The FIFA Weekly Issue #3

ISSUE 3, 8 NOVEMBER 2013

ENGLISH EDITION

Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904

Last chance for play-off hopefuls

Brazil or bust

JURGEN KLINSMANN: BIG PLANS FOR 2014 W W W.FIFA.COM

JOSEPH S. BLATTER: LET'S KICK OUT RACISM

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON: MY CHINESE CHALLENGE W W W.FIFA.COM/ THEWEEKLY

CONTENTS

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Intercontinental showdown As the race to qualify for the 2014 World Cup enters the home straight, the atmosphere promises to be electric when Uruguay face Jordan and Mexico meet New Zealand in the play-offs. We look at the contenders in the round-the-world challenge to secure last-minute tickets to Brazil.

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C ardiff and Swansea: close neighbours poles apart For the first time, there are two Welsh teams in the English Premier League, but Cardiff City and Swansea City are worlds apart both ideologically and financially.

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Top-class clash in Women’s Champions League German fans can look forward to a hotly anticipated encounter when Turbine Potsdam meet Olympique Lyon in the last 16 of the Women’s Champions League.

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I nterview with Jurgen Klinsmann The US national team coach discusses football in the US and picks a favourite for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

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C ountdown to Brazil 2014 Understanding Brazil is not easy, but with 31 weeks to go until the start of the World Cup, our correspondent Sergio Xavier Filho is giving it a go.

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25 34 36

North and Central America 35 members 3.5 World Cup places www.concacaf.com

Diego Forlan journeying to Jordan

Jurgen Klinsmann Back at the World Cup as US coach

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Top 11 Bayern Munich have now gone unbeaten for 36 games in the Bundesliga, but the German giants are not even close to making our Top 11 of the longest undefeated streaks in history.

T he greatest fan in the world?

Eberhard Kleinrensing lives in Duisburg, Germany but his heart belongs to English club Nottingham Forest, which means even his fiancée has to settle for second place in his affections.

Travelling to the World Cup by steamer The first World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930. The location posed huge logistical challenges for European football associations, and only four teams undertook the arduous three-week steamship journey to get there.

T he sound of football In 1990, the English Football Association had a bright idea to get fans in the mood for the World Cup in Italy: a synth-laden song

by New Order.

South America 10 members 5.5 World Cup places www.conmebol.com

Beyond Samba All change in Brazil

Qualified

Qualified

USA

Brazil (hosts)

Costa Rica

Argentina

Honduras

Ecuador

Play-off 13 & 20 November 2013 Mexico-New Zealand

Chile Colombia Play-off 13 & 20 November 2013 Jordan-Uruguay

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S ven-Goran Eriksson speaks out The Swedish coach provides an insight into life in China and his career to date.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

THIS WEEK IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL

Europe 53 members 13 World Cup places www.uefa.com

Africa 54 members 5 World Cup places www.cafonline.com

Asia 46 members 4.5 World Cup places www.the-afc.com

Oceania 11 members 0.5 World Cup places www.oceaniafootball.com

Steven Caulker Cardiff sparkle in red

ISSUE 3, 8 NOVEMBER 2013

ENGLISH EDITION

Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904

Last chance for play-off hopefuls

Brazil or bust

JURGEN KLINSMANN: BIG PLANS FOR 2014

JOSEPH S. BLATTER: LET'S KICK OUT RACISM

W W W.FIFA.COM

1 1 3

m 00 k

Inhalt: Getty Images

W W W.FIFA.COM/ THEWEEKLY

Last call for Brazil!

(Left to right) Thaer Bawab (Jordan), Luis Suarez (Uruguay), Rafael Marquez (Mexico) and Michael McGlinchey (New Zealand) are chasing two of the last World Cup places in the intercontinental play-offs.

Sven-Goran Eriksson My momentous decision

Javier Hernandez stopping over in Wellington

Qualified

Play-offs (First Leg)

Qualified

Play-off 13 & 20 November 2013

Italy

Burkina Faso 3-2 Algeria

Australia

Mexico-New Zealand

Netherlands

Côte d’Ivoire 3-1 Senegal

Japan

England

Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria

Iran

Russia

Tunisia 0 - 0 Cameroon

Korea Republic

Belgium

Ghana 6-1 Egypt

Switzerland Bosnia-Herzegovina Germany

Cover Illustration : Barry Down

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON: MY CHINESE CHALLENGE

Spain

Play-offs (Second Leg)

Play-off 13 & 20 November 2013 Jordan-Uruguay

Algeria-Burkina Faso (19 November) Senegal-Côte d’Ivoire (16 November) Nigeria-Ethiopia (16 November)

Play-offs 15 & 19 November 2013

Cameroon-Tunisia (17 November)

Por tugal-Sweden

Egypt-Ghana (19 November)

Ukraine-France Greece-Romania Iceland-Croatia

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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UNCOVERED

High-stakes continental clashes

Feet firmly on the ground. The Belgian players frolic on the beaches of Montevideo after their three-week boat trip in 1930.

Thomas Renggli

Photo Popperfoto/Getty Images

T

he road to the 2014 World Cup has been a long and demanding one, with 202 associations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe competing for the 31 spots that have been up for grabs since the summer of 2011.

The World Cup kicks off in Sao Paolo in 31 weeks’ time and 11 spots are still to be claimed: five in Africa, four in Europe and two in the intercontinental play-offs, where Mexico take on New Zealand and Uruguay face Jordan. The history of the intercontinental showdown dates back to the 1950s, officially deciding World Cup qualification for the first time in 1953 when Italy reached the global showpiece at Egypt’s expense.

Neighbours from different continents actually first faced each other in the run-up to the 1934 World Cup, Egypt beating Palestine 11-2 on aggregate to qualify for the finals in Italy.

But these matches were still not a real clash of confederations since neither of the Asian and African confederations, nor indeed UEFA, were actually founded until 1954 at

the earliest. The South American nations were the pioneers in this respect, merging to form CONMEBOL in 1916.

The 1934 World Cup was an important landmark in football history as it was the first time the number of countries wanting to compete (32) actually exceeded the places on offer (16). As a result, the tournament also marked the introduction of a qualification process. Two of the top footballing nations turned down the invitation.

England boycotted the event, disappointed that the founders of the beautiful game had been overlooked as hosts. Uruguay’s absence was also notable, the South American nation exacting revenge on those European nations that had shunned its own World Cup four years previously.

Only four European nations (Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Romania) had bothered to make the three-week sea voyage by steamer to South America in 1930. You can read about this footballing voyage of discovery in our History section.

happily take the ocean route to New Zealand and Jordan if it meant ensuring their place at the finals. Even by plane, this journey into the unknown could be costly for their respective football associations and not just in a financial sense. Such a long trip constitutes a tough challenge, and failure to reach the finals could cause shockwaves back home. Jordan and New Zealand, in contrast, can already boast a greater accomplishment than the vast majority of nations in qualification. Over the next few weeks they will be making their way to the American continent, 521 years after Christopher Columbus first arrived, hoping to cross the final play-off hurdle and earn their ticket to Brazil. Å

The world may have shrunk in the intervening 83 years, but interest in the World Cup has grown immeasurably. Proud footballing nations such as Mexico and Uruguay would T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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T H E F I FA W E E K LY

I N T E RC O N T I N E N TA L P L AY- O F F S

THE LONG ROAD TO BRAZIL Last call for the 2014 FIFA World Cup: Mexico take on New Zealand and Uruguay meet Jordan in the intercontinental play-offs for berths in Brazil. The win-or-bust ties demand nerves of steel, and prodigious amounts of travel.

Jason Reed/Reuters

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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I N T E RC O N T I N E N TA L P L AY- O F F S

U R U G UAY Population: 3.3 million Area: 176 220 km 2 Players: 241 300 Champions: Nacional Montevideo National coach: Oscar Tabarez Star players: Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez, Diego Lugano World Cup appearances: 11 (winners: 1930, 1950) FIFA World Ranking: 6th

Uruguay’s figurehead: Striker Diego Forlan and his team are under pressure en route to their 12th World Cup finals.

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Thomas Renggli and Alan Schweingruber

ll roads may lead to Rome, but there are plenty of roundabout routes to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Take Uruguay, whose trip from Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro – should they actually qualify – will involve a major detour. Instead of a long but direct trip of 1,800 km, La Celeste’s actual itinerary includes an excursion to Amman in Jordan and back. To contest the first leg on 13 November they must cross the Atlantic and six time zones, journey a total of 11,300 km and deal with the transition to an entirely different cultural sphere.

Even more pertinently, Los Charrúas are battling the spectre of catastrophic sporting failure. Uruguay finished fourth at the 2010 World Cup and lie sixth in the FIFA World Ranking, so missing out on a direct qualifying berth for next summer’s finals was treated as little short of a disgrace at home. “The anger lingers on”, fumed leading Uruguayan paper El Observador at the end of the marathon South American qualifying contest.

Uruguay started as favourites but finished fifth behind Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador, despite the absence of the acknowledged 8

best team on the continent, as hosts Brazil were spared the “Eliminatorias”. In the final analysis, Uruguay finished level on points with Ecuador but came up four goals short in the head-tohead comparison. Local media are bemoaning the “curse of the play-offs” and calling for the controversial method of elimination to be abolished sooner or later, citing the need for a fair, sporting solution that takes into account all results. FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter is a sympathiser with this point of view: “The playoffs promise passion and drama. But we should try and find a solution which means teams are either in or out at the end of qualifying, so we no longer need play-offs.”

