The FIFA Weekly Issue #27

ISSUE 27, 25 APRIL 2014

ENGLISH EDITION

Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904

COLLINA The referee

FIJI CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IN OCEANIA

NIKO KOVAC THE NEW CROATIA

COLOMBIA GARCIA MARQUEZ AND DI STEFANO W W W.FIFA.COM/ THEWEEKLY

CONTENTS

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North and Central America 35 members www.concacaf.com

Pierluigi Collina Should a referee become a celebrity? What are his key responsibilities? And how should he deal with pressure during his career? Seven weeks before the start of the World Cup, we spoke with the man who revolutionised the role of referee: Italy’s Pierluigi Collina.

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The World Cup ticket The colourful, informative and simple tickets for entry to the World Cup stadiums in Brazil have now been printed. We give an overview of everything this summer’s visitors need to know about their tickets.

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S epp Blatter “We should celebrate home-grown talent,” says the FIFA President in response to the debate over foreign player quotas in football teams.

“It’s not too late to seriously revisit the idea of the 6+5 rule”.

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Turning point In 1979, Jean-Paul Brigger put his career on the line by going on honeymoon. On returning to the club, the striker was told: “You can go straight back,” and disaster was only averted after a lengthy discussion.

South America 10 members www.conmebol.com

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Carlos Tevez A tango singer is pitching in to help restore the Argentinian striker to the national team.

World Cup 2014: Groups A-C

Collina The cover image featuring this week’s interviewee was taken in 2009, when Pierluigi Collina posed for the photo in a hotel in Italy’s Piedmont region.

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Group B

Group C

Brazil

Spain

Colombia

Croatia

Netherlands

Greece

Mexico

Chile

Côte d’Ivoire

Cameroon

Australia

Japan

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Cover: Elio Carchidi

Group A

THIS WEEK IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL

Europe 54 members www.uefa.com

Africa 54 members www.cafonline.com

Asia 46 members www.the-afc.com

Oceania 11 members www.oceaniafootball.com

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Report We examine the significance of the Champions League in Oceania.

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Niko Kovac Croatia’s coach believes his side have an opportunity to take points from the World Cup’s Opening Match against Brazil

Bundesliga coach Huub Stevens gives VfB Stuttgart a boost in their fight against relegation.

World Cup 2014: Groups D-H

Inhalt: Getty Images (3), imago

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Uruguay

Switzerland

Argentina

Germany

Belgium

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Por tugal

Algeria

England

France

Iran

Ghana

Russia

Italy

Honduras

Nigeria

USA

Korea Republic

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UNCOVERED

Patience and success

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Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

ierluigi Collina is used to repetitive events.

The former world-class referee awarded throw-ins, penalties and free kicks over and over again. However, he has rarely been forced to keep repeating himself when speaking, until the recording device used by our interviewer Doris Ladstaetter decided to play up. “Many thanks for never losing patience during this interview,” she remarked at the end, “I guess that’s what made you a star referee.” Collina’s answer was typically direct: “May I be honest?

It wasn’t easy.”

‘Easy’ would also be the wrong word to describe both his route to the top and the ability to remain patient at all times, especially out on the pitch. But for a referee, he said, the medal presented to him by FIFA President Sepp Blatter after the 2002 World Cup final was “like winning the World Cup for a player.” It was the reward for tireless effort.

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here was plenty of effort and toil but also a joyful atmosphere as the Oceania teams set off on the road to the FIFA Club World Cup 2014 in Morocco this December. Elio Stamm kept an eye on events in Fiji, where three groups of four teams have just contested the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Champions League tournament. The home and away semi-finals take place over the next few days.

Favourites for the title and a place in Morocco are New Zealand club Auckland FC, already five-time participants at the Club World Cup.

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outh Sea paradise islands are the last thing Croatia coach Niko Kovac has on his mind in the build-up to the World Cup in Brazil, where he is determined to spoil the party in the opening match against the hosts. “I’ve tried to make the players aware that the team takes priority. It’s the same old song,” a relaxed Kovac told us.

It is only six months since the draw for the qualifying play-offs took place at Home of FIFA in Zurich when Kovac was handed his debut as Croatia coach against Iceland, but now he will lead his team on the ultimate footballing stage.

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rotect the national teams!” urges FIFA President Blatter in his weekly column, calling for renewed debate about the ‘6+5 rule’. This proposes that clubs should field at least six players eligible to play for the national team of the club’s home country at the start of every match. Å Perikles Monioudis

Champions League in Lautoka, Fiji The winners earn a place at the FIFA Club World Cup. T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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COLLINA

“I WENT THAT EXTRA MILE” What makes a good referee? He must be genuine, according to Pierluigi Collina, who lifts the lid on the secrets of his success.

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Katrin Binner

COLLINA

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COLLINA

Pierluigi Collina was talking to Doris Ladstaetter

Mr. Collina, how does a referee achieve celebrity status?

Pierluigi Collina: I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to that question.

You were the first and only referee in the history of the game to become a star. Surely you must have a few tips for your colleagues who are set to officiate at the World Cup in Brazil?

What I always tried to do was take my job as seriously and work as conscientiously as possible.

You were named FIFA’s Referee of the Year on six consecutive occasions – an all-time record.

What did you do better than the rest?

I went about my work very professionally from the outset. Maybe I just did more than was absolutely necessary. At the end of the ’90s, referees had to know the rulebook inside out and be physically fit. Those were the only requirements, but I went that extra mile.

Before a game, I would find out everything I could about the teams and the individual players. Before the 2002 World Cup Final in Japan and Korea, I spent a lot of the time in my hotel room with my colleagues watching videos of the teams. I studied their moves and peculiarities and discussed them with my team. If you’ve done your homework, you can’t be taken by surprise.

Definitely not. A good referee is always a step ahead of the game. He must be able to anticipate what’s going to happen. Only a referee who knows how a game will unfold can be in the right place at the right time, spot incidents and consequently make the right decisions. A referee who fails to keep up with proceedings will eventually lose the plot.

Is a good referee lenient or is he strict?

A good referee is right. I always set great store by giving my all and being fair to everyone. I’m convinced that those are the attributes of a good referee.

Did you ever make any incorrect decisions which you subsequently regretted?

Regret is the wrong word. Rather, I was sorry about making a wrong decision.

myself. After that, it’s important to forget about an incorrect decision. You mustn’t let it get the better of you. After making a wrong decision, it’s vital to return to the pitch stronger than you were before.

Should a good referee have to apologise for making a wrong decision?

Why should I apologise? I only apologise if I’ve done something on purpose. After all, I tried my best, tried to do the right thing, and I made a mistake.

What’s your strongest attribute?

I commit myself completely to a task and always try to give my best.

And your greatest weakness?

(Thinks) I find it very difficult to admit to mistakes.

How did you react?

I analysed it at length and asked myself why I had made the wrong decision. For every mistake, there’s an explanation. Why did I make that mistake? Did I not prepare well enough? Those were the questions I asked

If a player misses a penalty, he’s consoled by his team-mates. If tens of thousands of people are shouting abuse at the referee, he has nobody to turn to.

It’s true that a referee needs a thick skin.

“For every mistake, there’s an explanation.”

So a good referee must never leave anything to chance?

C o n t r over s ia l c a l l s f ro m 1930 t o 19 66 URUGUAY 1930

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URUGUAY 1930 Langenus’ diplomacy: Belgian referee John Langenus was the first person to officiate a World Cup final and was forced to make a quick-witted decision even before kick-off. With both teams insisting on playing with their own ball, Langenus decided that Argentina’s ball would be used in the first half, and Uruguay’s in the second.

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Getty Images (6)

Referees rarely have an easy time of things: Nobody notices if they do well, but as soon as a mistake that affects a match’s result is made, then they tend to live long in the memory. Sometimes they even make decisions that revolutionise the game.

We highlight some of the best and most bizarre refereeing anecdotes in World Cup history.

Premature final whistle: With Argentina 1-0 up in a match against France, Brazilian referee Almeida Rego inexplicably ended the game with six minutes still to be played. Fierce protests from the French team followed, leading to the official calling the players - some of whom were already taking a shower - back to the pitch to finish the match.

COLLINA

How did you keep calm when you knew you’d be officiating a match in front of not only 80,000 spectators in the stadium, but also billions of people watching on television?

You can’t allow that thought to enter your head. A referee has to learn to cope with the significance of a game. I always tried to approach every match as if it were just a normal game and handle every game as if it were a World Cup final. The latter is obviously more difficult.

So you basically have to go against your natural instincts?

I always tried to officiate with complete concentration. I once refereed a match between Manchester United and Real Madrid on a Wednesday and a Serie B match in Italy three days later. It’s easy to find the necessary concentration for the first one, but it’s more difficult for the Serie B match. That’s something I had to work on.

Who are the better actors? The players or the referee?

Look! Ronaldinho (l.) and Juliano Belletti (both Barcelona) with Collina during a match at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge (8 March 2005).

The referee mustn’t be an actor – he has to be genuine. If a referee pretends to be something he’s not, you notice it straight away.

That’s one of the prerequisites if you want to become a referee in the first place. You have to be able to put a certain distance between yourself and what happens or can happen on the pitch if you want to survive in the job.

You definitely have to be able to cope with stress.

Some referees fail to cope with the pressure and are forced to quit.

What’s the worst thing a player can do on the football field?

In every walk of life, there are certain people who cope better with stress than others. If a referee is officiating at a high level, he’s already proven he can cope with stress.

Definitely simulation, by which I mean achieving an objective through deceit.

You’re not only cheating the referee and the opposition, but also the fans. Deliberately distorting a result has nothing to do with

ITALY 1934

CHILE 1962

ENGLAND 1966

Mussolini’s might: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini used the 1934 finals on home soil as a showcase for fascism. The setting for the final was designed to further that goal, as Swedish referee Ivan Eklind took charge of the meeting between Italy and Czechoslovakia in front of a 50,000 crowd at the National Stadium of the Fascist Party in Rome.

‘Battle of Santiago’: The gloves well and truly came off when Chile and Italy faced each other in a fierce match English referee Ken Aston struggled to control. Two Italians players were sent off, one of whom had broken his nose during the game. Aston was later credited as the inventor of yellow and red cards.

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Marching orders: After issuing five cautions in a match between England and Argentina, Rudolf Kreitlein verbally ordered Argentinian captain Antonio Rattin to leave the field for dissent, despite the official not understanding a word of Spanish. Rattin initially refused to go and was eventually escorted from the arena ten minutes later by a police officer.

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COLLINA

winning. This aspect of the game deserves more attention.

Doesn’t it make your blood boil when you see a player dive on multiple occasions during a match?

No, you mustn’t let your blood boil, but the player must be shown a yellow card.

When I looked you up for our first interview ten years ago, your name was still in the phone book. It’s become a lot more difficult to contact you these days.

I know and I regret that, but certain circumstances have made this necessary.

What circumstances?

Unfortunately, I suffered the unpleasant experience of receiving anonymous threats when bullets were sent to me. I was then placed under police protection and all my movements were closely monitored.

Your protection in Italy was similar to that of a state prosecutor who is conducting investigations into gang warfare.

– as is the case in most other countries – you also had another job.

I worked for many years as a freelance financial advisor for a bank, which was compatible with my job as a referee.

A referee has to be just as fit as the players on the pitch. Statistics have shown that a player runs between 10 and 11 kilometres per game, while referees run between 10 and 12. The main difference is that players train every day, while many referees are stuck in an office. Is that fair?

Referees need time to prepare, not just physically. In most countries, referees are paid per match. In some countries they get more, in others less, but it’s important that a referee has enough time to prepare for a match as best he can. Obviously, preparation starts well before a match, and it goes without saying that a referee must also be paid sufficiently for the time he spends preparing for a game.

You’re now 54 years old, but still seem incredibly fit.

I try to stay in shape, but it’s not always easy with all the travelling I do. It’s not as though you give up physically and let yourself go. I live by the sea and love to go jogging on the beach.

You’ve since become the head of the UEFA Referees Committee. Does that lead to rivalry with former colleagues, such as Massimo Busacca, who is FIFA’s Head of Refereeing Development?

Not at all. Massimo and I had and still have a great relationship with each other. We even used to go on holiday together with our families. That makes it a lot easier to exchange views with him nowadays. I’m very happy about that.

Are there still loopholes in the referees’ rulebook that could do with being amended?

There are certain loopholes.

Could you describe one of them?

Let’s say a player commits a foul and receives a yellow card. In committing the foul, he’s also injured an opposition player who has

More or less. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. It’s not nice walking out of the house flanked by two police officers.

Who threatened you?

The culprits were never caught. The threats eventually stopped, but it’s sad that something like that can happen in football.

“Even now I could still officiate matches at the highest level.”

You became a star among referees, but because officials in Italy don’t work professionally

C o n t r over s ia l c a l l s f ro m 19 66 t o 2010 MEXICO 1986 The hand of God: Tunisian referee Ali Bennaceur was in charge of the quarter-final between Argentina and England when Diego Maradona scored with his hand after an aerial duel with English goalkeeper Peter Shilton. The goal stood and Maradona later claimed it had been the ‘hand of God’.

ENGLAND 1966

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Italian heartache: Italy may have taken a full-blooded approach to their last 16 match-up against hosts South Korea, but some of referee Byron Moreno’s decisions were rather too heavy-handed. Most notable was the Ecuadorian’s sending off of Italy captain Francesco Totti for diving, even though the playmaker had been tripped.

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Getty Images (8)

KOREA/JAPAN 2002

Language barrier: In extra time during the final, which England and Germany had drawn 2-2 after 90 minutes, the ball crashed down off Germany’s crossbar and appeared to cross the line. Unsure if it had actually done so, referee Gottfried Dienst consulted his assistant Tofik Bakhramov, who only spoke Russian, and decided to award what would become one of the most controversial goals in history.

COLLINA

On thin ice Paul Ince (England; r.) is booked during the Three Lions’ 2-1 defeat to Sweden in a UEFA EURO 2000 qualifier (5 September 1998).

Chin up! Collina consoles Stefan Effenberg (Bayern Munich) following the Bavarians’ 2-1 defeat to Manchester United in the Champions League final (Barcelona, 26 May 1999).

to leave the field to receive treatment. As soon as he has left the field, the game restarts and the team that committed the foul has a numerical advantage. In a sporting sense, that isn’t fair. The team that committed the foul is essentially rewarded as they can play on with an extra man. It would make more sense to change the rules so the offending

player has to leave the pitch until the injured player is able to return to the field with him again.

Why are many referees so fussy about the correct way to take a throw-in?

Hardly anyone throws the ball with both feet on the ground and their hands behind their heads.

The rules are quite clear. Sometimes, referees can be a little less strict in these situations, as a throw-in is not regarded as a particularly important moment in a match.

So a referee needs to have an exceptional ability to interpret the rules of the game correctly.

Yes, he does.

GERMANY 2006

SOUTH AFRICA 2010

Cards galore: During the round-of-16 tie between Portugal and the Netherlands on the evening of 25 June 2006, Russian referee Valentin Ivanov set the dubious best-mark of issuing a record 16 cards. He also sent off four players for a second bookable offence, something no official had ever done before.

Technology trigger: In the last-16 encounter between Germany and England, the Uruguayan refereeing team, led

by Jorge Larrionda, failed to see that the ball clearly crossed the line behind Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after ricocheting off the crossbar. The goal would have taken the score to 2-2 and the faux pas led to FIFA engaging in discussions about introducing goal-line technology.

GERMANY 2006 Triple yellow: Croatia’s Josip Simunic received three yellow cards from English referee Graham Poll before finally being sent off against Australia. The defender’s name was already in the book by the time he was cautioned a second time in the 90th minute, but he was not expelled. It was only once Simunic pushed Poll after the final whistle that he was eventually shown a red card.

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COLLINA / PORUMBOIU

“Referees should keep the match flowing” “ T HE SECOND G AME” (Al doilea joc), Direc tor: Corneliu Porumboiu, Starring: Corneliu Porumboiu, Adrian Porumboiu, Documentar y, 97 mins, English subtitles, Romania 2014.

Adrian Porumboiu began his refere eing career in 1976 and made his debut in Romania’s top flight in 1984. He became a FIFA referee two years later before finally retiring in 1997.

Pic tured: Adrian Porumboiu, (l); Dinamo Bucharest 0 - 0 Steaua Bucharest, 3 December 1988 (r)

Perikles Monioudis

Former referee Adrian Porumboiu and his son, director Corneliu Porumboiu, discuss officiating in Romania during the communist era in the film “The Second Game”, currently showing in cinemas.

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t Easter 2013, Romanian film director Corneliu Porumboiu, who was honoured with the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2006, visited his parents’ house carrying a DVD containing a match between Dinamo Bucharest and Steaua Bucharest. He wanted to watch the recording of the game – held at Dinamo’s “Stephan the Great” Stadium on 3 December 1988 and almost abandoned due to snow – with his father, just as they had watched countless football matches before.

But this time was very different. Corneliu wanted to talk with his father about a match he had officiated in a world that has since been lost. He recorded their conversation and dubbed it over footage of the match. The result is a 97-minute documentary reminiscent of a father-and-son psychology experiment, and just as fascinating.

“The Second Game” is not just a nostalgia trip; it is also an instructional film about refereeing. Corneliu begins the conversation by asking his father: “How did you decide that

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the game should go ahead?” As he asks the question, the film shows a snow-covered pitch in a blizzard on which stars including a young Dan Petrescu, Marius Lacatus, Ilie Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Hagi for Steaua and goalkeeping legend Bogdan Stelea, Ioan Lupescu, Dorin Mateut and Danut Lupu for Dinamo – to name just a few – are desperately trying to keep warm.

Adrian Porumboiu answers: “It snowed continuously before the match. I came out of the dressing room three times to check whether the pitch was playable. The ball had to bounce on the ground; it couldn’t just get bogged down. Visibility was even more important. The goals both had to be visible from the halfway line.” Corneliu quickly moves on to his next question. “The match was broadcast live on television. What would have happened if the match hadn’t kicked off?” His father’s reply is simple. “That wouldn’t have been a problem. I would have simply called off the game.”

“The army’s team sometimes played the police corps’ team, didn’t they?” Corneliu asks later.

“It was the army’s team against the secret police, really, but the police and secret police were on the same side. And the army team wasn’t just the army team, it was also Ceaucescu’s favourite team.”

“Did you worry about games like that?”

