Category Archives: Football
The evasive Barca goal
Rumour has it that Guardiola and Mourinho share one thing in common at present: they want to qualify for the next round of the Champion’s League as quickly as possible so as to focus their efforts when the battle for La Liga really gets underway early in the New Year- and when you have to draw on all your resources to compete in the early Spring with the other big guns in Europe. While not just Real Madrid but Chelsea and Arsenal seemed to be firing on all cylinders this …
Scotland vs Spain
Watching Scotland play Spain last night was a delight. I can’t think of a more genial bunch of fans than the Tartan Army. Two days on the Costa del Sol and they had won the hearts and minds of every local, with their harmless good cheer. No matter their players weren’t quite up to the standards of their hosts. Spaniards joined in the Scots singing, and even tried to liven up the bagpipe with some rhythmic flamenco clapping. Spain was quite simply beautiful to watch. This was a team that …
Pep Guardiola: Football’s Guru
Anyone expecting Pep Guardiola to make a bid for the presidency of Catalonia may have been disappointed by his speech to the Catalan parliament the other day, where he received a medal, honouring him or his professional work. Pep’s short speech was short, articulate, and hugely inspirational. He was there to make clear the importance of being passionate about what you do in life-however unimportant you think what you do is- , and to leave us with no doubt that the one overriding passion in his life is football- playing it, …
Qatar and Barca
I remember back in the summer of 2003 attending a press conference organised by the Elefant Blau during the FC Barcelona presidential election campaign at which the then candidate Joan Laporta sat side by side with his running mate Sandro Rosell. There was a sense of positive expectation. The Elefant Blau had made huge a huge advance on the collective consciousness of football fans worldwide as a grassroots movement that believed in democracy , transparency , and financial accountability. A new era was beckoning after decades during which Barca ‘s …
La Liga: Another two horse race
There are many months ahead filled with potential pitfalls-not least injuries and general exhaustion brought on by an increasingly manic schedule-but the opening La Liga games have provided some tantalising clues as to what awaits us. Building on their performances in the Super Cup, both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have got off to an impressive start that suggest not only that La Liga will be a battle royal between them, but that they will also prove difficult to beat in the Champions League. But first let us not forget …
Barcagate
If the media empire of Rupert Murdoch has its hackgate, Spanish football has its Barcagate– or does it? One of the longest serving football club presidents in the history of the game, Jose Luis Núñez, has just been condemned to a prison sentence of six years by a Spanish court after being found guilty on charges of bribery and falsification of documents. Also found guilty, and condemned to a prison sentence of eleven year years was Josep Maria Huguet, the inspector of taxes in Catalonia between 1985 and 1994 who …
Diego & Messi
That there are Argentines beginning to demand that Maradona is brought back as national coach while at the same blaming Messi for the failures of the nation’s team says something about a country, and a lot about a club. Maradona was once probably the best player in the history of football but it’s also true that his personal and professional decline as a player began after the World Cup in Mexico 1986, and that in South Africa 2010 this overweight drug addict was entertaining as a coach but a disaster …
Diego y Messi
Que algunos Argentinos empiecen a clamar por el retorno de Maradona mientras que le echen a Messi las culpas de los fallos de su selección nos dice algo sobre un país, y mucho sobre un club. Maradona en su momento fue tal vez el mejor jugador de la historia del futbol pero también es cierto que su declive personal y profesional como jugador fue en aumento a partir del Mundial de México 1986, y que en Sudáfrica 2010 este ex drogadicto gordinflón fue entretenido como entrenador pero un desastre en …
A Wembley Dream
Of all the chants resounding round the Barca section of Wembley last night, few proved as popular as ‘ Porque,Porque, Porque’. Why does Barca win was the question’s football’s agent provocateur Jose Mourinho asked, insinuating-as only he would-that the answer may lie in diving and deranged referees. Well Mourinho eat your hat. The answer, as Alex Ferguson recognised, was blowing in the sweet air of a team’s collective genius which made an opponent of the quality of Manchester United struggle to keep in the game for much of the …
Wembley Bound
Less than a week to go before the Champions League final at Wembley, and my nerves are already on edge, tension rising. I am assured of a ticket, but I am also seriously contemplating asking for help from a neighbour who is a hypnotherapist. This is a match I’m reluctant to predict the outcome of. My heart sees a Barca victory, but my head throbs with the fear that Ferguson might just clinch it. The more I think of it though, the less does the last encounter in Rome strike …
