The FIFA Weekly Issue #61

ISSUE 61, 19 DECEMBER 2014

ENGLISH EDITION

Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904

Year-end break

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS CORINNE DIACRE NATURAL AUTHORITY IN MEN’S FOOTBALL

YOUTH ACADEMIES A WORLD CUP WINNING SYSTEM

CANADA 2015 CHRISTIE RAMPONE’S FINAL CAREER GOAL W W W.FIFA.COM/ THEWEEKLY

THIS WEEK IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL

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North and Central America 35 members www.concacaf.com

Peace and goodwill in South America At Christmas, South American football stars such as Lionel Messi, Neymar and Diego Forlan return to their homelands. Sven Goldmann sampled the special atmosphere on the ­continent over the festive period.

South America 10 members www.conmebol.com

Sepp Blatter In his weekly column, FIFA President Blatter congratulates the Royal Dutch Football Asso­ ciation on its 125th anniversary and reflects upon the defining moments in the Oranje’s history.

Training Germany’s next generation Great emphasis is placed on youth development in Germany, and since 2001 it has been ­com­pulsory for every Bundesliga club to have an academy. This commitment has paid off ­handsomely.

Netzer knows!

Fending off relegation in the Bundesliga but flying high in Europe – can Dortmund win the Champions League? Gunter Netzer shares his views.

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USA Christie Rampone wants to round off her career with a World Cup title.

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Inside the FIFA archives Memories of the last 110 years at football’s world governing body.

Home for the holidays Our cover image shows Rio de Janeiro’s 85-metre-high floating Christmas tree being illuminated on 29 November 2014.

Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP

Please note: This year, the penultimate issue of The FIFA Weekly is slightly shorter than usual, with 36 pages instead of the usual 40. This is because the year-end double issue that comes out on Tuesday 23 of December 2014 will be packed with 48 pages of articles to enjoy. The first issue of the New Year will be published on Friday 9 of January 2015.

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The FIFA Weekly Magazine App The FIFA Weekly, FIFA’s magazine, is available in four languages as an e-Magazine and on your tablet every Friday.

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Our year-end double issue comes out on 23 December!

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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National hero How Johan Cruyff shaped Dutch football.

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France Corinne Diacre is making her mark as Clermont Foot’s coach in Ligue 2.

MATCH SCHEDULE FOR THE CLUB WORLD CUP · MOROCCO 2014 10 December, 19:30 Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium Rabat

13 December, 19:30 Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium Rabat

Match 1 · Play-off for Quarter-Finals Maghreb Tetouan 0 (3) Auckland City 0 (4)

Match 3 · Quarter-Final Cruz Azul Western Sydney Wanderers

Auckland City win on penalties

Cruz Azul win after extra time

ES Setif win on penalties

13 December, 16:00 Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium Rabat

16 December, 19:30 Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium Rabat

17 December, 19:30 Stade de Marrakech Marrakesh

Match 2 · Quarter-Final ES Setif Auckland City

0 1

Match 4 · Semi-Final Cruz Azul Real Madrid

20 December, 16:30 Stade de Marrakech Marrakesh

17 December, 16:30 Stade de Marrakech Marrakesh 1 (3) 1 (1)

0 4

Match 5 · Match for Fifth Place ES Setif Western Sydney Wanderers

Match 6 · Semi-Final San Lorenzo Auckland City

2 (7) 2 (6)

Match 7 · Match for Third Place Cruz Azul Auckland City

20 December, 19:30 Stade de Marrakech Marrakesh 2 1

Match 8 · Final Real Madrid San Lorenzo

Cruz Azul win after extra time

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UNCOVERED

Feliz Natal Pele and his then girlfriend Maria da Graca Xuxa Meneghel on a children’s TV show (Rio de Janeiro, 1983).

Back to their roots

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hristmas is sacrosanct in South America, so naturally there is no competitive football over the holiday season. It is the time of year when the stars who earn their money abroad return to their roots – Messi to his hometown of Rosario, Neymar to Jundiai for a festive season benefit match and Forlan to Montevideo. Fans of Penarol, the latter’s first club as a youth, dream of their idol staying put for good and giving them their best Christmas present ever. The FIFA Weekly writer Sven Goldmann surveys the festive situation on the continent from page 6 on.

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ermany’s World Cup triumph was anything but a free gift: long years of painstaking work paved the way for success in Brazil. The foundations were laid when elite youth academies were made compulsory for all German professional clubs. We report on the Bundesliga’s youth development system on page 20.

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he Netherlands contested the World Cup Final for the first time against West Germany in 1974, just one of many highlights in the 125-year history of the Dutch FA (KNVB). In his weekly column on page 15, FIFA President Sepp Blatter congratulates the association on reaching a momentous milestone. Å

fotogloria

Sarah Steiner

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CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Merry Christmas A Corinthians fan gets into the spirit of the season.

HOMEWARD BOUND 6

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CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AMERICA

South America’s football stars always enjoy spending their holidays at home, but returning for Christmas is particularly special.

Sven Goldmann

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Flying home for Christmas – it’s in the contract In recent years, Lionel Messi has repeatedly made it his utmost priority to spend the holidays in Rosario, Argentina’s third-largest city and the place from which he originally set out for Barcelona as a 13-yearold to dazzle the footballing world. A Christmas break in his hometown also sends a strong message to all those who accuse Messi of lacking national pride. Meanwhile Barça team-mate Neymar de Silva Santos Junior is travelling home to Brazil to be an honorary guest at T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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Global Photo Agency / AB / fotogloria

n the run-up to Christmas, a rumour spread that filled Uruguayan football fans with excitement like nothing else could. This message, full of promise, came not from the Bible but from farflung Japan: is he really coming back? The mere suggestion that Diego Forlan could sign for his beloved Penarol in Montevideo lifted the spirits of the entire country long before the holiday season began.

It appears as though Forlan’s stint at Cerezo Osaka is over after their relegation from the J-League, but as the 35-year-old still feels far too young to bring an end to his career, his first move was to fly home to Uruguay. Although he initially only intended to spend the holidays with his family, his visit could also herald the start of a new chapter. “I don’t know what the future holds,” Forlan said when departing Japan, “but I don’t have many years left in professional football. I want to enjoy them and spend them in a place where people like me.” Nowhere is this truer than at Penarol in Montevideo, where his father played back in the Sixties. That is why the former Atletico Madrid and Manchester United striker declared: “If I play anywhere in South America, it can only be Penarol!”

If such a deal is eventually confirmed, they will be letting off a few more Christmas rockets into the summer skies above the capital this year. Uruguayans traditionally celebrate Christmas Eve with a huge firework display, preferably on the beach, where young and old alike gather to cook food and play football. Outside of these festivities, not a single ball is kicked across South America during the season of goodwill.

Nevertheless, these football-free days in late December are a precious time for the continent’s fans, as all the stars who usually ply their trade in Spain, Italy, Germany or Eastern Europe return to their roots at Christmas, whether to Argentina, Chile or Brazil or to Ecuador, Colombia or Uruguay. They do the same thing when European football comes to a halt each summer, but the return of these footballing ambassadors to deeply religious South America during the largest celebration in the Christian calendar makes the occasion extra special.

