from now on, in the five-and-a-half weeks that remain before the all-important December 2 vote, it will be playing hardball.

Quite when increasingly hard-pressed FIFA officials, ensconced in their ultra-modern slate-grey citadel in the hills above Zurich, will find the time to adjudicate the matter,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: No word in modern football is more misused than “ambition”

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The Wayne Rooney drama illustrates two things. One, that much of what has happened to Rooney is a replay of his past, the other that the modern world of football is a curious kind of business where players, managers, administrators and even owners have all developed their own distinctive agendas. Their demands for money are always clothed in a spurious sense of higher morality.

The only ones who have not written a new script for themselves are the fans.