Mihir Bose's Blog, page 39

Rumblings at FIFA mean Blatter’s time at the top could finally be over

This World Cup may finally force FIFA to change.

That might seem strange given that they bury their head deeper in the sand as each corruption allegation emerges.

But after a tournament in which FIFA have been caught on the back foot so often, some senior officials are prepared to concede that they cannot continue pretending all their bad press is manufactured by the wicked English media.

Forget Fabio Capello’s flops, Russians still have plenty to celebrate in Brazil

The idea that Russia has had a great World Cup seems ludicrous. Fabio Capello’s team failed to win a game and angry fans have called for his sacking.

But, for Russia, these finals are not just about what is taking place on the pitch. This tournament has provided the 2018 hosts with a platform to showcase the country and this is where the Russians have pulled off a great triumph.

Indian cricket’s amazing half-century

When India’s players toured England in 1959, they were still suffering ‘colonial hangover’. Five decades on, their modern counterparts are crucial to the sport’s financial wellbeing.


On Wednesday morning, as a Nottingham-based Indian businessman settles into his box at Trent Bridge to watch England and India’s cricketers, he will shake his head in wonder. The last time India played a five-match Test series in England was in 1959, when the first Test was also in Nottingham. In the intervening half-century, his own life has changed dramatically, as has the game he loves and both the country of his birth and the one he has adopted.

Blame the system not the players for Africa’s World Cup woes.

In a World Cup that has produced such joyous football, spare a thought for a continent which has been reduced to tears by events on and off the pitch.

There are no African teams in the quarter-finals — three of their five representatives failed even to get out of their groups — and there are allegations that Cameroon were involved in match fixing during their 4‑0 loss to Croatia.

What does this South American World Cup teach us?

The Uruguayan polemicist and football fanatic Eduardo Galeano once wrote: "Tell me how you play, and I will tell you who you are."

So now as the World Cup, in the country made for football and made by football, draws to a close it is worth asking what this World Cup has told us about football and about us. That such a question can be raised about what is essentially 22 men in shorts kicking a ball around shows us how football is seen in Latin America. It is a game all of the continent embraces including its leading literary figures, apart that is from the great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges who wrote, "Football is popular because stupidity is popular". But he was the great exception and why and how football has such a place in Latin America is the theme of Golazo written by Andreas Campomar and subtitled A History of Latin American Football.

The beautiful gain of Brazil winning may not be enough to stop things turning ugly

This World Cup has been extraordinary for the way Brazil fans have held their noses in the air to avoid the stench coming from FIFA and their own government and decided that they will just enjoy the football.

It is as if they have decided to bottle up the anger they clearly feel until after the final on July 13.

How Luis Suarez incident could spark FIFA to explore wider use of technology

Luis Suarez’s act of tasting human flesh (again) may revolutionise football.

This World Cup is the first with goal-line technology but FIFA are still technophobes in other areas of the game.

However, that could change following Suarez’s latest biting as football could vastly expand its use of technology to help referees.

When Suarez sank his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini, neither referee Marco Rodriguez nor fourth official Mark W Geiger knew what had happened. Had the fourth official had access to an instant TV replay things would have been much clearer. It is too early to say when such technology may come in or what form it could take but the fact that within hours of the Suarez incident FIFA executive members were willing to discuss such a subject shows how far the technology debate has moved.

Sepp Blatter is struggling with his disappearing act

Sepp Blatter never shuns publicity. As a child, he loved being on the stage and his one regret about leaving his job as FIFA secretary general to become president was that he would no longer conduct the World Cup draw.

The thought of not being on stage with millions glued to the box as he shuffled the balls was agony.

Why the system, not Hodgson, is to blame for England’s problems

One of Roy Hodgson's favourite writers, Stefan Sweig, killed himself in Petropolis, a town near Rio in 1942 despairing of where European civilisation and culture was headed. Now what has happened to Hodgson in Brazil does not bear any comparison with what Sweig was going through as the fight with Nazism raged in Europe with no definite indication that this evil could be defeated.

Those of us who write about sport often use absurd, theatrical, language particularly when treating a sporting defeat as a national disaster. We are not the only ones. In Brazil the defeat at the hands of Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup led to a term called Marcanazo. It represents the hurt from this unexpected football defeat and is so deeply felt that the country has never forgotten what happened in that match. Endless books and films have been made about the 1950 match.

Why Franz Beckenbauer fears being a victim of FIFA’s corruption inquiry

Franz Beckenbauer has always been very shrewd and calculating.

While other former players have been involved in scandal, the Kaiser has steered clear of trouble. So it is a huge shock that the man who won the World Cup as a player and manager was handed a 90‑day ban by FIFA for refusing to give evidence to the Michael Garcia inquiry over the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar.