David Owen: How I fell out of love with Holland’s 20th century boys

Dear Holland,

I’m sorry, but it’s over between us.

Along with millions of other school kids, I became besotted with you 40 years and a week ago – on 19 June 1974, the day of the Cruyff turn. It was a difficult time: Sir Alf Ramsey’s World Cup-winning team had broken up and England hadn’t made it to the 1974 tournament in West Germany. What is worse, Scotland had. Into this emotional void strode coach Rinus Michels’s team of strutting demigods headed by Johan Cruyff,

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It’s a man’s world in France. Trailblazer Costa quits before a ball is kicked

Helena Costa

June 26 – The first woman manage of a senior male professional team, Helena Costa, has resigned before she had the chance to see Clermont Foot kick a ball under her management. Costa’s appointment caused a media frenzy when announced last month and she was set to be a progressive trailblazer – a woman appointed to manage a professional men’s team in the French second division. But the Portuguese found her position untenable due to a poor working environment.

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Matt Scott: The £6bn black hole that could bring financial fire for football

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“The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them.” Job 1:16, King James Bible

It is very unlikely that, 4,000-odd years ago when Job is said to have walked this earth, there was any such a thing as insurance. Even if there was, and even if the old boy had kept up with his premiums, his sheep and his servants might still not have been covered anyway.

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European and Scottish football chief David Taylor dies, aged 60

David Taylor

June 25 – David Taylor, one of Europe’s leading and most respected football administrators has passed away, aged 60. A passionate Scotsman and Scottish football supporter, Taylor joined UEFA in 2007 and variously held the positions of UEFA General Secretary and CEO of UEFA Events SA, and latterly UEFA corporate business advisor. 

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Day 14 Match stat pack: NIG v ARG, BOS v IRA, HON v SUI, ECU v FRA

June 25 – Groups E and F play to conclusion with Nigeria needing to avoid defeat against Argentina to be Africa’s first, and potentially only, representative in the last 16. Though Iran will be looking to do the same for Asia. The Swiss need a good win over Honduras to beat Ecuador into the next round, assuming the South American can overcome a high flying French team.

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Media tracker charts skew towards English language nations

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June 25 – Media tracker Moreover Technologies has come up with a number of data sets around how the media worldwide is covering the World Cup and what is trending in terms of stories. While doubtless Luis Suarez’s bite night last night will be the current most covered story globally (stats still to be released), the data throws up interesting information on what is capturing the world’s imagination.

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Mihir Bose: Why the system, not Hodgson, is to blame for England’s problems

One of Roy Hodgson’s favourite writers, Stefan Sweig, killed himself in Petropolis, a town near Rio in 1942 despairing of where European civilisation and culture was headed. Now what has happened to Hodgson in Brazil does not bear any comparison with what Sweig was going through as the fight with Nazism raged in Europe with no definite indication that this evil could be defeated.

Those of us who write about sport often use absurd,

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Belo blues revisited as English bow out with a whimper

US vs England 1950

By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 25 – Prince Harry wasn’t the only VIP attending England’s final game of the World Cup in Brazil’s third largest city. Just when England fans thought it could not get any worse, the match took place in the very city where England’s much-lauded team were humiliated by a bunch of amateurs from the United States all of 64 years ago.

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Inside Insight: Und dann kommt die FIFA und klaut 0.09% !

Die Unken haben gerufen, und was ist geschehen? “The best world cup ever”, meinte ein ITV Sportskommentator. “Die besten Fussballspiele seit Jahrzehnten”, meinte ein anderer Kollege aus deutschen Landen. “Korruption aller Orten”, heisst es allerdings in einschlägigen Kreisen.

Die FIFA soll also nicht bloss Fussball organisieren, behüte! Sie soll sich um soziale Anliegen und um soziale Gerechtigkeit kümmern, soll das lösen, was korrupte Regierungen von links nach rechts offensichtlich nicht zu lösen vermögen.

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Und dann kommt die FIFA und klaut 0.09% !

Brazil protestor

June 24 – Die Unken haben gerufen, und was ist geschehen? “The best world cup ever”, meinte ein ITV Sportskommentator. “Die besten Fussballspiele seit Jahrzehnten”, meinte ein anderer Kollege aus deutschen Landen. “Korruption aller Orten”, heisst es allerdings in einschlägigen Kreisen.

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