Ur ug u ay ’s € 2 0 6 m i l l i o n m e n Uruguay have already visited the lastchance saloon en route to the World Cup three times, and not always with the desired outcome. They did beat Australia in 2001 and Costa Rica in 2009, but the trip Down Under in

2005 was also their downfall. That mishap was a very poor fit indeed with the expectations and widespread sense of entitlement in this relatively small country of 3.3 million souls.

The fact is, Uruguay boast a glorious footballing history, including two World Cup triumphs and two Olympic golds, plus a star-studded squad brimming with the likes of Diego Forlan, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez. According to online portal Transfermarkt.ch, the current Uruguay squad is worth €206 million on the open market. The comparable figure for Jordan is €2.3 million, for all 20 senior players.

In 2010, Uruguay became the first South American team since 2002 to make the World Cup semi-finals. They went on to win the Copa America in 2011. By contrast, the roll of honour and the choice of players available to Uruguay’s opponents is scanty to say the least: Jordan’s first tilt at World Cup qualifying was in 1985.

Prior to this year, the team had never made it

“We should try and find a solution which means teams are either in or out at the end of qualifying, so we no longer need play-offs.” FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter T H E F I FA W E E K LY

I N T E RC O N T I N E N TA L P L AY- O F F S

Fernando Llano/ AP, Khalil Mazraawi/AFP

J O R DA N Population: 6.3 million Area: 92 300 km 2 Players: 121 191 Champions: al - Faisaly (Amman) National coach: Hossam Hassan Star players: Thaer Bawab, Amer Shafee, Ahmad Haeel World Cup appearances: 0 FIFA World Ranking: 70th

Jordanian joy: Ahmad Ibrahim celebrates in Amman after qualifying for the play-offs.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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I N T E RC O N T I N E N TA L P L AY- O F F S

NEW ZE AL AND Population: 4.4 million Area: 268 680 km² Players: 198 757 Champions: Waitakere United National coach: Ricki Herber t Star players: Ryan Nelsen, Chris Wood, Shane Smelt z World Cup appearances: 2 FIFA World Ranking: 79th

All-White underdogs: New Zealand face a daunting challenge in front of a 105,000 crowd at the iconic Azteca Stadium on 13 November.

beyond the second round of Asian qualifying.

Coach Hossam Hassan is the only man with previous World Cup experience, gained with Egypt in 1990. None of his players feature in a major league. The only hint of overseas experience comes from a clutch of players employed in Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Romania. Some 90 per cent of the squad boost Palestinian roots.

Almost for these very reasons, Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez has issued dire warnings about the fundamentally unknown opposition: “If we start thinking Jordan can’t cause us any bother, we’ll soon be surprised.”

No expense has been spared in terms of logistics. The detailed planning is aimed at easing the travel burden and optimising preparation time to the greatest extent possible: the association has committed $700,000 USD for a charter flight and will hold a training camp in Turkey. In any case, the unwanted sporting tightrope walk is a costly business, as lucrative international friendlies in Scotland and England had been pencilled in on the play-off dates. But instead of a more or less relaxed trip to the motherland of football, Uruguay’s destination is the desert.

Jo r d a n g r i p p e d b y fo o tb a l l f r e n z y And that could be a heated affair, not only in climactic terms. Tabarez and his players must brace themselves for a hostile reception at King 10

Abdullah Stadium in Amman. A relatively short time ago the national football team was something of a joke in Jordan, but the nation is now in the grip of football fever. The spark was provided by the triumph against Uzbekistan in the Asian play-offs. In the crucial return match in Tashkent the Jordanians refused to be derailed by conceding an early opening goal and a floodlight failure in extra time, going on to win 9-8 on penalties. The state broadcaster, already on edge due to a break in transmission during the decisive phase of the game, proclaimed a miracle in its news bulletins and informed viewers that the Jordanian players had “achieved the impossible.” The triumph propelled Jordan up to 70th in the world ranking, a spectacular ascent albeit still 64 spots off Uruguay.

In the build-up to the biggest matches in Jordanian football history, coach Hassan refuses to be intimidated by the overwhelming odds: “The games against Uruguay will be settled on the field and not on paper. They obviously have huge individual class, but anything can happen over the course of two matches.” Hassan is well aware of the minnows’ psychological advantage. The roles in an important match in world football have rarely been so clearly defined: simply reaching the intercontinental play-offs is the equivalent of a World Cup final for the Asians. By contrast, Uruguay could happily do without the perilous trip to the Arabian desert.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

A nation still talking about the glorious day when they triumphed in front of a passionate Brazil crowd at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro to win the 1950 World Cup has little to gain and a lot to lose in Jordan.

Mexico face as much of a conundrum as the South Americans. El Tri meet New Zealand in the play-offs knowing they owe their supporters a long overdue result. Defeats to unfancied Honduras and perennial rivals USA, a draw with Jamaica, and a 2-1 reverse against Costa Rica were the low points of Mexico’s quest for Brazil. And the journey could even have ended prematurely on 15 October, the evening of the defeat to Costa Rica. The North Americans had begun to face the enormity of missing out on the World Cup and were poised to declare a state of mourning, when suddenly news came through of an extraordinary scoreline: Panama 2 USA 3. The totally unexpected USA victory – Panama led until the 91st minute – saw Mexico scrape into the play-off position in the CONCACAF qualifying contest. It meant grateful thanks were due to USA, of all nations. Mexican relations with their powerful neighbours are uneasy to say the least, but this was no time for grudges and credit was given where credit was due: “God bless America!”, screamed a reporter, “USA, we love you, we love you, we love you.” The distinctly rare headline “Thanks, USA!” appeared in the following morning’s Excelsior newspaper.

I N T E RC O N T I N E N TA L P L AY- O F F S

MEXICO Population: 112 million Area: 1 972 550 km² Players: 8 479 595 Champions: Club America National coach: Miguel Herrera Star players: Rafael Marquez, Javier Hernandez, Andres Guardado World Cup appearances: 14 FIFA World Ranking: 24th

Favourites in a huddle: Mexico boast undoubted potential but must improve on a below-par qualifying performance so far.

David Gray/Reuters, Shaun Best/Reuters

Fo u r c o a c h e s i n t wo m o nt h s However, the situation remains precarious and the mood surrounding the national team is still troubled. The passionate fans feel badly let down by a string of miserable performances and embarrassing results. A recent survey suggested a majority of the Mexican population no longer favoured the national team qualifying for the World Cup. The Mexican FA reacted with a jerk of the knee rather than calm consideration: two days after the Costa Rica defeat, coach Victor Manuel Vucetich was dismissed and replaced by Miguel Herrera. Such a move would normally hardly be worth a mention, had Herrera not been the fourth national coach to be appointed in the space of two months.

K i w i s t a k i ng it e a s y The generally restless mood can be traced to the football-mad nation’s lack of past experience with the concept of nerve-shredding door-die showdowns. Mexico have never truly broken into the world elite and have only once made it to the World Cup quarter-finals, on home soil in 1986. However, the national team from the largest Spanish-speaking nation on earth boasts a proud and honourable history, as the Mexicans have contested the World Cup finals on 14 previous occasions, a total only beaten by acknowledged major powers Brazil (19), Germany (17), Italy (17) and Argentina (15).

And since 1994, Mexico have reached the last

“It’ll be interesting to see how Mexico cope with the huge expectations at home.”

New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert

sixteen at the finals five times in a row. Last but not least, El Tri claimed the Confederations Cup in1999.

Success on this scale derives from other sports in New Zealand. The nation of 4.5 million is obsessed with rugby and cricket and still has no professional football league. Top team Wellington Phoenix play in the Australian A-League, judging the sport’s appeal at home too limited to be viable. Against that background, the success of an initiative launched in December 2009 is even more astonishing. New Zealand were at home to Bahrain in the 2010 World Cup play-off return, and dreamed up unusual measures to ensure a decent atmosphere at the stadium. Captain Ryan Nelsen took to the airwaves on both TV and radio the previous evening, urging all football fans to turn up for the play-off match dressed completely in white. Nelsen’s appeal bore fruit and history was made: 36,000 “All Whites” packed into the ground, the biggest-ever crowd on New Zealand soil, helping to bring about the 1-0 victory T H E F I FA W E E K LY

that sealed the nation’s second World Cup finals appearance after their 1982 debut.

The Kiwis’ jovial and apparently carefree approach to the forthcoming play-offs is another cause for bemusement and wonder. A 105,000 crowd is expected at the legendary Azteca in Mexico City on 13 November, but New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert is not in the least daunted: “It’ll be fantastic playing in front of such a big crowd. And we’re used to being the underdogs, Mexico less so. It’ll be interesting to see how our opponents cope with the huge expectations at home.”

New Zealand will withdraw to Los Angeles to prepare for the first leg in relative peace and quiet. Coach Herbert did much the same thing prior to the 2009 play-offs, when he quartered his team in Dubai. That proved a smart move.

The footballing world should be looking forward to finding out what kind of creative inspiration the team conjures up when it comes to the return in the south-western Pacific. Å 11

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Premier League

O n r e d d r a go n s David Winner is a London-based author and journalist. His books on football include ‘Brilliant

“The Cardiff case is the most vivid example of a growing trend.”

Orange’ and ‘Dennis Bergkamp: Stillness and Speed’.

Cardiff City and Swansea City, the Premier League’s non-English contingent, contested the first ever top-flight Welsh derby on Sunday. Thanks to satellite TV a once-parochial rivalry was played out for a worldwide audience. But Cardiff’s 1-0 home victory in a low-quality game proved less significant than the context.

