Columnists Archives - Page 56 of 78 - Inside World Football

John Yan:龙哥听不到集结号 The Dragon will not hear the bugle call

English version

张吉龙，人称”龙哥”。但这”龙哥”只是一个花名，连江湖绰号都算不上。他曾经是亚足联第一副主席，也曾经因缘际会，由于国际足联高层的权力斗争，而升级为亚足联代理主席、国际足联执委，但他从来都不是”龙哥”，和龙头大哥的威势、前呼后拥的行头，相去十万八千里。行走在国际足球政治的江湖上，张吉龙谨小慎微、如履薄冰，在夹缝里为中国足球争取些利益，可他始终都是一个人在战斗。

张吉龙被”牺牲”、被”放弃竞选亚足联主席”，新闻并不是从国内媒体产生的。消息最早由法新社披露，然后其他亚洲媒体跟进，最后才流转到中国国内。当网络舆情一片汹涌，对于这样的”牺牲”和”放弃”，表达的不仅是不解，更是愤怒时，张吉龙已经在吉隆坡的亚足联总部收拾工作、收拾心情，虚席以待亚足联真正的主席主人了。他将回归到亚足联副主席的席位上，大概干到2015年任期期满。

体制内还有人羡慕乃至嫉妒张吉龙者——”他已经60岁了，本该退休，要不是他在亚足联有个职务，否则凭什么是他啊……”就退休年龄论，张吉龙比较其他体制内司局级干部，或许是幸运的，他能多干两年，只是这样的际遇，这样的含辛茹苦，这样的孤立无援，我不相信张吉龙会恋栈不去。

Andrew Warshaw: A slow creep towards a Winter World Cup

Every time you ask FIFA whether they would sanction switching the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the winter, you get the same answer: only if Qatar, as the host nation, officially requests us to do so.

And every time you ask Qatari organisers the same question, you also get the same answer: only if we are asked to do so by FIFA as world football’s governing body.

It’s a clever tactic,

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: The trouble with Twitter…

“I don’t understand Twitter. I don’t know why anyone should get involved with it. We have given instructions to the players that nobody should tweet about Manchester United. We have to.”

Those were the words of Alex Ferguson in August last year, after an indiscretion by Rio Ferdinand on Twitter. He hadn’t even sent the tweet that insulted Ashley Cole, but had re-tweeted it with a laugh.

And so I am puzzled –

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Will Wenger be devoured by his own revolution?

A revolution devours its own as history teaches us. Arsene Wenger, known as the Professor, should know that. But he seems to be oblivious to the fact that having been the greatest agent of change in English football he cannot stand still and needs to evolve if he is to move forward and not fall victim to his own revolution.

That Wenger has been the greatest revolutionary in British football cannot be doubted.

Osasu Obayiuwana

[b]Osasu Obayiuwana:[/b] What makes a champion?

ghana

“Champions are made from something they have deep inside them, a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. BUT THE WILL MUST BE STRONGER THAN THE SKILL” – Muhammad Ali.

African football, with its wealth and depth of talent, undoubtedly has the skill to conquer the game’s steep summit – the World Cup –

Archive

Inside Insight: As straight as an Arabian dagger…the race for the AFC presidency

Deutsche Fassung

The Asian Football Confederation, AFC, is trying one more time to get its house in order. After a dismal era under an omni(im)potent Peter Velappan (a GenSec who played president for far too long), a man with an often particular management style took over the helm: Mohamed bin Hammam was in charge, and in ways that widened many a nostril. What he created, at times against crude opposition, is a more functioning and more modern organisation in terms of competitions,

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David Owen: On Barclays and the Premier League

barclays premier league

The timing is quite striking.

On July 3, Bob Diamond resigned as chief executive of Barclays, in the midst of a political firestorm touched off by a £290 million fine meted out to the bank by UK and US authorities.

On July 12, it extended until May 2016 its sponsorship of the English Premier League.

By the end of August (with Chelsea three points clear at the top of the table),

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Anti-racism’s new crusader

racism -say no

It has been a move so sharp, opportunistic and clinical any of the great strikers would have been proud of it.

Sepp Blatter moving into the space ahead of UEFA and putting himself and FIFA at the forefront of the fight against racism.

A set of apparently tough proposals from FIFA’s Strategic Committee are to be put in front of the Executive Committee late in March, and conceivably ratified by FIFA Congress in May.

Osasu Obayiuwana

[b]Osasu Obayiuwana:[/b] In Africa, the more you win the more you lose

The elation of winning the Africa Cup of Nations, being at the top of the continental football summit, is what matters for the ordinary fan; National team triumph, and the accompanying two-year bragging rights, mean everything to them.

But as football federation officials from Nigeria, the newly crowned champions – or the 28 previous winners of the trophy – will bluntly tell you, that is all a nation gets.

Archive

[b]Inside Insight:[/b] Everybody talks about racism but no-one really cares

Let us assume that all those do-gooders who are so very concerned about mankind (while only paying lip-service to a ‘trend’ that seems worth exploiting for their own advancement) have a tiny remnant of human decency left and, for once, actually mean what they say and not only say what others want to hear.

Let us further assume that the large group of those who are mentally differently abled (i.e. either don’t have a clue or don’t give a hoot),

Lee Wellings

[b]Lee Wellings:[/b] Did winter break chorus hit right note?

football christmas

Is Lionel Messi fitter than other footballers, as well as being a better player? The four-time Ballon D’Or winner played 69 high level games in 2012 scoring a record 91 goals and didn’t appear to be tired for a single minute.

But those ‘unfortunate’ enough to earn their living playing in the English Premier League apparently suffered terribly over the Christmas and New Year period.

Mihir Bose

[b]Mihir Bose:[/b] Football is no longer a game but a driver of growth and business

sessegnon

Last weekend’s English Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal does not on the face of it merit much attention. A regular Premiership match, one of the rare ones played at 3pm on a Saturday, it ended in that classic score: 1-0 to Arsenal, after the Gunners weathered a late Sunderland assault.

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[b]David Owen:[/b] Europe’s spanner in the works puts us on course for a gran clásico of a board meeting at FIFA

David Owen_IWF

By David Owen

So Joseph Blatter doesn’t much care for the “unanimous” package of reform proposals for world football’s governing body published last month by UEFA.

The FIFA President conveyed his disappointment last weekend at a media conference in South Africa just before Nigeria’s triumph over Burkina Faso in the final of the 2013 African Cup of Nations.

I can’t say I am at all surprised.

However,

John Yan

[b]John Yan:[/b] 逃离上海滩 Escape From Shanghai

droginchina

作者：颜强网易门户副总编

By：John Yan，Deputy Editor of Netease.com

阿内尔卡完成了他职业生涯第11次加盟。这位行将34岁的前锋，由上海申花转入意甲尤文图斯。这是他17年职业生涯里加入的第11个俱乐部。

消息传出也就两天，德罗巴也宣布离开上海，加盟土耳其加拉塔萨雷。中国职业足球历史上最大牌的两个外援，前切尔西锋线双煞，选择在同一时间回归欧洲，让朱骏将上海申花打造成世界级锋线的计划，迅速成为笑话。不仅中国足球的国际形象受损，申花巨额投入受损，未来申花俱乐部的前途蒙上阴影，上海球市受到的伤害也难以估量。

Archive

David Owen: Why Platini’s Grande Idée makes sense for Africa

David Owen_IWF

By David Owen

I came upon a prescient article from the Washington Post today.

It was about a West African country where poverty was said to be fuelling a resurgence of Muslim fundamentalism.

“People want schools, they want medical attention for their children,” a local sociologist was quoted as saying.

“But who is listening to them?

“Islamists, who provide them with water and fertiliser to believe the solutions are found in religion.