Top players, the FA and the Premier League need to devote time, energy and influence to persuading teenagers to ‘drop the knife and save a life’Like many 10-year-old boys throughout Britain in the year 2000, Damilola Taylor was a fan of Manchester United, happily in thrall to the team of Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Andy Cole. He loved playing the game, too. Today, 18 years after he bled to death in the stairwell of a Peckham housing estate, his name is on the youth centre where he practised his skills.Beyond the fact he had left Lagos for south London a few months earlier with his mother and a sister who needed specialised treatment for epilepsy, a love of football...
The Manchester United manager has been charged by the FA for using ‘abusive, insulting or improper language’ but it seems reasonable to raise the question: was it really offensive?In this week’s episode of the José Mourinho show the Manchester United manager could have another sentimental return to Stamford Bridge ruined by the threat of a touchline ban for swearing in Portuguese.The Football Association has charged the Premier League’s most accomplished attention seeker with the use of “abusive, insulting or improper language” after he apparently repeated the phrase “fodas filhos de puta” into the TV cameras following United’s late win against Newcastle. Related: José Mourinho charged with improper conduct after Newcastle match Related: José Mourinho complains he is being blamed for...
Price is not right but more relevant than the lack of control over the stadium’s future is can we really trust football’s governing body to oversee the reinvestment into the grassroots game?It takes some doing to sell a piece of London property for less than it cost you 10 years ago, a decade in which house prices in the capital have risen, according to the Office of National Statistics, by an average of 100%. Yet this magic trick is what the Football Association seems to be on the brink of pulling off, in selling a home that cost more than £800m to the Pakistani‑American billionaire Shahid Khan for around three-quarters of that sum.No wonder Ken Bates was apoplectic. “You never sell...
The rebuilt stadium cost £757m in 2007, far less than the £600m on offer, but the proposed deal makes sense - especially for grassroots footballOf all the questions prompted by the Football Association’s announcement that it is considering selling Wembley for about £600m to the car parts and NFL billionaire Shahid Khan, one, bluntly, was whether that is actually enough money. Related: FA promises £600m Wembley windfall will go to grassroots football Related: FA holds talks to sell Wembley to Fulham owner Khan in £900m deal Continue reading...
Despite the time it has taken, the news that one of the game’s superpowers are launching a pro women’s team is welcomeFinally. The announcement that Manchester United are to launch a professional women’s team and have bid for a place in a newly restructured second tier next season has provoked a variety of responses but overall it is deeply welcome.Why? Because whatever you may think about United’s late arrival to the party, one of the superpowers of world football entering the arena will boost the profile of the game and show that women’s football has reached the point where it must be taken seriously. And United, seen by many as stubborn and out of step, will benefit from an enhanced...