In a festive mood Brazilian superstar Neymar posts a seasonal shot on Instagram.

Penarol’s 40,000th fan Diego Forlan receives an

Home sweet home Lionel Messi in his hometown of Rosario with his mother Celia (right).

Benefit match in Jundiai Nene (right) and friends do

a festive charity match. The game is taking place in Jundiai, Sao Paulo, under the memorable motto: “Hungry only for the ball!” Seleção colleague and Paris Saint-Germain right-winger Lucas Moura will also join him at the event. South Americans playing for Russian or Ukrainian clubs appreciate the fact that a Christmas flight home is guaranteed in their contracts. Only players such as Colombian Radamel Falcao at Manchester United, Chelsea’s Brazilian attacking midfielder Oscar, Argentinian defender Martin Demichelis at Manchester City or Chile and Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez are forced to abandon any hopes of revisiting their homelands. After all, there is no such thing as a winter break in English football, with teams returning to action on Boxing Day. 8

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But what about South America? If there is any talk about football in the area between Venezuela and Tierra del Fuego as Christmas approaches, it relates solely to the Club World Cup, which is held in much higher regard in South America than elsewhere in the world.

When Peruvian Paolo Guerrero fired Corinthians to a 1-0 victory in the final against Chelsea in Yokohama two years ago, half of Sao Paulo leapt to its feet. Last year, no less than 3,000 Brazilian fans accompanied Atletico Mineiro to Morocco, where they suffered through a 3-1 semi-final defeat at the hands of Raja Casablanca. After the consolation of beating Chinese representatives Guangzhou Evergrande in the match for third place, the entire Brazilian delegation was back in Belo Horizonte a day before Christmas Eve. This year, Argentina’s

Instagram, AP / Keystone, Ivan Franco / EFE, PR Jundiai

CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Nelson Almeida / AFP, Reuters

CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AMERICA

honorary shirt from his boyhood club in 2011.

Off to the Club World Cup Corinthians fans prepare to fly to Japan on 3 December 2012.

their bit for charity.

A lifelong fan Pope Francis holds up a pennant for his beloved club San Lorenzo while still a cardinal in 2013.

Uruguayans celebrate Christmas with fireworks on the beach, where young and old alike gather to cook food and play football.

Club Atletico San Lorenzo de Almagro have travelled to North Africa with support from the uppermost echelons of the Christian church, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio – better known as Pope Francis – has been a fan of the Buenos Aires club since childhood.

Peace and goodwill in Argentina Apart from these international commitments, football falls silent in the second half of December and, in contrast to frozen Europe, the weather is not the reason for this hiatus. Teams could certainly play in the continent’s beautiful summer weather, but South America’s football associations are keen to keep the Christmas period holy. Anyone who has ever experienced the devout yet relaxed manner in T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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Developing football everywhere and for all

Organising inspiring tournaments

Caring about society and the environment

For the Game. For the World.

FIFA is committed to developing football for the benefit of all. Our mission is to: Develop the game FIFA’s primary objective is to develop the game of football in our 209 member associations. The FIFA World Cup™ gives us the resources we need to invest USD 550,000 per day in football development across the globe.

Touch the world FIFA’s aim is to touch the world through its international football competitions and events, uniting and inspiring people everywhere.

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Build a better future Football is much more than just a game. Its universal appeal gives it a unique power and reach which must be managed carefully. FIFA believes it has a duty to society that goes beyond football.

CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AMERICA

which Argentinians celebrate these sacred days, as perfectly embodied by the festively decorated ficus trees on Calle Florida in central Buenos Aires, will never forget the charm of this midsummer air of tranquillity.

With the hustle and bustle of the regular season long since over, football takes a back seat over these few days. Cruzeiro have been champions of the Campeonato Brasileiro since mid-November while Universidad de Chile won the final of their Apertura against Union La Calera on 8 December, with Uruguay’s Primera Division Profesional drawing to a close the previous day. Montevideo’s Club Nacional had held an unassailable lead for weeks before finishing the season with an impressive 17-point advantage over arch-rivals Penarol.

It is in this context that rumours have begun swirling of Diego Forlan’s momentous return to the Estadio Centenario, the stadium Penarol call home. Although only a few fans genuinely believe the move will actually happen, the mere fact that it has been mentioned by the best player at the 2010 World Cup has been enough to put the black-and-yellow faithful in high spirits. According to a recently published survey, one in two Uruguayans supports Penarol, effectively making the blond striker’s potential return a national issue. That said, Forlan cannot exactly come back to the Carboneros because he was never really there in the first place, at least not as a professional. In this respect, the former Villarreal and Inter Milan player’s history is typical of the overall shift in South American club football, one that is not necessarily for the better and of which many of the continent’s football fanatics will be painfully aware at Christmas.

As three-time Intercontinental Cup winners, Penarol were once respected and feared the world over. Today the club, along with all of its rivals, is forced to be content with serving as a feeder team for Europe’s most wealthy leagues. This is not a problem unique to Uruguayan sides; their neighbours in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia are all similarly afflicted. The ample proceeds flowing across the Atlantic are of little consolation for these proud South Americans, nor is the fact that they can only watch their best and brightest players on television.

A season of togetherness These players often fly the nest well before they become household names. Diego Forlan left home at the age of 15, having last pulled on Penarol’s yellow-and-black shirt as a 12-year-old. Despite this, he has always retained the link with his home, friends and family, and has been a fan of the 49-time Primera Division champions since he was a small boy. He describes himself and his Celeste team-mates as the best of friends, and although they spend much of the year scattered across the globe, it is exactly this distance that makes their time together so special – especially when the occasion that brings them together is Christmas. Å

Footballs and red crabs

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hristmas Island is an Australian territory located in the Indian Ocean and home to around 1,500 people. Covered for the most part by tropical rainforest, it barely measures 25 kilometres from Flying Fish Cove in its north-eastern tip to its southernmost point, but football would not be the global sport it is today were it not also played on Christmas Island.

The island does not have a national team per se, as it is neither a sovereign state nor is its football association a member of FIFA, but the Christmas Island Soccer Federation does have a representative team made up of players from local clubs, including the Casino Royales, Drum Site Olimpic, Hampong Rangers, Christmas Island FC and Southpoint Wanderers – several of whom are former winners of the domestic league title and cup competition.

One thing all these clubs have in common is their home - the High School Soccer Field in Flying Fish Cove. The “national” team also play here, although they are not permitted to take part in official matches. However, the Inter-Island Cup, which was co-founded by the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Soccer Federation, does not lack tradition, despite the fact that the co-founders are the only ones taking part in the tournament. The first ever “international” to be held on Christmas Island took place in 1999 and ended in a 3-1 victory for the hosts over Cocos (Keeling), who have been plagued by financial troubles since 2005.

Flying Fish Cove is named after the British ship HMS Flying Fish, which first docked in the island’s north in 1888. It is widely believed that British settlers also brought the game of football to the island, which was christened by the man who first discovered it on 25 December 1643, William Mynors, captain of the Royal Mary.