The two clubs are run so differently that the fixture drew attention to the deeper issue of who actually owns the game. Swansea are widely seen as an example of how a modern British club should be organised. Saved from ruin ten years ago by a group of local businessmen, the club is 20 per cent owned by the fans and has a clear and traditional British identity rooted in its community. Swansea’s owners and fans think locally rather than globally.

Cardiff, by contrast, are in the throes of a no-less modern identity crisis. Under their respected Scottish manager Malky Mackay they have thrived. But Mackay is not the club’s

key man. Indeed, some observers expect him to leave because of his deteriorating relationship with the club’s owner, the Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan. Tan is the football-club-owning foreign billionaire par excellence. Three years ago he joined Cardiff and went on to rescue it from crippling debt and invest more than £100 million.

No-one quite knows his long-term ambitions, but he is evidently thinking beyond the borders of the Principality. Acting with the kind of lordly disdain for local custom which was once a feature of British colonial rule in Malaya and elsewhere, as owner he has ditched Cardiff’s traditional first choice blue shirts for red ones and replaced the club’s century-old bluebird badge with a dragon.

Such changes may help rebrand the club for the Asian market, but they have left local fans distressed and confused. More recently Tan sacked Mackay’s trusted colleague Iain Moody and replaced him with a 23 year-old Kazakh

who has no previous professional football experience (and no UK work permit either).

In Cardiff the majority of supporters seem grateful for Tan’s money. Without him, they acknowledge, the club would not be in the Premier League. But other fans, like the Bluebirds Unite group which calls for a return to the blue shirts, are sceptical. On Sunday a group of supporters inside in the stadium held up a banner reading “Tan Out”.

The Cardiff case is the most vivid example of a growing trend. Most top Premier League teams, including Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool are now owned by foreigners.

For some clubs, most notably Chelsea and Manchester City, foreign ownership has been a tremendous blessing. For others, like Blackburn Rovers, it has proved catastrophic.

The long-term cultural and economic impact on the British game as a whole can only be guessed at. Å

South Wales derby in the Premier League. Nathan Dyer of Swansea City (front) tackles Cardiff City’s Andrew Taylor.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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W o m e n ’s B u n d e s l i g a

A t i m e to m e e t fr iend s Sven Goldmann is a football expert at Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin.

Bundesliga enthusiasts are eagerly looking forward to this week’s Champions League. Mouths are watering at the prospect of a truly top clash, a match worthy of the final as the 2010 winners take on the team that triumphed in 2011 and 2012. It doesn’t get much better than this, but it’s still relatively early in the season, so no-one’s expecting a new record attendance.

A crowd of about 5,000 would count as pretty good. On Sunday, Turbine Potsdam meet Olympique Lyon in the UEFA Women’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg.

Potsdam’s female footballers are up there as crowd pullers with just a handful of European teams. They once attracted a Bundesliga record attendance of 7,900 when they played Frankfurt, although that was a decade ago now. The Champions League final in May drew a 20,000 crowd to Stamford Bridge in West London, where Wolfsburg beat Lyon by the only goal of the game. By contrast, there were a million ticket requests for the men’s final between Dortmund and Bayern at Wembley a couple of days later.

Revenue and income opportunities in the men’s and women’s game lie at the opposite ends of a broad spectrum. The women’s winners take home €250,000. In the men’s competition, each of the 32 group stage contenders receives €8.6 million and in the very best case the winners of the final can make as much as €37.4 million should they triumph in all their matches. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s daily rate at Paris St. Germain comes to €37,000. A woman playing at the elite level might just about earn that in a shade under six months, including some income from commercial activities. An overwhelming majority of the players in the world-leading Bundesliga are pure amateurs practising their sport as a hobby.

Karl Liebknecht stadium, Potsdam. Wolfsburg’s Noelle Maritz (left) challenges Genoveva Anonma of Turbine Potsdam in the 1-1 draw on 19 October 2013.

Here we are in the third millennium, and women in football still lack the recognition they long ago earned in politics, business or the arts. Standards on the pitch are improving with every passing year and the women’s game is developing at an explosive pace all over the world, but the steps forward are strictly modest. Little remains from the frenzy of expectation whipped up a couple of years ago in advance of the Women’s World Cup in Germany. It has not done the women’s cause any good that the German FA (DFB) elected to market the World Cup not as a competitive football tournament but as a sort of extended catwalk, on which 11 models in football boots showed off their feminine allure. The thrust of the effort at the time was less about sport and more about extracting maximum value from a product which struggles to appeal to the average fan. Women’s Bundesliga stadiums are a meeting point for friends, connoisseurs, the well-informed and the committed. The big game between Potsdam and Wolfsburg a couple of weeks ago drew a crowd of 3,000.

The Champions League was launched onto the international stage four years ago, but the competition’s image suffers severely from the central issue in European women’s football, the gulf in class between the best and the rest. The scene is dominated by the big leagues in Germany and Sweden, with serial

“Football remains a hobby for the majority of female Bundesliga players.”

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French champions Lyon and England’s biggest club Arsenal also in with a chance. But that’s it for realistic contenders. On their way to the last sixteen, Lyon won their matches against Twente Enschede by an aggregate score of 10-0, Arsenal beat Almaty 18-2, and Potsdam ran up 27 without reply against Paernu. Å

Serie A

M i la n i n tu r moi l Luigi Garlando is an editor at Gazzetta dello Sport and is the author of numerous children’s books.

Torino became the first side to take points off Rudi Garcia’s rampant Roma team, ending the league leaders’ record winning run at ten matches. However, the news of Roma’s slip and the victories of second-placed pair Napoli and Juventus, who trail I Giallorossi by three points and meet on Sunday, were overshadowed by AC Milan’s surprise 2-0 reverse at home to Fiorentina.

I Rossoneri are on the rocks following a fifth league defeat of the season that has historic repercussions for the club. The last time Milan garnered less than 12 points from the first 11 matchdays was in the 1981-82 season, which ended with their relegation to Serie B. AC Milan’s poor form has seen them concede 19 goals, a tally trumped only by Sassuolo and Bologna. Only twice in their history have Il Diavolo conceded more goals at this point of the season: 20 in 1941-42 and 23 in 1932-33.

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The defensive wall that crumbled in the face of Florentine Juan Vargas’ free-kick on Saturday epitomised a situation that has left Milan 19 points off the pace. Even worse, the turmoil has now spread beyond the pitch to the boardroom, where major changes are in the offing.

Primera División

Mo n c h i , S e v i l l a's wheeler dea ler Jordi Punti is a novelist and the author of many football features

The latest tremors of an impending upheaval were felt on Sunday, the day after Milan’s home defeat to Fiorentina. A press release revealed that board member Barbara Berlusconi, daughter of AC Milan President Silvio Berlusconi, had asked her father to institute radical changes in the club’s business management and questioned the latest transfer strategy. In a subsequent statement, the younger Berlusconi hastened to deny that she had requested the sacking of the club’s vice-president and managing director Adriano Galliani.

Nevertheless, rumours abound of an ongoing power struggle between the ambitious daughter of the club president, who is also an ex-girlfriend of Alexandre Pato, and Silvio Berlusconi’s favourite director and club administrator Galliani, who tried in vain to sell Pato to fund the purchase of Carlos Tevez.

Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images

The upshot is that Milan could be facing the end of an era with the possible exit of boardroom stalwart Galliani, architect of the golden generation that won five European Cups, three Club World Cups and eight Scudetti. At the end of the eighties, lest we forget, Milan revolutionised the game under coach Arrigo Sacchi, setting an example to all, including Barcelona.

And yet those glories of the past have much to do with the current crisis. Club president Berlusconi has always made it his mission to win in an entertaining way and, as a media mogul, insists on an exciting prime-time spectacle. However, Milan have been forced to sell stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva and can no longer afford to spend so lavishly. Instead, the club feeds its obsession for exciting football by investing almost exclusively in attacking talent to the detriment of its back line, forgetting that Sacchi won titles not only thanks to the forward flare of Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit, but also with the defensive guile of Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini. Rather like impoverished aristocrats, Milan persist in eating off the family silverware even though the larder is all but bare. Å

in the Spanish media.

The corridors of world football have always been populated by clever, quirky types - supporting actors whose mere presence makes the game all the more attractive. Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo is one such behind-the-scenes operator, though you probably know him by the name of Monchi. In his own way Monchi has helped shape the destiny of Spanish football in the last few years, or at least that of its biggest clubs. To tell his story we need to go back to the 1990s, a decade he spent on Sevilla’s books as a goalkeeper, or rather a reserve goalkeeper. Starting just 81 games in his nine seasons with the club, he would watch many more matches from the bench.

You can see him there in the old photographs, sitting next to Carlos Bilardo, Luis Aragones, Jose Antonio Camacho and all the others who occupied the Sevilla hotseat in those days.

From spending so much time on the sidelines, Monchi became a good judge of players, and when a chronic injury forced him to retire at the age of 30 he was drawn by his love of football and Sevilla to seek a different capacity at the club. “If they’d asked me to mark the pitch out, I would have said yes,” he once said in an interview. As it turned out, he was invited to become the team delegate, switching shortly afterwards to become director of football.

It was a post in which he would excel. You only have to look at the list of signings the Spanish side have made in recent times to see that he has an eye for hidden talent. Also responsible for strengthening Sevilla’s youth set-up, the talent-spotting Monchi and his assistants travel far and wide in search of promising youngsters, making Brazil and the African leagues their most frequent destinations. The maxim of “buy cheap, sell dear” has proven a very effective strategy for Monchi when negotiating contracts with foreign players.

and Renato, not to mention Christian Poulsen, Seydou Keita, Frederic Kanoute, Didier Zokora, Alvaro Negredo, Andres Palop, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Khalid Bouhlarouz, Arouna Kone, Diego Perotti, and Aldo Duscher. To that roll call can be added the homegrown Sergio Ramos, Jose Antonio Reyes and Jesus Navas, all three of whom graduated from the youth ranks to the first team.

