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Dynamic Club

by Satish Sekar

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A Sense of History:

Dinamo Zagreb played a part in the rebirth of a nation. A football match against then fierce rivals Red Star Belgrade on May 13th 1990 descended into violence. Provoked by Delije – the Ultras of Red Star that included the future war criminal Arkan – Dinamo’s hardcore fans the Bad Blue Boys strained to get at them.

The police could not contain them and they got onto the pitch and fought police to get at Red Star’s trouble-makers. There were brutal clashes. Outraged by the treatment of their fans by police, star player Zvonimir Boban sided with Dinamo’s fans and kicked a policeman in the chest. He was protected by Bad Blue Boys and later had to go into hiding as the former Yugoslavia tore itself apart. Ironically the policeman Boban kicked was a Bosnian Muslim.

Yugoslavia disintegrated and six new nations emerged from the chaos, including Croatia, which quickly established itself as the best equipped former Yugoslav nation on the football field. While racism has reared its ugly head there, national team coach Slaven Bili� mounts a vigorous defence of his country. “We have a few idiots who cause these problems,” he told us, “but a few years ago you [England] had a problem with racism and hooliganism as well. It started here.” Bili� has a point and insists that Croatians are friendly people and helpful too.

Nice Ambitions (Part One)

by Satish Sekar

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Responsibility:

UEFA President Michel Platini demands that football clubs show responsibility over their finances, especially in these troubled times. Based at the small but welcoming Stade du Ray, OGC Nice had serious financial problems a few years earlier. Fans protested against the lack of investment, but Maurice Cohen stood firm. His seven spell at the club ended acrimoniously following an awful start to last season. Star striker Loic Remy was spat at by irate fans.

We interviewed Cohen last August. A month later he had had enough, announcing his intention to stand down and sell all his shares. He quit other duties in football too, but did not rule out a return to the sport later. Fiscal demands severely restricted their room for manoeuvre.

They could not attract big names and became a selling club. Nigerian international Apam Onyekachi received a hero’s welcome on his return from the Olympic Games two years ago. He is no longer at the club. The pacy Loic made no secret of his desire to leave for England. He had to settle for a transfer to Olympique Marseilles, but throughout the turmoil Ivorian defensive midfielder Emerse Faé remained steadfast and loyal. He still does.

The Visionary Part Two

by Satish Sekar

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Special:
Manuel Pellegrini did a fantastic job at Villarreal, but Real Madrid fans never took to him. He was not seen as more than warming the seat for a more high profile candidate, even though he boasts an extensive and impressive résumé. When he arrived at the Santiago Bernabéu last May to contest the Champion’s League final for Internazionale against Bayern München, rumours were already reaching fever pitch that it would be José Mourinho’s last match in charge of the Nerazuri. Rumours turned to fact as Mourinho quit the San Siro to mount his assault on La Liga.

Bitter rivals Barcelona had monopolised bragging rights recently. Mourinho would have to halt that. “Mourinho’s one of the best coaches in the world and of course we think he’s going to be very successful in Real Madrid,” said club legend and Real Madrid’s Vice-President of Sports Business Emilio Butragueño.

The Champion’s League is the priority for the nine-time winners – the most successful European club. “He can do what he did in both Porto and Inter in Milan where he won the European Champion's League,” says Butragueño. “He did very well with Chelsea although he wasn’t able to reach the final. Certainly he is a fantastic coach.” Read More...

Nice Ambitions (Part Two)

by Satish Sekar

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Academies:
Maurice Cohen announced his intention to quit OGC Nice in September. He resigned as President of the club in January, having sold all of his stake, following a very poor start to the season, but not before he gave us an interview. He was not aware of Feyenoord’s academy at Gomoa Fetteh in Ghana, but was acutely interested in African talent. “We are working directly with clubs in Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast,” he told us. “We cannot at this stage invest forward into academies like that.”

But such an academy could provide a steady supply of players cheaply in comparison and deliver vitally needed social project academies at the same time. Wouldn’t that interest him, especially if sponsors could be found too. “I think this is a financial marketing issue, not a press story.”

Emerse Faé disagrees with his former President. He wants European clubs to invest in academies in Africa, which will benefit both Europe and Africa. “Yeah, it will be good,” he says. “Some teams go to Africa to take young players, so I think it’s a good way for African football. In the last five years African football is getting better. I think these will help African players to be good. I think in maybe five or ten years African football will be like European football.” Read More...

In The Red

by Satish Sekar

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Fiscal Irresponsibility – The Reds:
UEFA President Michel Platini demands fiscal responsibility in football. From next season that will begin to bite clubs that spend more than they bring in. Servicing debts will count against them too, which could affect Manchester United as its owners, the Glazer family, use the club’s assets to service their own debts.