Incidentally, Christmas Island red crabs are world-renowned for their annual mass migration from the forests to the Indian Ocean, where they lay their eggs before returning to the jungle via the island’s fine sandy beaches. Å

On tour the Christmas Island football team ahead of a match in Malaysia (2009).

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IN BRIEF

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hings are not going particularly well for Borussia Dortmund in Germany’s Bundesliga. Jurgen Klopp’s side currently lie in 16th place – of 18 clubs – after suffering nine defeats so far this season. But in their match against Hertha Berlin last weekend, BVB set a truly impressive example of a very different kind – fair play. After Hertha’s Per Ciljan Skjelbred lost his right boot in midfield, world champion Mats Hummels instructed his Dortmund colleagues to knock the ball around in their own half until Skjelbred had slipped his shoe back on and rejoined the action. The irony of this gesture is that it was with the outside of this same right boot that the Norwegian played the pass that led to the Berliners’ decisive strike in a 1-0 win. What’s more, the goal was scored by Julian Schieber, who was still a Dortmund player last season. Å Richie Krönert

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imago

axime Spano is unlikely to ever forget his Ligue 1 debut, although probably not for the reasons he would have liked. The match between Lille and Toulouse and had only just kicked off at the Pierre Mauroy stadium when Divock Origi latched on to a long ball over the top to run through on goal. Chasing after him, Spano stumbled and brought Origi down with him as he fell. The referee was left with no choice but to point to the penalty spot and show the 20-year-old Toulouse defender a red card after just 39 seconds. Spano held his head in his hands in disbelief as he recorded the fastest sending off in the French top flight since the 2006/07 season, without having touched the ball or even broken a sweat. The day after the game, which Toulouse went on to lose 3-0, Spano took to Twitter to write to his followers: “It’s terrible, but now is not the time to wallow in self-pity. We can’t let our heads hang. We need to do everything we can to win the next game for you all!” Å Sarah Steiner

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f you choose the inelegant method of researching – the internet – then you often come across facts and anecdotes that either send you off on a tangent or fail completely to bring you to the conclusion you need.

Type in ‘football in the snow’ for example and the first result you will see is ‘the coldest village in the world’. What, and where, might that be, exactly? The answer is Oymyakon, located 1,000 km north of the Siberian city of Yakutsk, which, incidentally, is also the world’s coldest major city.

In Oymyakon, temperatures have been recorded at minus 71.2 degrees Celsius, and footage can be found of a lady hanging out washing on the line, only to bring the frozen garments back in a few minutes later. Drying clothes is not an option – they have to be disinfected. At those temperatures, one cannot even begin to think about football. In the same film, it is also hard to believe the man who comes back from a morning jog and freshens himself up in the snow saying: “Sport early in the morning is healthy. You can’t let yourself fear the cold; it actually toughens you up.”

In that sense, then, one online publication’s impassioned advice to FC Bayern Munich when they were drawn against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League – ‘Don’t forget your long johns!’ – left something of a false impression. After all, in Lviv, where Shakhtar Donetsk play, the average temperature in February is actually a ‘warm’ minus one. Å Alan Schweingruber T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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Years of phenomenal growth FIFA decided to stage the first FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in 1991 (China PR) to give the best female players in world football the opportunity to play on a world stage, thus marking a milestone for the growth of women’s football all around the globe. Around half a million spectators attended the matches. Since then, the women’s game has taken huge strides forward in every aspect, whether in terms of the players’ technique, physical fitness and tactics, or the media coverage, TV viewers and sponsorship interest.

One of the pillars of FIFA’s mission is to touch the world through our tournaments. We take great pride in staging these entertaining and unique festivals of football across the globe.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup™ is a shining example of our commitment to ensuring that women’s football goes from strength to strength in the future.

T HE DEBAT E

PRESIDENTIAL NOTE

The Netherlands’ Grand Master Very few players have earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona – Johan Cruyff is one of them. The Dutch master is one of the game’s all-time greats.

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ruyff was brought up in the shadow of Ajax Amsterdam’s stadium and training ground. From a very early age, the young Cruyff set his sights on one thing alone: becoming a professional footballer. He began formal training when he was seven years old and left school at 13 to concentrate exclusively on sport. Cruyff broke into Ajax’s first team aged 17 and two years later, in 1966, picked up the first of nine Dutch league titles destined to come his way.

He soon rose to international prominence as a fleet-footed, elegant and technically gifted footballer, who never evaded a tackle. Cruyff was a playmaker, ammunitions provider and marksman rolled into one, with an ability to time a pass that has hardly been equalled before or since.

The epitome of total football Cruyff’s finest hour with the Netherlands came at the 1974 World Cup finals in Germany.

The Dutch went into the tournament with few expectations; they had only just qualified.

The pieces of the puzzle fell into place just in time however, and by the end of the first round, the Oranje were considered the tournament favourites.

The Dutch dazzled with their total football, a style of play epitomised by Cruyff himself. Although he was fielded as centre-forward, he wandered all over the pitch, popping up wherever he could do most damage to opponents. His team-mates adapted themselves flexibly around his movements, regularly switching positions so that the tactical roles in the team were always filled but not always by the same person. This was a revolutionary concept, and it took the world by storm.

Cruyff’s brilliance was on view just seconds into the Final. From the kick-off, the Dutch passed the ball around, not allowing West Germany a touch. Orange shirt to orange shirt to orange shirt, and then the ball came to Cruyff who started a run, slipped past Berti Vogts, and was mowed down by Uli Hoeness inside the box. Johan Neeskens buried the resulting penalty before a single German had touched the ball. The Dutch failed to press home their advantage, however, and allowed the hosts back

into the game, Paul Breitner equalising from the penalty spot and Gerd Muller making it 2-1 two minutes before the break. In the second half the Oranje failed to overcome the barrier that was keeper Sepp Maier and the title was lost. Cruyff’s player of the tournament award was scant consolation. The afternoon of 7 July 1974 would be Cruyff’s final appearance on the world stage.

An Ajax legend At club level Cruyff enjoyed greater longevity.

Between 1971 and 1973, he won the European Cup three times in a row with Ajax. In 1973 he moved to Spain and Barcelona, collecting the league title in his first season. After announcing his retirement in 1978, he resurfaced in May 1979 in the United States where he spent a couple of seasons before a short-lived spell with Spanish second division side Levante.

Then it was back home to Ajax in the summer of 1981 for the start of an Indian summer. After winning the league-and-cup double, in 1983 he moved to Ajax’s arch-rivals Feyenoord where he inspired the Rotterdam club to do the same. In his mid-30s, Cruyff was playing some of the best football of his life. After two successive Footballer of the Year awards, the best Dutch player of all time hung up his boots once and for all in 1984.

