Inside World Football - Page 1297 of 2022 - For the Business of Football

Arsenal players gun their way to top of CIES ‘best performing’ ranking

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By Mark Baber
November 4 – The CIES Football Observatory has released its latest rankings of players in the big-5 European leagues, bringing music to the ears of Arsenal fans who see their players performing particularly strongly – with Santi Cazorla leading in the defensive midfielder category and Mesut Ozil in attacking midfield.
At the head of the tables for the five field positions considered are Nicolas Otamendi (centre backs), Serge Aurier (full backs),

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German calls for Niersbach to stand down after police raid on DFB

By Andrew Warshaw
November 4 – Pressure is increasing on German Football Association (DFB) chief and FIFA executive committee member Wolfgang Niersbach to stand down following Tuesday’s raid by tax authorities on the DFB’s headquarters as part of an investigation linked to the country’s winning bid for the 2006 World Cup.

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Marin pleads not guilty and released on $15m bail to NY apartment

Jose Maria Marin

By Andrew Warshaw
November 4 – Like Jeffrey Webb before him, former Brazilian powerbroker Jose Maria Marin pleaded not guilty to corruption charges when he appeared in a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday following his extradition from Switzerland.

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Saints stride on along path of financial virtue

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By David Owen
November 3 – Southampton, the south-coast club that has re-emerged in recent times as an established, stylish and widely-admired Premier League outfit, has posted another highly satisfactory set of financial results.

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ICSS chiefs call for global force to kill the corruption virus

Mohammad Hanzab3

By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – In his opening remarks at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York, ICSS President Mohammed Hanzab (pictured) issued a call to action to organisations around the world to speed up the fight against sport corruption.

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Sexwale flags ‘sponsor activism’ and says FIFA’s repair is not a one-man job

Tokyo Sexwale4

By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale, speaking in New York at the Securing Sport 2015 conference, said that he felt FIFA’s sponsors had gone too far in issuing an ultimatum that either current president Sepp Blatter must go or they will pull their funding.

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Forget bent officials; match fixing and organised crime is the biggest threat to football

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By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – The biggest threat to sport globally and football in particular is not corrupt administrators or athletes doping, but the infiltration of organised crime and the fixing of matches, said Chris Eaton, Director of Sport Integrity at the ICSS, speaking at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York.

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Carrard says you need an ‘insider’ to make reform happen

Francois Carrard2

By Paul Nicholson
November 3 – The chair FIFA’s reform committee Francois Carrard says that he does not believe FIFA is systemically corrupt and that he hopes he will have the opportunity to speak to all the presidential candidates before the elections in February.

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Mourinho’s ‘special’ outburst lands him back in the stands as pressure mounts

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November 3 – Under-fire Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, the self-styled ‘Special One’ who is suffering the worst spell of his coaching career, has been hit yet with yet another sanction amid reports that he is being sued personally by former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro.

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More racist comments from Tevacchio, with some homophobia thrown in…

carlos tavecchio

November 3 – First he accused African players of being “banana eaters”, then made disparaging remarks about the sexuality of women footballers. Now the president of Italy’s Football Association Carlo Tevacchio is at it again, this time accused of making anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks.

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CAF keeps Sexwale waiting as FIFA hopefuls lobby in Africa

Tokyo Sexwale

By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale still has work to do before convincing his own African confederation that he should become their preferred candidate for the FIFA presidential election.

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FIFA meets with Indonesians to bring them in from the cold

Indonesian fans

By Mark Baber
November 3 – Talks are continuing Tuesday, amidst high hopes, as a joint FIFA and AFC delegation meets with key stakeholders, including the Indonesian president, to find a solution for Indonesian football and to lift the country’s suspension which is causing increasing damage to the football infrastructure of one of SE Asia’s leading footballing powers.

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German tax police raid DFB in probe into €6.7m payment

DFB headquarters

November 3 – Tax authorities in Germany have raided the headquarters of the German Football Federation (DFB) as part of an investigation into the country’s increasingly suspicious 2006 World Cup bid campaign.

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Will Scala’s FIFA reform proposals hit the rock of Sheikh Ahmad’s opposition?

By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – The ability and willingness of FIFA to clean itself up following the biggest scandal in sporting history looks to have been undermined after Asia’s most influential sports administrator says a number of reform proposals will be rejected, not least term limits for senior officials.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Klopp teams work hard. But rigour alone can never attain high virtue

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“Pacience is an heigh vertu, certeyn, For it venquysseth… Thyneges that rigour sholde nevere atteyne.” Geoffrey Chaucer, the Franklin’s Tale

The Franklin was the 20th of Chaucer’s pilgrims to give his tale and, like so many of his fellow travellers en route to Canterbury, he gave forth on the secrets of success in love. Thus did England’s earliest literary great teach us a lesson about the virtues of patience.