Columnists Archives - Page 37 of 78 - Inside World Football

Matt Scott: Want to get doshed up? Then work the agency gravy train

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“Friendship is constant in all other things Save in the office and affairs of love… Let every eye negotiate for itself And trust no agent,” Claudio, Act II, Scene 1, Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare seldom got much wrong about life and how we live it. His comedies, his tragedies and his histories contained some fairly implausible scenarios and embellishments at times but the enduring value of his work lies in his ability to skewer all facets of the human character.

Archive

David Owen: Could Neymar’s Brazil play future matches at London’s Olympic Stadium?

What do the following international football matches have in common: Brazil 0 Portugal 2 on 6 February 2007; Nigeria 1 Ghana 4 the same night; and Australia 3 Canada 0 on 15 October 2013?

Right, they were all played in London.

So was an extraordinary encounter last week pitting the Socceroos, once more, against Ecuador, France’s future World Cup opponents. While Roy Hodgson’s England were labouring to beat Denmark at Wembley,

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Libya’s Cup of Nations takes some believing

Charity, they say, is supposed to begin at home. Or, at least, in your continent.

But I am wondering whether it is an adage that officials of Libya’s government and the football federation have ever taken to heart.

At the recent laying of the foundation stone, at a stadium to be built in Tripoli, the country’s capital, ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations they are to host – assuming the war-torn country is peaceful enough –

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Immigration vote a game changer for Switzerland

FOOTBALL TEAM BEFORE

This is how the Swiss national football team lines up, proudly ranked as one of the eight top ranked teams for the World Cup in Brazil…

Massimo Cecchini

Massimo Cecchini: When Italian clubs buy foreign clubs

Il paradosso della globalizzazione selvaggia, in fondo, si nasconde anche nelle pieghe di un calcio specchio dei tempi. Archiviata l’età dell’oro – quella che appiccicava alla Serie A l’etichetta di “campionato più bello del mondo” – proprio in questo periodo di crisi i club italiani stanno scoprendo il gusto dell’espansione estera. Cioè, dalle vere acquisizioni alla semplici partnership – diverse società hanno deciso che per consolidare le proprie posizioni è opportuno scavalcare le Alpi o attraversare il mare.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Let the high-flying stars be Pied Pipers for football everywhere

“We bring you the circus, pied piper whose magic tunes greet children of all ages, from six to 60, into a tinsel and spun-candy world of reckless beauty… and high-flying stars. But behind all this, the circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline and motion and speed. A mechanised army on wheels, that rolls over any obstacle in its path.” Narrator, The Greatest Show On Earth

Football today is as the circus of the 19th and early 20th Centuries,

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Never mind World Cup – Zlat’s Entertainment

I have a confession.

Nothing too bad, I haven’t expanded a tournament from 16 to 24 teams or anything like that.

It’s about an autobiography I haven’t read. That of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

As I am a sport correspondent for a world network…as he is one of world’s best players…as he also has employers in Qatar (he earns more)…as he is one of sport’s most interesting characters…and the book has plenty of good reviews…don’t you agree I should have read it?!

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Michel Platini needs help not abuse

Now you may think Michel Platini can look after himself and does not need the help of others, certainly not journalists like me, who in terms of footballing skills, would not be entitled to carry his boots let alone lace them. But he might do well to consider that he needs to learn how to present his ideas better and, what is more, make sure his announcements have been preceded by proper debate so that the thinking football public,

Andrew Warshaw: Za’atari – where football provides hope and has humbling purpose

I had been warned in advance. It will be the most humbling experience of your career, said a colleague. It will move you to tears and put football into stark perspective.

It was all those things – and more.

In a week when most of the footballing banter was about the 2016 European qualifying draw or who would progress from the cash-rich Champions League, far removed from the Real Madrids and Chelseas of this world,

Archive

Inside Insight: Let’s destroy Russia, Qatar – and of course Brazil

It is a bit rough to be writing about such enormously important things like football when the world around us appears to be going completely bonkers. Wars in every corner of the square-headed globe, some idiot developing and launching ever “better” drones (they kill faster and with laser gun precision), robots that will replace humans by 2029, and are smarter – well, hardly a difficult task considering the stupidity that reigns everywhere where humans congregate.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Football’s new megastars are worlds away from the players of yore

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“I have hit rock bottom and I don’t see any way out of it,” Chelsea’s former European Cup Winners’ Cup winner, Alan Hudson

Alan Hudson is 62 years of age now but when he was the playmaker for a useful Chelsea team during the 1970s he was one of the Kings of the King’s Road. He was a household name, leading a lifestyle as flamboyant as the football he played over the 400-plus top-flight appearances he made as the creative force of clubs that consistently challenged for trophies.

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: The real art of management in Nigeria is keeping the job

In the sensible regions of planet football, a manager that does the tough work of qualifying a team for a World Cup finals has earned the right to manage the team at it.

But what is obviously the logical, common-sense thing, is certainly not the established rule in Nigerian football, where they operate from a different playbook.

Over the last 20 years, as well as in the four tournaments the Super Eagles have played in (1994,

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David Owen: Kosovo’s Vokrri looks forward to end of isolation

Well over 50 international football matches will be played on Wednesday, March 5.

They include some 2015 Asian Nations Cup games, Spain versus Italy and Portugal v Cameroon. They provide one of the last opportunities for experimentation for many of the qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

And yet the most significant fixture to be played that night pits the world’s 79th -ranked team against a side that does not yet have any ranking.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Should Europe’s top clubs be depressed by deflation?

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“Inflation is unjust and deflation is inexpedient. Of the two perhaps deflation is, if we rule out exaggerated inflations such as that of Germany, the worse; because it is worse, in an impoverished world, to provoke unemployment than to disappoint the rentier,” John Maynard Keynes, Essays on Persuasion

Whether or not you have heard of John Maynard Keynes, and whatever you might think of the orthodoxies (libertarians mostly consider him a false prophet of the dismal science,

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: UEFA sacrifice quality with 24-carat mistake

UEFA’s week will go from the sublime to the ridiculous

Tuesday and Wednesday are proud days for the organisation. The Champions league returned with slavering anticipation, an open tournament, some fascinating ties, and barely a negative word.

Thursdays and the ghastly Europa League usually raise questions over UEFA formats. But this week it will be shameful Sunday.