Although Cruyff had no formal coaching qualifications, a new career beckoned and he took over as technical director at Ajax at the beginning of the 1985/86 season. He brought silverware to the club - leading them to the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1987 - and by the time he quit the following year had also helped develop talented youngsters such as Dennis Bergkamp, Aron Winter, Brian Roy and the Witschge brothers, Rob and Richard. ­In 1988, in a repeat of the journey he had made as a player, Cruyff left Ajax for Barcelona where he set about reconstructing a struggling team, releasing a dozen players including German Bernd Schuster and bringing in new stars. Soon he had fashioned one of the most spectacular club sides of recent times, the so-called ‘Dream Team’ which won the 1992 European Cup and four domestic championships in a row. Å

A footballing world power

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ho invented football? The English students who drew up the first Laws of the Game at Cambridge University in 1848? The Chinese, who played a football-like game for military training purposes in the third century before the Christian era? Or the Egyptians, who bequeathed us the oldest still extant balls dating from the second millennium BCE? One thing is certain: the Netherlands made a decisive contribution to the development of the modern game, both politically and as a sporting discipline. Dutch financier Carl Anton ­Wilhelm Hirschman was one of FIFA’s founding fathers when the world governing body was formally established in Paris in 1904, and the Royal Dutch Football Association (Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond, KNVB) was one of the seven original members.

The Netherlands ushered in a new era in football back in the 1970s with the idea of “total football” conceived and implemented by coaching icon Rinus Michels. The fulcrum was provided by legendary number 14 Johan Cruyff, a figure who deeply impressed me as a player and person. The Dutch made it to the Final at both the 1974 World Cup in Germany and the 1978 edition in Argentina, only to be halted by the hosts on both occasions. The defeat in 1974 left an especially bitter taste after the men in o ­ range had breezed past Brazil and Argentina. Nevertheless, that team has influenced football ever since. As a coach at Ajax from 1985 to 1988 and Barcelona from 1988 to 1996, Cruyff brought Dutch footballing culture into the modern age.

The Netherlands team featuring Ruud ­Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkkard stormed to the European Championship title in 1988 and also shaped the world of club football, as the Dutch trio helped AC Milan dominate both the Italian league and the European game.

The KNVB is 125 years old in 2014. I wish to offer my warm and wholehearted congratulations, and restate my highest regard and unreserved respect for a footballing nation that has decisively moved our sport forwards in the course of the last four decades. That the Netherlands have yet to become world champions is surely a major misunderstanding on the part of the footballing gods.

Best wishes, Sepp Blatter T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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THE INTERVIEW

“I can’t believe I’m still here” Canada 2015 will be the fifth global showpiece for the three-time Olympic gold medalist Christie Rampone. The defender is desperate to win back a trophy that’s eluded the Americans since 1999.

When you made your first appearance, way back in the last century, did you ever dream you’d still be in the US team to mark a 300th cap?

Christie Rampone: No way. I’m surprised

I’ve been able to sustain it and I can’t believe I’m still here. I’ve been through so many four-year cycles. Each time a new one starts, it seems like the road is going to be too long or too hard. There’s a lot of work involved. If you told me at the start I’d play 300 times for this team, I’d have laughed.

Only one player in history, man or woman, has more caps than you: your former teammate Kristine Lilly. Is there a chance you might catch up to her at 352?

That number seems totally unattainable. I don’t think I’ve got it in me.

So are you aiming at next year’s Women’s World Cup as your swansong?

I’d like to finish off my career winning another World Cup. That would be ideal. I wouldn’t say, definitely, I’ve made up my mind about it, but it’s coming out of my mouth more and more these days. I’m not 100-per cent sold on the idea of retiring after next year’s World Cup, but it seems to make sense.

At 39, you’re the only player left in the team who lifted the World Cup in ’99. How important is it for the Stars and Stripes to take the title back after such a long drought?

Very important. It’s been a long time since 1999. We need to pay attention to the details.

Our team gets stronger every year, but so do the other teams in the world. We need to hope we peak at the right time and play the best soccer we can.

Can we talk about coach Jill Ellis? She’s new to the job. How has she settled in?

We build from the top down off the personality of the coach. The coach is the 16

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leader. Everything begins there and you hope that it trickles down into the team. You have to build fitness and community and then you need to work at playing the kind of soccer you want to play. Then you can hold people in the team accountable to a standard.

Where would you say the team is right now in that process?

We’re not where we should be for a World Cup final, but we’re starting to understand the philosophy of our coach. Also, you learn from all of your mistakes and it takes time to get it all clicking. It’s our job to hear the coach’s voice and understand it.

Has the new coach brought a new philosophy?

She wants to open up the field. She’s more demanding of the defenders to come out with a controlled ball. She wants us to have more touches and to create more space to move into offensively. She wants us to work the ball up the field and not just bang it up to Abby [Wambach]. It keeps our minds working. It’s fresh and new. We don’t want to do the same things over and over.

It seems like the approach is a little more subtle, maybe like Japan – the team that beat you in the last World Cup final in Germany in 2011?

We’re trying to combine more. To play a little more soccer and use good vision; to know when we’re in a good position to attack.

We want to have a lot of options, to be more varied in the way we play the game.

Are other teams in the world, powerful teams like Germany and Japan, forcing changes in the way the US women play?

Teams are getting stronger and we have to adapt. You can’t just get away with a moment of individual brilliance here and there. You need to play with 11 players on both sides of the ball. Our goalkeeper isn’t just there to

save shots now; she comes into the play.

The game has advanced.

What is the major advancement?

Look at Japan and what they’re doing with their technique and the short passing game. You can’t really stretch them out; they stay compact.

What’s the one, single memory that sticks out in your mind as a highlight of your 17-year career with the national team?

The moment I look back on is 2008. We were going into the Olympics in Beijing and Abby [Wambach] broke her leg. We were devastated. We didn’t know what direction we would go in. We lost our first game and the media, everybody really, turned on us.

But we bounced back and had a great tournament. It was amazing. We stayed committed and we stuck together. It wasn’t always pretty, but we had the unity we needed to win. All of our training came out in that tournament.

We proved our detractors wrong. New players stepped up for the ones that fell along they way. That’s what this team is about.

What can fans expect from the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup? The women’s game is excelling. Federations are putting money and energy into boosting it. I think this could be even bigger than the last World Cup in Germany, especially with all the buzz from the men’s tournament in Brazil this year. Å Christie Rampone was speaking to Jonah Fontela

Name Christie Patricia Rampone Date and place of birth 24 June 1975, Fort Lauderdale (USA) Playing position Defender Career as player 1997 Central Jersey Splash 1998 Buffalo FFillies 1998 New Jersey Lady Stallions 2001 – 2003 New York Power 2009 – 2010 Sky Blue FC 2011 magicJack since 2013 Sky Blue FC United States national team

Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images

301 games (4 goals)

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First Love Place: Khartoum, Sudan Date: 11 May 2014 T i m e : 7. 0 9 p . m .

Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / Reuters

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YOUTH ACADEMIES

Return on investment The German Football League (DFL) introduced academies to club football in 2001, a year after Portugal eliminated the Mannschaft from EURO 2000. That commitment to youth came to fruition with Germany’s 2014 World Cup triumph.

GERMAN FOOTBALL’S TRANSITION FROM UNDERPERFORMERS TO WORLD CHAMPIONS MedicalMedical department department

11treatment treatmentroom room 1 doctor 1 doctor

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2 physiotherapy 2 physiotherapy treatment rooms treatment rooms 2 physiotherapists physiotherapists 1 2post-injury 1 post-injury fitness coach fitness coach

relaxation relaxation bathbath ice icebath bath sauna

The Bundesliga magazine, 2015/15, Issue 1

he summer of 2014 will be remembered as a golden period for the German game.