“No. There was nothing they could have done to me. If they really had something on you, they used it against you, but then you

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weren’t a referee anymore, you were their slave. At that point you just had to follow orders anyway.”

Adrian Porumboiu continues to reminisce. “In this kind of match, everyone knew everything there was to know about you, both Dinamo and Steaua. They knew about every aspect of your life. I think at one point I held the record for officiating those games. When I first refereed this fixture, I had already overseen six matches in the top flight. They selected me as someone who wasn’t one of the wellknown referees, as neither Dinamo nor Steaua knew anything about me. After I was called up for that match, people from both teams visited me, and not to discuss professional or appropriate matters.”

After one tackle is shown, Corneliu Porumboiu asks his father: “Was it a dangerous game?”

“No,” his father answers quickly. “You often played the advantage and let the game continue. A referee’s job is to keep the match flowing, but today the rules of the game are different. You can give the advantage and then, if there doesn’t appear to be an immediate advantage for the team in question, award a free-kick. Previously, the referee had to risk making the wrong decision.”

“The Second Game” shows just how making incorrect decisions was not the only risk referees of that era had to take. Å

COLLINA

In addition, a good referee must possess complete self-control and an understanding of other people’s faults.

Name Pierluigi Collina Date and place of birth

That’s correct.

13 February 1960, Bologna FIFA referee

Does that mean a good referee has to be the perfect psychologist?

1995 – 2005

That’s exaggerating things a little, but as a referee you do need a certain insight into human nature. You have to be able to read players’ body language and know how to treat people properly. For example, if I stand too close to a player or even touch them, I’m encroaching on his personal space. If anything, that’s likely to be counter-productive, so I make sure I don’t stand too close to a player.

2002 World Cup Final, 1999 Champions League Final, 2004 UEFA Cup Final

Major matches

Current occupation Head of the UEFA Referees Committee Honours World Referee of the Year six times in a row (1998-2003)

Did you study psychology?

No, I studied economics, but I’ve read a few books on the subject.

Can a referee afford to be sensitive?

Yes, as long as that doesn’t mean that the referee is isolated. If, by sensitive, you mean that the referee shows passion then yes, he has to be sensitive.

Can you explain why anyone with all these qualities would be prepared to accept a modest wage and be exposed to major stress on a regular basis?

There’s no need to dwell on the pressures facing referees. Let’s talk a bit about the advantages of the job. Many aspects are extremely enjoyable. I shared a pitch with some fantastic players and had the privilege to officiate top matches. After the World Cup final between Brazil and Germany in 2002, I received a medal from FIFA President Joseph Blatter. For a referee, that’s equivalent to winning the World Cup as a player.

It’s hard to imagine someone choosing to be a referee of his own free will.

That’s not what I did. I was a footballer myself and when I was 17, several people told me I had a talent for refereeing. They thought I had an extraordinary ability to make split-second decisions and to justify these to older players. To this day, I am very grateful to the people who gave me that tip.

Katrin Binner

Thanks for not losing your patience during this interview. That’s what must have made you the world’s most famous referee.

Can I be honest?

Please do.

It wasn’t easy. Å T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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TALK ING POIN T S

T H E

Bundesliga

A Champions League with a twist Sven Goldmann is a football expert at Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin.

Bayern Munich’s romp to the title with seven games to spare has made the Bundesliga rather boring this year, and the Bavarians’ dominance is hardly good for the league’s competitiveness.

As if to compensate for that and maintain the Bundesliga’s standing among the world’s best, a new league within a league has been created in Germany’s top flight. It is effectively a Champions League at the wrong end of the table as each of the last four sides – Eintracht Braunschweig, FC Nuremberg, Hamburger SV and VfB Stuttgart – has lifted the Bundesliga crown at least once. That backdrop has made this year’s fight for survival more intriguing than ever before.

With just three rounds of matches left to play it is no great surprise to see promoted side Braunschweig at the foot of the standings.

With a top-flight pedigree inferior to the other trio of champions battling the drop –

I N S I D E

Braunschweig’s first and only championship triumph came almost 50 years ago – they are nevertheless only two points adrift of 16th place, a position which would secure them a two-legged relegation play-off tie against the team that finishes third in the second division. Braunschweig’s squad is bereft of household names, giving them an advantage of sorts in that they can play without any weight of expectation as they were favourites to be relegated in the first place. Indeed, Braunschweig almost held Bayern to a draw last week, only to lose 2–0 after conceding twice late on. All that matters now, however, is for the side to pick up points away to fellow promoted outfit Hertha Berlin on Saturday.

Nuremberg are just one rung further up the Bundesliga ladder and while they may have won the German title nine times, they have only triumphed once in their last nine games.

That run led to the club parting ways with head coach Gertjan Verbeek three days before their antepenultimate match of the season, despite having only hired him in October.

Nuremberg’s one-dimensional attack is their main problem, with the rest of the league well aware that Swiss forward Josip Drmic is the side’s principal goal threat. It goes without saying that Europa League hopefuls Mainz 05, who host Nuremberg on Saturday, will have done their homework on that front.

Six-time champions Hamburg, meanwhile, do not have anyone to lead their attack after Hertha loanee Pierre-Michel Lasogga was ruled out for the season with injury. The 1983 European Cup winners are the only side to have played in every Bundesliga campaign since its founding in 1963, but are currently suffering from an inability to win away from home, with their last victory on other soil coming in October 2013. That does not bode well for a season run-in that includes two away fixtures, starting with a visit to Augsburg on Sunday and ending in Mainz on the final matchday. Hamburg’s only remaining home game is sandwiched in between those two trips, when they host none other than Bayern Munich.

Of the quartet, Stuttgart appear to have the best chance of survival after picking up seven points from their last three games to pull four points clear of 16th placed Hamburg. Stuttgart are also six-time German champion and likewise have a pair of away fixtures to navigate in their season finale, with a trip to Hannover 96 up first on Friday before concluding their campaign against Bayern in Munich. The fascinating battle for supremacy in this Champions League with a difference is set to go down to the wire. Å

Down and almost out Heiko Westermann’s expression says it all after Hamburg’s 3–1 home defeat to Wolfsburg. The Bundesliga’s only ever-present club are on the brink of suffering a maiden relegation.

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Oliver Hardt / Getty Images

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Liga Postobón

The land of the magical realists JordÍ Punti es novelista y autor de numerosos artículos futbolísticos en la prensa española.

The final day of regular league season in Colombia was overshadowed by the death of the celebrated writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, with a minute’s silence being observed in most of the country’s stadiums for the Nobel Prize winner and national hero. In marking his death the nation’s sportswriters have been devoting their efforts to highlighting the great author’s connections with the world of football. In his memoirs, Living to Tell the Tale, he recalled his childhood days playing in goal in his hometown and described the moment when he relinquished all idea of pursuing a career in the game, thanks to a friend who played up front: “I’d become a good keeper but … I took such a blow in the stomach once with one of his shots that it knocked any pretensions I had right out of me.”

Luis Ramirez / Getty Images

Garcia Marquez devoted a number of articles to the virtues of Colombia’s cyclists but wrote very little about football. His death has prompted many to recall his only football-related tale, in which he casts his mind back to an afternoon in 1950, when two great talents who were just starting out shared the same arena: Garcia Marquez himself and Alfredo di Stefano.

It was on that day that the writer, a supporter of the Barranquilla club Junior, attended a game of theirs against Millonarios of Bogota, whose star act at the time was Di Stefano, who at 23 was the same age as Garcia Marquez. The player had already won several league titles and would go on to help Real Madrid become Europe’s first champions.

Garcia Marquez kept a close eye on events on the pitch and in the stands that afternoon and later wrote a tale entitled “The Oath”, in which he tells the story of how he came to join “the brotherhood of football supporters”, almost a religion in itself, and likened the players he saw to writers. In his eyes, Junior’s Brazilian star Heleno de Freitas would have made a fine author of detective stories “owing to his gift for calculating, his unhurried movements, which recall a private investigator at work, and the sudden and surprising outcomes he creates”. As regards Di Stefano,

Two-goal Dayro Moreno of Millonarios was the man of the match in a 3–1 victory over Tolima.

he wrote: “If there was one thing he knew about, it was rhetoric.”

Junior won that game 2–1. The fixture between two of the country’s oldest clubs could be repeated this season in the semi-finals of the Liga Postobon I play-offs. Last weekend saw the two end the regular season in second and third place respectively. Top spot went to Nacional, though there has been little to choose between the leading teams all season and no clear favourite for the title has yet emerged.

Every national association in South America organises their championship in their own unique way and there is a touch of magical realism about Colombia’s. The regular season involves 18 matchdays, with the 18 teams playing each other once in a so-called “everyone against everyone” format and an additional “derby day” being held on matchday nine, the idea behind that innovation being to generate even more excitement. The top eight will this Saturday embark on the knockout phase, which culminates with a grand final.

Nacional and Millonarios are the two sides expected to fare the best because of their standing in the domestic game, though the Bogota side looks to have the more impressive resources at their disposal. Leading the line for them is the league’s most in-form player and its top scorer, Dayro Moreno, who struck twice in last Sunday’s 3–1 defeat of Tolima.

Moreno, who is seen by many as the perfect sidekick or even replacement for Radamel T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Falcao in the national side, is a restless soul, having played for seven clubs in the last ten years and spent time in Brazil, Romania and Mexico, returning on each occasion to his first side, Once Caldas. It would seem, though, that he has finally found some stability with Millonarios. Although transfer speculation continues to surround the player, he is adamant he wants to stay. Time will tell if he does.

