Mihir Bose's Blog, page 57
January 9, 2013
Football’s moral quagmire
Insideworldfootball
Let us get this right. Luis Suarez is no more a cheat than most football players. I agree with those that argue that the moral spasm his handball goal has evoked is way over the top if not a touch hypocritical. I wonder if the critics have been to many football matches or if they have perhaps been too busy with other things to concentrate on what they are seeing.
If we are saying Suarez was cheating, then how is that different from when a player claims a throw, or a corner, when he knows very well the ball has come off not the opposition, but himself or one of his team mates? Or when a goalkeeper, having faintly finger tipped the ball over the goal, pretends he has not but that the ball has come off the opposing forward. He is saying this in order to persuade the referee not to give a corner which could be a goal scoring opportunity for the opposition. As far as I am concerned all these incidents amount to cheating.
Let us get this right. Luis Suarez is no more a cheat than most football players. I agree with those that argue that the moral spasm his handball goal has evoked is way over the top if not a touch hypocritical. I wonder if the critics have been to many football matches or if they have perhaps been too busy with other things to concentrate on what they are seeing.
If we are saying Suarez was cheating, then how is that different from when a player claims a throw, or a corner, when he knows very well the ball has come off not the opposition, but himself or one of his team mates? Or when a goalkeeper, having faintly finger tipped the ball over the goal, pretends he has not but that the ball has come off the opposing forward. He is saying this in order to persuade the referee not to give a corner which could be a goal scoring opportunity for the opposition. As far as I am concerned all these incidents amount to cheating.
January 8, 2013
Watford boss Gianfranco Zola: Going crazy helps no one but I let the players know when I’m upset
Having been told by West Ham he was 'too soft' the Italian is thriving in his second spell as a manager
Evening Standard
There was a revealing moment after Watford’s FA Cup defeat at Manchester City on Saturday. The home fans booed Mario Balotelli when he came on as a substitute while Watford supporters shouted “fight, fight” as they taunted him over his training ground wrestling match with manager Roberto Mancini.
However, Gianfranco Zola broke ranks and embraced the maverick striker. The Watford manager’s gesture showed he felt his fellow Italian deserved understanding not condemnation.
Evening Standard
There was a revealing moment after Watford’s FA Cup defeat at Manchester City on Saturday. The home fans booed Mario Balotelli when he came on as a substitute while Watford supporters shouted “fight, fight” as they taunted him over his training ground wrestling match with manager Roberto Mancini.
However, Gianfranco Zola broke ranks and embraced the maverick striker. The Watford manager’s gesture showed he felt his fellow Italian deserved understanding not condemnation.
January 4, 2013
Why English football will never shake off its Europeanisation
Insideworldfootball
Consider this question. In the next few years Britain may decide to leave the European Union. At no time since this country joined what was then the Common Market 40 years ago has there been such a strong anti-European feeling. And this is a mood that seems to be going beyond the traditional 'fed up with Brussels' to 'get out of Europe' clamour.
But even should a referendum see the people of Britain vote to leave, one thing that cannot be reversed is the Europeanisation of English football. Indeed my prediction is that should such an eventually come to pass in say in two or three years time it may well coincide with the moment when this country's football follows down the ultimate continental route and introduces a winter break. It will be the final proof that Britain may have left Europe and returned to its island fastness but the country's national game will always carry the marks of European football ideas. What is more those marks can never be erased.
Impossible?
Consider this question. In the next few years Britain may decide to leave the European Union. At no time since this country joined what was then the Common Market 40 years ago has there been such a strong anti-European feeling. And this is a mood that seems to be going beyond the traditional 'fed up with Brussels' to 'get out of Europe' clamour.
But even should a referendum see the people of Britain vote to leave, one thing that cannot be reversed is the Europeanisation of English football. Indeed my prediction is that should such an eventually come to pass in say in two or three years time it may well coincide with the moment when this country's football follows down the ultimate continental route and introduces a winter break. It will be the final proof that Britain may have left Europe and returned to its island fastness but the country's national game will always carry the marks of European football ideas. What is more those marks can never be erased.
Impossible?
December 31, 2012
Why the past will haunt the present in 2013
Those who forget the past, said the great American savant George Santayana, are condemned to repeat it. Football in 2013 runs the same risk. This is because many of the administrators who run the game seem to have forgotten the past. Or perhaps they never cared for the past despite their many references to it in public utterances.
This explains why 2013 will be for the world's favourite game a question of dealing with issues many thought had long been settled.
Take race.
This explains why 2013 will be for the world's favourite game a question of dealing with issues many thought had long been settled.
Take race.
December 24, 2012
Winter whisperers must not knock Qataris from their core 2022 message
Insideworldfootball
So what has Qatar in common with South Africa? On the face of it you would think this is an absurd, Christmas quiz, question. But it is not.
In footballing terms they have a lot in common. The common factor is both countries are pioneers for the world's most popular game, staging the World Cup in their part of the world for the first time. And both countries have had the need to convince the world they are worthy of having this honour.
December 19, 2012
But can medallists write?
British Journalism Review
I grew up wanting to emulate Neville Cardus, the legendary cricket correspondent of The Manchester Guardian. In my Jesuit school, in the city I shall always call Bombay, Cardus’s essay on the cricketer Ranji was part of our syllabus. And while I realised that it would be difficult for me to be exactly like my hero – he spent his summers writing about cricket and his winters being the paper’s music critic – I felt sure that once The Guardian realised how wonderful my cricket knowledge was, they would find plenty for me to do in the winter. If nothing else, I could go on those long cricket tours which meant you escaped the English cold.