While Manchester United had problems inflicted on it due to lax rules allowing the takeover, its traditional rivals Liverpool faces worse problems, also through greedy American owners, exploiting rules that Platini is determined to finish once and for all.

If ever wounds were self-inflicted and entirely predictable the Anfield club is the prime example of it. Big talk led nowhere. Promises to build a new stadium are no nearer completion and the manager’s transfers targets regularly slipped through their clutches. This caused problems on and off the pitch. Liverpool thrived on success, but were starved of the one that really mattered – the league title. Worse still great rivals Manchester United matched their record of league titles.

Rafa Benítez spent six years at Liverpool. A top-transfer target Gareth Barry could not be prised away from Aston Villa by Liverpool, but Manchester City – then a smaller club, with no comnparable European pedigree and regularly finishing below Liverpool secured his signature. Big money owners investing in the Sky Blues is only part of the reason. Ambition played a part too. Top players no longer believe that Liverpool can challenge for top honours. City have time and resources on their side and ambition too. Read More...

European Gongs 2010

by Satish Sekar

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The Greatest:
José Mourinho’s Internazionale team – the first European treble winners in Italian history – must have a legitimate claim to be the second Nerazuri team to be labelled Il Grande Inter. They have surpassed the achievements of the great team of the 1960s, although they still have some way to go to match the greatest ever Italian club side – the legendary Grande Torino of the 1940s, which was tragically killed in the Superga Air Disaster in 1949.

Valentino Mazzola was the heartbeat of that fantastic Torino team that deserves the title Il Piú Grande Torino – The Greatest Torino. They remain the only club to have ten players fielded in an international for Italy and that was because the goalkeeper, also an Italian international, was rested. Some of their records still stand today and unlike Il Grande Inter they were killed in their prime on May 4th 1949. Torino never recovered. There will never be an Italian club side like them again.[1]

Inter, albeit under new management, will have to write their own history with a new coach as well. Having benefited from the Calciopoli Scandal, the Nerazuri have a virtual monopoly on Serie A now, but last season was as special as they come and recognised as such in Monaco. Read More...

El Grande Atl�tico

by Satish Sekar

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Champions:
Internazionale may have swept all comers aside last season under the Special One, but Atlético de Madrid and their young coach Quique Sánchez Flores refused to read the script. Although he failed to settle at Arsenal the former Sevilla prodigy José Antonio Reyes grabbed the opening goal in a Man of the Match performance. He was understandably elated and said that the first match of the Spanish league would be important for both him and his team.

Diego Maradona’s son-in-law Sergio Agüero grabbed the other goal that secured a 2-0 win over Rafa Benítez’ Inter. Despite being hardly called into action keeper David de Gea staked a claim to hero-status as well with a last gasp penalty save from a weak effort by Diego Milito, which was given for a foul on substitute Goran Pandev by Raúl Garcia. De Gea still had to keep it out. He did so and Inter’s resistance crumbled. Garcia’s yellow card was of little consequence.

Sánchez Flores has definitively emerged from the considerable shadow of Benítez who now has his own problems to deal with turning José Mourinho’s team into his own. “We will need time to change things,” said Benítez. “We didn’t have time after the World Cup. We won the Italian Supercup without changing things, but this time we couldn’t.” Il Grande Inter II has been cut down to size at the first attempt.

Wasted Opportunities cost Nice

by Satish Sekar

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Profligacy:

OGC Nice left their Stade du Ray pitch scratching their collective heads tonight, unsure how it had happened. Despite domininating the match and creating gilt-edged chances, mostly for Eric Mouloungui, they left with just a point. They will have to work on heading in training as three players spurned opportunities with the goal gaping and just Nancy goal-keeper and captain Gennaro Bracigliano to beat.

Mouloungui missed in the first half. Renato Civelli came close in the opening minutes of the second half. The right-back’s header just cleared the bar as Bracigliano clattered him. Substitute Mikaël Pote made it a hat-trick of poor missed headers shortly after Nancy substitute Paul Alo’o Efoulou’s equaliser.

Nice took a deserved lead through a rare goal by the impressive Ivorian defensive midfielder, Emerse controversially omitted for la Côte d’Ivoire’s World Cup squad by former Elephants’ boss Sven-Göran Eriksson. The defensive midfielder was self-efacing in his assessmnt of his goal. “I was lucky to score this goal, because I saw this ball and try to shoot and I score, so it was lucky to me that I lined up to score,” Faé said. “I know that in this championship I was lucky to score a goal like this.”