Another factor that has made Millonarios’ season such a compelling one has been the arrival of Spanish coach Juanma Lillo. A football theorist, friend to Pep Guardiola and avid reader, Lillo has got his team playing fashionable possession-based football, which has at times tested the patience of the club’s fans. Yet following a shaky start Lillo’s men have finally learned their steps, improving week on week to win the supporters over. The championship play-offs could well see Lillo engage in an intellectual clash of styles with Nacional boss Juan Carlos Osorio, who has somewhat pejoratively been dubbed El Recreacionista (The Children’s Entertainer) and is famed for his extensive knowledge of football theory and a habit of noting all his thoughts down in a notebook. For his part, Lillo likes to play with words and drop aphorisms into his press-conference musings. “Not taking risks is the riskiest thing you can do. So to avoid risks, I’ll be taking them,” he once said. “Your opponent is part of you,” is another of his pearls.

Garcia Marquez it isn’t, but he certainly gets the grey matter working nevertheless. Å 15

C O U N T D O W N T O B R A Z I L 2 0 14 : 4 8 D A Y S T O G O

Tickets to happiness The first delighted fans received their tickets for the World Cup finals last Friday, and are now excitedly looking forward to the Brazilian summer.

Carol Almiron

T

he opening of the FIFA Venue Ticketing Centres last week provided a snapshot of what lies ahead when the World Cup begins. The first day of ticket collection brought together fans from different generations and countries, thrilled to finally be able to hold in their hands the physical proof that their dreams will soon come true: a ticket for a World Cup match in the nation crowned world champions on five occasions.

The eagerness to get their hands on those much desired pieces of coloured paper saw some fans arrive hours before the official opening time, just to ensure their place at the front of the queue. In Rio, where seven games in the tournament, including the keenly awaited final, will be played at the legendary Maracana, the first fans in the queue outside the ticketing centre swapped stories of their love for the Brazilian team and of the sport that so perfectly 16

expresses the characteristics of Brazilian people to the world.

Family stories Joao Bosco Correia, 67, had travelled 50 km from Queimados to Rio in order to keep a promise. “I got here early so I could be first in the queue and collect the present I had promised my daughter.

She will be 39 on 19 June and asked me if we could watch a match together. I managed to get two tickets for the Spain-Chile game, the day before her birthday.” It is a way for the family to continue a passion that started a generation ago when Joao’s father, now aged 97, took a train from Sao Paulo to Rio to watch Brazil lose the deciding game of the 1950 World Cup to Uruguay. “It gives me such pleasure to be able to follow in my father’s footsteps and watch a World Cup game at the Maracana,” said Joao Bosco. “I just hope I have more luck than he did!”

Just ahead of Joao in the queue was Rio native Vanderson Balbino, 27, who displayed his T H E F I FA W E E K LY

eight tickets with the pride of a man who knows he is about to embark, together with his cousin, on an epic footballing journey taking in Manaus, Fortaleza and Rio. “I love watching Brazil and I don’t know if I’ll have another chance to see the World Cup in my country. I didn’t want to miss it,” said Vanderson.

If the queue was a game, the local team would have taken an early 2-1 lead. For the third fan in the line had come a long way – almost 3,000 km in fact. Roman Devit from Argentina took advantage of the Easter holiday to visit Rio and collect his tickets. In June, he will leave his home town and travel to Brazil once again, this time with his Team Specific Ticket to watch Messi. “If everything goes according to plan, my ticket package will last a long time, right up until Argentina are crowned champions,” smiled Roman.

“And if we beat Brazil in the Final, it will be even sweeter,” he joked, in reference to the intense rivalry between the two footballing superpowers.

The Venue Ticketing Centre also provided a symbolic image of the spirit of unity between different nationalities. This consisted of a smiling multinational family featuring an Argentinian father, a Mexican mother and French children – all wearing the shirts of their national teams as they came to collect their tickets. Together, they will watch the games united by a love for the sport that transcends territorial and political divisions. “It won’t be easy for Mexico, but win or lose, we’ll be there, carrying the flags of all the different countries,” said the family’s mother, Maria Fernandez. Å

Buda Mendes / FIFA via Getty Images

First come, first served Vanderson Balbino with his World Cup tickets.

C O U N T D O W N T O B R A Z I L 2 0 14 : 4 8 D A Y S T O G O

→ http://www.fifa.com/worldcup

World Cup ticketing facts & figures From 18 to 27 April, the FIFA Venue Ticketing Centres in ten of the twelve host cities will open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only.

The Porto Alegre centre is scheduled to open on 2 May, and the Brasilia centre will open in the same month. From Friday, 2 May until the

day after the last game in each respective host city, the centres will open seven days a week.

1 The match number is highlighted in the left-hand

5 The full name and address of the stadium staging

corner. In the example below, the Brazil-Mexico game is Match 17. The numbers of all the games can be found in the match schedule.

pieces of information designed to make life easier for spectators from the moment they arrive at the stadium and to help them find their seat.

Let's use a ticket for Brazil’s group match with Mexico as an example.

So what are the most important facts about the tickets? And which information can be found on them? Each ticket bears a total of ten key

holder will then look for the block in question, in this case “106 A”, and access the stands.

All that remains for them to do is find the correct row and seat number, which on this ticket are “C” and “1” respectively.

the match.

6 The printed name of the person buying the ticket

2 Next to the number appear the match details (in this case Brazil v Mexico). For obvious reasons the names of teams are provided on tickets for group games only, as on our sample ticket.

Tickets for knockout matches use a combination of letters and numbers to identify the teams involved. For example, “1A v 2B” indicates that the match will be between the winners of Group A and the runners-up in Group B, while “W55 v W56” indicates that the game will be between the winners of Match 55 and Match 56.

3 The date of the match 4 The kick-off time.

7 The ticket category

10 To make the whole process even easier, this last section uses a colour code to indicate the area in which the seat is located. All World Cup stadiums are divided into four main areas, denoted by red, blue, green or yellow. The small black arrow indicates where the holder’s area is located. The spectator service team will be on hand outside the stadium to guide fans towards the right area.

In addition, the ticket is also a useful reference guide for your stadium experience.

Important information is printed on the back, including a list of items that can be brought inside the stadium.

8 The price of the ticket 9 Detailing information of both a general and specific nature and relevant to the holder both inside and outside the stadium, this section represents a very practical step-by-step guide, starting with admission to the stadium.

The Brazil-Mexico ticket above clearly states that the spectator must use the southern entrance and then, once inside the stadium, proceed to Gate C. On reaching the concourse, opposite the concessions, the ticket

1

4

2 3 5 6

8

10

7 9

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

17

Name Niko Kovac Date of birth, place of birth 15 October 1971, Berlin Playing career Hertha Zehlendorf, Hertha Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburg, Bayern Munich, Red Bull Salzburg Coaching career Red Bull Salzburg reserves, Red Bull Salzburg (Assistant coach), Croatia U-21, Croatia National team

Darko Bandic / A P

83 appearances, 14 goals

18

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

THE INTERVIEW

“Anything’s possible in the Opening Match” Former Bayern Munich midfielder Niko Kovac, 42, quickly made a name for himself when he moved into management in 2009. The Croatian will be the second youngest coach at this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

Niko Kovac, you look full of energy.

Niko Kovac: Thanks, I’m doing well. I’m looking forward to the World Cup.

You made your coaching debut five years ago for the Red Bull Salzburg reserve team. Your rise to the top has been a dream come true.

My appointment as coach of the Croatia U-21 side a year ago was a great honour for me. It’s a real privilege to work for your own country’s national team set-up. Now I’m in the dugout for all the first-team matches and I’ll be the second youngest coach at the World Cup in Brazil this summer (Sabri Lamouchi, the Côte d’Ivoire coach, is 25 days younger than Kovac). It’s all been a bit crazy, to be honest.

What do you do differently from your predecessor Igor Stimac, who resigned just before the World Cup play-offs?

The team fell into a downward spiral during the qualifying campaign. It’s difficult to identify the exact reasons when things aren’t going your way. Fortunately, I was quite familiar with the players as my work as U-21 coach gave me a certain level of exposure to the first team. But the situation wasn’t easy to begin with. When I was first appointed to the new role, I travelled around Europe with my brother and assistant coach Robert to meet the most important players, to talk to them and to try to see the situation from their point of view. That was important because it helped us adopt the right approach for the matches against Iceland. The players can all play football. Our task was to bring back some of the mental strength they’d been lacking.

Was their attitude not quite right?

Partly. The players all fought hard, there’s no doubt about that. They weren’t fighting as a team, though. They were eleven individuals.

We made life tough for ourselves in the

play-off first leg before scoring those all-important goals at home in Croatia. I tried to make my players aware that we’d achieve much more as a team than as individuals. It’s a cliche, but it’s true. And it was a fantastic feeling when we sealed World Cup qualification.

You featured as a player the last time Croatia qualified for a World Cup in 2006. Are you under more pressure now?

