“I am the lord of the philosopher’s stone,” Mammon, The Alchemist, Ben Johnson
Four hundred years after those fictitious words were first uttered on a London stage, alchemy, the fabled process of turning base metals into gold, is of course just as much hocus-pocus as it was then. Even so, it does not seem to have stopped football clubs trying to turn leaden-footed footballers into the latest golden generation.
Having taken a firm position, over a month ago, against the selection of Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure as the BBC African Footballer of the Year, it would be no shock to regular readers of this column that I am in complete disagreement with his receipt of the official title in Lagos, Nigeria, last Thursday.
The argument put forward in my December 5 piece, “What is an African performance worth?” hasn’t changed a jot.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 14 – There were tears all round and heaps of respect as FIFA’s annual world player of the year award as expected went to Christiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid’s Portuguese star ending arch rival Lionel Messi’s four-year stranglehold on the prestigious prize.
January 14 – With just one round of group games left, the semi-finalists in the CONCACAF Women’s Under 20 Championship are now known. The final group game, between Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago who have both qualified for the next round, is all about who will draw (or avoid) a powerful US team in the semis.
By Paul Nicholson
January 14 – CONCACAF has passed a new protocol for dealing with racist incidents during matches, The protocol becomes effective immediately and deals with serious and discriminatory behaviour by fans including chants, insults and banners.
January 13 – Liverpool FC is rolling out its club TV output with nine new TV partnerships announced. The deals cover partnerships in various individual territories globally, rather than pan-regional agreements.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 13 – Poland’s ITI Group has sold Legia Warsaw to Boguslaw Lesnodorski, the club’s chief executive, and his business partner Dariusz Mioduski.
By Paul Nicholson
January 13 – Russia’s Cabinet of Ministers announced yesterday that the country will spend about $34 million on developing training grounds for the 2018 football World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – Spanish football authorities, many of whose clubs are struggling financially, have launched an ambitious new tournament designed to increase brand awareness overseas. The so-called ‘LFP World Challenge’ will see friendly games played in Europe, North and South America and Asia between the 2014/15 and 2016/17 seasons.
January 13 – Lazio and Italy midfielder Stefano Mauri will be back in action on February 2 after his nine-month ban for failing to report match-fixing was reduced on appeal.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – After consistently losing out to Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo is favourite to clinch FIFA’s prestigious Ballon d’Or award later today. Real Madrid’s Portugal captain is named on a three-man shortlist to be crowned world player of the year at the annual gala in Zurich, along with Barcelona’s Messi and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich.
January 13 – Barcelona’s signing of Brazilian forward Neymar last June has attracted intense attention from the Spanish courts following a complaint by Barcelona club member Jordi Cases, who wants clarification of how the €57.1 million fee was distributed.
I was not altogether surprised on Friday to open my copy of The Guardian newspaper and find that the latest twists in the Qatar World Cup saga had combined with the approach of Sochi 2014 to provoke columnist Simon Jenkins into an elegant tirade.
These mega-events, Jenkins argued, “are about the crudest form of politics, that of national prestige.
“The athletico-military-industrial complex seems to have a mesmeric appeal to world leaders,
Let’s put things into perspective. Whilst no-one would deny that Jerome Valcke’s off-the-cuff remarks over a winter World Cup in Qatar were untimely in the extreme, was Sepp Blatter’s right-hand man really telling us anything we didn’t know already?
Stakeholders throughout the game have understandably cried foul at Valcke seemingly jumping the gun before the time frame for global consultation is anywhere near complete.
Insideworldfootball has learned, for example, that the Qatar organisers received more concerned calls over this particular 2022 story that at any time in last two years –
By Paul Nicholson
January 10 – Nike and adidas have been referred to the UK government’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) anti-cartel unit following their decisions to supply major outlets only. So far, though, adidas have not been contacted by the OFT regarding an investigation.