Bracigliano was in fine form, but profilgate finishing played its part too. Mouloungui was the biggest cuplrit, but Pote ought to have made it academic. Moments after Efoulou grabbed a shock equaliser Pote had the goal gaping with just Bracigliano to beat, but headed well wide. Nice continued to chase the second goal, but it refused to come and Nancy left the more satisfied with a point.

Visionary

by Satish Sekar

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Responsibilities of Big Clubs:

A revered played in his day el Buitre (the Vulture) terrorised defences for club and country. Since hanging up his boots Emilio Butragueño stayed involved in football. He currently works for his beloved Real Madrid as the Vice-President of Sports Business. We were fortunate that he discussed the responsibilities of big clubs with Empower-Sport. He shares our vision of academies as social projects that develop boys and girls to achieve their potential, especially in Africa.

“I think exactly the World Cup is going to be a great opportunity to develop football – to develop grass roots there in Africa – because Africa has shown that there are many, many talented players,” Butragueño told us. “Then with the right facilities and the right coaches of course, to have and then buy these great, great players to the world.”

Could the big clubs do more to help? “Well yes,” he says. “In fact, Real Madrid I remember just an example. Real Madrid signed Samuel Eto’o when he was seventeen years old. Of course Africa nowadays is let’s say a very fruitful place to find talented players, but there is a long way to go. There is no doubt.”

A Sense of Injustice

by Satish Sekar

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A Unique Test Match:
Only one Test Match has ever been forfeited in the history of Test cricket. Four years ago then Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq and his team refused to take to the field in protest at the decision on senior umpire Daryl Hair to penalise Inazamam’s team five runs for ball-tampering. The match was voided and Hair was removed from the approved list of umpires briefly. It was eventually awarded to England again.

Current England captain Andrew Strauss deputised for Andrew Flintoff at the time. It was a wretched end to a Test Match. Strauss regrets that he didn't try talking to Inzamam as it led to headlines for the wrong reasons, but Hair’s involvement came as little surprise. He has a reputation for bias against teams from the Indian sub-continent. His appointment was an appalling blunder by the International Cricket Council, given Pakistani perceptions of his alleged bias.

Last month former Pakistani great Imran Khan delivered the Colin Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lecture. Khan supported the use of technology and this was another example where it could have helped. Hair accused the Pakistanis of cheating – there is no other interpretation – but when? If they tampered with the ball when did it happen? And who was responsible?

Technology could have resolved it by either identifying the cheat or proving the innocence of the Pakistanis. Strange that despite numerous column inches and comments rehashed on the eve of their return to the Oval, this obvious point remains conspicuous by its absence.

Neutral Umpiring:
And it raises another. Khan detailed a bygone era before neutral umpires. “English umpires make mistakes,” Khan said relating what he was told, “but Pakistanis cheat.” The home-town umpiring was embarrassing in that era. It was impossible for Pakistan to beat India in India and the Indians could forget about any prospect of winning in Pakistan.

But home-bias was not confined to that series. Khan recounted a similar experience in the West Indies against the great Viv Richards in the Caribbean. “It was missing leg,” he said, “and it was missing off, but it was hitting middle. Richards was given not out. And in 1979 David Constant stood at the Oval. India had to chase a world record score. They failed by 8 runs after a magnificent 221 from Sunil Gavaskar led the fightback. Yashpal Sharma was unfortunate to be given out to put it mildly and there were others in the final innings.

Khan led the call for neutral umpiring and believes that it has made a difference. He believes that the standard of umpiring is higher and that decisions are fairer now. That said the shambles of the Oval Test of 2006 occurred in an era of neutral umpiring, where the official Pakistani complaints over Hair could and should have been dealt with competently. If their objections had been heeded as they should have been in the interests of fairness and neutral umpiring the whole fiasco would never have occurred.

A Marriage of Necessity

by Satish Sekar

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Prestigious:

“MCC [the Marylebone Cricket Club] doesn’t have the resources to help everyone, but it will do its best to support where it possibly can,” its President, former Sussex captain John Barclay, told us exclusively. The days when MCC ran the game are long gone, but it still retains prestige and influence around the world. Its sponsorship of the recent Spirit of Cricket Series between Pakistan and Australia deservedly won it the admiration of the cricketing world, but there is far more to MCC than this.

Africa’s football World Cup is over and legacy projects abound. Now the under-fire African Cup of Nations spreads development projects throughout the continent. Infrastructures – not just football ones – have to be developed with forward planning and clear plans. Ghana for one benefited immensely from hosting the tournament in 2008. But what about cricket? Does it have a role in developing the oldest inhabited continent?