Together they would make quite a squad, but hardly any of them remain with the club.

Virtually all have been sold on for large sums of money, with Ramos becoming a mainstay at Real Madrid, Alves, Keita and Adriano helping Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona achieve greatness, and Negredo and Navas both now making their way at Manchester City. In the process Sevilla have made their accounts look a whole lot healthier.

With its dizzying whirl of close-season arrivals and departures, the club resembles the United Nations. It was Monchi’s transfer-market nous that led to the creation of the star-studded squad that won the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 2006. Sevilla have remained largely competitive since then, playing European football every season but without ever looking quite as convincing. Critics have identified Monchi as both the solution and the problem, accusing him of being more interested in swapping football stickers than building a decent squad. This season’s comings and goings are case in point, with 31 players departing the club and 18 arriving along with a new coach in Unai Emery. The sense once again is that the team is starting from scratch, though Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic, a 2011 signing, has impressed so far this term, consolidating his place in the side. The current squad also features 20-year-old Alberto Moreno, a local-born defender pushed up to the first team by Monchi. Moreno made his Spain debut against Georgia just a few days ago and has a big future ahead of him, though quite how much of it will be spent at Sevilla is something that only Monchi knows. Å

The long list of star names he has signed since 2002 includes the Brazilian quintet of Dani Alves, Adriano, Julio Baptista, Luis Fabiano T H E F I FA W E E K LY

15

THE INTERVIEW

“I’m open to continuing” German World Cup legend and United States manager Jurgen Klinsmann talks about life at the head of Team USA, the current state of the game stateside, and picks a favourite for the 2014 World Cup.

Mr. Klinsmann, how difficult was the road to qualification?

Jurgen Klinsmann: I think that for every nation to qualify for the World Cup is a difficult task no matter if you are in South America, Europe, or here in CONCACAF. A lot of people in Europe don’t understand what CONCACAF is all about. When you play as an away team in Central America or in the Caribbean it is a very difficult road. So, it has been a wonderful learning experience for me.

What are the goals for the US at the 2014 World Cup? The expectations have started to rise here in the States because the country has now qualified for the seventh time in a row since 1990. There is hope always that you show a good performance and that the expectation is at least to get out of the group stage. And then maybe surprise some people in the knockout stage. Exiting the group stage would be considered a disappointment.

Is football in the US improving?

I think you see many pieces starting to connect. US Soccer has already introduced the academy system for youth development.

Now we have more than 80 academies, all the MLS teams have their own. I think the league is doing a tremendous job. It’s a very young league improving every year, attracting good and talented players from abroad and also improving their own quality of the players.

What changes would you like to see?

We all want to have a better network and find the talent in such locations as in Hispanic communities, so we don’t lose those kids to Mexican clubs. The identification process, I think we are working on that. Things will improve with the academy system. The path may soon be different for the most talented kids in this country, maybe they will go straight to the pros, which is just the natural fit, in soccer globally.

Improving the quality of coaches and coaches’ education will be huge. We want them all to have good licenses and know what they’re doing with the kids. It’s a huge task for US soccer.

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Can the US find its own football identity?

America will always be a mixture of many different pieces, I mean it’s a country of immigrants, no matter what generation we are. It will always reflect all these different influences, and reflect the eagerness and ambition to win. It always be a very ambitious style of play, it’s not a very patient country.

Americans are doers.

Will you have a desire to remain with the US team after your contract is up?

If both sides are happy there’s no need to change things. But as a coach you’re always going to be measured by maximum success.

The benchmark for a coach is always the World Cup, at least in a national team environment. Looking at how things are going and how we’ve developed so far, in different areas, I believe we’ve improved. It’s a very enjoyable time, and I’m totally open to continuing.

Is there a draw for you to go back to the day-to-day managing of club football?

I don’t know, right now I’m really happy in what we’re doing and working on. That football is a different environment, a different task, I enjoyed that as well. I really had a good time in Munich that one year, even if the end of it was very dramatic, and in certain ways tough on both sides, because we ended up in a huge fight. It’s always something you look at, but mainly when you have the time for it, and the good thing right now is I don’t have the time for it because we are planning for the World Cup in Brazil.

How has the game changed since you were a player?

On the field it obviously became a lot faster, the decision making and the technical skill at the higher pace is far more demanding than it was 20 years ago. The challenges off the field are far bigger than they were ever before. Players are surrounded now by Twitter and Facebook and obviously television. The whole media landscape exploded in soccer over the last 20 years. It brings in a lot of money, which brings in a lot of other challenges for these players. The biggest problem T H E F I FA W E E K LY

is that there’s no education to grow into this profession. Players are 17 or 18 years old and get a professional contract and now should all know how to deal with the media, what to do with their money, how to read an agent, and fulfill expectations from a coach. It’s a profession without education. So it is really difficult.

Who are the favorites to succeed in Brazil?

Brazil’s showing in the Confederations Cup gives you a hint of how hungry they are for the World Cup. The quality in their team is there and a European nation hasn’t won a World Cup in South America, though it would be a nice surprise. If I had to name one favorite it would probably have to be Brazil. Å Jurgen Klinsmann spoke to George Tsitsonis in Los Angeles

Name: Jurgen Klinsmann Date of birth: 30 July 1964 Birthplace: Göppingen, Germany Height: 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) Position: Forward Youth career: 1972–1974 TB Gingen 1974–1978 SC Geislingen 1978–1981 Stuttgarter Kickers Career: 1981–1984 Stuttgarter Kickers 1984–1989 Stuttgart 1989–1992 Inter Milan 1992–1994 Monaco 1994–1995 Tottenham Hotspur 1995–1997 Bayern Munich 1997–1998 Sampdoria 1997–1998 Tottenham Hotspur Simon Bruty/Getty Images

2003 Orange County Blue Star International appearances: 108 (47 goals), 1987–1998

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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C O U N T D O W N T O B R A Z I L 2 0 14

→ http://www.fifa.com/worldcup

31 W E E K S T O G O Brazil for beginners In order to be able to understand Brazil, you need to be as crazy for life as the majority of Brazilians themselves. Nevertheless, as the mass demonstrations of recent months have shown, even being Brazilian is not always enough to comprehend this country.

Sergio Xavier Filho

B

razil is not a nation for beginners. That statement has long been used as a warning for people arriving in the country with preconceived ideas about what to expect. Yet when Brazil came to a standstill in June and July during the FIFA Confederations Cup, government officials, analysts and journalists all tried to find an explanation for what was happening, without convincingly managing to do so. Brazil, it would appear, is not a nation for experts either.

out of the contrast it presents with their daily reality. The new stadiums only highlight further the state of the old public buildings in need of renovation. The question almost

fism has taken over the demonstrators who were previously prepared to resort to violent tactics, such as when they destroyed underground stations and public buildings. A survey in September revealed that the proportion of the population that supported the protests had fallen from 89 per cent to 74 per cent. The country appears to have had enough of the unrest. Furthermore, half of the World Cup venues have already been inaugurated and are being used by local clubs in the national cham-

Numerous mass demonstrations have taken place throughout Brazil’s history. In the 1990s president Fernando Collor de Mello was ousted by public demand, but in that era political parties and trade unions organised and controlled the rallies. That was not the case this time. Protestors took to the streets without following any particular leader and without waving flags. Sparks of discontent were fanned into wildfires on social networks.

Felipe Dana/AP

Curiously, it all happened against the backdrop of a stable national economy. There is neither a high unemployment rate nor a dictatorship that silences the opposition. However, Brazil has suffered the consequences of accelerated growth in recent years. Public transport has worsened, food prices have risen and the country’s wealth distribution is grossly uneven: while a privileged few enjoy unimaginable riches, the vast majority of the population live from hand to mouth.

The recent social unrest, though largely disorganised, was an expression of that dissatisfaction and hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup merely acted as a catalyst for it to bubble to the surface. Brazilians are not against their country staging the FIFA World Cup, quite the opposite in fact: they are excited by the prospect of witnessing the tournament first-hand. The protests arose more

Shorts and shirts dry in the Tavares Bastos favella in Rio de Janeiro.

every Brazilian is asking is: why is so much money being spent on stadiums when our most pressing needs are not being addressed?

Not everybody seems to be aware that the country has spent far more on new World Cup arenas than actually required by FIFA. The social conflict may kick off again with the draw for the 2014 World Cup at the beginning of December and theoretically thousands of Brazilians could demonstrate their dissatisfaction in the streets once again. Whether or not that happens, however, is open to question.

Since the last wave of protests an air of paciT H E F I FA W E E K LY

pionship. Normality has returned and fans are enjoying going to a football match in a more comfortable setting. Protests do still happen of course, but on nowhere near the same scale as during the Confederations Cup. Yet Brazil is still not able to solve its structural difficulties and although Brazilians have realised their voices can be heard when they take to the streets, the World Cup is not the root of their problems - and it is not the solution either. Å

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MIRROR IMAGE

T

H

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Hayes Park, England

1938

PD

Leapfrogging ladies. English club Hayes Ladies warming up in Hayes Park, Middlesex. The carefree atmosphere in the picture masks the true story. On 5 December 1921, The Football Association barred women from using stadiums in England because “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.� The ban was only lifted in 1970.

