Qatar’s new Emir Tamim is a football insider

Emir Tamim

June 26 – Qatar’s 61-year-old emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani announced yesterday that he has transferred power in the energy-rich and increasingly influential gulf nation to his fourth son – the 33-year-old crown prince, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (pictured), who has strong footballing links.

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Iran file FIFA complaint about South Korea violence

Iran celebrate qualification

By Mark Baber
June 25 – The Iranian Football Federation (IFF) has made an official complaint to FIFA against the South Korean football association following the aftermath of last Wednesday’s world cup qualifier in South Korea, which saw the Iranian players being pelted with bottles by Korean fans, following their 1-0 victory.

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Aspire brings in Messi to combat malaria in Africa

mosquito crossing

By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – Qatar’s state-of-the-art Aspire Academy, one of the world’s most sophisticated sports facilities and constantly being promoted by the Gulf state as a key part of its 2022 World Cup programme, is showing its humanitarian face by linking up with Argentine and Barcelona icon Lionel Messi in the fight against malaria.

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David Owen: Balancing a £1bn profit with reality

I don’t know about you, but I always thought that company accounts were supposed to reflect financial reality.

Not, it seems, when the value of professional footballers is concerned.

Over the five years between 2008 and 2012, clubs competing in England’s Premier League booked a cool £1 billion-plus in net profits from the sale of players.

This means, in effect, that those players were undervalued by the same amount in the clubs’

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