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Liverpool fans should not delude themselves into believing that now the Gillett-Hicks regime is finally over, and peace reigns at Anfield, that it will bring success on the field of play.
Yes, Roy Hodgson’s team is rediscovering the art of winning again, but the simple equation – a happy set up equals playing success – is a myth.
For a start, despite all the players’ talk of how their heads are “turned in”
England hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the 2018 World Cup finals when the vote is revealed in Zurich next month.
I make this assessment for two reasons.
Firstly, the negative press that has surrounded the English bid, which has been staggering and continues to be staggering.
Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, and many of his fellow executive members, may console themselves by saying that the crisis that has engulfed the organisation – both familiar and depressing – is all the fault of the dastardly British press and its nefarious ways.
They could not be more mistaken. They should look within themselves and ask why, having made the world’s most popular game into such a cash cow, they fail to run it like a proper corporate organisation where decisions are not only reached in good time,
For Australia, Ben Buckley spoke about a “No Worries World Cup”.
Alexei Sorokin said Russia would be ready to show “the new country” it had become.
But, for my money, much the most interesting presentation of the three World Cup bidders that spoke at this week’s International Football Arena was that given by Yuuichiro Nakajima of Japan, the only one of the trio, by my judgment, with little chance of winning.
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Tuesday was the day that the gloves came off in the battle to stage the 2018 World Cup.
By making a formal complaint to FIFA, England 2018 signalled to its arch-rival Russia that from now on, in the five-and-a-half weeks that remain before the all-important December 2 vote, it will be playing hardball.
Quite when increasingly hard-pressed FIFA officials, ensconced in their ultra-modern slate-grey citadel in the hills above Zurich, will find the time to adjudicate the matter,
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The Wayne Rooney drama illustrates two things. One, that much of what has happened to Rooney is a replay of his past, the other that the modern world of football is a curious kind of business where players, managers, administrators and even owners have all developed their own distinctive agendas. Their demands for money are always clothed in a spurious sense of higher morality.
The only ones who have not written a new script for themselves are the fans.
Another weekend approaches. All eyes in this turbulent 2018-22 World Cup bidding war will soon be turning again towards the Sunday Times.
After Wednesday’s dramatic media conference, complete with an appearance by the FIFA President himself, it seems to me this could now go one of three ways.
Scenario Number One: the well-resourced London newspaper unleashes its second volley; more FIFA Executive Committee members are embarrassed/forced to try and defend themselves;
I can still see the look of bemusement on the Brazilian journalist’s face.
It was in London a few years ago – in one of those expensive hotels along Park Lane.
Joseph Blatter, the FIFA President, had just explained the process by which the laws of football can be changed.
“So you mean to say,” the Brazilian journalist asked, still struggling evidently to grasp the enormity of what had been imparted,
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The Sunday Times exposé has exploded like a cannonball off the port bow of the good ship FIFA.
The allegations already spread across three broadsheet pages are damaging enough - although not everyone will have been surprised that the headline “World Cup votes for sale” should have appeared at some point in the campaign.
But there was the suggestion in yesterday evening’s FIFA statement that more unwelcome disclosures might be in store.
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It is an important week for English football.
England faced another crucial game at Wembley, and we are approaching the final stages of the race to see who will host the 2018 World Cup.
The players feel together with the fans, pulling in one direction – we are England United. Read more …
Liverpool fans gathering outside the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand would have been better advised to move a short distance westwards to Parliament Square to get our law-makers to address an essential problem in football: that we now have an extraordinarily unlevel playing field when it comes to the national game.
The fact is that the football industry is like a dysfunctional family and this has come about through muddle headed law-making.
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At Wembley tonight, England’s footballers take on Montenegro in a Euro 2012 qualifier.
Improbably enough, it is the visitors who head the group with three wins out of three - pretty remarkable given that the country declared independence just four years ago and, at some 5,000 square miles, is a touch smaller than Northern Ireland and a touch bigger than Death Valley National Park.
As star player Mirko Vucinic and his team-mates pursue their dream tonight at one of world sport’s most famous venues,
When I go to Stamford Bridge, I always try to walk via neighbouring Brompton cemetery.
The overgrown graves and weathered tombstones put things nicely into perspective.
Perhaps this helps to explain why - in the middle of the Leaders in Football debate on the race for the 2018 World Cup - I found myself thinking that none of it actually counted for very much.
The rich, as Hemingway said, are different to the rest of us – they have more money.
But what is now emerging is that the rich in football are expected to behave differently to rich people in any other sport.
This is a very recent, modern, phenomenon which is making football even more distinct from all other sporting activities. It is also creating a huge problem for the game.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Leningrad,” said the air stewardess as we approached St Petersburg airport. I kid you not.
Whether a deliberate piece of mischief, an innocent mistake or an embarrassing gaffe, she had conveniently overlooked the course of recent history. And a pretty significant period at that.