SOMETHING strange is happening this season, a curious set of events very much in keeping with the peculiar world we are watching behind our surgical masks. The Champions League last 16 has a familiar look, as it always does, but among the usual suspects there is not a single league leader. Early season tables are […]
IF THERE is was one thing remarkable about Diego Maradona, it was the achievement of living to his 60th birthday. Sadly, he barely got beyond that landmark. There was something very inevitable about his premature demise, his lifestyle catching up on him to consign him to legend status. On November 25, 2020, football, Argentina and the […]
THE SUBJECT of a European Super League has been mooted on a number of occasions down the decades. After world war two, football became something of an emollient, a universal language that could unite nations and put aside old differences. To some extent, the creation of pan-European bodies, industrially, culturally or socially, was a way […]
JOSEP Maria Bartomeu left some scorched earth behind at Barcelona, a strategic move by the former president that does him little credit. Indeed, as the celebrations among Barca fans circled the globe, Bartomeu’s departing salvo, confirming Barca had agreed to join a European Super League, was a little like a sulking child taking his ball […]
IF THERE is one thing remarkable about Diego Maradona, it is the achievement of living to his 60th birthday. There was a time when you thought he was destined for an ugly and premature end, either caught up in some underworld violence or falling to a bout of self abuse. Although the recent World Cup, where […]
BARCELONA have announced their preliminary figures for the 2019-20 season and it’s no great surprise – they made a post-tax loss of € 97 million. This only adds to a somewhat troubled period for the club in which they almost lost the talismanic Lionel Messi and washed some of their dirty linen in public. The […]
IN the late summer of 1968, Russian troops rolled into Czechoslovakia in response to the so-called “Prague Spring” that took place between January and August of that year. The Cold War was raging and the sight of tanks in the picturesque capital city raised fears that the world was on the brink of a global […]
THE 90th La Liga season is about to kick-off with a sense of relief that the competition’s biggest unique selling point has decided to stay with Barcelona. La Liga without Lionel Messi is unthinkable, although the time will come soon when the Barca number 10 departs Spain and takes up a fresh challenge. La Liga’s […]
INCREASINGLY, it looks as though Lionel Messi won’t be moving to Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain or any other interested club for the time being. Messi is just too expensive to be signed by anyone. If La Liga’s support of Barcelona around the release terms of Messi’s contract remains, then a cool € 700 million will […]