I’m not under more pressure; it’s just different. The mental aspect of coaching plays a significant role. I have to think a great deal, I have responsibilities and I mustn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. The trials and tribulations of the job still occupy my mind as I drive home. That wasn’t so much the case in my playing days. Nowadays, it’s even more important to draw a line between football and my private life. That’s tough, though. My new role is both exciting and intense. Sometimes I’m as exhausted as the players after a match.

long to get to Croatia, either for the national team or for private matters, so it’s a good location.

What can your country hope for from the World Cup? We’re currently in a developmental phase.

However, I believe we’re capable of springing a surprise in Brazil. There’s a great sense of anticipation in Croatia. This might be down to our absence in South Africa last time out, so we’ve had to wait eight years. Our first match will serve as an indication of our potential, even if we’re playing against tournament favourites Brazil. Anything’s possible in the Opening Match. These are special circumstances. The whole world will be watching on 12 June at 5pm local time. It’s the biggest stage of all! There’ll be a lot of pressure on Brazil. Å Niko Kovac was talking to Alan Schweingruber

You played under great coaches at Bayern Munich, Hamburg and Leverkusen. Who’s your idol?

I don’t have an idol. Coaches such as Giovanni Trapattoni and Christoph Daum were influential figures, but I’m my own person. Everybody thinks differently; everybody has their own methods for dealing with players and situations. It’s important to stay true to yourself, and I think I’m doing a good job in that respect.

What exactly is your brother’s role?

Robert is my most important advisor when problems emerge and I want to consult another person. We’re very close.

Do you live in Croatia?

No, I actually live with my family in Salzburg. It’s working out well. It doesn’t take T H E F I FA W E E K LY

19

First Love

Place: Marrakesh, Morocco Date: 7 September 2005 T i m e : 9. 4 3 a m

John McDermott

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

21

T HE DEBAT E

More Internazionale than ever

International success: Sulley Muntari (Ghana), Javier Zanetti (Argentina/Italy) and Mario Balotelli (Italy) celebrate Inter’s Champions League triumph in 2010.

Thomas Renggli

C

helsea without Englishmen, Cottbus without Germans, Porto without Portuguese and Inter Milan without Italians.

Modern club football truly has become a game without borders. While the founding of the ESCS in 1951 was indirectly responsible for the globalisation of the modern game, events in Belgium in the 1990s undoubtedly played a more direct role. JeanMarc Bosman, a midfielder for Belgian side Royal Football Club Liege, expressed his desire to sign for French club USL Dunkerque after his contract in his homeland expired in 1990, but his employers resisted the move by demanding a six-digit transfer fee that was completely unaffordable at the time. The Belgian subsequently took his case to court, triggering a flood of lawsuits and revolutionising sporting legislation in the process. The so-called “Bosman ruling” was finally handed down on 15 December 1995,

22

permitting the free transfer of out-of-contract players between clubs and declaring the foreign player quota for players from EU member states null and void.

Nowadays, European labour law imposes tight restrictions upon the continent’s various national leagues. This has not stopped national associations from attempting to grant local players certain privileges, though, with each German Bundesliga club now obliged to have twelve German professional players and eight players developed at a German club on its books. It is certainly a vague rule, and one which determines the players’ employment status rather than their eligibility to play. A similar situation applies in England, where each Premier League club must have at least eight home-grown players under contract in its 25-man squad. Turkey, which is not an EU member state, is tellingly the only bigger league on the continent that still enforces a foreign player quota. SuperLig regulations stipulate that a maximum of 10 foreign players are allowed at each club, while no more than six may feature on the teamsheet for any one competitive match. These numbers will be reduced to eight and five respectively next season.

In contrast, many of Europe’s biggest leagues have the freedom to buy and sell as they choose, with over 50% of the players at T H E F I FA W E E K LY

123 of the 472 clubs in the top 5 leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) originally from abroad. At 88.9%, Inter Milan has the highest proportion of foreigners in its squad, followed by Chelsea and Udinese (80%) and Fiorentina (79.3%).

The percentage might be sky-high at Inter Milan, but the Italian side’s international approach to transfers remains loyal to the principles laid down when the club was first founded on 9 March 1908 by a group of disloyal AC Milan members. The Milanese rebels held fierce talks on one topic in particular as they sat down to discuss their new project at the osteria L’Orologio: the decision taken by the federation to ban the use of foreign players at Italian clubs. After a series of emotional debates and several bottles of red wine, the group came up with a name for their new club shortly before midnight: “FootBall Club Internazionale.” Nomen est omen, or in this particular case: In vino veritas. Å

The weekly debate.

Any thing you want to get off your chest? Which topics do you want to discuss? Send your suggestions to: feedback-theweekly@fifa.org.

Jasper Juinen / Getty Images

Football is a game without borders, but do we need to reintroduce a foreign player quota?

T HE DEBAT E

PRESIDENTIAL NOTE

O n F I FA . c o m , T h e F I FA We e k l y a s k e d : S h o u l d t h e nu m b e r o f ove r s e a s p l aye r s b e l i m ite d i n t h e wo r l d ’s to p l e a g u e s?

There are understandable issues when clubs from England,Spain,Germany and Italy almost monopolize successes in the Champions and Europa Leagues and at the same time the combined percentage of overseas players in these leagues exceeds 50 % of the total players. Freedom of movement should not be given up lightly and players deserve protection from unfair treatment as anybody else. Instead of limiting the number of overseas players, other ways that could raise quality and improve compe­ tition may need to be considered such as the introduction of a salary cap and the more even distribution of revenues from the two major competitions.

ADJVFUN (Greece)

Yes. First it would help local players, make them develop while staying in their countries and also make more local players play for their popular local clubs. It would also be beneficial for the countries as they would have more of their own people at international level.

Red Devil (Mauritius)

No don’t limit where players can go and who they can play with. I would make those international contracts a minimum of 3 years, max of 5 years. International players must play in at least 65 % of the league games each season. The leagues can cherry pick players from around the world but they need to be good at finding the right players or else the team will have less choices of who to play. Longer contracts would cut down on the agents' commission money.

Three games as injured = player temp out of international games.

If you want the quality of global football to fall, then limit it. Whenever those leagues with predorminantly local players meet those other teams at the World Club Championships, their inferiority makes my point.

Protect the national teams!

madsoccer07 (USA)

Yes. My home team has a long history of developing local talent and preparing them for moving on into the Superleague. After an overwhelming success some years ago, the team's management has deviated from this ­philosophy and is now overrun by Argentine players at the expense of the development of the youth players. Not only this, the team is performing in a less than favourable manner as the players could never gel and understand, or relate to the previous philosophy of the team.

TopCat7 (Great Britain)

It’s a mute point, because it’s going to be legally impossible, in Europe anyway. The number of overseas players per team is a symptom, not a root cause. The root causes (of inequality of leagues) are the exploding salaries and the ever widening gap between the handful of top clubs and the rest of the pack. Talented players are bought at younger and younger age (between 17 and 23) for obscene money, to be put on the subs bench or the B team, never to be heard of again, while the depleted league of their home country sinks into oblivion.

DodgyDude (New Zealand)

No it shouldn’t. It will affect the national teams of various countries. English players don’t perform well, so overseas players are allowed to play in the EPL which has made their league the best in the world.

jwolter7 (USA)

jredlom (Ghana)

“The numbers of overseas players is a symptom, not a root cause.”

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

F

ootball is truly global, ignoring geographical borders and transcending social classes.

FIFA has more members than the UN. But I still agree with an old Swiss slogan, Ehret einheimisches Schaffen! – “We should celebrate home-grown talent!” – when it comes to supporting and protecting national teams.

A glance at the leading leagues in Europe leaves no room for misinterpretation: foreign professionals form the majority in England (60.4%) and Italy (54.1%), and that makes life hard for home-grown players.

Naturally, the idea that competition is good for business also applies to football. But it has gone too far when up-and-coming young hopefuls no longer have a chance to prove themselves because foreign employees take their places in the team.

At the 2008 Congress in Sydney FIFA adopted the proposition for a “6 + 5 rule” in club football. At the beginning of each match, each club should field at least six players eligible to play for the national team of the club’s home country. That would solve three problems at a stroke: it would improve the balance between club and national team football, preserve the clubs’ national identity and increase the incentive for clubs to make more of their own youth products.

Unfortunately the idea foundered on EU Employment Law – the right to work in the country of choice and individual freedom of movement. However, we have not heard the last word on this subject. An Institute for European Affairs expert opinion concludes that a “quota agreement” along the lines of the “6 + 5 rule” is compatible with the law. It is therefore not too late to seriously revisit this idea.

Best wishes, Sepp Blatter 23

game onor game over

all in or nothing

adidas.com/worldcup Š 2014 adidas AG. adidas, the 3-Bars logo and the 3-Stripes mark are registered trademarks of the adidas Group.

OFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Drained Nadi FC’s Jolame Vukuvuki at half-time in the match against Vanuatu’s Amicale FC in Lautoka.

Dreaming of Morocco The Champions League in Oceania may not have the global profile of its bigger brother in Europe, but each team taking part still gives the competition their all in the hope of qualifying for the Club World Cup. Elio Stamm (text) and Mark Kolbe (images) from Lautoka, Fiji

On

1 April 2014, Barcelona were battling against Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. On the other side of the world, in a four-star ­hotel in Lautoka, Fiji, a group of young men watched the match intently on a TV mounted on the wall of the hotel bar, mur­ muring with interest as the final whistle sealed the Catalan club’s exit from Europe’s elite club competition.

