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So David Beckham is wanted by Paris Saint-Germain, according to a BBC headline.
It is an arresting story, but would it make sense?
Well, yes, actually, I think it would – though the reasons have little to do with the former England captain’s capacity for delivering pinpoint crosses from the right touchline.
Given how Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the legendary former Germany forward and chair of the European Clubs Association (ECA), had compared Sepp Blatter’s FIFA reign to Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship in Egypt and threatened to bring it to a similar end, there was surprise among the assembled journalists at the President Wilson hotel last week when he seemed to retreat from his battle lines.
Just a month ago, the 95-times capped Germany forward, when asked if Blatter was fit for the job of FIFA President,
Mohammed Bin Hammam may have been self-serving in accusing FIFA of racism and alleging that, had he been an European, he would not have suffered the punishment he has – banished for life from world football for having been found guilty of vote buying during the FIFA presidential race.
He could not have put it more clearly in a letter to Petrus Damaseb, the deputy chairman of the Ethics Committee: “Were I a European,
Messy, sloppy, awkward, embarrassing. Just four of the adjectives that could be applied to the ongoing spat between Swiss club FC Sion and UEFA. Let’s add a fifth: dangerous.
Football fans at large may not be too interested in an argument involving a middle-ranked football club that has little or no international relevance outside its own country. But didn’t they say a similar thing about journeyman Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman all those years ago?
The cult of the manager may have been developing since the 1960s, but football now faces a situation that not many could have imagined. This is the age of the manager as a celebrity, with his every action judged to be as important and worthy of highlight, at times even more so, than the players he manages.
This marks a fundamental change in the how the game is perceived. When Pelé described football as the beautiful game,
After months of speculation, Manchester United has confirmed that it will make 25 to 30 per cent of the club’s shares available to investors in a partial flotation later this year on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Once again it raises searching questions about the club’s owners, the Glazer family, who burdened the club with significant debts when taking it over in 2005, and as a result are reviled by the United supporters.
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The beginning of the football season always turns to talk of money and how much clubs have spent on the transfer market.
Yet what this misses is the age-old truth that money does not buy sporting success. Spending money can keep the fans happy and raise their expectations for the season, but is no guarantee of silverware at the end of the season.
This is something that Manchester City fans might well discover this season as they finally strive to wrest back some glory from their more famous city rivals.
Like the dog that did not bark in the night in the Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the most fascinating aspects of the FIFA crisis is that one group has said nothing: the players.
It is astonishing to consider, given all that has been written about the problems of FIFA, that there is very little about what the players think. Their silence has been stunning.
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Sepp Blatter always complains that he is a leader who is not as powerful as his title of FIFA President may suggest. For a start, he is in the odd position that he cannot choose his own cabinet, something that Barack Obama or David Cameron would find intolerable.
So Blatter’s cabinet, the FIFA Executive Committee, are elected by the Confederations and foisted on him. There is nothing Blatter can do about that. He has to live with their choices.
The giant makeshift marquees at the swish Marina da Glória where the 2014 qualifying draw took place have been pulled down and all delegates have now left town. Rio is back to normal daily life. But that, of course, still means a national obsession with football.
Bold and brassy, sexy and spontaneous, there is little doubt that in terms of colour and excitement, this country will put on a show in three years’
England’s defeat to Germany in the 2010 World Cup triggered the inquiry into football governance, so humiliating was the nature of the 4-1 loss, and yesterday the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee which took on the inquiry proposed its solution to the questions thrown up by that humbling experience. It is this context in which their report on football governance should be seen; a means to an ends, that end being the success of English football,
Just when Qatar thought it could turn over the page and move on in an atmosphere of trust and integrity, along comes another distasteful saga to give its 2022 World Cup preparations an unwanted headache.
First things first. Mohamed Bin Hammam’s lifetime ban from all football activities in Zurich had nothing whatsoever to do with his country’s landslide victory per se.
Bin Hammam wasn’t initially even in favour of Qtar going ahead and only aligned himself to the bid once it was clear the project was an immoveable force that had the support of those who pull the purse strings.
FIFA is facing its own News International moment with its corruption scandal. News International thought that by saying phone hacking was the work of one rogue reporter, Clive Goodman, the royal correspondent, and his confidant Glenn Mulcaire, it could isolate the problem. As the world now knows, it could not.
FIFA is in danger of making a similar mistake if it thinks the corruption scandal has been dealt with once the Ethics Committee finishes its work on July 23.
Football politics is a murky world at the best of times but the experience I have just encountered has made me question whether there are dark and evil forces at play.
The other day I received an email from my mobile phone supplier asking me whether I wanted to reset my password. What password? I’ve never had a password for my mobile phone. My gut instinct – and thank goodness I acted on it –
Is there anybody at FIFA minding the shop? Sepp Blatter, the President, clearly does not give the impression he is.
He may strut about as if he is the head of a unique Vatican-style sporting state, no territory or army, but through football, as the Vatican does through religion, reaching out to places no politician can. But the FIFA corruption crisis has exposed the fact that while Blatter is a master tactician who can turn almost every short term situation to his advantage,