I must confess I have not fulfilled that dream. But then there are many other dreams I have not fulfilled, which include scoring a century in a Lord’s Test and the winning Cup Final goal at Wembley. However, while I may not have become The Guardian’s cricket correspondent, I have no complaints about how my career has gone. What worries me is that the younger journalists cannot even dream like me.
I grew up wanting to emulate Neville Cardus, the legendary cricket correspondent of The Manchester Guardian. In my Jesuit school, in the city I shall always call Bombay, Cardus’s essay on the cricketer Ranji was part of our syllabus. And while I realised that it would be difficult for me to be exactly like my hero – he spent his summers writing about cricket and his winters being the paper’s music critic – I felt sure that once The Guardian realised how wonderful my cricket knowledge was, they would find plenty for me to do in the winter. If nothing else, I could go on those long cricket tours which meant you escaped the English cold.
I must confess I have not fulfilled that dream. But then there are many other dreams I have not fulfilled, which include scoring a century in a Lord’s Test and the winning Cup Final goal at Wembley. However, while I may not have become The Guardian’s cricket correspondent, I have no complaints about how my career has gone. What worries me is that the younger journalists cannot even dream like me.
But Can Medallists Write?
British Journalism Review
I grew up wanting to emulate Neville Cardus, the legendary cricket correspondent of The Manchester Guardian. In my Jesuit school, in the city I shall always call Bombay, Cardus’s essay on the cricketer Ranji was part of our syllabus. And while I realised that it would be difficult for me to be exactly like my hero – he spent his summers writing about cricket and his winters being the paper’s music critic – I felt sure that once The Guardian realised how wonderful my cricket knowledge was, they would find plenty for me to do in the winter. If nothing else, I could go on those long cricket tours which meant you escaped the English cold.
I must confess I have not fulfilled that dream. But then there are many other dreams I have not fulfilled, which include scoring a century in a Lord’s Test and the winning Cup Final goal at Wembley. However, while I may not have become The Guardian’s cricket correspondent, I have no complaints about how my career has gone. What worries me is that the younger journalists cannot even dream like me.
I grew up wanting to emulate Neville Cardus, the legendary cricket correspondent of The Manchester Guardian. In my Jesuit school, in the city I shall always call Bombay, Cardus’s essay on the cricketer Ranji was part of our syllabus. And while I realised that it would be difficult for me to be exactly like my hero – he spent his summers writing about cricket and his winters being the paper’s music critic – I felt sure that once The Guardian realised how wonderful my cricket knowledge was, they would find plenty for me to do in the winter. If nothing else, I could go on those long cricket tours which meant you escaped the English cold.
I must confess I have not fulfilled that dream. But then there are many other dreams I have not fulfilled, which include scoring a century in a Lord’s Test and the winning Cup Final goal at Wembley. However, while I may not have become The Guardian’s cricket correspondent, I have no complaints about how my career has gone. What worries me is that the younger journalists cannot even dream like me.
December 18, 2012
The man who changed perceptions of Britain: Games-maker Lord Coe reveals why he is confident over London 2012 legacy
The Evening Standard
After the magical summer that Lord Coe and his team conjured up, the reception he received as he stepped on to the stage at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on Sunday came as no surprise.
An audience of 15,000 at the Docklands ExCeL Arena, including many of the Olympians and Paralympians who revelled in a home Games, hailed the man whose vision turned the dream of London 2012 into a glorious reality.
After the magical summer that Lord Coe and his team conjured up, the reception he received as he stepped on to the stage at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on Sunday came as no surprise.
An audience of 15,000 at the Docklands ExCeL Arena, including many of the Olympians and Paralympians who revelled in a home Games, hailed the man whose vision turned the dream of London 2012 into a glorious reality.
December 16, 2012
Goodness, gracious, me — how India’s diaspora has made the UK its colonial home
The Sunday Times
When Sony Entertainment Television, a channel aimed at south Asians, held a party to mark Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, it chose an unlikely theme: James Bond, writes Mihir Bose.
Guests arrived at a London five-star hotel to find everything associated with Her Majesty’s most famous secret agent: cars, cocktails, casino tables and an actor pretending to be Blofeld, Bond’s deadly enemy — stroking a cat for good measure.
When Sony Entertainment Television, a channel aimed at south Asians, held a party to mark Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, it chose an unlikely theme: James Bond, writes Mihir Bose.
Guests arrived at a London five-star hotel to find everything associated with Her Majesty’s most famous secret agent: cars, cocktails, casino tables and an actor pretending to be Blofeld, Bond’s deadly enemy — stroking a cat for good measure.
December 11, 2012
Football’s anti-racism chief threatens to quit
- I could go in days, says Lord Ouseley
- Authorities not serious about racism
Evening Standard
Lord Ouseley is ready to quit as chairman of football’s anti-racism campaign over his frustration at the “collective failure” of the game’s authorities to deal with high-profile incidents in the past year.
Ouseley has been chairman of Kick It Out since their inception in 1997 but in a wide-ranging interview with Standard Sport admits he could go in “days”.
- Authorities not serious about racism
Evening Standard
Lord Ouseley is ready to quit as chairman of football’s anti-racism campaign over his frustration at the “collective failure” of the game’s authorities to deal with high-profile incidents in the past year.
Ouseley has been chairman of Kick It Out since their inception in 1997 but in a wide-ranging interview with Standard Sport admits he could go in “days”.
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