Columnists Archives - Page 22 of 78 - Inside World Football

Mihir Bose: How Blatter has split Europe

Whatever happens in the FIFA Presidential election one thing is already clear. Sepp Blatter has split Europe wide open. The most powerful and richest confederation in world football, whose leagues dominate the game and whose prize competition, the Champions League, is the greatest club competition in the world, cannot agree on a candidate to oppose the Swiss. Already 11 of the 54 national associations of UEFA are publicly pledged to three different rivals of Blatter: Michael van Praag,

Archive

David Owen: A tale of two elections

FIFA isn’t the only International Sports Federation (IF) with a Presidential election on at the moment. And, looking at the way the campaign for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Presidency has started, it is hard not to conclude that world football’s governing body has a few lessons to learn.

Martin Volkmar: Boring Bundesliga? Not at all! Langweilige Bundesliga? Von wegen!

Boring! Only a fantasist would have believed the Bundesliga season would generate a voltage title fight. But experts like Reiner Calmund say the German elite league is never boring, even though the title was virtually secured by Bayern at the halfway point.

John Yan

John Yan: Chinese money’s global football reach 足球资本，逐利而行

In the same week Team China played against Australia in the quarter-final of the Asian Cup, more financial news related to Chinese international investments in football came out: three European acquisitions, as well as Guangzhou Evergrande FC’s purchase of Brazilian international players.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Too black to coach?

How many of the coaches at the Africa Cup of Nations are black? Three. How many coaches in the world’s most watched, celebrated, multicultural league, the Premier League, are black? That’s right. None. Do these figures sounds acceptable to you?

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Manchester United and their Messi set of accounts

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“Whether it’s a [world] record or not doesn’t really resonate with us. What resonates is an elite player that the manager wants who is going to be a star for Manchester United.” Ed Woodward

Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, has been pretty forthright about Manchester United’s transfer-market punch. His words have coincided with coquettish comments from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi about how uncertain are their futures at Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Andrew Warshaw- Dutch Courage and Political Posturing

When Michel Platini announced last summer that he had decided against taking on Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency, most seasoned observers of election processes shrugged their shoulders and looked beyond Uefa for a credible challenger to Blatter’s turbulent reign.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: When fans are asked: ‘Pay What You Want’

Exactly how much should you pay to watch your football team play? What can you afford to pay? How much should those players be paid? How much should you pay for your football-dominated television package? How much is your club actually worth?

Archive

Inside Editorial: Prediction – Here comes the new (old) FIFA President

It’s a bit like “The weakest link”. An arrogant presenter and a few clueless candidates (in this case five or so rather ‘ugly’ people; after all, politics are Hollywood for Ugly People, aren’t they?). The camera is rolling on a new presidential election, and the most likely outcome looks likely to be: “I told you so”.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: UEFA should grapple a thorny issues and allow clubs to hedge

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“Every man lives by exchanging.” Adam Smith

Currency is the blood in the veins of economies. It is the fundamental denominator of all trade. But there are so many veins, arteries and capillaries in the world economy that the circulation of currency is seldom constant, and at times it becomes palsied.

Andrew Warshaw: Leaden feet of a once silky mover

Back in the late 1990s as a passionate Tottenham Hotspur fan – which I still am – I was mesmerised watching David Ginola. He may have played at a number of other clubs, both in England and his native France, but it was at Tottenham where his silky skills were wholeheartedly embraced by the fans who elevated him to near-legendary status.

Massimo Cecchini

Massimo Cecchini: L’Europeo? E’ Uno Corsa Contro Il Tempo The Euros and a race against time

Ricordate i lamenti alla fine del Mondiale brasiliano? Ricordate i buoni propositi? “Mai più una vergogna di questo genere: ora occorre che tutti lavorino per ricostruire il calcio italiano”. Ebbene, ad appena sei mesi di distanza dalle belle parole (a pensarci bene, assai simili a quelle udite dopo il Mondiale sudafricano del 2010), sembra di leggere un discorso di Giulio Cesare vecchio di ventuno secoli. Tutto, o quasi, dimenticato.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Why Blatter will keep on winning

So why is it that, with just under two weeks to go, it has not been possible to find a candidate who can seriously challenge Sepp Blatter? Jerome Champagne, after a year of campaigning, may now not even get on the ballot, Prince Ali cannot win his own Asian confederation and, as far as the candidacy of David Ginola is concerned that sounds like a nice bookmaker’s wheeze.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Meddling regulators put Premier League Golden Goose at risk

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“He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them.” Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza, the 17th Century Dutch-Portuguese philosopher, was certainly ahead of his time. His inchoate views that there is no such thing as a providential God, only nature, which one day would form the basis of his far-sighted Theologico-Political Treatise (published anonymously) were so controversial he was formally excommunicated by the Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam that had brought him up.

John Yan

John Yan: Team China – that’s the way the fortune cookie crumbles

Not many people had expected that Team China would qualify for the second stage of the Asian Cup held in Australia, after just two group matches. On the contrary, before the tournament started, quite a few journalists who have covered the national team for a long period, were joking about coming back home after those two matches.