Joachim Low’s team won a fourth FIFA World Cup by beating Argentina in Rio de Janeiro on 13 July, just 18 days before the nation's U-19 side won the UEFA European Championship title in Hungary. These are success stories associated with the game in Germany where a vibrant, thriving league is followed by famously passionate supporters in some of the world’s most modern stadia. At the turn of the millennium, however, such a state of affairs seemed inconceivable.

Defending champions Germany had hoped to be walking out onto the pitch in Rotterdam’s De Kuip stadium on 2 July for the final of EURO 2000. Instead the Mannschaft found themselves back home, reflecting on a miserable 3-0 defeat to the Portuguese in their final group game which eliminated them with just one point and one goal to their names.

That defeat represented a nadir for Germany's professional game. The campaign was the national team’s worst performance at a major tournament since 1938. Despite having won EURO 1996 four years earlier, the side was in systemic decline. “German football is at a crossroads. It has been going downhill for ten years, and I’m very worried,” was the view of former international, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Demonstrable scientific proof of scientific supportsupport / / performance performancediagnosis diagnosis

ool ol SScchoh Co-operation Co-operation school school –– sport sport

Non-sporting Non-sporting department department

YOUTH ACADEMIES

Overview of specifications for Bundesliga academies.

Bundesliga 2 academy specifications may differ.

Overview of specifications for Bundesliga academies.

Bundesliga 2 academy specifications may differ.

Sporting department Sporting department

44training pitches,pitches, training incl. at least incl. at one least one synthetic pitch pitch synthetic sports hall sports hall (can (canbe off-campus) be off-campus)

1 head coach 1 head coach or sporting director ofdirector of or sporting youththe academy* youth academy* (minimum requirement: (minimum requirement: UEFA A licence) UEFA A licence)

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Numbers of teams Numbers of teams

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certificate

Performance department Performance department Catering Catering

U18 / U19

U23

Boarding school school / room with/ aroom with Boarding familyfamily for foreignfor players ahosthost foreign players

Educational / psychological care Educational / psychological care 1 full-time educator full-time educator 1 psychological1employee psychological (part-time1/ through co-operation)employee

(part-time / through co-operation)

U18 U19 ** 1 or 2/ teams

U16/U17 1 or 2 teams**

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Number of playersNumber of players U16 to U19: goalkee U16 to U19:upupto 22, to including 22 (with the exception pers; status:team, amateurwhich or contracted of one mayplayers have 24) including (**in only one team status: of up to 24amateur players, or contracted goalkeepers; including goalkeepers); at least 12 players in players.

At least 12 players in U16 to U19 U16 to U19 squad lists eligible to play for squad lists eligible to play for the the national team of the respective age national team of the respective age group. group. up toincluding 20 players U12 to U15:U12 toupU15: to 20 players goalkeepers including goalkeepers U18 to U11:U18 to no U11: restrictions no restrictions

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EVERY GASP EVERY SCREAM EVERY ROAR EVERY DIVE EVERY BALL E V E RY PAS S EVERY CHANCE EVERY STRIKE E V E R Y B E AU T I F U L D E TA I L SHALL BE SEEN SHALL BE HEARD S H A L L B E FE LT

Feel the Beauty

BE MOVED

THE NEW 4K LED TV

“SONY” and “make.believe” are trademarks of Sony Corporation.

YOUTH ACADEMIES

“The academies are at the core of the clubs’ youth development.

The more qualified the staff, the better the results.”

Andreas Rettig, Chief Operating Officer of the DFL

Mission accomplished Germany celebrate winning the World Cup in Brazil in the summer of 2014.

2001 marks a turning point But as legendary coach Sepp Herberger said: “After the game is before the game.” However blatantly the team’s failings may have been exposed, there emerged a corresponding sense of clarity at how the disappointment could be overcome. Football “made in Germany” was clearly an outdated product, but it could now be remade, reshaped and rebranded with no preconceptions.

Too few home-grown players were establishing themselves in the Bundesliga, meaning the national team was suffering from a lack of playing time. Solving this problem required a complete revamp of the way that young German players were coached, and the process began in 2001, when the League Association decided that all 18 Bundesliga clubs would be required to build an academy to coach youngsters. Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, the German FA president at the time, had a vital hand in conceiving and implementing these reforms.

From the 2001-02 season, the German Football League (DFL) decided that an academy, complete with a training ground, medical department and educational facilities, and certified coaches employed on a full-time basis were prerequisites for a club’s licence to compete in professional football. A year later,

the scheme was extended to include the 18 clubs of Bundesliga 2, and slowly but surely change became apparent.

By 2011, a decade on from the introduction of the academy system, over EUR 520 million had been invested by the clubs from the top two tiers in developing their youngsters, with the league itself injecting a further €90 million in the 2010-11 season alone.

By 2013-2014, the total sum spent on youth development by Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs had risen to €925 million. Clubs in the third division and even the regional leagues now have youth academies. An impressive 5,200 players are currently coached at academies and a certification scheme, which has been in place since 2006-07, grades youth academies on their performance in around 250 criteria, with financial rewards given to those that achieve the best results. It is an incentive system that ensures improvement and progress year upon year. In the 2013-14 season, 66 per cent of players in the two top divisions were German.

Quantity and quality The investment in building and improving existing academies has led to more players receiving better quality coaching, making them technically and tactically superior footballers

than at any time in the nation’s history. “Along with the infrastructure, the development of coaching personnel will also be advanced,” said Andreas Rettig, Chief Operating Officer of the DFL. “The academies are at the core of the clubs’ youth development. The more qualified the staff, the better the results”. And the results are clear for all to see. In 2009, Germany won the UEFA U-21 European Championship and reached the finals of both the 2010 World Cup and EURO 2012, before arriving at the very top of the world game this year thanks to a core of players such as Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels and Mario Gotze, all of whom are academy graduates.

Rummenigge identified back in 2000 that Germany was investing in “quantity not quality.” That oversight has been emphatically remedied, to the point that football made in Germany is now a product of both quality and quantity, with 64 per cent of Bundesliga players eligible for the national team.

Christian Seifert, CEO of the Bundesliga, confidently predicted in 2011 that the investment in youth academies would pay off. It most certainly has, and will continue to do so for many years to come. Å Reprinted with the kind permission of “The Bundesliga Magazine - DFL”.

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Connecting every fan of the game Make new friends and discover shared passions in the Emirates A380 Onboard Lounge.

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F I F A ’ S 11

Women’s World Cup: Best-attended matches

A time for parties and presents Sarah Steiner

C

hristmas is just around the corner and along with it, festive celebrations. It has been a year of hard work, success has been celebrated and defeat has been digested. And at the end of it all, it is time to drink a toast and swap presents.

Football clubs are also celebrating the start of the holidays. Bayern Munich were recently invited to top German chef Alfons Schuhbeck’s “Teatro” restaurant the day after their 1-0 win over Leverkusen where they were served duck and apple strudel. Bayern’s chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was full of praise for his boys: “We’re impressed with the quality and determination of the team. The last three, four years have been an incredible experience.” Defending French champions PSG also enjoyed a tranquil celebration. Horse riding, photos with Father Christmas and a puppet theatre for the children were enjoyed by all: Christmas really is a lovely time of year.

