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Osasu Obayiuwana: A symphony of equivocation

Since Sepp Blatter’s intriguing statement, at the last Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elective congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that 2015, the year he promised to bid adieu to the FIFA presidency, will mark the “last term, not of office, but of the reform [of football governance],” the cat has, without question, been set amongst the speculating pigeons.

Surely the 77-year-old, who will be on the cusp of becoming an octogenarian, by world football’s next elective congress,

John Yan

John Yan: 足球的消费饱和 The Worry of Football Consumption Reaching Saturation

四千万人民币一个赛季的胸前赞助，赞助商还是顶尖的国际品牌，广州恒大仍然拒绝，这个俱乐部对自身商业价值的估算，显然和其他中超俱乐部大不相同。

关于广州恒大拒绝三星成为胸前主赞助商的消息，足够让所有中超俱乐部流口水。四千万人民币的赞助价格，是以往中超联赛罕见的，但这仍然达不到恒大的要求。不过从许家印衡量恒大投资足球的回报收益看，这个房地产商有一套区别于市场主流的观念：最初两三年，投资恒大足球接近7亿人民币时，许家印就表示恒大投资足球已经”赚钱了”，因为他将所有媒体在进行中超赛事报道时，只要出现”恒大”二字，都理解为对恒大品牌的宣传推广。姑且不论平面和网络媒体，就以电视机构转播恒大的比赛，一个赛季30场90分钟的国内联赛，如果将这2700分钟都算作电视广告的话，自然是价值不菲的传播回报。

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: FIFA and football could learn about democracy from the Olympics

During the London Olympics last year much was made about how much football could learn from the Olympics. Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, speaking at Wembley just before Team GB played Brazil, was asked whether the world’s most popular game could learn from the world’s greatest sporting event.

“Absolutely,” he answered, “At the beginning of the game, [the behaviour] is okay in football. But, at the end, we still have problems to bring the players together.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Benitez could be a great coup for Napoli

Have Napoli just landed themselves the best manager in world football?

It would be a quite a coup for a club that isn’t amongst Europe’s elite – I think it’s time to consider the evidence in favour of Rafa Benitez being, well, the true special one.

The only thing he has in common with the great Napoli hero Diego Maradona has been a comedy beard, but he might be the best chance the club has had of real success since the Argentinian legend inspired them to glory in Serie A and the UEFA Cup in the late 1980s.

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Inside Insight: Über Abschreiberlinge und andere Erstaunlichkeiten

Es schallt und raucht. Die Bildschirme biegen sich allenthalben unter dem Gewicht des Wortschwalls, der da laut und unmissverständlich aus angelsächsichen Laptops in den Cyberäther drängelt, dicht gefolgt von plagiarisierenden Deppen teutscher Sprache, die anstelle des Selbstgegorenen (weil eben schwieriger, eine eigene Meinung zu haben, als eine andere kopiert zu wiederkäuen), lieber den Schwachsinn aus englischen Landen, als die scheinbar abscheuliche Manna der “real existierende Rechstprechung” herumreichen.

Die Rede ist vom Abschreiberling, der – selber eher unzureichend mit Intellekt ausgestattet – die Kunst der Boulevaldisierung von allem und jedem bis hin zum Gehtnichtmehr beherrscht.

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David Owen: The FIFA Club Protection Programme – delving into the detail

I have been delving further into the detail of FIFA’s new Club Protection Programme (CPP), the scheme designed to remove a longstanding bone of contention by compensating clubs when players they employ are injured on international duty.

I was concerned lest an unforeseen spate of injuries sent costs soaring to the point where they absorbed most or all of FIFA’s positive annual result. This stood at $89 million in 2012.

The world football governing body has now told me that they have moved to protect themselves against unexpectedly high costs.

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Is ‘reform’ forgotten in Africa?

As the fraternity’s mandarins descend upon the picturesque Island of Mauritius, for the supposedly decisive FIFA congress, where ‘reform’ and ‘improving the quality of governance’ are the catch-phrases of choice, it is poignant to remember – for those who are conveniently beginning to forget – that the scandal over the award of World Cup hosting rights, for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, played a key role in igniting the ‘change’ process in the first place.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: It would be wrong to say there are no German lessons for English football

In the next few days we shall hear much about how the all German Champions League Final on Saturday is a game changer. True, the way Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund destroyed Real Madrid and Barcelona suggested a dramatic shift in power from Spain to Germany. But such conclusions, while both common and tempting immediately after the whistle has blown, rarely stand up to more considered scrutiny.

If a couple of matches can produce such dramatic football changes then why did the Manchester United-Chelsea final in Moscow in 2008 not leave an imprint on the game?

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: It’s up to you – New York New York…

‘New York , New York so good they named it twice’.

I’m pretty sure singer-songwriter Gerard Kenny wasn’t referring to soccer when he delivered this hit record in 1978, but suddenly the game will be all over the city.

New York WILL be named twice in the MLS have when the New York City FC franchise join the Red Bulls in 2015. The Red Bulls actually play in New Jersey but remember also the famous old New York Cosmos are about to re-emerge in the second tier of American football……

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David Owen: Ja, ja, it’s German week in London – but should we be congratulating the FA for its foresight in rebuilding Wembley?

Yes, OK, this is the German renaissance – and the juxtaposition of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in Saturday’s European Cup final certainly indicates that German football is doing something right.

But, in one small detail, the match is a notable coup for the English game: it is being played at Wembley, the second time in just three years that European club football’s flagship occasion has been staged underneath the now famous arch.

Jean Francois Tanda

Jean Francois Tanda: Swiss are taking anti-corruption reforms into their own hands

Deutsche fassung

Today, in Switzerland, corruption is only a crime when it involves state employees or – in the private sector – when it occurs in a competitive environment. This will change soon.

Last week, the Swiss government published a proposal to tighten their corruption law. Even though, officially, it does not target FIFA, it is clear that the new law is nothing else than a Lex FIFA.

Since 2006,

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Can the Lions rediscover their teeth?

Cameroon certainly broke new frontiers, as the first African side, in 1990, to reach the World Cup quarter-finals – a barrier that no other team has gone past – as well as making the most appearances by the continent (six) at the finals tournament.

But the Indomitable Lions are a shadow of their moniker at the moment.

With the failure of the four-time African champions to qualify for the last two Cup of Nations in succession,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Mancini’s sacking raises questions about the faceless men of football

It would be easy to say that the sacking of Roberto Mancini shows the short-term mentality that is now part of DNA of owners. If a manager, who secured City their first League title for over 40 years, can be sacked a year after that triumph, then no one in modern football is secure. Yet the Italian’s departure raises questions about the faceless men of football, they are all generally men, the people who really manage the club but who never,

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Fourth is the new first

What have Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Real Madrid got in common?

It’s not just that they were drawn together in the toughest group in the Champions League this year.

They also all finished a distant and disappointing second in their domestic leagues.

Dortmund can be excused of course. They have achieved miracles in the Champions League, and who’d really be able to keep up with Bayern Munich the way they have played throughout 2012/13.

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David Owen: Why Rooney and Europe are the big questions for Moyes at Old Trafford

In 2004-05, the most profitable club in the Premier League was unfashionable Everton.

How did Merseyside’s second club outperform more illustrious rivals such as Arsenal and Manchester United, let alone Chelsea, which ran up a £140 million pre-tax loss on the way to lifting the Premier League title?

Four words: they sold Wayne Rooney, the teenage prodigy who had made Europe sit up and take notice at Euro 2004.

This simple fact reminds us of how long the careers of Rooney and David Moyes,