Inside World Football - Page 1549 of 2160 - For the Business of Football

Matt Scott: Inglorious failure has proved costly for former Premier League clubs. Who’s next?

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“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” Nelson Mandela

In Europe at least, falling is an ever-present risk in the game of football. Relegation makes it so. Every year in four of the top-five leagues in the UEFA jurisdiction, 15% must lose their top-flight status. It is a devastating emotional blow for all who suffer it but, due to the riches available to that division in England,

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Spurs midfield legend Dave Mackay dies, aged 80

Dave McKay

March 3 – Dave Mackay, one of the iconic midfielders of British football whose name will for ever be synonymous with Tottenham Hotspur during the club’s golden era half a century ago, has died at the age of 80.

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Transfers: Suárez, Fabregas, Sigurdsson, Alonso and Lovren are the big wins

Suarez

By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – Buying the wrong player at the wrong price is the biggest mistake a club can make financially. CIES statistics show that the clubs who traded best in the transfer window for the start of the season (in terms of number of best performing players) are Real Madrid and Hoffenheim, followed by Barcelona, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Southampton, Leverkusen and Napoli.

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English FA wants Great Britain teams at Rio Olympics

Rio 2016

By David Owen
March 2 – The Football Association is keen for Great Britain teams once again to participate in the Olympic football tournament at next year’s Games in the football-besotted city of Rio de Janeiro. This follows the appearance of both men’s and women’s teams at London 2012, when it was felt desirable that the host nation should be represented if possible in every sport. Prior to that, no British team had played at any Olympics for more than half a century.

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Belgium’s oldest club, Royal Antwerp, begins financial rehab

Royal Antwerp FC

By Samindra Kunti
March 2 – Royal Antwerp F.C. has taken another step in the process of obtaining a license for the Belgian second division after entrepreneur Patrick Decuyper settled €600,000 of debts.

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Football’s lawmakers put video refs on pause, but mistakes keep coming

video referee

By Andrew Warshaw
March 2 – The timing could not have been more apt. Just as the custodians of world football decided to delay the advent of video technology to help referees for at least a year, so those in favour of speeding things up pointed to another example of the need for progress with a case of mistaken identity in England’s Premier League.

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Parma critical as game postponed and players refuse to play without wages

Parma fans

March 2 – The crisis at cash-strapped Parma has intensified after the Serie A club had a second match called off at the weekend, this time after the players threatened to go on strike over unpaid wages.

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FIFA pay respect to the inventor of the penalty, William McCrum

William McCrum gravestone

March 2 – FIFA has agreed to fund the restoration of the grave of William McCrum, the man responsible for first proposing the penalty kick to football’s lawmakers which was adopted back in 1890.

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QPR cut losses to £9.8m, but write off £60m of loans

Tony Fernandes2

By Paul Nicholson
March 2 – Queens Park Rangers (QPR) have announced reduced losses of £9.8 million for the year ending May 2014 – the season QPR won promotion back to the English Premier League. The previous year QPR had announced the largest loss ever recorded by an English club – £65.4 million to May 2013 – in the season the club were relegated from the top flight.

Africa

Keshi rejects Nigerian ‘slave’ contract as Pinnick kicks out at critics

Stephen Keshi2

By Mark Baber
March 2 – President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick threatened to take legal action against the press on Friday, as his controversial administration continues to be plagued by questions over transparency, NFF finances, a contract for national team coach Stephen Keshi and administrative competence.

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Now UEFA see red and slam IFAB ruling on triple punishment

triple punishment

By Andrew Warshaw
March 2 – A new FIFA-UEFA spat has emerged, this time over how to resolve the thorny issue of triple punishment – penalty, sending off and suspension – for players who deliberately prevent a goalscoring opportunity.

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Cardiff’s Bluebirds see red with £12m loss after Premier League flight

Vincent Tan 3

By David Owen
March 1 – Cardiff City’s Bluebirds may recently have reverted back to their traditional blue home shirts, but when it comes to their accounts they are still in the red. The Welsh club’s brief excursion into the Premier League last season resulted in a near five-fold increase in revenue from £17.3 million to £83.1 million. But, as shown by its recently-published financial statements, not even this was enough to push the club into profit in the year ended 31 May 2014 –

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Football’s short term horizons

My father used to say that public memory is notoriously short. He was referring to politics not football but that holds very true for the round ball game as well. And herein lies a contradiction. There is nothing that arouses greater fury in football, both among the fans and the media, than the hire fire policy of chairmen and the board of struggling clubs. The moan is that the money men who always know the price of everything and the value of nothing want instant success and just do not understand that success in football takes times.

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Blatter plays Santa and gives Europe its Christmas 2022 back

Desert xmas

By Andrew Warshaw in Belfast
February 27 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been quick to clear up arguably the main sticking point regarding the 2022 winter World Cup by promising it will not stretch as far as two days before Christmas.

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Feyenoord’s banana skin on another night of crowd shame

Feyenoord-Roma-banana

By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – Dutch fans of Feyenoord are desperately taking to social media to insist that the inflatable plastic banana thrown on to the pitch during the Europa League match against Roma was not a racist act. Just an unfortunate choice of fruit? Equally unfortunate that it appeared to be aimed at Roma’s Gervinho?