A NUMBER of top managers have questioned the logic behind continuing top level football as a new, more lethal, variant of the covid virus sweeps Britain and is now impacting the game. The recent FA Cup ties involving Aston Villa and Derby County featured well below full strength line-ups due to players being infected with […]
WITH much of Europe still in the mire when it comes to Covid-19 and the task of mass vaccination likely to stretch across the year, the time may have come to assess whether the European Championship needs to take place or not in 2021. UEFA may yet have to concede that hosting a pan-European competition […]
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 […]
SUDDENLY, the FA Trophy is important once more. With non-league action suspended, FA Trophy games have been allowed to continue, although goodness knows if the competition will be allowed to continue to its conclusion. With last season’s final between Harrogate and Concord Rangers still outstanding, this year’s FA Trophy is in full flow. Hitchin Town […]
ON FRIDAY November 27, Cairo hosts the 2020 African Champions League final between two of the Egyptian capital’s major clubs, Zamalek and Al-Ahly. Global interest in the competition has risen over the past few years, but the intense passion that usually defines the final may be missing owing to the ban on fans, due to […]
LOSING 6-0 would normally prompt drastic action and kneejerk reactions in football boardrooms. In the football world of today, directors and owners have a particularly low threshold of tolerance. Hence, managers are often sent to the gallows prematurely even though change sometimes brings no improvement. It is fair to say that Joachim Löw, Germany’s coach […]
FOOTBALL continues to be divided over the timing of fans’ return to the stadiums. From a business perspective, no paying spectators is a disaster for most clubs, but the game still suffers from the ingrained perception that it is not a very important segment of society. Equally, there is a lack of widespread acknowledgement that […]
FEYENOORD recently revealed the pandemic has been comparatively kind to them, partly due to their own prudent processes but also because the club’s fans and partners waived any compensation claims for an unfinished season in 2019-20. Feyenoord made a net loss of around € 6.7 million for the campaign, but their turnover increased from € […]
STADIUM sponsorship is an area of the football market that has yet to fulfil its full potential. While some clubs, such as Arsenal, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Juventus have stadiums that bear the name of a sponsor, some countries have been reluctant to embark on a relationship that, while lucrative, could tamper with the […]