Festive cheer is not to be found at every football club though. Many Christmas parties have ended with a stale aftertaste. Christina Stürmer made an appearance at Rapid Vienna’s celebration in 2006, but her message did not quite relate to the team’s performance.

Rapid were languishing in 8th spot over the holiday period, only two points above the relegation zone, but that did not stop Stürmer from singing: “These are our best days, because tomorrow is another day.”

At the Newcastle United party in 1998, Secret Santa revealed a darker side of British humour that took German midfielder Dietmar Hammann by surprise. The laughing got stuck

in his throat as he was handed a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf - a book banned in many countries. Team-mate Alessandro Pistone also had little to smile about at the same shindig. His gift was a sheep heart, with an accompanying letter written by his colleagues that included the words: “Seeing as you’re never committed enough for the team, we thought you needed a real heart.”

Present-giving can be nicer though, and Cristiano Ronaldo provided the best example.

The Portuguese star sent a “La Decima” engraved luxury watch to his teammates at Real Madrid this year. Small gifts really do seal a friendship ... Å

1

USA - China PR 90,185 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, Final Result: 0-0 (USA win 5-4 on penalties)

B razil - Norway 90,185 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, Match for third place Result: 0-0 (Brazil win 5-4 on penalties)

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USA - Denmark 78,972 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, Group A Result: 3-0

Brazil - Mexico 78,972 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, Group B Result: 7-1

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Germany - Canada 73,680 spectators Women’s World Cup Germany 2011, Group A Result: 2-1

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USA - Brazil 73,123 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, semi-finals Result: 2-0

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U SA - Nigeria 65,080 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, Group A Result: 7-1

Brazil - Italy 65,080 spectators Women’s World Cup USA 1999, Group B Result: 2-0

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China PR - Norway 65,000 spectators Women’s World Cup China PR 1991, Group A Result: 4-0

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Norway - USA 63,000 spectators Women’s World Cup China PR 1991, Final Result: 1-2

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China PR – New Zealand 55,832 spectators Women’s World Cup China PR 2007, Group D Result: 2-0

The weekly column by our staff writers

Source: FIFA (FIFA World Cup, Milestones & Superlatives, Statistical Kit, 17.12.2014) T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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MIRROR IMAGE

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1930

Popperfoto

The Uruguay team take the bus to the World Cup Final.

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Miguel Ruiz / FCB

BarÇa stars use public transport during a trip to Paris for a Champions League fixture.

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HISTORY

FIFA have been writing history as world football’s governing body for the last 110 years. In that time, thousands of publications have been written, photos taken and objects collected. The documentation centre offers interested parties the opportunity to access ­historically valuable material for research purposes.

Yvonne Lemmer 28

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Cortis & Sonderegger / 13 Photo

The heart of football’s history

t which FIFA Congress was the introduction of the first World Cup agreed upon?” might be one request the FIFA documentation team needs to deal with and find corresponding material for at the documentation centre housed within the Home of FIFA in Zurich. Other enquiries might be along the lines of the following: “When did the FIFA Development Programs first begin?” or “In which edition of the Laws of the Game did the back-pass rule first appear?”

The centre contains a library and a paper archive, with the former storing more than 4,000 books on football history, World Cups, national associations, football management, coaching and sociology, while there is also space on the shelves for biographies of famous figures from the game. The paper archive, in a separate room, is filled with statutes, circu-

HISTORY

School at the University of York, recently made use of the centre’s collection to research the 1966 World Cup in England from an entrepreneurial standpoint. “Our pioneering study of the 1966 tournament should contribute to the debate on the hosting of major sporting events and their impact on business, the economy and society,” said Dr. Gillett. “Thanks to the FIFA documentation centre, we’ll be able to submit an outstanding paper.”

“It’s one of the best archives we’ve ever visited.”

Kevin D. Tennent

Brought to life The World Cup mascots explore FIFA’s documentation centre.

lars, regulations, brochures, FIFA magazines and photographs, some of which date back to the year world football’s governing body was founded at the start of the 20th century. Two particular sources of pride for the centre are a stamp collection from early World Cups and an extensive archive on the fascinating history of African football. FIFA took receipt of the latter in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa from Tunisian journalist Faouzi Mahjoub, who died in March 2014.

World Cup business The documentation centre is not only available to FIFA personnel but also to academics, historians, students and employees of member associations who are interested in deepening their knowledge of the game.

Kevin D. Tennent and Dr. Alex Gillett, two English lecturers from the York Management

Digital research Many of the documents covering FIFA’s history that have been gathered over the years are also stored electronically, and the centre has used the FIDOM (FIFA Document Management) digital archive since 2002, updating it twice in the intervening period to implement the latest technological developments.

Today it stores more than 50,000 documents and 17,000 pictures. In order to answer the questions posed at the start of this article, FIDOM is the first port of call. With just a few clicks it is possible to browse through the scanned congress minutes and discover that the introduction of the first World Cup was agreed at the 17th FIFA Congress in May 1928 in Amsterdam.

Guest login details for the electronic archive can be arranged for visitors and those undertaking longer-term periods of research.

On the whole, however, the documentation team are happy to help out anyone interested in discovering more about football and FIFA history, either in person or via email. Å

For three days, the duo rummaged through boxes of archives, gleaning important new insights into the 1966 finals. They will publish their findings next year, further contributing to the FIFA library and any potential further study of their subject. “It’s one of the best institutional archives we’ve ever visited,” said Tennent. “The variety and complexity of the material FIFA have available is an extremely rich source of information that can provide researchers with valuable discoveries.”

Enthusiastic visitors Professor Radim Marada, a sociologist from the Czech Republic, also visited the centre in November in order to find out more about the history of FIFA as an organisation, as well as its development programs. “It’s often the case during research that you find the most valuable source where you least expect it,” said Marada. “In my case, that was the historical documents from the first few decades of FIFA’s existence, especially the material published on the occasion of its 25th anniversary in 1929.”

Marada, who teaches at Masaryk University in the Czech city of Brno, is planning to offer a course titled ‘The Sociology of Football’ in spring 2015. Furthermore, he is hoping the sociology department will be able to set up its own centre for football studies. “During my short visit to the documentation centre in Zurich I barely managed to get through all the material that was made available to me,” Marada said. “And there were a lot more documents I could have accessed, such as the minutes of the congresses, for example.”

What’s in the archive?

