Columnists Archives - Page 61 of 78 - Inside World Football

Andrew Warshaw: Will the poisoned chalice of managing England present Roy Hodgson too much pressure?

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Penny for Harry Redknapp’s thoughts. Just when neutral fans everywhere were anticipating an imminent call from the English Football Association to the man dubbed the “people’s choice” to be the next England manager, the favourite to replace Fabio Capello has been overlooked in favour of Roy Hodgson.

The move has inevitably led to a media frenzy and emotion-packed accusations that the FA have bottled it, that yet another major blunder has been made by the inner sanctum responsible for choosing Capello’s successor.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Beyond the Premier League ‘top table’ clubs should adopt a “realistic” blueprint for survival

Change in football (let alone the wider society) is difficult to predict. It is often best left to historians with their long lenses to look back and tell us when one era ends and another begins.

However, despite the fact that we do not know for sure who will win this season’s English Premier League title, it is my firm belief that this campaign marks a momentous season of change in the Premiership – the third such change since the Premiership started 20 years ago.

Andrew Warshaw: Is the lack of fanfare at the London 2012 football draw a sign of things to come for the tournament?

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There were no oooos and aaahhhs from either the dignitaries or the media seated respectfully in the bosom of the national stadium. Not much of the usual celebrity spotting. In fact, a minimum of razzmatazz.

Compared with the equivalent events preceding the World Cup and European Championships, it was all rather low key.

Yet there was no doubting the significance of today’s Olympic football draw at Wembley for organisers of London 2012.

Columnists

Philip Barker: Time to celebrate Bill Slater, a footballer with a unique British sporting history

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Born in 1927, Bill Slater is the only British footballer who can be mentioned in the same breath as Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, Michel Platini and Lev Yashin. All have graced the Olympic tournament and the World cup finals, but Slater was the first and so far only Briton to do so.

By 1952, Slater (pictured below left in 1960 and right in 2007) had already appeared in the FA Cup final (as an amateur with Blackpool).

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Leaders of a ‘disreputable’ game have duty to recalibrate its moral compass

This season is turning out to be one in which football has had to look hard at itself. The critical question: is the game capable of examining itself? And if so, would changing things make this a defining football season?

I am afraid I have grave doubts.

The reaction to Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba’s collapse at White Hart Lane showed that the game has a soul, but much else has happened which indicates that football has a lot to do,

Andrew Warshaw: Turkey’s risky mega-events bidding game could see it drop the ball and lose everything

Over breakfast at an Istanbul hotel a couple of weeks ago, I asked one of Turkey’s leading Olympic officials which was the more important: staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 or hosting football’s European Championships the same year.

“What we want above all is to secure one big event,” Ali Kiremitciogly, a prominent member of Istanbul 2020, diplomatically replied, hedging his bets the best he could.

He knows full well that hosting both mega-events in the same summer would be out of the question.

Archive

David Owen: Au revoir but not goodbye Auxerre

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An era may be about to end in French football.

As I write this, AJ Auxerre sit 20th and last in Ligue 1, the French First Division.

There is still time for them to save themselves, but they are three points adrift, six points from safety and the days are getting longer.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Footballers will remain brainless bad boys until clubs step up

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Mario Balotelli (pictured below) is not the only footballer whose antics make you think there is much wrong with the game. Apart from his well publicised problems with his manager, the Manchester City player also managed to set fire to his house after a fireworks display in his bathroom. It is just as well not all footballers are like Balotelli. Not that the inane way they often answer questions on television give you much confidence that they think before they speak.

Columnists

David Gold: Get used to it, Qatar and Al-Jazeera are here for good

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Rarely has a classroom full of 14-year-olds been quite as stunned into silence by the announcement of the departure of their English teacher as mine was about 12 years ago now.

A quite brilliant teacher, poached from us in North London by Qatar, was leaving us. I left the classroom that day asking my friends: “Why Qatar? Who in their right mind would leave England to go to Qatar? Where even was Qatar?

Andrew Warshaw: Until FIFA learns from its tainted past Pieth’s reform proposals carry little weight

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It was billed as a “historic day” for FIFA in terms of its reform process but what happens now? It’s one thing being accused of failing to sufficiently investigate corruption allegations against its members. But it’s quite another actually doing something about it.

Anti-corruption guru Mark Pieth’s eagerly awaited report into FIFA’s recent conduct may have been hard-hitting in its conclusions and suggested firm ways of rebuilding trust. But until and unless FIFA acts on the recommendations the cynics will still swirl around football’s world governing body.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Muamba outpourings demonstrate football has soul

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Ever since Fabrice Muamba collapsed in the first half of the FA Cup match against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, not a single football event has gone by without some sympathy being expressed for the stricken Bolton player. This has included fans and players, even players in countries far removed from England, wearing T-shirts wishing Muamba a speedy recovery. His progress in hospital has been monitored with the sort of attention that was once accorded to members of the royal family and would nowadays be given to high profile pop stars.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: If FIFA is to reform can British privileges be defended?

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British football’s privileges are under threat. But don’t blame Sir David Richards if Britain loses its unique status in world football. That will be the natural reaction after our Dave’s extraordinary performance in Doha last week. But it will be wrong. Look to wider politics in the world body for the answer.

Not that the Premier League chairman covered himself with glory when he went to Qatar last week. His mission there was to tell the world what it can learn from the Premier League having become the most powerful League in the world.

Andrew Warshaw: Incidents like Saturday’s remind us that football is not more important than life or death

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It was one of those dramatic “I was there” occasions – but for tragic reasons. The day when football took a back seat and the fragility of human life took over.

Anyone who was at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane stadium on Saturday cannot fail to have been emotionally moved by the harrowing scenes of Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsing with heart failure.

Never in all my years of covering the game have I seen so much collective shock and distress among players,

Columnists

Tom Degun: A bad day in Doha for Sir Dave Richards

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As far as bad days go, March 14, 2012 is one Sir Dave Richards probably wants to forget.

The strange thing is that it all started so innocuously for the English Premier League chairman on the first day of the International Sport Security Conference here in the Qatari capital Doha.

Richards sat down to take part in an interesting if unspectacular panel session titled: “New Frontiers: Rewards and Challenges to Growing a Sporting Brand in New Markets”.

Andrew Warshaw: Will Valcke’s Bagshot Blunder prove to be his final downfall?

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The sudden decision to call off FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke’s planned trip to Brazil this week has once again cast world football’s number two in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Valcke was due to make the latest of his many World Cup inspection tours, this time to Recife, Brasília and Cuiabá, but the visit was postponed in what appeared to be a deliberate trouble-shooting exercise by his boss, FIFA President Sepp Blatter.