Although this group of young men from the Solomon Islands may dream of Lionel Messi, they are no Barça fan club; instead, they dream of playing against him one day. It might be a

distant dream but it is by no means an impossible one, as these men all play for Solomon Warriors and came to Lautoka to make a name for themselves in the Oceania Football Confederation’s (OFC) Champions League. Winning the competition would mean getting a chance to line up against Champions League winners from other continents at the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco in December 2014.

A tall order However, the road to a place at the Club World Cup to play some of the biggest clubs in the world is still a long one. The winner of the OFC Champions League – New Zealand’s Auckland City for the past three years in succession – must first contest a play-off match against the league champions from the host nation and T H E F I FA W E E K LY

must eliminate a representative from Asia, Africa or North and Central America in the quarter-finals before they can meet the champion of Europe or South America in the semi-final.

An Oceanic side is yet to reach the last four of the competition in ten attempts, and most campaigns have ended in defeat after just one match.

Despite all this, a place at the Club World Cup remains the glittering prize all of Oceania’s teams are working towards. “Without that, our Champions League wouldn’t make much sense,” says OFC spokesman Gordon Glen Watson. Indeed, when the Club World Cup took a break between 2002 and 2004, the OFC’s biggest tournament was not held at all.

This year, there have been changes to the format of the 13th edition of the competition, 25

OFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

OFC TV The Confederation is showing all 18 matches live thanks to the support of two local TV stations.

which began life as the Oceania Club Championship in 1987 and has been held at irregular intervals since then. Instead of home and away matches, the group stages were held at the start of April in Fiji as part of a nine-day tournament for the first time. Twelve teams from eight associations have been fighting it out to reach the semi-finals in the island nation’s second largest city, Lautoka – often nicknamed the Sugar City because of its large sugar mills – as well as in the footballing stronghold of Ba.

the group stages of the Champions League, while the OFC cannot offer any prize money and simply covers the teams’ air tickets instead. Club sponsors, many of them entrepreneurs from each of the island nations, must foot the bill for accommodation and any win bonuses. Only a place at the Club World Cup can fill the coffers; after all, US$ 500,000 is a lot of money for an Oceanic club, even though part of the prize goes straight to other clubs in the country or to the OFC itself, as agreed with

“The team is in a party mood, but we’ve got to take the Champions League seriously.”

Marama Varihua, midfielder, AS Pirae, Tahiti

Aiming for the FIFA Club World Cup The new format saves the teams travelling stress and, above all, money, something the OFC lacks in comparison to a confederation like UEFA. The European governing body pays each club US$ 12 million simply for reaching 26

the participating club’s national football association.

The OFC would be glad to pay clubs more to participate in the Champions League but struggles to find sponsors given football’s lack of popularity compared to rugby union in New T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. In addition, there are few companies operating Pacific-wide, and as a result the OFC’s most notable partnership is with UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, in the fight against dengue fever raging across the region. Before each match, the ballboys lay a banner across the pitch that reads “Kick out Dengue”. However, it is the football association’s youth programme, not the Champions League, that benefits directly from this initiative.

Both of the Champions League’s host stadiums have seen better days. Paint is flaking off the hard wooden benches on the terraces, although they continue to create an atmosphere, together with the palm trees that sway in the distance. In Ba, two boys relax under the scoreboard and change the numbers after every goal, while the commentary box is located in an old bus drivers’ hut. In Lautoka, the stadium announcer sits among the fans and there is no match clock.

None of this bothers the teams out on the pitch, who learned to deal with adversity long ago and give everything in pursuit of their ultimate goal. The teams face a daily balancing act between the professional and amateur game, despite an increase in the standard of play across Oceania in recent years. Players now follow the training regime of a profession-

OFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Duelling with legends Naea Bennett (in blue for AS Pirae) goes up against Kiwi FC’s Andrew Setefano.

al team alongside their existing lives as students, office workers or carpenters, even those in New Zealand’s two teams, the richest country in the OFC after Australia switched to the Asian Football Confederation in 2006. Samoan side and rank outsiders Kiwi FC, who qualified for the group stages via a preliminary tournament, even have a Japanese player on their books who is completing a voluntary placement on the island.

Former professionals and ­f ootballing artists Many clubs have reinforced their ranks for the duration of the Champions League. Vanuatu side Amicale FC have enlisted four professionals with European experience: Scot Colin Marshall and Serbian trio Milan Matic, Nikola Vasilic and Marko Dordevic. Meanwhile, the midfield of Tahitian club AS Pirae has been dominated by 33-year-old Marama Vahirua, a former France U-21 international who has played at the top level in Nice, Lorient and Nancy.

Vahirua was part of the Tahiti side that competed at the 2013 Confederations Cup. Now he is back in his homeland to see out his playing career and has founded a football school.

After experiencing football in Europe, Vahirua admits that life is somewhat different in Oceania. “The team is in a party mood, but we’ve got to take the Champions League seriously.”

Some teams have opted to get an additional boost from the technical skills of international players of other variants of football. As a result, AS Pirae have also augmented their squad with six beach soccer players who finished in a surprise fourth place at last year’s Beach Soccer World Cup on home soil. Elsewhere, 22-year-old Micah Lea’Alafa is tying opposition players in knots for Solomon Warriors having fired the Solomon Islands to their first win at a Futsal World Cup in Thailand back in 2012.

This mix of experience makes for interesting matches, even if not all the teams have brought their tactical approaches into the 21st century. Both Fijian teams spurn the notion of a four-man defence, instead opting to play with a sweeper and man-to-man marking. This strategy has had varying levels of success: although Ba qualified for the semi-finals as group winners, Champions League debutants Nadi conceded 14 goals in three games despite the impassioned motivational speeches given by their coach in the dressing room.

No sign of Lady Luck Kiwi FC goalkeeper Masi Toetu during their 0-8 defeat by AS Pirae in Lautoka.

Broadcasting across the Pacific The performances on offer deserve to have been played in front of larger audiences. Despite the availability of moderately-priced tickets costing six US dollars per matchday, matches have played out in front of practically empty stands. Only the Fijian teams have attracted crowds of up to a thousand fans. Nevertheless,

Champions League in the South Seas Spectators in celebratory mood.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

27

A FIFA World Cup in Brazil is just like Visa: everyone is welcome.

™

TM & © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

OFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Coming to you live from a bus driver’s hut in Ba OFC spokesman Gordon Glen Watson in his element.

the Champions League has been able to reach the audience it deserves thanks to the hard-working OFC team’s progressive approach to technology. The Confederation established its own TV production department just two years ago to enable it to be less dependent on national television broadcasters, and OFC TV is now broadcasting all 18 matches of this year’s competition live with the support of two Fijian TV companies. Six cameras follow proceedings while OFC spokesman Gordon Glen Watson, once a semi-professional footballer himself, lends his voice to the television commentary as two of his colleagues cover the matches for ­radio in English and French.

In the future, this footage will form a video library that the OFC can use to offer previously unimaginable new possibilities for training new coaches. The OFC currently provides TV images to the various broadcasters across the Pacific islands for a small and largely symbolic fee, enabling almost four million people in ­Papua New Guinea – almost half the population – to cheer on Hekari United as they cut their teeth against their group opponents.

Anyone unable to watch the games live can use the OFC’s official YouTube channel to catch up on the exploits of teams such as Vanuatu’s Amicale FC, who kept their Club World Cup dream alive by narrowly qualifying as the best

second-placed side for the semi-finals, where they will be joined by AS Pirae from Tahiti, ­Fiji’s Ba FC and defending champions and favourites Auckland City. With another click you can discover the fate of Solomon Warriors, who will be forced to watch FIFA’s global club competition on television in December after conceding a goal in the 86th minute of their final match.

FIFA suppor ts the OFC T V Project All 18 matches of the Oceania Football Confederation’s Champions League are being broadcast live on OFC TV. The project has a budget of US$ 383,000, of which FIFA has contributed US$ 250,000.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

The semi-finals will be played across two legs before the final on 11 May decides once and for all who will travel to Morocco. Å

Oceania Football Confederation Founded 15 November 1966 Confederation headquarters Auckland, New Zealand Members 14 national associations, 3 of whom are FIFA associates rather than full members Homepage oceaniafootball.com 29

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F I F A ’ S T O P 11

World Cup matches as captain

“No more French bars” Alan Schweingruber

J

une 2014. The small patio at the coffee shop in Zurich is bustling with guests as Johanna finishes her Martini and looks around for the nearest waiter. “I love the World Cup,” she says. “Look at all the flat-screen televisions everywhere. I couldn’t care less about club football, but the World Cup is something else. What about you?

Do you like the World Cup? Her sister Anna, absorbed in the business section of her newspaper, smiles and replies: “Not really.”

“Oh come on, it’s great fun. There’s so much emotion involved and it only happens every four years.”

“I might go to the Parisienne for a drink.

They show France’s games there.”

“That boring old French bar? With Gainsbourg music, expensive wine and terrible service? I don’t go there anymore on principle.”

“I actually quite like it there.”

“I’m never going again. What do you even see in the French?”

“They’ve got style and passion.”

“That guy from the Cote Azur did this to you last summer didn’t he?”

Anna laughs. “Rubbish.”

“Well it can’t be because of their football that you like them. France haven’t won anything since the European Championship in 2000.”

“They were World Cup runners-up in 2006.