The Documentation section, part of the ­Communications & Public Affairs Division, collects and archives all FIFA publications, both internal and external. On request, interested parties may access the archive material for research purposes. The most important ­documents include: • The agenda and minutes of committee meetings • The agenda and minutes of International FA Board meetings • The minutes from Congresses • Circulars • FIFA statutes • The Laws of the Game • Tournament and other regulations • Technical reports from FIFA tournaments • Press and media releases • FIFA magazines

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FIFA WORLD R ANKING Rank Team

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 72 74 75 76 76

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Change in ranking Points

Germany Argentina Colombia Belgium Netherlands Brazil Portugal France Spain Uruguay

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1725 1538 1450 1417 1374 1316 1160 1160 1142 1135

Italy Switzerland England Chile Romania Costa Rica Czech Republic Algeria Croatia Mexico Slovakia Tunisia Austria Greece Ukraine Ecuador USA Côte d'Ivoire Bosnia and Herzegovina Denmark Russia Israel Iceland Wales Senegal Scotland Ghana Serbia Guinea Cape Verde Islands Poland Cameroon Nigeria Sweden Hungary Zambia Slovenia Northern Ireland Turkey Mali Iran South Africa Peru Japan Trinidad and Tobago Congo DR Panama Albania Montenegro Egypt Congo Togo Burkina Faso Republic of Ireland Gabon Bulgaria Norway Rwanda Korea Republic Finland Honduras Guatemala Haiti Uzbekistan Jamaica Uganda Paraguay

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 -4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 16 -2 -1 -1 -1 5 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -8 -1 0 -2 0 2 -3 -1 0 0 22 0 0 1 1 -4 0 -4 2 -1

1103 1091 1032 1022 1014 997 987 948 946 913 891 867 863 856 854 852 836 833 817 804 789 788 761 748 734 729 714 713 706 693 680 665 656 646 632 625 622 615 604 603 580 579 565 563 551 548 547 543 537 531 529 524 523 519 511 506 500 494 481 468 461 458 458 454 449 438 438

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Ranking 07 / 2014

08 / 2014

09 / 2014

10 / 2014

11 / 2014

12 / 2014

1 -41 -83 -125 -167 -209

78 79 80 81 81 81 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 90 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 100 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 113 115 116 116 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 130 132 133 134 135 135 137 137 139 140 141 142 143 144

Top spot

Biggest climber

Libya Armenia Angola Morocco United Arab Emirates Jordan Estonia Bolivia Sierra Leone Cyprus Venezuela Benin Malawi El Salvador Lithuania Oman Antigua and Barbuda Qatar Latvia China PR Mozambique Belarus FYR Macedonia Australia Saudi Arabia Iraq Faroe Islands Tanzania Dominican Republic Botswana Zimbabwe Namibia Sudan Ethiopia Canada Palestine Cuba Liberia Kenya Niger St Kitts and Nevis St Vincent and the Grenadines Equatorial Guinea Moldova Bahrain Lesotho Kuwait Georgia Lebanon Burundi Luxembourg Aruba Maldives Philippines Liechtenstein Guinea-Bissau New Zealand Azerbaijan Tajikistan Mauritania Vietnam Kazakhstan St Lucia Myanmar Thailand Afghanistan Barbados

-2 -2 1 1 4 5 -1 2 -2 1 1 2 4 3 3 3 -14 3 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 1 1 7 -15 1 -2 0 5 -1 -2 0 -34 6 -2 0 -1 -1 -1 -1 3 -1 -1 1 1 -3 1 2 12 -2 -2 -2 -1 0 0 4 1 0 5 -1 2 -10 -1

Biggest faller

437 436 395 393 393 393 390 375 374 372 369 361 358 358 355 347 344 342 339 336 332 331 324 324 323 320 317 314 310 309 308 295 294 290 287 271 271 268 261 261 258 256 251 250 249 247 246 239 238 232 230 221 220 220 219 218 216 215 215 211 211 205 202 200 194 190 183

145 146 147 147 147 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 161 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 173 175 176 177 178 179 179 179 182 183 184 185 186 186 188 189 190 191 192 192 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 202 204 205 206 206 208 209

Central African Republic Chad Malta Turkmenistan Madagascar Korea DPR Syria Kyrgyzstan New Caledonia Malaysia Grenada Hong Kong Singapore Curaçao Indonesia Laos Guam Puerto Rico Suriname Swaziland Bangladesh Tahiti Guyana Gambia Montserrat São Tomé e Príncipe India Sri Lanka Comoros Nicaragua Belize Yemen Turks and Caicos Islands Seychelles Bermuda San Marino Cambodia Chinese Taipei Solomon Islands Dominica Timor-Leste Nepal Macau Pakistan South Sudan Mauritius Vanuatu Fiji Samoa Mongolia Bahamas Tonga US Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Papua New Guinea American Samoa Andorra British Virgin Islands Eritrea Somalia Cayman Islands Djibouti Cook Islands Anguilla Bhutan

1 1 1 1 1 -13 0 1 1 1 -3 3 1 -2 -2 -1 4 0 1 -2 -2 0 3 -1 -1 0 -1 -3 0 1 2 -2 1 -4 1 1 1 6 1 3 0 -7 0 -5 0 1 -1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 -1 -2 0 0 0

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

178 172 166 166 166 156 154 146 142 138 137 134 131 125 123 121 119 119 115 113 103 100 92 90 86 84 79 78 75 75 74 69 66 61 55 55 55 54 53 52 51 49 49 45 43 36 33 30 30 29 26 17 16 15 13 12 9 8 8 6 5 4 4 2 0

NET ZER KNOWS!

Can Dortmund win the Champions League?

Question from Ingo Schmidt, Essen, Germany

The Hamburg years Gunter Netzer pictured in September 1979.

imago

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hat’s a very interesting question when you consider the club’s current position. Dortmund are currently in a slump that is quite difficult to explain. Despite their poor results in the Bundesliga, Jurgen Klopp’s side are playing remarkably good football in the Champions League. How can that be? And will it be enough for them to win the biggest trophy of them all?

One important factor to consider when analysing the whole situation is that the news is not all bad when it comes to BVB’s domestic performances. Although they have often only fallen short by the smallest of margins, word soon got around that this stricken team are easier to beat now than in previous seasons. The respect from their rivals is dwindling, and the prospect of scoring points against Dortmund means many opponents are now taking new risks and perhaps ramping up their efforts a little more than before.

Certainly, you could argue that Dortmund's Champions League opponents will be equally well aware of the team’s difficulties, but this comparison does not hold up. Europe’s clubs know the score, but they also know that Dortmund can beat anyone on a good day. So why gamble for points

when it could consign you to an early exit from the tournament? Teams are better off taking Dortmund seriously from the start.

It’s also interesting to see how the club draws strength from its success in the Champions League. In this respect, the competition has given the team a repeated boost after their defeats in the Bundesliga. Although this is unlikely to be enough to win the European competition when you consider their opposition from Munich, Spain and England, such confidence will certainly help them to find a way out of this crisis. Å

What have you always wanted to know about football? Ask Gunter Netzer: feedback-theweekly@fifa.org T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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Football is a brotherhood. It’s peace.

© 2014 Visa. All rights reserved.

Oscar Arias Nobel Peace Laureate

TURNING POINT

“You need that personality in the men’s game.”

Name Corinne Diacre Date and place of birth 4 August 1974, Croix (France) Playing position Defender Career as player 1988 – 2007 Soyaux French national team 121 games (14 goals) Career as head coach 2010 – 2014 Soyaux since 2014 Clermont Foot

Corinne Diacre was capped 121 times for the French national team. Today, she is the coach of men’s Ligue 2 team Clermont Foot – despite all the prejudice she encounters.

Martin Alex / Presse Sports

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hen Clermont Foot offered me the job as coach, I said yes because I could not be sure the opportunity would come again. I was looking for a job, I had sent my CV to lots of teams in women’s football and had not received any responses. I was thinking about becoming an assistant coach to a team in Ligue 2.

