Massimo Cecchini: Dall’entusiasmo alla “realpolitik”

Dall’entusiasmo alla “realpolitik”. Ovvero, come i padroni del calcio italiano – in tempi di lotta ad ogni forma di razzismo – hanno scoperto di non poter applicare regole autoprodotte perché i loro stadi risultano ingovernabili. La storia è nota. Sull’onda delle iniziative Uefa, ad agosto la Figc decideva di sanzionare duramente non solo i fenomeni di razzismo, ma anche quelli di “discriminazione territoriale”, definizione esistente nell’ordinamento dalla fine degli anni Ottanta. Non avevano però fatto i conti con gli ultrà,

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Russian football violence pours more pressure on World Cup 2018 hosts

Shinnik Yaroslavl violence

By Andrew Warshaw
November 1 – The image of Russian football, already battered by highly publicised instances of racism, has been shamed again, this time by a damaging outbreak of hooliganism that resulted in 78 Spartak Moscow fans being detained and a cup game temporarily suspended. The incident at second tier club Shinnik Yaroslavl occurred on Wednesday, ironically just after Moscow rivals CSKA had part of their stadium ordered closed by UEFA as punishment for the racist abuse directed towards Manchester City’s Yaya Toure in a recent Champions League tie.

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Deutsche Telekom builds connectivity and content with old foe Sky

Liga total

By Paul Nicholson
November 1 – 64% of people don’t leave home without their smartphone, 45% use their smartphone at events, and 43% would rather stop drinking beer than using their smartphone. These were some of the fact thrown out by Deutsche Telekom’s senior VP for Sports Marketing Henning Stiegenroth, speaking at the International Football Arena in Zurich on Monday.

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Inside Insight: Insulting His Majesty, Whoaa!

So, Ronaldo, the Great Field Marshall, is pissed.

And with him, Ancellotti (Angelotto?) and the whole of Spain, and Portugal, and the Government of Portugal, and – well, I guess GOD and Snow-white, too. Not to mention the Seven Dwarves, Superman, Donald and Daisy Duck and Roadrunner.

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Investors give early thumbs-up to BT’s sports strategy

BT Sport

By David Owen
November 1 – Stock market investors seem to have given a thumbs-up to BT’s strategy of acquiring highly compelling sports content, such as live rights to Barclays Premier League football matches, after yesterday’s publication of the telephone company’s first quarterly financial results since the launch of BT Sport on August 1.

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Lee Wellings: Football’s Not The Laughter Business

I’m not sure I’ve that much in common with Cristiano Ronaldo. Though maybe we’ve both had a sense of humour bypass.

Cristiano was of course so offended by the FIFA President joking about him that he felt the need to respond, in a barely concealed waspish fashion.

But I certainly haven’t found much to laugh about from the world of football recently. And just as I baulk at world leaders who latch on to sporting success with hollow congratulations,

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Andrew Warshaw: Uncomfortable games in high places

Amidst all the rhetoric in recent days from FIFA and UEFA over the separate issues of racism and World Cup slots, the bigger picture seems to be one of canny manoeuvrings being played out in front of the world’s media by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini in order to gain the moral high ground.

“Anything you can do, I can do better” appears to be the basis of the rather silly (at best uncomfortable) mind games being employed by the respective presidents of football’s two main governing bodies.

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CSKA get UEFA stadium sanction for racist chanting, but remain in denial

CSKA fans

By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – UEFA has ordered the partial closure of CSKA Moscow’s stadium for their next home Champions League tie as a result of the highly published racist chanting towards Manchester City’s Yaya Toure. The Russian club, which strongly denied the claims, were charged after Toure complained about being verbally abused by a section of the crowd during City’s 2-1 win on 23 October.

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John Yan: Football stories that are not always about football 恒大往何处去?

I am almost becoming bored of writing about Guangzhou Evergrande week in and week out, but the story just keeps building and is completelyly dominating the Chinese football focus?

Guangzhou Evergrande secured a draw in the first round of the final of the Asian Champions League, 2:2, away to South Korean Seoul FC, on October 26. The match happened in golden time on a Saturday, 6:30pm, creating a new record for live football coverage on TV with distribution across CCTV,

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David Owen: Mega-events – why FIFA needs to engage the little guy

It is 29 July 2012. I am on a bus with other journalists being whisked through south-east London on a lane reserved for Olympic vehicles. Beside us, I am uncomfortably aware, snakes a long queue of non-Olympic traffic. It is at this point that I spot a road sign that makes me do a double-take. It says: “Ha Ha Road Closed”.

I later checked on a city map and there is, bizarrely, a Ha Ha Road in that area of the UK capital.

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Matt Scott: Football on YouTube – Broadcast Yourself

“Charlie bit me,” Harry Davies-Carr, aged three.

The sight of a three-year-old boy named Charlie having his finger bitten by his baby brother was once the defining image of YouTube. It has been viewed nearly 600 million times and, despite no longer being the most-viewed YouTube video of all time (which once it was), ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ remains in the top 10.

But just as the young faces in that 57-second film from 2007 had to grow up,

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