International Football
FOOTBALL PAYING PRICE FOR LACK OF TRUST
BY RORY SMITH
At first glance, the problem is clear, and the problem is money.
Football, at its rarefied heights, is awash with it: broadcasting deals, sponsorship agreements and corporate entertainment, all of it swilling through leagues and clubs, into the hands of players and executives and agents.
Particularly in the English Premier League, everyone has grown fat on it, and now that the supply has been cut off, nobody wants to go hungry.
Three weeks after the season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, long after Barcelona’s squad agreed to give up 70 per cent of their salaries, long after Juventus players delayed their payment for months, players in the English top flight still have not agreed to defer or forfeit their salaries.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people in Britain were filing for unemployment benefits, as the first wave of the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 saw the shuttering of towns and cities across the world.
Five Premier League clubs have moved to place many of their non-playing staff on furlough: Norwich, Newcastle, Bournemouth, leaders Liverpool and Tottenham.
Others will follow, and they could include some of the richest in the game, teams that are planning to spend millions of pounds in the summer transfer market now taking advantage of government support programmes to pay their employees.
It is not yet a month since the Premier League was business as normal, not yet a month since these teams, many backed by billionaires, played a game. English football’s broadcasters have not yet – as two networks have in France – refused to pay the latest portion of their rights agreements.
Those acting on behalf of the players are surprised, it has been suggested, that the richest league in the world should plead poverty quite so quickly.
From the outside, it is a faintly obscene situation. Football, of course, makes a convenient punching bag at times like this, a portrait in the attic for a society unwilling to confront its inequalities.
Politicians, never slow to issue moral judgment on players, have raged at how out of touch they are, how spoilt, how greedy, how abominably obsessed by money.
But the root of the problem is not the surfeit of money; that is merely a function of the real issue, which is the dearth of trust. The players do not trust that the clubs are not trying to make them shoulder the burden. The clubs do not trust that the players’ agents – and by extension the players – will act honourably, in the common good. And, just as important, the clubs do not trust one another. Hence the Premier League’s edict that, whatever action is taken, it should be across the board.
Even in normal times, these institutions eye one another with suspicion. They believe that their rivals will, in some way, attempt to use any situation to gain a competitive edge. They are not well-suited to collective action. That lack of trust permeates the game.
Fifa has plans to use some of its vast cash reserves as an emergency fund for clubs to dip into in their hour of need. Privately, officials worry that much of that money will simply vanish, lost as it percolates through national associations or is siphoned off by agents.
This is the ultimate consequence of the undiluted neo-liberal thinking that has permeated professional football: The idea that all are out for themselves.
That belief is so ingrained in the sport – especially in England – that it cannot easily be set aside, even now, even at a time like this.
Few clubs, even elite ones, are enormously profitable. (It has been striking how fragile such a lucrative ecosystem can be.) The loss of match-day revenue – much less having to pay back a portion of TV income – will be enough to tip quite a few of them into the red. A few steps down from the game’s aristocrats, the effects will be much more severe.
That means a contraction of the market: Not just for transfer fees, but for player salaries and agents’ commissions, too. Clubs will be able to spend less, and will be inclined to sell more, driving down prices. Players will not command the sort of salaries they might have done. At some clubs, it is possible that players will need to take pay cuts, just to help the team absorb the blow.
But this is a world, remember, where everyone believes everyone else is out for himself, and so they must be, too. Players will be unwilling to suffer if they feel the clubs are passing the buck onto them. Clubs will be tempted to pay beyond their means in order to keep up with their rivals. For football, there is a second crisis, waiting just behind this one.
The thought has occurred that perhaps March 2020 marked the end of football’s golden era, the 25-year period when it was the biggest show on earth, a cultural phenomenon of unparalleled scale, an apparently bottomless pit of money and glamour. There was no trust, no unity, no collective spirit in times of plenty. We may be about to find out what happens in times of want.
New York TIMES
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
Follow the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
Follow the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The league title will be icing on Soname’s birthday cake on Sunday
As major global sporting events beckon, Morocco’s monarch launches the Kenitra-Marrakech High-Speed rail project
Nigeria Premier League attains a crescendo this weekend
- WOMEN'S FOOTBALL1 week ago
Naira rain falls on Nigeria’s Flamingos after a 4-0 defeat of Algeria
- OBITUARY4 days ago
NFF mourns the demise of former FIFA referee, Bosede Momoh
- Nigerian Football2 days ago
Financial rainfall awaits Nigeria’s Flamingos for every goal scored in Algeria
- U-17 AFCON1 week ago
Morocco crowned CAF U-17 AFCON champions after dramatic penalty shootout win over Mali
- U-20 FOOTBALL7 days ago
Nigeria begin CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations title chase with Tunisian clash
- Nigerian Football6 days ago
Remo Stars maintain ‘7Up’ lead over Rivers United
- feature5 days ago
Ghana’s Cardinal, Appiah Turkson, listed as a possible Pope
- Nigerian Football3 days ago
Former WAFU President, Ogufere mourns Christian Chukwu