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T H E F I FA W E E K LY

MIRROR IMAGE

N

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Norrkoping, Sweden

2013

Getty Images

Spanish stretching. The Spain women’s national team warm up for their meeting with France at the Women’s EURO in Sweden. The Spanish reached the quarter-finals but were knocked out by Norway.

Last summer’s tournament set new benchmarks in European women’s football, with a total attendance of 216,888 and a crowd of 41,201 for the final.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

21

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W E E K LY T O P 11

The joys of armchair analysis

The longest unbeaten streaks in club football

Alan Schweingruber

V

erbal communication is one of the most universal human passions. People love to talk and often feel empty when deprived of the opportunity to do so. Many would happily chat away, day and night, be it at the bus stop, in a restaurant or even at home doing the ironing. With so many words filling the ether, some of them are inevitably of little consequence, creating a desire for something of greater substance.

Fortunately, that is never the case when it comes to football, as the game itself is pure substance. Teams that run the clock down by playing keep-ball are routinely booed. Yet even among all the football talk, two principle questions are raised: How much of what is said is actually true? And how much expertise does my football-mad conversation partner really have?

Every football fan is an expert, at least as far as his team is concerned. That can make for entertaining conversations, as subjective, emotional viewpoints can be great fun to listen to, especially coming from an authentic fan. Imagine your work colleague on a Monday morning regaling you with the details of his weekend trip to the stadium. He or she describes the goings on in the stand so precisely that you can almost smell the scent of sweat mingling with sausages.

Things take on a different dimension after the first coffee break when the supposed expert extends his repertoire to international football, for example. “Have you seen that Gareth Bale at Real Madrid?” he asks, dismissively. “He’s supposed to be quick and powerful but I’m telling you, he’s not worth a hundred million!” It is a futile exercise to pay too much attention to such analysis, which often sounds like it is being parroted after being heard elsewhere. At the bus stop perhaps.

Big clubs generally invest a lot of time in scouting a player and pay microscopic attention to detail once a potential target has been identified. Scouts will watch him 20, 30 or even 40 times and meticulously report on the runs he makes, his sprightliness, conduct, consistency and susceptibility to injuries. They compile enough information to fill several books and include every possible minutiae right down to an uncut fingernail. If a club observes a player over the course of 25 games, for example, that equates to over 2250 minutes, or 37.5 hours of material on a single player. Given the depth of research involved they have sufficient information to decide whether to go ahead with a transfer or not. And still, a man on his coffee break knows better…

Often it helps to just go along with all-knowing fans. In its own way playing keep-ball can be advantageous (for instance when one’s own team is in the lead) and it should be remembered that expert, rather than armchair, analysis comes at a price. A television subscription in Spain to watch the English Premier League costs €30 per month, which may only come to 0.00003 per cent of Bale’s transfer fee, but it is still a considerable sum. A Spanish football fan in England has to pay £44 (€52) in order to see action from La Liga.

Only a few Britons take advantage of the offer and no longer need to in order get a firsthand view of the elegant ability and speed of former Real Madrid star Mesut Ozil. “I’m telling you, that man at Arsenal is worth every penny of the fifty million quid they paid for him.” Å

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

108 matches ASEC Abidjan (CIV) 1989 – 1994

1 1

58 matches AC Milan (ITA) 1991 – 1993; Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 1972 – 1974; Skonto Riga (LVA) 1993 – 1996

104 matches Steaua Bucharest (ROM) 1986 – 1989 85 matches Esperance de Tunis (TUN) 1987 – 2001 71 matches Al Ahly (EGY) 2004 – 2007 63 matches Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) 2006 – 2008 62 matches Celtic Glasgow (SCO) 1915 – 1917 61 matches Levadia Tallinn (EST) 2008 – 2009 60 matches Union Saint-Gilloise (BEL) 1933 – 1935 59 matches Boca Juniors (ARG) 1924 – 1927; Pyunik Erewan (ARM) 2002 – 2004

Real Madrid also set a remarkable record between February 1957 and March 1965 by going 112 home games without defeat.

The weekly column by our staff writers T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Source: “Das grosse Buch der Fussball-­Rekorde” (Compendium of Football Records) 23

With Visa you are always welcome in the country of football.

© 2013 Visa. All Rights Reserved. © 2013 Getty Images.

A PROFILE

Ebbyˇs Forest fire

When Eberhard Kleinrensing bought the sports magazine Kicker for 1.20 Deutschmarks in 1978, his life was about to take an incredible turn.

An article inspired the German to travel to watch Nottingham Forest play, something he has now been doing so for the last 35 years, making him the world’s most dedicated football fan.

Alan Schweingruber (text) and Lars Baron (photos) reporting from Duisburg Eberhard Kleinrensing will not forget spring 2012 in a hurry. In May that year, the Duisburg native was feeling so unwell that his father drove him to the local hospital.

It turned out to be a life-saving decision, as without medical attention Kleinrensing would have died just a couple of hours later because his blood pressure had reached 230.

Doctors gave him an infusion and kept him hospitalised for a week under observation.

“I was lying there,” recalls Kleinrensing.

“And I realised how serious the situation was. But I fought, because I wanted to see Forest play again one more time.”

Kleinrensing is talking about English side Nottingham Forest, a club that once revolutionised European football with their attacking tactics. Under legendary manager Brian Clough, Forest won the English league title in 1978 and lifted the European Cup (as the Champions League was formerly known) in 1979 and 1980. Fast forward to today, however, and the side are no longer in the spotlight; instead they play in England’s second tier, the Championship. Revolutions might be less common in Nottingham these days, but the 53-year-old German still makes waves across the city. Forest’s fan club voted ‘Ebby’, as he is known there, as Fan of the Century in recognition of his attendance at 1,380 of the club’s games. What makes that T H E F I FA W E E K LY

achievement all the more astonishing is that Kleinrensing still lives in Duisburg.

An ever-present since 1997 It all started when, aged 19, Kleinrensing bought the sport magazine Kicker from a newsstand in his hometown. In it, an enthusiastic correspondent took several pages to outline the spellbinding experiences he had had in Forest’s City Ground. “I can’t describe it,” Kleinrensing said. “When I read the article I just had to go and see Nottingham Forest play. Even though I was an MSV Duisburg fan at the time, all of a sudden I felt the urge to go over there. And that’s how it all began.” In 1978 Kleinrensing witnessed Forest in action for the first time in Liverpool, 25

A PROFILE

«You’re a wonderful girl and you look amazing, but Nottingham Forest will always be my number one.»

Kleinrensing’s words to his fiancée

before taking in his inaugural home game a couple of months later.

That was all it took to convince the young German, a budding salesman at the time.

From then on, instead of investing his money in petrol, concerts and clothes like his friends in Duisburg, he spent it on flights, accommodation and tickets to see Nottingham Forest. His initial curiosity gradually became a hobby, which itself turned into a passion. So serious is Kleinrensing’s dedication that he has not missed a Forest match, home or away, since 1997. He goes to see both competitive fixtures and friendly games and if the club travel to Tokyo or the USA to play, Kleinrensing will be there. There will often be a handful other fans from England in the stadiums, but he has been a lone presence in the stands on more than one occasion.

The persistence required to maintain such a perfect attendance record is impressive, especially as there have been times when it appeared Kleinrensing would not be able to make it. One such instance came in 2010 when the ash cloud caused by the volcano Eyjafjallajokull played havoc with European air traffic.

It has been reported that local newspapers in Nottingham set aside column inches just in case Forest’s most famous fan failed to make it to watch his beloved side. Kleinrensing was not about to give up that easily, however, and after donning his scarf and trademark leather jacket, he drove for 14 hours to get there. The episode proved that there is seemingly nothing Kleinrensing will not do to see the Reds in action and since then he always has a suitcase packed and ready to go in his Duisburg flat “just in case”.

Under The Reds’ spell: ‘Ebby’ Kleinrensing lives and breathes red and white.

Marital consequences Such a time-consuming hobby invariably leaves little room for romance, yet despite the breakup of Kleinrensing’s first marriage, he is optimistic about his relationship with his 26

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

A PROFILE

35 years of memories: Kleinrensing proudly owns countless pennants.

present partner Heike, a fellow German who lives in Hucknall near Nottingham and is also a fan of The Tricky Trees. His sanguinity may be due to the fact that he laid his cards on the table when the pair met 13 years ago. “Heike,” he recalls saying. “You’re a wonderful girl and you look amazing, but Nottingham Forest will always be my number one.”

Kleinrensing has always lived with his parents, but can retreat to his own small flat within the same house. It acts as a shrine to Nottingham Forest, with mascots, t-shirts, pennants, scarves, toothbrushes, mugs, lighters and more adorning the place. Amongst it all, Kleinrensing, who has lost 31 kilograms since his stint in hospital, sits on a sofa and smiles: “Honestly, without Forest I’d be dead.” Å

That Kleinrensing, who took early retirement some years ago, laughs freely when he speaks about his beloved club should not be taken for granted. Ever since he was 18 he has suffered from various health issues, including rheumatism and a joint disorder called Bechterew’s syndrome. “The club is good for him,” says Kleinrensing’s father Manuel, a retired civil engineer. “It’s an expensive pastime, but we’re happy to support him on the occasions he doesn’t have enough money.”

Club name: Nottingham Forest League: Football League Championship Owner: Fawaz Al-Hasawi (Kuwait) Honours: European Cup winners 1979, 1980 League Champions 1978 FA Cup winners 1898, 1959 Former stars: Peter Shilton, John Robertson, Ian Bowyer

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

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T HE DEBAT E

How to rid football of racism

Considering a boycott. Defensive midfielder Yaya Toure, Manchester City’s rock.

