footballspectator

The much awaited appointment of England’s new manager finally took place last week when Steve McClaren, very much second choice, was appointed following Luis Felipe Scolari’s last minute change of heart .

Felipao was just the type of manager England needed. He is bold, authoritative and not afraid to take risks and drop players with big reputations when they are not performing. He transformed a team, that had been struggling in South American qualifying into World Champions in 2002. At Euro 2004, he did not hesitate to drop Rui Costa or substitute Luis Figo despite public outcry. The result? Rui Costa’s dramatic goal against England and Figo’s superlative performance in the semi-final against Holland.

So why did he say no? Could it have anything to do with the managerial vacancy at Real Madrid? Felipao has always stated that his ambition is to manage one of Europe’s top clubs. His managerial style might also be exactly what is called for to whip Real’s underperforming team of pre-madonnas into shape.

The media frenzy surrounding Theo Walcott’s inclusion in the England squad is understandable. Sven Goran Eriksson admits to never having seen him play and on relying on Arsene Wenger’s recommendation in selecting him.
Brazil’s World Cup squad at USA 1994 also included a 17 year old phenomenon - Ronaldo, although he did not play.

There are two major differences between Ronaldo’s selection then and Walcott’s selection now. First Ronaldo had already experienced top level action, having scored 58 goals in 60 games for Cruzeiro of Belo Horizonte before being selected. Walcott scored 5 goals in 12 starts this season for Championship strugglers Southampton before joining Arsenal for an intial £5 million, where to date he has only played for the reserves. Second, Brazil had a fully fit partnership of Romario and Bebeto leading the line with plenty of goals in back-up forwards Viola, Paulo Sergio and Muller. England’s two first choice forwards Rooney and Owen are either injured or recovering and Peter Crouch is hardly prolific. With such strength in depth, Brazil could afford to bring a young player with bags of potential along for the experience. It’s doubtful whether England can.

If Wenger believes that Walcott is ready to handle arguably the most pressurised competition in football and carry the hopes of a nation on his young shoulders, then why hasn’t he thought him ready to handle the Premiership or the Champions League? If he is ready, may be he should be given a run out in Wednesday’s final against Barcelona?

As for Sven, he has little to lose in selecting Walcott. If the gamble pays off, he will be hailed as a genius. If it does not, he is leaving his job after the World Cup and so will not have to face the stinging criticism of the notoriously fickle English tabloids.

Wednesday night’s UEFA Cup final saw Sevilla trounce this year’s comeback kings, Middlesbrough. Last year’s final saw two other unfancied teams, CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon reach the final. While the success of newcomers is always welcome, the UEFA Cup has very much become a second rate competition; few would rate any of these teams among Europe’s elite. Indeed until recently many of the teams competing in the tournament could only dream of doing so.

The demise of the competition can be traced back to the disbanding of the Cup Winners’ Cup and the expansion of the Champions League. What was once a thrilling competition in the 80s has now lost its shine. Rudi Assauer, commercial manager of Schalke 04, refected this in April when he said that finishing third in the Bundesliga and qualifying for the Champions League was more important than winning the UEFA Cup (Schalke were still in it at that stage) as the CL is much more lucrative.

The introduction of group stages to the UEFA Cup has done little to help viewing figures. The problem still lies in the perceived quality of the teams taking part. So apart from scrapping the competition what other options are there to make the UEFA Cup more popular?
One option would be to reduce the number of teams taking part in the Champions League, so that say only first and second from the major leagues, and first placed teams from the so-called minor leagues could qualify. Teams from the major leagues finishing third and say third in the minor leagues would then qualify for the UEFA Cup.

This would help both competitions and narrow the popularity and financial gap between them. It would increase competition by reducing the number of uncompetitive matches which would drive audience appeal and therefore sponsorship appeal. As an extra carrot, the winner of the UEFA Cup could be guaranteed a place in the following year’s Champions League. This already happens in European basketball’s equivalent of the UEFA Cup, the ULEB Cup, where the winner gets direct entry into the following season’s Champions League equivalent, the Euroleague.

Prosecutors in Turin and Parma are investigating several players, including Buffon, Iuliano, Chimenti and Sevilla’s UEFA-Cup winner Maresca, in an illegal betting ring.

Buffon, who is currently Juventus’ and Italy’s first choice goalkeeper, is believed to have gambled up to 600,000 € in one year on Serie A matches.

If found guilty, he is likely to be banned and could miss the World Cup. The law is quite clear in regard to this: the FIGC prohibits registered players from gambling on matches in their own championship, and those found guilty of breaking this rule face bans between three months and three years.

Paradoxically, while the latest events are sending shockwaves throughout Italy, many are hopeful that all this may have a similar effect to the 1982 WC. Fourteen years ago, with only months to go before the start of the Azzurri’s campaign, a match-fixing scandal involving several high profile players, including top-scorer Paolo Rossi, rocked the Italian football world. With stars such as Beccalossi and Pruzzo banned, a low morale and even lower expectations, after a slow start Italy went on to win the cup.

The scope of the investigations into alleged match-fixing is extending beyond Juventus to also include Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, as well as a number of players and officials.

La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that some 41 individuals are now formally under investigation by prosecutors in Naples, including referees De Santis (one of the 23 officials at the WC), Rodomonti, Racalbuto and various football federation FIGC officials. Up to 29 (!) legs (of 38) from the 2004-05 season may have been affected by fixed matches.

As increasingly more evidence comes to light and new revelations are made, pressure on Juventus will continue mounting. What was unthinkable until recently may slowly start becoming a real possibility: if found guilty, the Old Lady (and possibly other teams involved too) may ultimately face relegation and will have to start next season from the Serie B, just like AC Milan and Lazio did at the end of 1979-80, when they were found guilty of fixing matches.

Following days of increasingly embarassing press revelations over tapped telephone conversations involving General Manager Luciano Moggi discussing refereeing appointments with various referees and league officials, the entire board of Juventus F.C. has resigned today.

The Juventus website does not go into any detail:

The Board of Directors has returned its mandate to the shareholders until the appointment of the new Board and to this end has announced the first call of the shareholders’ ordinary general meeting for 29th June 2006 and the second call for 30th June 2006 with the following agenda: “Appointment of the directors after defining their number and remuneration”.

In recent years, Juventus has been surrounded by controversy on numerous occasions, not last when it was accused (and later found guilty) of administering the banned drug EPO to its own players, in the mid-90s.

While the club had managed to come clean of similar accusations in the past, today’s resignation is a historic event in Italian Football that people will talk about for a long time. It is hard to imagine that this will remain an isolated incident. It is the first time that such a potere forte of Italian football risks implosion: today’s resignation is likely to have a lasting effect on the football world in Italy that will see other illustrious names and big clubs implicated.