Staging Euro 2020 games in a politically problematic country embroiled in conflict is untenable, and Uefa needs to actOn Tuesday night the Azerbaijan men’s national football team drew 0-0 with Luxembourg. Three days before that the Azerbaijan men’s national football team drew 0-0 with Montenegro. Three days before that the Azerbaijan men’s national football team drew 0-0 with Slovenia. Four weeks before that the Azerbaijan men’s national football team drew 0-0 with Cyprus.0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0. In the course of this run Azerbaijan have pared their game down from six shots on target to just the one last time out. The natural end point of this graph, the real moment of fulfilment, would see Azerbaijan complete their next 0-0 with...
To continue with European competitions at a time like this feels like an exercise in futility and jaw-dropping complacencyThere is a debate to be had over who is the real villain in the movie Jaws – the shark that patrols the waters off the resort of Amity devouring the appetising and unwitting, or Larry Vaughn, the wilfully myopic mayor who refuses to close the popular local beaches despite having been alerted to the predator’s presence. Following one such discussion on an episode of an American podcast, a listener felt compelled to contact the Jaws screenwriter, Carl Gottlieb, and the 82-year-old ventured the opinion that neither the maneater nor its human enabler were entirely blameless.“Well, clearly the shark is the primary...
If the insatiable elite want to follow the IPL’s example, then let them if it helps counter football’s growing predictabilityConsider the start of this season. What do you see? Do the chaotic results – Manchester City letting in five, Manchester United letting in six, Liverpool letting in seven, Everton and Aston Villa top of the table, Chelsea making 3-3 their default result – engender a thrill of excitement at the unpredictability of it all? Or did you see the two Manchester clubs in the bottom half of the table after last weekend, and Tottenham and Chelsea seventh and eighth, and worry that this might damage revenue streams for teams favoured by the global audience? Related: Revealed: Greg Clarke's real role...
Overturning their two-year Champions League ban should not be seen as a reason for celebrating in the streets, but this is football so it probably will beIf you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. If there was ever any doubt that Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed was playing this game to win, such thoughts will have been erased for good by the success of Manchester City’s stunning, potentially transformative appeal against the judicial processes of European football.This being football, the success of City’s supremely powerful legal team in junking a flawed two-year ban will no doubt be cast in the most binary terms. Related: Pep Guardiola clear for £150m transfer spend after Manchester City...
Fifa’s and Uefa’s response to the solidarity shown by players with George Floyd needs to be more than platitudesTalk is famously cheap and out of the mouths of international football administrators tumble platitudes that are not worth the paper they will soon be written on. While encouraging, the apparent freedom granted by Fifa to players who wish to throw their collective shoulder to the wheel of protest against the sickening death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minnesota policeman should perhaps be greeted with scepticism.“For the avoidance of doubt, in a Fifa competition the recent demonstration of players in Bundesliga matches would deserve an applause and not a punishment,” said Gianni Infantino after on-field gestures made by the...