David Winner The widespread outrage and anger over the monkey chants directed towards Manchester City’s captain Yaya Toure in Moscow reveals how far the debate about racism has come.

Toure’s suggestion of a boycott of the Russian World Cup has been widely reported and led to top level interventions.

The head of FIFA’s anti-racism task force, Jeffrey Webb, asked to see Toure in London.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter commented on the case, acknowledging the problem but saying that boycotts would not solve it. CSKA’s failure to acknowledge there had even been a racist incident drew contempt from the British press.

Yet a generation ago black players in Britain were routinely subjected to moronic abuse 28

similar to that which came from bare-chested CSKA supporters last week. Black footballers were obliged to run a gauntlet of vile insults from rival fans, far-right groups and opposition players on the pitch. The great England and Liverpool winger John Barnes had a banana thrown at him during a derby game at Everton’s Goodison Park. He reacted with elegant contempt, back-heeling the banana into touch.

These days, thanks in part to high-profile cases in which racist comments on the field by John Terry and Luis Suarez led to them being fined and banned, racism has become entirely unacceptable.

Last month, England’s World Cup victory over Poland was almost overshadowed by a row over an entirely non-racist half-time joke by their manager Roy Hodgson about monkeys used by NASA in America’s Mercury space program of the early 1960s. When the story leaked out Hodgson was criticised for using the word “monkey” which may have been “inappropriate” and he was forced to apologise. Å T H E F I FA W E E K LY

The weekly debate.

Any thing you want to get off your chest? Which topics do you want to discus s? Send your sugges tions to: f eedbac k-T heWeek l y @ f i f a.or g.

“Fifa should have a more equal number of countries from the various continents represented at the World Cup. You can’t change the world unless you change yourself.”

FIFA.com user zenzenzito (USA)

“It is very absurd to make enemies with people on the grounds of race. Maybe the abuse will stop but I don’t think the hatred will stop during my lifetime. Around the globe, even in Africa, there is hatred on ethnicity.”

FIFA.com user cnwachuku (USA)

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Intriguingly, while racism itself has declined, sensitivity and awareness of the problem has increased.

T HE DEBAT E

“I can’t understand that racism is still in this world and I’m not only talking about in sports. Why do people still have to live in the past? This world is so much more beautiful when we all unite. In the end we will need each other to survive.”

FIFA.com user dSteppa (St. Lucia)

“Racism is there. Tribalism is very common in Africa where an away team find it difficult to win, and are at times brutalized.”

FIFA.com user Idongesit (Nigeria)

“Kofi Annan and Joseph S. Blatter met in Zurich. This is a move in the right direction and I believe something is being done to wipe out racism entirely.”

FIFA.com user King Wise DF (Ghana)

“Any form of racism by any player should carry a lifetime ban from the game, period.”

FIFA.com user kairos (Canada)

“The 99% support for the FIFA anti-racism resolution at the last FIFA Congress is a pointer to the fact that racism is a bad egg that must be thrown out of sports arenas.

Congratulations to the Congress for this bold step. However, it’s one thing to have the rules, another thing is applying the rules where and when necessary. Let’s hope the 209 FIFA associations do them justice.”

FIFA.com user amotadex (Brazil)

“Football teams that are mixed with different racial backgrounds show others how well a team can play together. Barça are a decent example, considering that there are a few different races in that team. Football internationals with different countries and clubs have been doing a good job trading all over the world with people of different races and national backgrounds in a game showing that we’re all equals in life, and in the game.

I’ve personally always viewed this sport as a way for peace, love, and even anti-discrimi­ nation. Together we can beat it. Say no to racism.”

FIFA.com user rubty08 (Bangladesh)

PRESIDENTIAL NOTE

“Points must be taken from the teams whose supporters chant in a racially discriminatory manner. Such fans will then stop with this idiocy to save their clubs.

Slowly it will eliminate itself as people learn the seriousness of the problem as a result of actual sanctions. Money is nothing to football clubs; pride and points are everything, take that away from them. Rules shape behaviour so it is imperative that the rules take a firm stand against racist chants and gestures.”

FIFA.com user luqmaan.h (South Africa)

Let’s kick out racism

“Why do R people still live in the past?”

acism is not an issue exclusive to football but rather a serious social problem. It can take root in all areas of our daily lives: at work, in school and on the street. We need to question our own stance on its existence in society with the same vehemence that we debate its presence in the game. We must overcome prejudices and break down barriers. We need tolerance, not ignorance.

Nevertheless, we must clamp down on abuse in stadiums as strongly as possible, as football is a role model in society.

The problem of intolerance is a priority issue at FIFA. At our Congress in Mauritius last May we approved a three-step plan: education, prevention and sanctions.

“I say: Kick racism out! Let us build our confidence together.”

FIFA.com user aurora2008 (Canada)

“Racism is a huge issue. Particularly with stereotypes. I only hope that FIFA does something about it and other controversies.”

FIFA.com user Froyboy96 (USA)

“Racism is childish and stupid. The only punishment that FIFA should impose on racists is expulsion from the game.”

In order to implement the policy, an anti­discrimination officer will be present at all competitions in order to observe crowd behaviour. A first offence can lead to a warning or a fine for the team with the offending fans. In case of repeat offences or serious incidents, approved sanctions are a points deduction or expulsion from the competition itself. Sporting sanctions are always the most effective measures. They need to hurt a lot, or else nothing changes. Furthermore, any player, coach or official found guilty of racism must be suspended for a minimum of five matches, in addition to a stadium ban.

FIFA.com user cnwachuku (USA)

“Racism needs to be abolished.”

We must never accept racist abuse in football. We have to remain firm in the face of any future incidents. There has been too much talk.

Now is the time to act.

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

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FIFA WORLD R ANKING Rank Team

Change in ranking Points

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 10

Spain Germany Argentina Colombia Belgium Uruguay Switzerland Netherlands Italy England

0 1 -1 1 1 1 7 1 -4 7

1513 1311 1266 1178 1175 1164 1138 1136 1136 1080

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 44 46 47 47 49 49 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 71 73 74 75 76 77

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

-3 4 0 -3 -3 2 2 -8 -4 6 4 -2 1 -3 -3 -3 5 15 2 -1 2 -4 3 6 28 -1 -1 17 -5 9 -3 2 -13 -2 8 8 -8 -1 -8 -1 -1 -1 -6 -27 2 2 -4 -13 2 -1 9 7 -7 2 -5 3 4 8 -4 3 11 -9 -1 10 2 -12 -3

1078 1051 1040 1036 983 925 917 901 874 871 870 862 860 854 850 824 783 778 767 752 744 741 724 720 715 702 692 687 686 670 668 662 636 634 634 633 632 632 613 613 610 598 596 584 582 569 564 563 554 550 540 540 538 530 528 515 513 512 503 502 496 496 493 492 488 487 478

Ranking May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

Aug. 2013

Sept. 2013

Oct. 2013

1 -41 -83 -125 -167 -209 Top spot

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 103 105 106 107 107 109 110 111 112 112 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 121 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 129 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 141 143 144

Biggest climber

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

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Biggest faller

9 -12 -2 4 -4 -3 -1 -4 -11 4 19 4 -4 1 4 -4 -4 -2 33 2 6 -11 -3 8 -1 9 2 3 8 6 -4 0 -8 -5 -12 -1 16 1 1 -2 0 -21 2 -1 3 -2 -2 0 -31 -1 -1 2 -2 4 -13 -1 0 -3 4 4 0 -3 2 2 6 -4 2

474 470 464 457 456 441 438 431 430 411 407 404 399 394 381 380 378 376 369 365 354 351 350 338 328 323 323 313 312 310 310 307 306 296 294 294 286 282 280 277 274 273 271 267 267 266 263 254 249 247 246 242 242 237 233 223 219 216 215 213 203 202 192 183 183 181 179

145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 162 162 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 171 173 173 175 176 177 178 178 180 181 182 183 183 185 186 186 188 189 190 191 192 193 193 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 202 204 204 206 207 207 207

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

0 3 -10 0 13 -6 2 -2 0 1 4 2 -5 -2 1 1 -4 8 1 4 -2 2 5 2 -2 4 -2 4 -22 -8 7 -1 -4 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 3 2 2 2 2 3 4 3 -1 0 -11 -11 0 0 0 1 -2 0 0 1 1 1 -2 0 0 0 0

178 175 172 171 169 161 159 158 155 151 149 148 147 141 139 137 127 120 120 120 119 108 105 102 89 88 86 86 82 82 81 79 72 62 62 57 56 53 49 49 47 43 43 40 33 32 30 29 26 26 24 23 21 20 18 16 14 11 11 10 10 3 0 0 0

31

Place: Uros island on Lake Titicaca Ye a r : 20 09

32

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

FIRST LOVE

Mariana Bazo/Reuters

THE FIF FA A W E E K LY

33

HISTORY

Uruguay ahoy!

How it all began: FIFA President Jules Rimet (left) comes ashore in Montevideo.

Dominik Petermann

O

n 21 June 1930, the France, Romania and Belgium national teams and the FIFA delegation headed by President Jules Rimet boarded Italian luxury steamer SS Conte Verde in Genoa and set sail for Montevideo. Meanwhile, a Yugoslavian party travelled on the MS Florida. One of the more precious items aboard the Conte Verde was the brand-new World Cup trophy, created by artist Abel La Fleur, and which would later go down in history as the Jules Rimet trophy.

