Transparency. It’s clear to see what an easy word it is to throw around. Get it wrong, fake it, claim it, and people will see through you. But genuinely aspire to deliver it, and do it voluntarily, however tough that path is, can do wonders for reputation. Of an individual or organisation.
No-one could possibly argue with Wembley being chosen as host for the climax of Euro 2020. England’s national stadium is among the finest in the world while the country had the best bid and has not held a major football tournament since 1996. But anyone who believes there was no politics involved in last week’s decision by UEFA’s executive committee should think again.
‘If you build it, UEFA will come.’ With apologies to Kevin Costner and the rest of those responsible for Field of Dreams, the fantasy Black Sox baseball movie, this looks like a more and more apposite slogan for a venue some four thousand miles east of Ray Kinsella’s ploughed-under Iowa corn-field: Wembley Stadium.
Diciamo la verità, non invidiamo l’esposizione mediatica di Carlo Tavecchio, presidente della Federcalcio. Da quando la gaffe estiva con accuse razziste ha messo a rischio la sua elezione (e l’Uefa ha aperto un procedimento su di lui), persino l’abbigliamento del numero uno del calcio italiano è spesso soggetto a “revisione” da parte dei media italiani. Eppure la scorsa settimana, in Consiglio Federale, un primo passo verso la riforma del calcio è stata fatta. Tavecchio, infatti,
Scotland goes to the polls today to decide whether to break with the most successful political union in the history of the world. England and Scotland have been bound in statutory togetherness since March 1, 1707. Yet a decision to end that economic and political union – so powerful that it once dominated the globe in an age of empire – could come within the next 24 hours.
Given the number of times I read that football agent Jorge Mendes won the summer transfer window, it is ironic that his profession stands technically to be legislated out of existence before the end of the 2014-15 season. If world governing body FIFA gets its way, a new regulatory system dealing not with licensed agents, but with “intermediaries” will take effect on 1 April 2015. Some, including agents I have spoken to who predict that the new rules will produce chaos,
Alan Perrin started his career as the head coach of China national team formally, and played two friendly matches during the FIFA international match week. China didn’t lose these two, which were a victory against Kuwait and a draw against Jordan, both played at home. The Frenchman’s first mission will be taking Team China to next year’s Asian Cup held in Australia.
“C’est bien facile d’être bon, le malaisé c’est d’être juste.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Financial Fair Play has posed football’s regulators with a quandary that Victor Hugo would no doubt quickly have recognised. When making the law it’s dead easy to be good; the hard part is being fair.
It’s just NOT cricket. That, in a nutshell, is the biggest obstacle the Indian Super League faces when it launches in October. It is football sold and packaged with the successful IPL formula. A burst of action over an intense couple of months. Big names, star backers (none bigger than team owner Sachin Tendulkar). Not too may teams (eight), a good spread around the country’s major cities, and a big focus on marketing, promotion, sponsorship and advertisers.
Recent reports suggesting that European Union countries were mulling a possible future sports boycott against Vladimir Putin’s Russia triggered two immediate thoughts.
“To be brave, by definition, one has first to be afraid.” Robert Harris, Pompeii
There is no questioning the boldness of Premier League clubs’ activity in the transfer market this summer. The £835 million (€1.049 billion) in gross spending on new players exceeded the gross domestic product of San Marino or Gibraltar. When I wrote here three months ago that a financial volcano was primed to erupt in English football,
The Malky Mackay saga has once again brought racism and sexism in football back on the agenda. And in particular it has raised the question: why is it that the world’s greatest game is so integrated and seems so inclusive on the field of play but off it is “hideously” white, to use FA chairman Greg Dyke’s phrase. If there were any doubts about that last week’s launch of the Champions League once again displayed European football’s Janus face.
Bottles were flying on the pitch side, and Guangzhou Evergrande & Taobao FC were losing their grip on the Asian Champions League Trophy bit by bit. The quarter final of ACL between the trophy holders and the Australian club, West Sydney Wanderers, played August 27, was a spirit sapping match.
So FIFA President Sepp Blatter is a step nearer securing a fifth term as boss of world football, following this week’s announcement by his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini, probably his most credible potential challenger, that he would not stand against him in next year’s election. That means that world football’s governing body may be a step nearer possibly losing its direct, active representation in world sport’s most powerful club – the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Two months ago, when UEFA president Michel Platini was still weighing up whether to run for the top job in world football, it became abundantly clear in the build-up to the FIFA Congress in Sao Paulo that Europe was massively outnumbered in its opposition to a fifth term for Sepp Blatter.
So why did Platini not declare there and then that it was too risky to take on the wily old Swiss? It’s a fair question and one Platini was asked about when he finally announced,