FOOTBALL’s polarisation over the past decade has prompted league administrators and business people to discuss solutions that can prevent their clubs from being marginalised. The game has become corporatized, meaning money talks louder than ever before in football. Size really does matter, both for a club and a league. The top five leagues in Europe […]
AMSTERDAM was a “cool” place in 1970. It was one of the last cities to dispense with hippy culture, the hair was long, the clothes bright and the mood upbeat. It was liberated and easy and the Dutch were among the most mellow folk in Europe. It was no coincidence that Amsterdam was where John […]
MORE THAN 50 years ago, Feyenoord pulled off one of the great shocks of European club football. While everyone remembers Ajax and Cruyff, Rinus Michels and the European hat-trick, Feyenoord’s 1970 European Cup triumph has been somewhat overlooked by many. Feyenoord were the first Dutch team to win the competition, although Ajax reached the final […]
AMSTERDAM was a “cool” place in 1970. It was one of the last cities to dispense with hippy culture, the hair was long, the clothes bright and the mood upbeat. It was liberated and easy and the Dutch were among the most mellow folk in Europe. It was no coincidence that Amsterdam was where John […]
A YEAR ago, Ajax were the darlings of Europe as they disposed of Juventus and Real Madrid and looked set to reach the UEFA Champions League final. In 2020, Ajax have left the European stage already having lost to Getafe in the Europa League, and they are being seriously challenged at the top of the […]
AJAX charmed Europe in 2018-19 season and players like Donny van de Beek, Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs de Ligt all won rave reviews for their performances in the UEFA Champions League. But the Dutch side’s success was also owed to the presence of Hakim Ziyech, a 26 year-old Morocco international whose virtuosity and creative […]
THIS IS a club that has called on the methods of Billy Beane of Moneyball fame. A club that has a reputation for bringing on home-grown talent. They’re also dynamic data wizards and come from a town best known for cheese. AZ Alkmaar have a playing budget that amounts to around 25% of the mighty […]
AJAX’s renaissance last season was always going to be short-lived as Europe’s big clubs were waiting in the wings for their chance to pounce on the best players. Those hung up on presentism expressed their surprise that a team from the Netherlands could compete with the likes of Real Madrid and Juventus, even though the […]
WHEN England crashed out of the 1974 World Cup in the qualifying tournament, considered a major shock at the time, Poland, their conquerors, were seen as also-rans, a relative minnow that had audaciously knocked-out the 1966 champions. Yet if the British media had been as informed as they thought they were, it would have realised […]
