Premier League waved through a debt-loading takeover of Manchester United from which the family make fortunesIn 2005, a generation ago now, when supporters were first protesting against the pending takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family, the approach of the football authorities was mostly to brush off their concerns. There seemed to be a sense among the blazers in the Football Association and the Premier League suits that the fans just did not really understand the mystique of a corporate takeover, or the excitements of having “investors” from America. Related: Gary Neville and Roy Keane express support for United fans’ protests Continue reading...
Super League shambles shows the focus must not be on short-term gain even as search for sustainability goes onThe European Super League saga may, for now, be over but fallout from the shambolic breakaway attempt rumbles on.“As soon as practicable after the start of the men’s competition, a corresponding women’s league will also be launched, helping to advance and develop the women’s game,” the ESL launch statement proclaimed. Related: ‘It’s been a pleasure and privilege’: Fara Williams to retire at end of the season Europe's most successful women's football team, Lyon, have hired a female coach for the first time with former academy director Sonia Bompastor replacing Jean-Luc Vasseur. Continue reading...
European football’s dirty dozen must not be allowed to slip back into their routines. Now is the time to get vindictiveThose of you with a taste for these things will have noted the irony: a competition designed to eliminate promotion and relegation in perpetuity somehow managed to shed half its teams in a single evening. One by one the scions of the European Super League fell, like spurned pastry chefs in a televised baking competition: first the prize flans of Chelsea and Manchester City, then the rest of the English clubs late on Tuesday night, then Atlético Madrid and the two Milan clubs on Wednesday morning. Farewell then, Super League. You promised a leaner, more tightly-focused vision of football, and...
Manchester City fans like me had the chance to vote with our feet, mouths and placards. We didn’t and now the Super League shows we’re irrelevantI’m tapping out a tweet to my football club, Manchester City, trying to make a case for why they shouldn’t join the Super League. But nothing’s coming out except for abuse. A fuck at the start, one at the end and another in the middle for good luck. A three-word sentence. I delete them, and start anew. The same happens again. Pure senseless abuse. Well fair enough, I’m in an abusive relationship, and there comes a point when you say enough is enough, it’s time for the abused to fight back.But I’ve been here before....
In a time of economic hardship, it is right to feel appalled at the potential sums involved in Erling Haaland’s impending transferAt this time of year it was a common thing for elegant young men of the 19th century to set off on a Grand Tour of Europe. Shuttered inside his velveteen stage coach, the brave traveller would wind from royal court to ancient city, taking in the rites of passage: harpsichord studies in Bologna, a marzipan banquet in Nîmes, a wonderful six-month tuition in the fine art of Etruscan wrestling from a youth called Hercule on the Istanbul docks.It was interesting to see Erling Haaland embarking on a kind of modern-day superstar athlete equivalent this week. According to reports...