And they only lost that final because they were provoked by the Italians you love so much and because Zidane was sent off.”

“Now you’re talking as if you’re one of them.

I can’t believe it. Are you still seeing him.”

“Who?” “That guy. Serge.”

“You mean Severin.”

“Severin then.”

“We’re still in touch occasionally.”

“But do you still see him?”

“I might go with him to Nice for a week in July.”

Johanna spits out an ice cube back into her glass. “Ooh la la! You’re going to Nice? I can’t believe it. A romantic getaway in Nice.”

Anna laughs. “Come on, cut it out.”

“Sis, you won’t be going to Nice to play petanque now will you?”

Their conversation is interrupted as two men, speaking French, are seated.

“Do you think they can understand us?”

Johanna whispers to her sister.

Anna shrugs her shoulders.

“What are they talking about?”

Anna begins to eavesdrop and translates some of the men’s conversation. “They’re talking about football … about the World Cup … who their favourites are … they think France will make it out of the group stage … and that Italy have a good chance of winning the title.”

Johanna: “Hmm.” “Now they’re changing subject...I think they’re talking about us...it seems the guy on the left has taken a shine to you.”

“To me?” Johanna whispers, pointing a finger at her chest.

“He wants to talk to you…but isn’t sure how … he seems to be a bit nervous about doing so …”

Johanna stands up, flustered. “I’ll be right back.”

When she returns from the bathroom, the men have disappeared.

“Where are they?” She asks, disappointed.

“They left.”

“Where did they go?”

“To the Parisienne.”

“Really?”

Johanna thinks for a moment before pulling out her purse. “Do they have Martinis there too?” Å T H E F I FA W E E K LY

1

Diego Maradona, Argentina Appearances: 16 Tournaments: 1986, 1990, 1994

2

Dino Zoff, Italy Appearances: 14 Tournaments: 1978, 1982

3

Paolo Maldini, Italy Appearances: 13 Tournaments: 1994, 1998, 2002

Kazimierz Deyna, Poland Appearances: 13 Tournaments: 1994, 1998, 2002

5

Ladislav Novak, Czech Republic Appearances: 12 Tournaments: 1954, 1958, 1962

Uwe Seeler, Germany Appearances: 12 Tournaments: 1966, 1970

Daniel Passarella, Argentina Appearances: 12 Tournaments: 1978, 1982

Lothar Matthäus, Germany Appearances: 12 Tournaments: 1990, 1994

9

Michel Platini, France Appearances: 11 Tournaments: 1982, 1986

Dunga, Brasil Appearances: 11 Tournaments: 1994, 1998

Cafu, Brasil Appearances: 11 Tournaments: 2002, 2006

Source: FIFA (FIFA World Cup, Superlatives, Statistical Kit 5, 4.8.2010)

31

MIRROR IMAGE

T

H

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N

The Den, home ground Millwall FC, London

1936

Ward / Getty Images

The ninth annual Jockeys versus Boxers football match. Boxer Dave Crowley is unceremoniously dumped by comedy acrobats Jimmy Nervo (left) and Teddy Knox.

32

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

MIRROR IMAGE

N

O

W

Opera Ball, Vienna

2008

Herbert Neubauer / Reuters

Walk-on parts: Former stars Herbert Prohaska (left) and Andreas Herzog tip a member of the Vienna State Ballet company onto the stage.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

33

FIFA WORLD R ANKING Rank Team

Change in ranking Points

1 2 3 4 5 6 6 8 9 10

Spain Germany Portugal Colombia Uruguay Argentina Brazil Switzerland Italy Greece

0 0 1 1 1 -3 3 -1 -1 3

1460 1340 1245 1186 1181 1174 1174 1161 1115 1082

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 25 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 54 56 56 58 59 59 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 76

England Belgium USA Chile Netherlands France Ukraine Russia Mexico Croatia Côte d'Ivoire Scotland Denmark Egypt Bosnia-Herzegovina Sweden Algeria Ecuador Slovenia Serbia Romania Honduras Armenia Costa Rica Panama Czech Republic Iran Ghana Turkey Austria Venezuela Cape Verde Islands Peru Hungary Nigeria Slovakia Japan Wales Tunisia Cameroon Guinea Finland Uzbekistan Paraguay Montenegro Korea Republic Norway Iceland Mali Australia Burkina Faso Libya Senegal Jordan Republic of Ireland South Africa United Arab Emirates Bolivia El Salvador Albania Sierra Leone Poland Bulgaria Zambia Saudi Arabia Trinidad and Tobago Morocco

1 -2 1 1 -4 1 1 1 1 -4 3 15 -1 2 -4 2 0 -5 2 -2 1 4 8 0 -6 -6 5 -3 -1 4 -2 -9 -3 -1 2 4 1 2 -5 0 2 6 2 5 -8 4 1 -6 -3 4 1 9 6 2 3 -2 -6 2 9 -16 1 1 -6 0 0 0 1

1043 1039 1015 1011 967 935 913 903 876 871 830 825 819 798 795 795 795 790 787 759 756 754 750 744 739 731 715 713 711 673 670 665 653 623 620 616 613 613 597 583 580 578 577 555 555 551 551 546 545 545 528 522 511 510 504 500 499 497 488 486 484 479 460 456 455 454 454

Ranking Nov 2013

Dec 2013

Jan 2014

→ http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/index.html

Feb 2014

Mar 2014

Apr 2014

1 -41 -83 -125 -167 -209

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 106 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 122 124 125 126 127 128 129 129 131 131 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 143

Top spot

Biggest climber

Israel Haiti FYR Macedonia Oman Jamaica Belarus Northern Ireland Azerbaijan Uganda Gabon Congo DR Togo Cuba Botswana Congo Estonia Angola Qatar China PR Benin Zimbabwe Moldova Iraq Ethiopia Niger Georgia Lithuania Bahrain Kenya Central African Republic Kuwait Latvia Canada New Zealand Luxembourg Equatorial Guinea Mozambique Lebanon Vietnam Sudan Kazakhstan Liberia Namibia Malawi Tanzania Afghanistan Guatemala Burundi Dominican Republic Malta Cyprus Suriname Rwanda Gambia Syria Tajikistan Grenada St Vincent and the Grenadines New Caledonia Korea DPR Lesotho Antigua and Barbuda Thailand St Lucia Malaysia Belize Philippines

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

-13 0 2 0 -2 0 2 6 -1 1 -4 0 3 4 -5 -1 2 6 2 -3 4 9 3 -1 2 -4 1 1 3 1 2 4 2 -21 8 6 1 1 9 5 9 -22 4 -7 -5 5 2 4 -15 7 -6 2 5 5 6 -12 -2 4 -18 -4 5 5 8 5 -1 -3 -13

Biggest faller

450 446 443 418 414 404 400 398 395 386 380 374 371 369 367 366 347 336 333 332 329 325 324 319 315 303 293 289 284 284 283 273 272 271 266 261 252 251 242 241 235 234 233 227 226 226 224 215 212 204 201 197 197 190 190 188 184 181 174 172 159 158 156 155 153 152 152

145 145 147 147 149 150 151 152 153 153 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 164 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 174 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 184 186 187 188 189 190 191 191 191 194 195 195 197 197 199 200 201 202 202 204 205 206 207 207 207

Singapore India Kyrgyzstan Puerto Rico Liechtenstein Guyana Indonesia Mauritania Maldives St Kitts and Nevis Aruba Turkmenistan Tahiti Hong Kong Nepal Dominica Pakistan Barbados Bangladesh Palestine Faroe Islands São Tomé e Príncipe Nicaragua Bermuda Chad Chinese Taipei Guam Solomon Islands Sri Lanka Laos Myanmar Mauritius Seychelles Curaçao Swaziland Yemen Vanuatu Fiji Samoa Comoros Guinea-Bissau Bahamas Mongolia Montserrat Madagascar Cambodia Brunei Darussalam Timor-Leste Tonga US Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Papua New Guinea British Virgin Islands American Samoa Andorra Eritrea South Sudan Somalia Macau Djibouti Cook Islands Anguilla Bhutan San Marino Turks and Caicos Islands

4 7 -1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 7 -14 -19 -13 1 -1 -3 -1 -1 3 -2 -1 1 1 1 1 2 -7 0 -2 -1 0 -1 0 0 5 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 0 0 1 -2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

144 144 143 143 139 137 135 127 124 124 122 119 116 111 107 103 102 101 98 91 91 86 84 83 80 78 77 75 74 73 73 67 66 65 64 60 55 47 45 43 43 40 35 33 32 28 26 26 26 23 21 21 18 18 16 11 10 8 8 6 5 3 0 0 0

35

THE SOUND OF FOOTBALL

THE OBJEC T

Perikles Monioudis

Hanspeter Kuenzler

Tango and football are made for each other. The sorrowful style is even being deployed in a plea to the Argentina coach.

Hardly any other music genre is as infused with melancholy as tango. For all the exuberance with which tango dancers express their passion for their partner and the music, their movements resemble weeping willows tossed by the breeze. Tango and football both celebrate the joy of movement while simultaneously lamenting the fleeting nature of life.

The histories of football and tango do indeed go hand in hand. Homesick Englishmen were responsible for introducing the game to Buenos Aires.

