Surprising frontrunner for the job of England women’s manager sums up the FA’s continuing bumbling approachWhat an amusing inevitability to learn that Phil Neville is the frontrunner for the job of managing the England women’s side. I very much enjoyed my colleague Louise Taylor’s report into the matter, which stated: “It is understood the 40-year-old’s name was initially suggested to the Football Association in a lighthearted manner by a well-known broadcaster at a drinks reception last month.”This is my favourite How Job Applications Work story since George Osborne’s friends asked the former chancellor for his advice on their pitches for the Evening Standard editorship. Sorry, guys – he had a look at your proposals, but in the end the opportunity...
By taking a stand over racial abuse he has received, Liverpool’s 17-year-old striker shames those who run the game but offers hope for the next generationIt isn’t easy knowing whether the people occupying football’s ivory towers have actually noted what Rhian Brewster has had to say in the past few days. Unless I have missed it, the executives at Uefa and Fifa have not uttered a word in response and, frankly, that is no surprise whatsoever. Anyone calling Uefa since 22 December would get a cheery answerphone message saying its offices are closed and the lights are out until 4 January. Fifa, meanwhile, is on its own extended Christmas break. “Hope you are not in a hurry,” one of its...
How can the governing body expect behaviour to improve if it will not publish the fair-play table and allow us to see which clubs are punished in it for their treatment of officials?The news came via a press release from Burnley’s media department. “Burnley FC Tops FA Respect Table,” was the headline, announcing the award of a £20,000 prize for having the best record in the top division last season when it came to fair play and understanding, under the guidance of Sean Dyche, that influencing or deceiving the referee should not be thought of as just another skill or tactic.Nobody should be surprised when Dyche’s ethos is that his players give everything, tackle hard and never shirk a challenge,...
Lineker has been one of Fifa’s most visceral critics and it is baffling to find him presiding over events in Moscow, even in an industry where the phrase ’complete moral volte-face’ tends to draw blank looksAs the days ticked down you kept thinking he might still have something up his sleeve. Maybe this is a brilliantly orchestrated inside job. Maybe halfway through the World Cup draw in Moscow, as the balls are divvied up and shark-like Fifa men with faces as blank as the polished granite interior of a Panamanian bank vault yawn behind their hands, Gary Lineker will wink at the camera, drop the mask of sickly corporate piety and get on with trashing the place.This is how it...
Fifa president has already wrecked his flagship event and with the World Cup taking place on Friday has only one of 20 local sponsors in place and has yet to agree terms for the TV rights with Russian broadcastersGood news and bad news once more for Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, who refuses to abandon his delusions of adequacy. The good news is Gianni has pre-announced there will be no racist incidents at the Russia World Cup next summer. “This is a very high priority,” he explained, “and we will make sure no incidents will happen.”The bad news is there may be no local sponsors at the Russia World Cup next summer. I say “no local sponsors” – in fact, there is...