The ships were at sea for almost three weeks, but at the time, taking to the ocean waves was the only means of covering the 11,000 kilometres between Europe and Uruguay. Creative measures were required to ensure the players remained fit during the voyage.

The French used the on-board furniture for hurdling exercises, with the Romanians preferring gymnastics. Practice with the ball was fundamentally impossible, as every football would inevitably have ended up in the Atlantic.

Tournament poster: A month of world football.

A life on the ocean wave: The French pose on board the ‘Conte Verde’

though the organisation was growing every year. Germany and Austria joined in 1905, to be followed shortly by Italy and Sweden, and then Argentina (1912) and Chile (1913). Back in 1906, there had even been a proposal for the assignment of teams into groups.

Group 1: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland Group 2: Belgium, France, Holland, Spain Group 3: Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary Group 4: Denmark, Germany, Sweden and a South American association

The ships arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 29 June to pick up the Brazilians, before the delegations came ashore in Montevideo on 4 July, nine days prior to the tournament.

This plan for a World Cup received a rapturous reception from the press, but was unfortunately never realised, as none of the associations would commit to entering the tournament and the project was deferred to a later date.

The next initiative was launched in 1913, when FIFA resolved to designate the planned 1916 Olympic Football Tournament in Berlin an official World Cup. But as the continent became embroiled in war, this too came to nothing.

As early as 1904, the year FIFA was founded, pioneering officials toyed with the idea of staging an international football tournament for the whole world. Just two days after the founding meeting, and before the officials had left Paris, Dutch delegate Carl Hirschmann formally raised the idea of a World Cup. From that day forward, it was an ever-present topic. How­ ever, FIFA was still too small to carry it off, al-

Hopes were rekindled in 1920 when Jules Rimet of France, the leading proponent of a World Cup, was elected FIFA President. Even so, another ten years would pass before the inaugural FIFA World Cup finally took place. Professionalism was gaining ground in the game, but the remaining strictly-amateur associations boycotted the pros. The German FA (DFB) led the resistance and for many years refused

34

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

to play official matches against associations that had embraced professional football.

Despite the continuing turbulence in world football, the 1928 FIFA Congress in Amsterdam resolved to stage a World Cup in 1930 and every four years thereafter. But when the time came to nominate a host nation, a new problem arose: none of the European associations wanted to stage the tournament. The Germans refused to play with professionals, there was no political support in Austria, and Sweden and Italy prevaricated. After months of impasse, 1924 and 1928 Olympic champions Uruguay bid for the hosting rights and the World Cup was saved.

A l l a b o a r d fo r Ur u g u ay There was little enthusiasm among the European teams to undertake the arduous and expensive ocean voyage to Montevideo, particularly with Europe in the throes of a grave financial crisis. Only Yugoslavia and Romania applied to take part. Rimet had to throw all his weight and authority into persuading Belgium and his home country of France to participate in the inaugural World Cup. Furthermore, a clutch of the European teams turned up with rump squads, as some of their best players were unable to undertake the long trip due to work commitments, but the tournament was still marked by highly watchable football. The French beat the Mexi-

HISTORY

FIFA President Jules Rimet had to cajole the European teams to participate in the inaugural 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, because the voyage by ship to Montevideo was long and arduous. To cap it all, the host nation won the trophy.

Sealed and delivered: Uruguay’s fourth goal in the 4-2 victory against Argentina.

Popperfoto/Getty Images, AFP, Archiv

cans 4-1 in the opening match, with Lucien Laurent scoring the first-ever goal at the World Cup finals in the 19th minute. The French promptly celebrated victory with sauerkraut and champagne in a Montevideo bordello. The second round of matches provided the first upset in World Cup history. The Yugoslavs started their Group II meeting with favourites Brazil at a furious pace. The South American winter served up pouring rain and temperatures under 20°C, much to the eastern Europeans’ liking, and they led 2-0 at half-time. Brazil pulled one back in the second half but failed to equalise and ultimately lost 2-1. The milestones now came thick and fast: USA forward Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick at a World Cup in a 3-0 victory over Paraguay. Argentine striker Guillermo Stabile followed suit two days later with three goals in a 6-3 triumph against Mexico. Stabile would finish on eight goals for the tournament and become its first top scorer.

However, another man was to emerge as the real star of the inaugural finals: Uruguay’s Jose Leandro Andrade, nicknamed ‘la maravilla negra’, or ‘the black marvel’. In the context of the times, his skill on the ball was breathtaking and regularly had crowds on their feet. Andrade ranks as the first worldclass black player. As early as 1924, thanks to his scintillating displays at the Olympic Games, he was hailed as the ‘player with golden feet’ in the salons of Paris, where he also

The first star: Jose Leandro Andrade (Uruguay).

delighted guests with his dashing tango dancing.

The final was ultimately contested by the favourites: Argentina, winners of all their matches up to that point, and hosts Uruguay, making their third consecutive appearance in the final of a major tournament. Faced with their much smaller neighbours, the Argentines were determined not to blemish their perfect record thus far.

Weig ht y que st ion for r e f L a ngenu s John Langenus of Belgium was the first referee tasked with taking charge of a World Cup final, and was simultaneously busy as the onthe-spot correspondent for German magazine kicker, who never for one moment contemplated the possibility of sending their own man to Uruguay. Naturally, the Affiche, the South American neighbourly duel between Argentina and Uruguay, was always likely to be explosive.

The arguments began over the choice of match ball. Both teams brought their own footballs to the game and insisted theirs should be used for the final. Showing incredible presence of mind, Langenus decreed that the Argentine ball would be used for the first half and the Uruguayan ball for the second.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Hour by hour, the tension in Montevideo mounted, as a 70,000 crowd flocked to the stadium. The spectators were to witness end-toend entertainment in a high-tempo contest.

Uruguay scored first but Argentina equalised, and went on to lead at half-time courtesy of another Stabile strike. Then, when home captain Cea made it 2-2 after 57 minutes, the stadium erupted in joy and the game was back on a knife edge. Roared on by the home crowd, the Uruguayans went for the jugular. Iriarte wormed his way into the box before applying a 12-yard finish to make it 3-2, and Estadio Centenario exploded in a cauldron of noise.

Argentina staged a series of dangerous counter-attacks and Uruguay were fortunate when a Varallo shot came back off the crossbar.

Finally, dramatically, at the other end Castro struck for the home side to seal the famous 4-2 victory.

In the aftermath, the Argentines continued to grumble that the Uruguayan ball was lighter than theirs and had handed an unfair advantage to the eventual winners. But for all that, Uruguay were deservedly crowned the first footballing world champions in history.

FIFA had its global showcase, the host nation provided the winning team, and the foundations for an enduring success story were laid. The World Cup in Uruguay also proved a financial triumph as well as a sporting spectacle. The total attendance came to just short of 435,000, with revenues totalling 255,087 Uruguayan Pesos. However, without the enterprise and persistence of legendary French President Jules Rimet, it might never have made it that far. Å 35

THE SOUND OF FOOTBALL

THE OBJEC T

Perikles Monioudis

Hanspeter Kuenzler

The moments when the history of football and pop music intertwine and also manage to chime with the spirit of the age are rare indeed. But “World in Motion” was literally in tune with the Zeitgeist.

It was 1990 and English football was in crisis. The authorities were at a loss what to do with the national pastime.

The prevailing mood was to lump all football fans into the category of hooligan. The Hillsborough disaster on 15 April 1989, where 96 people lost their lives due to inadequate safety measures, sent out a barren and tragic signal.

The fortunes of the national team had plummeted too.

England came home from EURO ’88 with no points from three matches. The World Cup in Italy was on the horizon.

Something was needed to cheer the national pysche, and the Football Association duly 36

pulled a rabbit from the hat.

Tossing aside the traditional template for the pre-tournament team song, a squad growling along to a relentlessly bland backing track, the association commissioned iconic Manchester synth band New Order to cut a new type of World Cup anthem. The band were pioneers in their branch of electronic music and had spent a decade combining elegant melodies with subtle dance grooves. Their album “Technique” was a bestseller.

New Order did not disappoint. The stroke of genius was to start the song with the most famous commentary soundbite in the English language – “They think it’s all over. It is now!” The band followed that with an ear worm of a song, even successfully incorporating a charming rap section delivered by England star John Barnes. Utilising elements from the ‘in’ styles of

the time, German Techno and Chicago House, the all-electronic track broke new ground, and was available in a range of different mixes. It shot to the top of the British charts, and was a club hit all over the world.

At a stroke, New Order forged a link between football and the cool end of the contemporary music scene, which until that point had only showed a passing interest in the game if at all. And what do you know: England turned in one of their best performances in living memory at the World Cup in Italy, making it to the semi-finals before an agonising defeat on penalties to eventual world champions Germany. Æ

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Every day, many professional footballers play FIFA Soccer as their digital selves simply by selecting their names and adjusting the skills of their virtual alter ego to compete in the international digital football world. Some 500 teams from more than 30 leagues are available in FIFA 14.

The average gamer can take a leap into the real world at the FIFA Interactive World Cup. This year’s final takes place in Rio de Janeiro, offering mere mortals a chance to become FIFA world champions.

Brothers Uli and Dieter Honess did not have a computer when they were children.

Instead, they imagined their future careers as Bayern Munich stars by playing Tipp-Kick.

This board game consisted of figures a couple of inches high, each with a push button on his head and one movable leg. When the button was pressed, the leg kicked out to try and kick the ball into the goal.

Tipp-Kick made its breakthrough after the Miracle of Bern in 1954, when Germany became World Cup winners for the first time.