It soon took root in the barrios in the great metropolitan centres on the Rio de la Plata, Montevideo in Uruguay to the north and Buenos Aires in 36

Argentina to the south. This was also the flourishing milieu of tango, a highly nuanced musical direction, whose blend of European and African styles accurately reflected the makeup of the population.

According to romantic legend the intricate footwork required for tango soon found its way onto the football pitch. A new footballing technique was born full of feints and playful steps.

It comes as no surprise that this historical connection has produced many grandly melancholic footballing tangos. With the 20th century still in its infancy great artists composed odes to their favourite clubs.

Agustin Bardi celebrated the joys of Independiente Club, Luis Servidio paid tribute to San Lorenzo de Almagro and Alfredo de Angelis hailed Banfield (“El taladro”). At the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay tango star Carlos Gardel was

forced to decide whether Argentina or the hosts would receive his vocal support. He chose the diplomatic way out and offered his services to both.

The intertwined story of football and tango is by no means at an end. A plethora of albums are filled with Maradona-themed numbers.

And in the build-up to the 2014 World Cup, tango singer Daniel Ursini has hit on a novel idea.

Through the medium of a typically doleful tune he is attempting to persuade Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella to change his mind and bring back Carlos Tevez. “Sabella te olvidaste de Carlitos” the artist sings, his voice cracking with emotion: “You wouldn’t be so foolish as to leave out one of Argentina’s most popular players!” If Tevez wasn’t already a tango fan, he surely is by now. Æ

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Sion Ap Tomos

A tango for Tevez

How is a boy expected to know right from wrong? For a typical football-playing lad, his father’s newspaper is often both literally and figuratively out of reach; instead, he needs another publication written just for him that also covers football. With this in mind, The Boy’s Own Paper was first published on Saturday 18 January 1879. The first issue kicked off with the title story, “My first football match”, and the paper started flying off the shelves straight away.

Before long, Boy’s Own was one of England’s best-known and most popular magazines. The issue shown in the picture above, now part of the FIFA Collection, was already number 1339 by the time it was published on 10 September 1904. The cover depicts two young men, one sitting down while wearing a pair of cricket pads, the other holding his tennis racket by the end of the grip to prop it up against the park bench.

To complete the idyllic scene, the boys are reading The Boy’s Own Paper. Symbolically, they adorn the cover of the magazine while at the same time reading its pages, representing the fact that these boys were the paper’s core demographic and could find stories inside about children just like them – schoolboys fascinated by sport, games, nature and technology.

Then as now, their chief interest was football. Upon first reading, the claim by Albert Camus that “everything I know, I learned from football” may seem somewhat trite, but this statement is not far from the truth. If it were, the strict training requirements and controls set out by football associations when it comes to youth development would be obsolete. Instead, the link between football and education will remain strong as long as human beings are capable of learning. Å

TURNING POINT

“You can go straight back!”

Jean-Paul Brigger’s marriage and honeymoon very nearly put paid to his football career.

Christian Grund / 13 Photo

M

y wife and I wanted to get married and were looking for a suitable date. I contacted my club, FC Sion, to find out when I had to report back to training after the summer holidays. As a footballer, it’s very difficult to set a date: it’s impossible during the season and in pre-season, so there are only a few days in between. I also wanted to go on a honeymoon, as I knew that I was only going to get married once.

Once we’d found a date and arranged our trip, our head coach was replaced and suddenly everything changed. The start of pre-season training was brought forward, clashing with our honeymoon. I went anyway, but as I arrived at the stadium on my return, I bumped into a member of the board, who told me: “You can go straight back!” I was dumbstruck, but wasn’t prepared to let myself be treated in such a manner. I told them that if I left now, I wouldn’t be coming back. End of story! It sounds melodramatic, but that’s what I was like: young and rebellious. The new coach, Daniel Jeandupeux, had got wind of the row and said: “Jean-Paul, come and sit down.” He managed to take the heat out of the situation, and from that moment on I was prepared to run for him and give him everything. My career could have come to an end that day, before it had really begun.

I wasn’t a particularly gifted footballer, but I had plenty of character. I wasn’t one to hide my emotions, I wanted to prove myself and I never gave up. There were no ifs or buts for me, which I believe has something to do with the area I grew up in. The mountains are dangerous and unpredictable, but they’re also beautiful.

They reflect all the peaks and troughs of life.

Name Jean-Paul Brigger Date of birth, place of birth 14 December 1957, St. Niklaus Position Striker Clubs played for 1977–1982, 1985-1992 FC Sion 1982–1985 Servette Current occupation FIFA Technical Team Director Competitions Honours 1984 Swiss Cup winner (Servette) 1992 Swiss league title winner (FC Sion) Personal achievements Swiss top scorer (1983) Swiss Player of the Year (1992) National team: Switzerland 35 appearances, 3 goals

I’d never have accepted being left out of the first team and having to sit on the bench – I can sit when I’m at home! Football was my hobby and my passion. These days, I definitely wouldn’t be cut out for the job.

At 32, I’d reached the peak of my career and had to start thinking about retirement. I’d never have been able to cope with being booed by the fans. That’s why I only signed twelve-month contracts from then on. I told myself on a daily basis: “This could be my last training session.

If someone nutmegs me today, that’s it.” Miraculously, those were the best years of my life.

They gave me freedom. We won the Swiss league title in 1992 and I was named Player of T H E F I FA W E E K LY

the Year – everything was perfect. After my final match, I got into the car with my wife and told her: “Step on it. Drive until there’s nothing left in the tank!” Å Interview by Sarah Steiner

In Turning Point, personalities reflect on a decisive moment in their lives.

37

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“You’ll Never Walk Alone” is possibly the most well-known stadium anthem of all time.

Who first took this song to the top of the chart?

President: Joseph S. Blatter Secretary General: Jérôme Valcke Director of Communications and Public Affairs: Walter De Gregorio A

Chief Editor: Perikles Monioudis

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Staff Writers: Thomas Renggli (Author), Alan Schweingruber, Sarah Steiner Art Direction: Catharina Clajus

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C Real Madrid P Monterrey

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O Rest of the World T Santos

I’m sure you recognise me. I even had a football named after me, but which one?

A Telstar I Tango

Contributors: Sérgio Xavier Filho, Luigi Garlando, Sven Goldmann, Hanspeter Kuenzler, Jordi Punti, David Winner, Roland Zorn Contributors to this Issue: ACarol Almiron, Andreas Jaros, Peter Kanjere, Doris Ladstaetter, Giovanni Marti, Markus Nowak, Elio Stamm, Andreas Wilhelm (Picture)

This is a shirt from the FIFA match between Barcelona and...

E Fevernova O Jabulani

Which of these images was used on the cover of an album that is once again selling by the million?

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Editorial Assistant: Honey Thaljieh Project Management: Bernd Fisa, Christian Schaub Translation: Sportstranslations Limited www.sportstranslations.com Printer: Zofinger Tagblatt AG www.ztonline.ch

B

R

The answer to last week’s Quiz Cup was BALL (detailed answers on www.fifa.com/theweekly).

Inspiration and implementation: cus

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Before sending in your answers, all participants must read and accept the competition terms and conditions and the rules, which can be found at http://en.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/the-fifa-weekly/rules.pdf T H E F I FA W E E K LY

39

ASK FIFA!

T HIS WEEK’S POLL

Who will finish top scorer at the World Cup in Brazil?

Under what circumstances can a team keep the World Cup Trophy permanently?

Hans Falk, Gothenburg (Sweden) Answered by Thomas Renggli: According to FIFA regulations, the World Cup Trophy can no longer be permanently awarded to a football association. The world champions only receive the real Trophy when they are handed it on the day of the Final, and are given a gold-­ plated copy afterwards. The actual Trophy is returned to FIFA, who keep it in a secret location. The original is made from 18-carat gold, stands 36.8 cm high and weighs 6,175 grams. The base is formed of two rings made from malachite, a semi-precious stone. The names of every world champion since 1974 are engraved on the bottom, with space for further winners to be added until the 2038 World Cup.

A tough one, especially in the light of the 2010 finals in South Africa where four players finished level on five goals: David Villa (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Thomas Muller (Germany) and Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands),

L A S T W E E K’S P O L L R E S U LT S Can Liverpool end a 24-year wait to win the league?

YES 80%

20% DON’T KNOW

1

season in the Indian top flight

is all that Bengaluru FC (pictured Sean Rooney, 7, and Beikhokhei

7 28 goals in his last five Italian Serie A

years since they last sacked a manager,

appearances have taken Ciro Immobile

Manchester United wielded the axe again

become national champions.

to the top of Italy’s scoring chart and

on Tuesday by dismissing David Moyes

The newly promoted Bangalore

alongside Torino legends. His latest league

after just ten months in charge. It speaks

side clinched the championship

strike – in Saturday’s 3–3 draw at Lazio – was

volumes for the stability enjoyed at Old

with a game to spare on Monday

the former Genoa striker’s 20th of the season

Trafford that 16 of the current United

thanks to a 4–2 win at Dempo, putting

and the first time in 37 years, since Francesco

players had not even been born when Ron

the seal on a fairy tale debut campaign

Graziani in 1976/77, that a Granata player has

Atkinson, the last Red Devils manager to

in the I-League.

reached this landmark.

be dismissed, lost his job in 1986.

Beingaichho, 18) have needed to

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Barbara Sax / AFP, Carl de Souza / AFP, Getty Images (3)

WEEK IN NUMBERS