By Andrew Warshaw
November 4 – Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo has tried to play down the mood of dissatisfaction throughout the country, highlighted by the mass street protests that marred last summer’s Confederations Cup. Rebelo remains convinced that the party atmosphere at next year’s World Cup, Brazil’s first as hosts for over half a century, will deflect attention away from social unrest.
Dall’entusiasmo alla “realpolitik”. Ovvero, come i padroni del calcio italiano – in tempi di lotta ad ogni forma di razzismo – hanno scoperto di non poter applicare regole autoprodotte perché i loro stadi risultano ingovernabili. La storia è nota. Sull’onda delle iniziative Uefa, ad agosto la Figc decideva di sanzionare duramente non solo i fenomeni di razzismo, ma anche quelli di “discriminazione territoriale”, definizione esistente nell’ordinamento dalla fine degli anni Ottanta. Non avevano però fatto i conti con gli ultrà,
By Andrew Warshaw
November 1 – The image of Russian football, already battered by highly publicised instances of racism, has been shamed again, this time by a damaging outbreak of hooliganism that resulted in 78 Spartak Moscow fans being detained and a cup game temporarily suspended. The incident at second tier club Shinnik Yaroslavl occurred on Wednesday, ironically just after Moscow rivals CSKA had part of their stadium ordered closed by UEFA as punishment for the racist abuse directed towards Manchester City’s Yaya Toure in a recent Champions League tie.
November 1 – UEFA will refuse any request by Celtic to play European fixtures in either England or Ireland next season as a result of their ground being used for the Commonwealth Games.
By Paul Nicholson
November 1 – 64% of people don’t leave home without their smartphone, 45% use their smartphone at events, and 43% would rather stop drinking beer than using their smartphone. These were some of the fact thrown out by Deutsche Telekom’s senior VP for Sports Marketing Henning Stiegenroth, speaking at the International Football Arena in Zurich on Monday.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 1 – French professional clubs look certain to carry out their threatened strike after the country’s President Francois Hollande (pictured) refused to exempt them from his controversial 75% tax on high earners.
So, Ronaldo, the Great Field Marshall, is pissed.
And with him, Ancellotti (Angelotto?) and the whole of Spain, and Portugal, and the Government of Portugal, and – well, I guess GOD and Snow-white, too. Not to mention the Seven Dwarves, Superman, Donald and Daisy Duck and Roadrunner.
By David Owen
November 1 – Stock market investors seem to have given a thumbs-up to BT’s strategy of acquiring highly compelling sports content, such as live rights to Barclays Premier League football matches, after yesterday’s publication of the telephone company’s first quarterly financial results since the launch of BT Sport on August 1.
I’m not sure I’ve that much in common with Cristiano Ronaldo. Though maybe we’ve both had a sense of humour bypass.
Cristiano was of course so offended by the FIFA President joking about him that he felt the need to respond, in a barely concealed waspish fashion.
But I certainly haven’t found much to laugh about from the world of football recently. And just as I baulk at world leaders who latch on to sporting success with hollow congratulations,
Amidst all the rhetoric in recent days from FIFA and UEFA over the separate issues of racism and World Cup slots, the bigger picture seems to be one of canny manoeuvrings being played out in front of the world’s media by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini in order to gain the moral high ground.
“Anything you can do, I can do better” appears to be the basis of the rather silly (at best uncomfortable) mind games being employed by the respective presidents of football’s two main governing bodies.
By Jamie Styles
October 31 – Football clubs looking to recruit the best talent into their academies might consider turning to social media which was used by the Boston College Eagles American football programme with transformational effect.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – The climax to the African World Cup playoffs have been thrown into confusion after Cape Verde appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a FIFA ruling which resulted in them being kicked out of the qualifying competition.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – Qatar’s relentless bid to secure a major profile in Europe has been significantly enhanced by a deal between Qatar Tourism Authority and Paris Saint Germain worth a reported €150-€200m a season. Widely rumoured last season, the partnership is designed to promote Qatar as a tourist destination to European audiences.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – FIFA has imposed global bans on four players and a coach from Australia’s Southern Stars Victorian Premier League side in an escalation of the most serious match-fixing scandal to hit the country.
By Paul Nicholson
October 30 – Amid the figures presented by Martin Wagner, delegate to the Board of TEAM Marketing, at the International Football Arena (IFA) conference earlier this week, was an explanation from the coal face of sports marketing of why, if football rights are handled correctly, their value will continue to increase.