Racism and football
The 2011-12 English Premier League (EPL) football season will forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons. While the football on display has hardly lit up the televisions this season, other incidents on and off the pitch have revived the long-standing controversy of racism among players and supporters. The embarrassing developments first occurred in a league match in October 2011 between rivals Manchester United and Liverpool, in which the latter’s Luis Suarez allegedly racially abused the former’s Patrice Evra, a coloured player. Suarez later admitted to calling him a “negro”. He was subsequently banned for eight matches by the Football ...
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English Premier League: Handshakes and hypocrisy
If the English Premier League can be defined by one contest, it is the one between the two most illustrious and successful clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool FC. That is one fixture (in fact two, if you count home and away fixtures) every season that never fails to entertain you for reasons varying from sheer brilliance to absolute controversial. After the racism controversy surrounding Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez where Suarez was found guilty not based on any “evidence” but on a “balance of probabilities” (which I believe has to be the flimsiest way of deciding on one’s guilt especially in a case as ...
Read Full PostBattles at the Premier League
This mid-week in Premier League saw some interesting battles being fought at the top half of the table as well as between the relegation bound teams. It was also one of the rare occasions when the match day’s late kick-off (7:45 pm) nearly collided with the Transfer Day deadline that ended at 11:00 pm. All this made for an exciting day. Let’s start from football itself from the top half. Manchester City, fuelled by the Arab Oil-gazillions, started the week right at the top of the table and determined to tighten it grasp on the No.1 spot after being dumped out of the ...
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The inadequacies of ‘Financial Fair Play’
There’s an ongoing debate over the financial muscle of ‘big clubs’ and the amount of money they throw on player transfers – extraordinary amounts of money are seen being splashed out in the transfer window even with the existence of what we’ve come to know as an ‘economic recession’. While clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester City have bored followers by their excessive transfer spending, the recent excursion into the window by Chelsea has raised quite a few eyebrows among the general public and UEFA officials. UEFA’s answer to all these problems is the controversial ‘Financial Fair Play’ legislation. ...
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Chelsea and Liverpool: Will the winter of discontent continue?
For more than just a few teams in top flight football across Europe this winter has been one to forget. Previous performances by clubs that were full of confidence and potential seem to have been completely disregarded as bookies across the world collectively scratch their heads with respect to the question of who will win the Premiership this year. There are however a few very realistic assumptions that one can make about the fall from grace for Chelsea and Liverpool thus far. Chelsea As an AC Milan man myself, I can attest to the quality of Ancelloti’s coaching. He is most ...
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