Columnists Archives - Page 70 of 78 - Inside World Football

David Owen: World Cup bid race is beginning to hot up

As we approach the final week of the contest to decide where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be played, in just the last day or so it has emerged that:

● British Prime Minister David Cameron is to spend the best part of three days in Zurich, lobbying for the England 2018 bid. This after inviting Jack Warner, one of the most influential FIFA Executive Committee members, to lunch.

● Russia’s Government are making final plans for a visit to the Swiss city by Vladimir Putin,

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David Owen: Bans will reinforce FIFA reputation for sleaze

So now we know. The conclave that will assemble next month in Zurich to decide where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be played will be at most 22 strong.

Though some might think this appropriate – it is after all the same as the number of players who take to the field for a game of football – the suspensions of Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii will clearly reinforces the reputation for sleaze with which FIFA has long been saddled just as the attention of the world is once again about to descend upon it.

Columnists

Rodney Marsh: England 2018 World Cup bid is “mortally wounded”

The FA have just written to FIFA to try and repair the damage caused by the Sunday Times and forthcoming BBC Panorama investigations into World Cup bidding. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think the letter will make an iota of difference, although I hope I’m wrong, because I would dearly love to see the World Cup come back to England.

But FIFA is desperate not to make a mistake in awarding the 2018 World Cup,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: David Cameron must invoke spirit of Sir Alex Ferguson for England 2018 to win World Cup

Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous comment “football, bloody hell” made after Manchester United did the treble in 1999, could well apply to the World Cup bids. Had a script-writer presented this scenario, it would have been rejected out of hand.

The script has as a key player a man who scored the winning goal against England nearly 30 years ago, and has seen the English bid team effectively apologising for the UK media.

The key question is: can David Cameron do what Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær did for Manchester United in Barcelona and conjure up an England victory?

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Liverpool story still has a long way to run

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”

Columnists

Rodney Marsh: England will drop out of top 20 countries by next World Cup

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.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: FIFA still runs football as if it were a cottage industry

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,

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David Owen: Ultra-realism and why World Cup bidding contests as we know them might soon be consigned to history

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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David Owen: The gloves are off in the fight for the World Cup

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,

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: No word in modern football is more misused than “ambition”

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.

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David Owen: Why Blatter may yet be the real winner in FIFA’s vote for cash scandal

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;

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David Owen: End this rule-change voting system which unfairly favours Brits

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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David Owen: FIFA bracing itself for more bad news

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.

Columnists

Rio Ferdinand: England’s passion for football “will be felt all over the globe”

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 …

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Fans treated as if they don’t count by dysfunctional football family

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.