Columnists Archives - Page 8 of 78 - Inside World Football

James Dostoyevsky: Trump’s good deed

Loretta Lynch leads US dept of just press conference

On May 27, 2015, in Brooklyn, New York, Loretta Lynch, Attorney-General of the United States, made a media-savvy appearance. Accompanied by her subordinate (“I am honored to be joined today by Director James Comey of the FBI […])” she highlighted a series of charges that put a number of mainly non-US football officials into serious trouble: “[The individuals indicted today] were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest, and to protect the integrity of the game.

FIFA

James Dostoyevsky: Football is dead

I have been watching social events, political mayhem, financial meltdowns and cultural phenomena for too many years not to understand and accept how very important every human interaction is to, well, at least SOMEbody.

David Owen

David Owen – Has Tebas dropped support for European Super League after all?

In September it was reported that Javier Tebas, showman President of La Liga, had given conditional support to the notion of a breakaway European Super league. Well, to judge by his bravura performance at Sportel Monaco last week, the newly-re-elected Spaniard has undergone an evolution in his thinking.

David Owen

David Owen: US set to get its World Cup, but will FIFA regret only one strong 2026 bid?

If 2016 has taught us anything, it is not to kid ourselves that we can see too far into the future. With that proviso, it looks ever more probable, almost a decade before the first ball is actually kicked, that the United States will have a leading role in hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA

James Dostoyevsky: Meanwhile, Norway has taken Zurich

Who would have thought that a group of Norwegian bloggers could shatter the glass walls of FIFA, UEFA, etc. What they delivered in terms of conspiracy theories about UEFA’s new boss, and FIFA’s new Audit and Compliance chief is pretty cool – time will prove how correct their suppositions are but questions have been asked.

David Owen

David Owen: New hotel, old FIFA

FIFA sign

There is a very important fact worth bearing in mind when seeking to make sense of Gianni Infantino’s FIFA: the 46-year-old Swiss-Italian new boy faces re-election in less than three years’ time.

James Dostoyevsky

James Dostoyevsky: The morbid obesity of the mind

Spartak racism

It only took three days for football’s most important news to disappear from the sports pages. It had never reached further than that to begin with. People are more interested in cats that perform ludicrous acts on the internet than giving a damn for the rampant racism that stares in our face every day. Everywhere.

Football News

Matt Scott: ‘Bung’ revelations are just grist to the media mill, not cause for regulation

money flying

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” John Stuart Mill

Greed, egotism, immorality and corruption. These are the vices of which some of the highest-profile figures in English football have been accused as a result of the Daily Telegraph’s undercover exposé of the game. Quite rightly, people ask how can a nation such as ours,

Andrew Warshaw: ‘I know what you are thinking. Who the … is this guy?’

Minutes after chairing his first executive committee meeting as the seventh president in UEFA’s 62-year history, a suitably attired Aleksander Ceferin approached a lift on the lower ground floor at the luxury resort complex where the organisation’s top brass had been staying.

David Owen

David Owen: Why the Champions League needs some surgery

By David Owen

Thursday’s group stage draw provides the perfect illustration of why the Champions League needs reform.

Andrew Warshaw: FIFA Ethics’ corruption conundrums

FIFA shadows

Suddenly, strangely, it has all gone quiet. After days and weeks of eager anticipation about whether Gianni Infantino is being investigated for breaking ethics rules, Fifa continues to leave us all on tenterhooks.

Andrew Warshaw: The ‘Platini plot’, the ticketing scandal and the dark forces

Michel Platini11

When hundreds of television cameras zoomed in on the climax of Euro 2016, capturing Portugal’s elation and France’s despair, one man was conspicuous by his absence – just as he had been throughout the tournament.

Dr Laila Mintas

Dr Laila Mintas: A 4-point check list for creating a robust anti-match-fixing body

matchfixing

The largest corruption threat to football is the one that its administrators frequently seem most reluctant to face aggressively. Match-fixing cannot be swept under the carpet but the anti-match-fixing fight does need more funding and the acceptance of objective benchmarks to evaluate the independence of the governing bodies in the front line.

FIFA

Inside Editorial: Kattner falls foul of FIFA’s new deal

FIFA shadows

Are we really to believe that the indiscretions of FIFA’s finance director Markus Kattner have only been discovered in the past few days? Do they really think that their member federations, the watching press and the rest of the football world are that stupid and will lap it up unquestioningly?

Andrew Warshaw: My reforms by my rules with my ball

Gianni Infantino, less than three months into the job as the man chosen to lead FIFA into a new era of respectability, turned to his fawning converts and declared: “I can officially inform you here, the crisis is over.”