2018 World Cup

Evening Standard

UEFA president on his radical plan for the 2022 tournament in Qatar which could change the calendar for Euro football

Seat at the top table: Michel Platini at Euro 2012. Image courtesy of Evening Standard

Michel Platini once turned down the chance to play in England because there is no winter break on these shores.

Tottenham fans will wince at the revelation that the much decorated midfielder was minded to move to the club in 1982 until he discovered the season here did not stop for Christmas.

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Chatham House debate

Highlights of the Chatham House debate on the role of sport in diplomacy.

Location

Chatham House, London

Participants

Jeremy Browne MP, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Simon Anholt, Independent Policy Advisor

John Steele, Chief Executive Officer, Youth Sport Trust

Chair: Mihir Bose, Writer and Broadcaster

With the upcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the speakers considered:

• Can hosting the Olympics help the host engage new and emerging powers?
• How is a country’s image and ‘brand’ affected by hosting international sporting events or by the success or failure of its sports team?
• Can or should international sport be used to support political change?

Click here to listen to a recording of the full discussion

Short term results too important in the eyes of West Brom boss

PlayUp

Harry Redknapp has such a wind behind his appointment to succeed Fabio Capello, that it seems impossible he will not be the next England manager. However, I was struck by an utterance of Adrian Bevington, head of Club England, during the FA’s press conference following the departure of Fabio Capello. He spoke about building for the future and taking England all the way to 2018 and the World Cup in Russia.

It seems inconceivable that Redknapp, soon to be 65, could last that long. If he is appointed then it must be a short term one that takes England to Euro 2012 and, perhaps, Brazil in two years time. England are about to open the national training centre and, with much talk about getting the infrastructure right for long term success, it is possible that Redknapp’s appointment will be combined with a younger man who is seen as the long term successor. That could well be Stuart Pearce who has taken temporary charge.

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Evening Standard

Fighting back: Michel D'Hooghe. Image courtesy of Evening Standard

Michel D’Hooghe, for all his quarter of a century on the FIFA executive, has never courted publicity, unlike his soundbite-savvy president Sepp Blatter. But now the 66-year-old retired Belgian doctor, who has shaped FIFA’s medical department and is proud of their doping controls, is upset about the slur on his reputation.

We are in Monaco and D’Hooghe, having just emerged from a swim at his hotel, wants to talk about a painting he received from the Russians before his fellow executive members chose them as hosts for the 2018 World Cup.

The implication by a Sunday newspaper was that this was yet another case of vote buying in a world body which seem to produce corruption scandals almost every day. Before the Belgian explains for the first time why the inference is false, he recounts a story of an earlier bid involving Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister in 2000, and Nelson Mandela.

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Insideworldfootball

Like the dog that did not bark in the night in the Sherlock Holmes mystery,The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the most fascinating aspects of the FIFA crisis is that one group has said nothing: the players.

It is astonishing to consider, given all that has been written about the problems of FIFA, that there is very little about what the players think. Their silence has been stunning.

Without the players, there can be no game and the fact that they have had nothing to say about this, the greatest crisis to face the governing body of the world game, shows how sport, for all the talk that it is a business, is not really a business. And why it may prove so difficult to restructure an organisation like FIFA and make sure it is fit for purpose.

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