They called me, so why should I say no? I knew that by saying yes, my main image would be the woman in a man’s world, but it became the only thing people said to me. From my point of view, Clermont Foot needed a coach, and signed me to be coach. The media talked about me more as a woman than a coach.

I had played for Soyaux and the national team but I had never been a professional. After high school, I studied to become a PE teacher, but I stopped after three years and took my diploma in football.

When I was playing I had the opportunity to go to the United States when a new professional league was being set up. I made a checklist of pros and cons and the cons won out. I was playing for France every month and I thought I would lose efficiency on the pitch if I was travelling all the time. I did not know which team I’d be playing for as it was a franchise system.

A coach who was making his shortlist called me but he didn’t know his team either.

Football became my career by a natural process. I had several other jobs, but not one that could really make me happy. In 2009, I decided: let’s go for it. I have to try. It was not easy to decide because my world was women’s football. Apart from Lyon, Montpellier and Juvisy, and you can add Paris Saint-Germain today, there were not that many opportunities. I found something in Soyaux where the president allowed me to start a global club project.

In 2010, I got the qualification to allow me to coach in a youth academy. After a long career as a player, I didn’t like my jobs in local administration, so I asked to be allowed to take the DEPF, the diploma to coach at any level in professional football. I was allowed and spent two years getting my diploma.

Sometimes I feel people are preparing for the moment when they can say, I told you so. I am not the only person around who has had critics, but I think that if I have a quality, it’s courage. I always answered the same questions, in particular about how I would cope in the dressing-room, but I have never seen journalists ask male coaches in women’s football the same question. I just do what they do: I wait until everyone is ready, at a moment which we agree in advance. To be honest, people focus on the macho side but I have three men and a woman on my staff, and everyone is perfectly

loyal. The same goes for my players.

You have to be ambitious in life, but I’m not sure that’s the best way to describe me. I’m a hard worker, and as a woman I have to work even harder than the others. I spend 12 hours a day at the stadium. I take care of the video analysis, prepare and take training sessions, speak to everyone connected to the club.

I have always had natural authority. It was in my genes and I was raised that way. When I played for France I was always shouting at my team-mates. You need that personality in the men’s game. You lose that authority if you show weakness in front of 28 people. My management style always involves the players.

Right now all I think about is being successful with Clermont. I have lots of work to do here. I’m not looking past that; it would be wrong to think about anything else. Å As told to Ben Lyttleton

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

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The FIFA Weekly Published weekly by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Internet: www.fifa.com/theweekly Publisher: FIFA, FIFA-Strasse 20, PO box, CH-8044 Zurich Tel. +41-(0)43-222 7777 Fax +41-(0)43-222 7878

FIFA QUIZ CUP

No words, no flag, no record-breaking tower and no biter – test your knowledge!

1

Spain do not sing their national anthem simply because it has no lyrics.

Which other team also did not sing any words at the 2014 World Cup?

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

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Chief Editor: Perikles Monioudis Staff Writers: Alan Schweingruber, Sarah Steiner, Tim Pfeifer

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Art Direction: Catharina Clajus

Which FIFA member uses the flag of another FIFA member?

A Hong Kong E Puerto Rico I Northern Ireland R Tahiti

Picture Editor: Peggy Knotz Layout: Richie Krönert (Lead), Tobias Benz, Marianne Bolliger-Crittin, Susanne Egli, Alissa Rosskopf Proof Reader: Martin Beran, Nena Morf, Kristina Rotach

3

Plans were once made to erect the tallest tower on Earth, but the idea came to nothing.

What was ultimately built on the site instead?

Contributors: Sérgio Xavier Filho, Luigi Garlando, Sven Goldmann, Hanspeter Kuenzler, Jordi Punti, Thomas Renggli, David Winner, Roland Zorn Contributors to this Issue: Jonah Fontela, Andrés de Kartzow, Yvonne Lemmer, Ben Lyttleton, Andreas Wilhelm Editorial Assistant: Honey Thaljieh Production: Hans-Peter Frei Project Management: Bernd Fisa, Christian Schaub Translation: Sportstranslations Limited www.sportstranslations.com

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How many times did Barcelona’s Luis Suarez actually receive the Ballon d’Or?

A Once E Twice O Three times T Four times

Printer: Zofinger Tagblatt AG www.ztonline.ch Contact: feedback-theweekly@fifa.org Reproduction of photos or articles in whole or in part is only permitted with prior editorial approval and if attributed “The FIFA Weekly, © FIFA 2014”.

The editor and staff are not obliged to publish unsolicited manuscripts and photos. FIFA and the FIFA logo are registered trademarks of FIFA. Made and printed in Switzerland.

Any views expressed in The FIFA Weekly do not necessarily reflect those of FIFA.

The answer to last week’s Quiz Cup was RAUL Detailed answers on www.fifa.com/theweekly Inspiration and implementation: cus

Send your answer by 24 December 2014 to feedback-theweekly@fifa.org.

Correct solutions to all quizzes published from 13 June 2014 onwards will go into a draw in January 2015 for a trip for two to the FIFA Ballon d’Or on 12 January 2015.

Before sending in answers, all participants must read and accept the competition terms and conditions and the rules, which can be found at: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/af-magazine/fifaweekly/02/20/51/99/en_rules_20140613_english_neutral.pdf T H E F I FA W E E K LY

35

L A S T W E E K’S P O L L R E S U LT S

32+27+246542 Which of the former winners or finalists will put in the best performance in Canada?

2%

4%

5%

T HIS WEEK’S POLL

Which of these matches will you be looking forward to most in the round of 16 of the 2014/2015 UEFA Champions League?

6%

32%

24%

· Arsenal – Monaco · Basel – Porto · Paris Saint-Germain – Chelsea · Manchester City – Barcelona · Juventus – Borussia Dortmund · Bayer Leverkusen – Atletico Madrid · Shakhtar Donetsk – Bayern Munich · Schalke – Real Madrid

27%

Germany USA

Brazil

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China PR Sweden Norway

Cast your votes at: Fifa.com/newscentre

Japan

“Is Neuer the best goalkeeper in the world?

He gets more a­ ttention for his dribbling.”

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois

2

300 175 WEEK IN NUMBERS

wins at the

Club World Cup took Auckland

goals have now been scored

career goals was the milestone

by Frank Lampard in the Premier

reached by Luca Toni on Sunday.

League. His latest strike put him

The strike that took Verona’s

level with Thierry Henry at fourth

37-year-old striker on to the tri-

in the all-time goalscoring list.

ple-century mark also proved to be of

Only Wayne Rooney (179, still

at the first hurdle in all but one of

vital importance, securing a 2-1 victory

playing), Andy Cole (187) and Alan

their five previous appearances at

over Udinese that ended his club’s

Shearer (260) have found the net

eight-match winless streak.

more often in England’s top flight.

City into uncharted territory.

Never before had they or any other team from Oceania made it as far as the semi-finals, with the New Zealanders having fallen

the global showpiece.

Clive Brunskill / Getty Images, AFP (2), imago

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