Feelfootball blog

I am today launching a new initiative. It will involve public protest, lobbying, perhaps a march on the House of Commons and a delegation to the United Nations. In order to further its aims, maybe someone will have to chain themselves to the railings outside Number 10 Downing Street just...More

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On his first day in the office, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Chelsea's new manager, revealed that he already had a firm grasp of the arcane mathematics of the English game. Asked what he thought was the future for Didier Drogba at the club, he said he was "100, no 200 per...More

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Now it is over, now the trophy is safely ensconced in Madrid, now that newspaper columnists are telling us that victory at the European Championships will lead to a new, united Spain (you can be sure the Basques are dancing in the streets at that idea) what can we learn...More

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In the end the best team won it. No under-achievement this time. No bottling a major tournament. No self-destructive internal politics. Spain had the best collection of players by far at the Euros, played the best football and deserved to win it. No-one else came close. In fact if they...More

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Well, what a game that was. Any fears we might have had that the adventurous spirit at Euro 2008 would be dissipated the closer we got to the final were blown away in Basle. Germany and Turkey produced a semi-final of such endeavour, such excitement, such sustained drama it will...More

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There was much relief round our way when Spain refused to succumb to the omens. The coverage on the BBC of their quarter final against Italy made much of the fact that the Spaniards had lost three penalty shoot-outs - in the World Cup of 1986, Euro '96 and the...More

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There has been something moral at the heart of Euro 2008. It has been almost like a biblical parable. Those teams who have endeavoured, who have strived, who have attacked and entertained, have prospered. The Dutch, the Russians, the Turks, the Portuguese, the Croats: for them boldness has been rewarded....More

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There was much mockery (some of it possibly emanating from this blog) before a ball was kicked in Euro 2008 about the television schedules. Without a home nation in contention, the chortling went, how amusing will it be for executives to have to shift ratings-bankers like soaps and light entertainment...More

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It is a quirk of fate that had the good folk who run the FA been a little sharper on their feet, a little shrewder in their manoeuvrings, a little more aware of the niceties of international football recruitment, Luiz Felipe Scolari would not have been revealed as the new...More

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It was Alan Hansen who was the first to come out and say it. And with it the man whose analysis of football is second to none demonstrated that even he could get things wrong some times. Two days into Euro 2008, after watching the first four games of the tournament,...More

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