“I think any initiative that can be financed to achieve an end that brings nations together, giving opportunities – not necessarily producing great cricketers or great footballers – but bringing nations together in greater harmony, so much the better,” Barclay told us. “MCC works very closely with ICC [the International Cricket Council] to try and work through the nations of the world. It’s really ICC’s responsibility now to put that into action, but we are great supporters where we possibly can in Africa or America.”

China�s Olympic Legacy (Part One)

by Zhu Qin Zhe

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Olympic Legacy:
It’s been almost two years since the ‘Greatest Sporting Show on Earth’ left China. The Olympic Games of Beijing ended on August 24th 2008 with a spectacular firework display and a dazzling performance in the closing ceremony. The Olympic flag was passed on to London’s mayor Boris Johnson and the Olympic flame was extinguished. The 16-day journey of sports finally came to its end.

South Africa has a similar experience as its World Cup ended. Football’s World Cup left a legacy in Africa as the Olympics did in China. It was really a fantastic period, during which many unbelievable breakthroughs were made – miraculous performances, especially the Jamaican sensation Usain Bolt who smashed three records and the American Michael Phelps who won eight gold medals.

More importantly China managed to prove itself competent to host one of the two biggest sports events in the world. We topped the medal tally with 100 in total. Stadiums were built to budget and on time – modern facilities developed and provided. Sporting infrastructures were developed; transport system upgraded and much more too. Read More...

China�s Olympic Legacy (Part Two)

by Zhu Qin Zhe

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The Village:
There is more to achieving sustainability, let alone legacy than meets the eye at first glance. What happens to the facilities afterwards. There were plans for the athletes’ quarters in the Olympic Village afterwards. The flats would either be put up for sale or rent, but this has yet to happen.

Other sports facilities – training courses – were going to be made accessible for the local sports lovers. The village was to be put to commercial use, but what about the less celebrated venues – the Peking Science and Technology University Venue – for example?

The temporary seating installed for the Olympics is long gone, but the 5050 capacity makes a cosy atmosphere and environment for future events. The same happened in other venues that hosted less popular events such as wrestling.

Some venues were to be changed into gymnasiums, dance-halls, shops and restaurants. The Stadiums built for the Olympics would definitely not be wasted and nor will the venues. Ever since the disastrous cost of the Montreal Olympics in 1976, the great event has to survive with planning for the future and despite the special circumstances China is no exception.

The Fast Bowlers� Union (Part One)

by Satish Sekar

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A Lost Art:
They are not renowned as shrinking violets – the fearsome Australian fast-bowler Jeff Thomson was never shy in letting a batsman know what he thought of them. And they were renowned for not distinguishing themselves in the field. Former Pakistan captain and all-rounder Imran Khan recently delivered the MCC’s Colin Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lord’s.

He recounted his tale from his youth when he broke into the Pakistan team. He was being smacked around and that included a fielder refusing to stop the ball even if it went within five yards. He decided to approach his captain during the interval and ask him to tell the player to field a bit better. Both were senior players – the miscreant a fast-bowler. Khan was told off. The player had to conserve his energy.

Those days are gone and Khan laments the loss of the art – questioning if there are genuine fast-bowlers now. He cut his teeth against the great West Indies quartets. He believes that there was nothing unfair about the West Indies’ tactics. He’s right, but the restriction on bouncers has ruined the game. It was introduced to combat allegedly boring cricket and slow over-rates. “It didn’t stop them finishing the game in three days,” Khan said.

Eradicating Apartheid from Football? (Part One)

by Aboobaker �Boebie� Williams

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Sporting Icons:

South Africa had a golden opportunity to tackle the legacy of apartheid through football. Did the recent World Cup miss the chance to eradicate it from South African football? Linn Washington Jr. wrote an article ‘The Ugly Underside of World Cup Soccer Mania’ about two forgotten souls in the history of South African football. In Soweto, less than seven miles from the carefully crafted glitter of South Africa’s state-of-the-art Soccer City Stadium, that was shown off to the watch world during the World Cup, two legendary South African football players told fascinating, but often fearsome stories that powerful people want suppressed.

Two days before the World Cup final, which was deservedly won by Spain, ‘Smiley’ Moosa and Nkosi Molala spoke at a community centre in Soweto. They discussed their lives under apartheid and that ugly era’s lingering legacy on South African society. Moosa and Molala both made their marks on South African football in the 1970s.

Under apartheid’s rigid racial categories Moosa carried the classification of Indian while Molala was African – designations barring these talented players from South Africa’s then whites-only national team.

Moosa holds the distinction of being the first non-white ever to play for an all-white soccer club in South Africa. His skills and light skin-colour earned him that short-lived elevation, later snatched back by the restrictions of apartheid. Continuing discriminatory practices caused Moosa to file a lawsuit against horse-racing authorities. He now works as an announcer on that sport.


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