No less than 180,000 Tipp-Kick sets flew off the shelves that year. In 2011, 90 years after Tipp-Kick was originally patented, a version with women’s football players was finally released to mark the FIFA Women’s World Cup that year. An original example of the game can be found in the FIFA Collection. Å

Gian Paul Lozza

“World in Motion”

Football entered the digital age long ago, and by far the most successful simulation of the beautiful game is FIFA Soccer. Updated annually, FIFA Soccer has attracted a dedicated following across the globe since it was first released in 1993, even among professional footballers who do not need the virtual realm to make their sporting dreams come true. Legend has it that long before Lionel Messi and Neymar began exchanging passes in front of millions of fans on pitches across Europe, they played private online games of FIFA Soccer across the Atlantic, with Messi installed in his living room in Barcelona and Neymar at home in Brazil.

TURNING POINT

“I always root for England” Sven-Goran Eriksson led England to the quarter-finals at EURO 2004 and the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. But then he made a decision with fateful consequences.

I

Name:

t’s always a little tricky when you don’t speak the local language. I found that out in Portugal when I was with Benfica and in Italy with Lazio – and it’s happening all over again now. I live and work in China and I’m busy learning the language, although I have to say Portuguese and Italian were easier.

Sven-Goran Eriksson Date of birth: 5 February 1948 Place of birth: Sunne, Sweden Coaching career: 1977 – 1978 Degerfors 1979 – 1982 IFK Goteborg 1982 – 1984 Benfica 1984 – 1987 AS Roma

Fundamentally a coach has to immerse himself in a country’s culture, and the language is key to getting that on board. But no matter where you are, if you want trophies the thing you need is a good team.

I had really good teams at Gothenburg, Benfica and Lazio. And you need strong support within the club.

1987 – 1989 Fiorentina

I came to China because the offers from Europe weren’t exactly appealing. I took on the challenge of sporting director in Dubai. But it was very appealing when Chinese club Guangzhu R&F asked if I’d coach them, especially at my age.

At the end of the day I’m a coach.

And I like it here.

2012 BEC Tero (sporting director)

imago

Football in China is getting stronger. A few of the top-flight clubs have opened academies, including ourselves here at Guangzhu R&F. Outside the city we’re bringing on hundreds and hundreds of lads. That’s exactly what football in China needs now. The game is certainly fairly popular these days, but nowhere near the way it is in Europe or South America. The young people in the cities can’t just go out and play. Football is banned in public parks. The game still has to become established as a grassroots sport with the requisite number of pitches. And we have to be picking up and bringing on talented youngsters from an early age, like they do in England.

In the build-up to the 2006 World Cup I was absolutely convinced England had a chance of making the final, and possibly even winning the trophy. We were knocked out by Portugal in the quarter-finals on penalties. The same happened at EURO 2004: we lost in a

1989 – 1992 Benfica 1992 – 1997 Sampdoria 1997 – 2001 Lazio Roma 2001 – 2006 England 2007 – 2008 Manchester City 2008 – 2009 Mexico 2009 – 2010 Notts County (sporting director) 2010 Cote d’Ivoire 2010 – 2011 Leicester City 2013 Al Nasr (sporting director) 2013 – Guangzhou R&F Recently published: Eriksson’s autobiography “Sven: The Final Reckoning” (HarperCollins).

shootout in the quarter-finals. Then and now I regard the England team as not far behind the best in the world. There won’t be particularly high expectations of England at Brazil 2014.

The fans and the media aren’t expecting that much, and that could be an advantage. The weight of expectation in England was incredibly heavy in 2002 and 2006. Brazil are my clear favourites for the 2014 World Cup. Spain have a chance too, but winning a World Cup or any tournament involves luck.

I’m happy where I live and work now. I’m in a vast country which is growing rapidly in every respect. The skyscrapers are taller and taller, and the football is improving all the time. China were at the World Cup in 2002 and I’m sure they’ll qualify again very soon. And Guangzhou Evergrande under coach Marcello Lippi are the first Chinese club to make the final of the Asian Champions League. It’d be fantastic if they win. Å As told to Perikles Monioudis

Even though I’m no longer England manager, I always root for England, for the people there and the team. After my time with The FA I moved to Manchester City, but I was only there for seven months. I’d say that was the turning point in my career. Benfica wanted me back and made me an offer, but I chose to join the Mexican Football Association. That’s life. I never coached a really big team again after Manchester City. And that’s a fact.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

In Turning Point, personalities reflect on a decisive moment in their lives 37

Only eight countries have ever lifted the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

Yet over 200 have been winners with FIFA. As an organisation with 209 member associations, our responsibilities do not end with the FIFA World Cup™, but extend to safeguarding the Laws of the Game, developing football around the world and bringing hope to those less privileged.

Our Football for Hope Centres are one example of how we use the global power of football to build a better future. www.FIFA.com/aboutfifa

FIFA QUIZ CUP

The FIFA Weekly Published weekly by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

Let’s warm up gently with the first two questions. Here we go!

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

1

President: Joseph S. Blatter

B 1958

Secretary General: Jérôme Valcke Director of Communications & Public Affairs: Walter De Gregorio

Flags in perfect symmetry: the emblems represent the winners from seven consecutive World Cups (left to right). Which year corresponds to the flag furthest to the right?

2

Chief editor: Thomas Renggli

T 1970

W 1994

Z 2002

The last available places at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil will be claimed very soon.

For which World Cup were the hosts also obliged to qualify?

A Italy 1934

E Brazil 1950

I England 1966

O Spain 1982

Art director: Markus Nowak OK, now it’s make-or-break time.

Staff writers: Perikles Monioudis (Deputy Editor), Alan Schweingruber, Sarah Steiner Contributors: Jordi Punti, Barcelona; David Winner, London; Hanspeter Kuenzler, London; Roland Zorn, Frankfurt/M.; Sven Goldmann, Berlin; Sergio Xavier Filho, Sao Paulo; Luigi Garlando, Milan

3

The tournament which takes place here is arguably not the biggest, but it does bear a very famous name. Who is the tournament named after?

Picture editor: Peggy Knotz

R

Production: Hans-Peter Frei (head of section), Richie Kronert, Philipp Mahrer, Marianne Crittin, Mirijam Ziegler, Peter Utz, Olivier Honauer Proof reader: Nena Morf

L

I

C

Swiss railways are renowned for punctuality, and once provided a mobile temporary grandstand at a World Cup. The spectators here saw an 11-goal thriller. What was the match?

4

Contributors to this issue: Honey Thaljieh, Dominik Petermann

E Austria-Switzerland K Hungary-Germany L France-Italy T England-Uruguay

Editorial assistant: Loraine Mcdouall Translation: Sportstranslations.com Project management: Bernd Fisa, Christian Schaub Printer: Zofinger Tagblatt AG 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, 2013”.

The editor and staff are not obliged to publish unsolicited manuscripts and photos. The FIFA logo is a registered trademark. Made and printed in Switzerland.

Inspiration and implementation cus

Please send your answers to feedback-TheWeekly@fifa.org by 13 November 2013. Correct submissions for all quizzes received by 31 December 2013 will go into the draw to win two tickets to the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013 on 13 January 2014. Before sending in your answers, all participants must read and accept the competition terms and conditions and the rules, which can be found at en.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/the-fifa-weekly/rules.pdf. Å The answer to last week’s Quiz Cup was BAND (detailed answers on FIFA.com/theweekly).

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

39

ASK FIFA!

T HIS WEEK’S POLL

Foreign investors in football: A blessing or a curse?

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has helped English Premier League club Chelsea to the Champions League, three league titles and four FA Cup triumphs. Do big budgets automatically bring success? Send your answers to feedback-TheWeekly@fifa.org

THE NEW FOOTBALL MAGA ZINE

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

Answer from Thomas Renggli, chief editor: Ronald Koeman.

The prolific Dutchman scored 193 times for Groningen, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Feyenoord and the Netherlands. He is joined in the Top 5 by Daniel Passarella (Argentina, 134 goals), Fernando Hierro (Spain, 110), Edgardo Bauza (Argentina, 108) and Paul Breitner (Germany, 103).

75+25

THE GOALSCORING GOALKEEPER

14

seconds were all Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic needed to give his side the lead in their match against Southampton.

The custodian’s wind-assisted kick deceived his counterpart Artur Boruc, making Begovic the fifth goalkeeper to score in the Premier League.

40

ANALYSIS, REPORTS, PICTURES. The FIFA Weekly appears on Friday each week, both in print and as an e-magazine (www.Fifa.com/TheWeekly).

Will Manchester United come good again?

≠ NO ≠ YES

Alongside coverage of the globe’s biggest stars and the best goals, the focus is on interaction with the fans. Take part in the debate about the world’s favourite game.

25%

SEND YOUR THOUGHTS TO: feedback-TheWeekly@fifa.org

75%

11

day they swept a

36

poor Slovenia team

liga for Bayern Munich,

aside 13-0, thanks in

meaning the German cham-

part to a hat-trick

pions equalled Hamburg’s

from Celia Sasic. In

31-year-old record. On top of

THE GOAL MACHINE

games in which Germany’s women’s national team have reached double figures. Last Satur-

2011 Germany scored even more,

THE INVINCIBLES

consecutive games unbeaten in the Bundes­

that, the 29 points earned from 11 games under Pep Guardiola is the joint-best

beating

start of any new coach in the

Kazakhstan

Bundesliga, drawing level

17-0.

T H E F I FA W E E K LY

with Klaus Topmoller.

Getty Images

Question from Daniela Di Viesti, Bari: Who is the highest-scoring defender of all time?