Ghost Dog

Il FFP - come direbbe il rag.Fantozzi - è una cagata pazzesca

Fidatevi della rosea, sempre!

1982 The first game in the 1982 World Cup has remained firm in my memory. It was the first time I had played in a competition like that and you can imagine how I was feeling. I was finally lining up to sing the Brazilian national anthem for the whole world to hear. And what’s more, I was also team captain. Not a lot of value is placed on that institution here. It is said that the captain is only there to call heads or tails. Outside Brazil people recognise the true importance of the job. The Brazil side of 1982 ran a great risk of self-destructing. We had four athletes — considered the four best players in the country — who represented different states. Each of them came from very different cultures, which meant there was plenty of room for a rivalry that could set off their egos. As captain of the team I detected the danger and, as one those at the centre of the controversy over who was the best, I made it clear who my favourite was. It was a move that neutralised the public debate to a certain degree. I put Zico on a pedestal above the others, including myself. Although the side was not as mobile as Holland in 1974, it featured players like Falcão, Zico, Cerezo, Leandro, Junior and others, who had enormous skill and whose rotation and swapping of positions in midfield confounded our opponents. The combination of individual talents and an excellent collective ethic gave the 1982 side a rare structural strength. The team’s defeat on that fateful day in Barcelona against an Italian side who would go on to crown themselves champions was a crushing blow to the Brazilian style of play we represented so well. Brazilian football would never be the same again. From that moment on the emphasis changed to focus on results. The business side of the game was growing frighteningly quickly and money goes to the winners, even if they do put on a poor show. Even though it is often subconscious, we now try and copy European pragmatism. Our game has become more rational and tactically more rigid. With the best Brazilian players signing for European clubs at an earlier age than ever before they find it easier to pick up the habits of a society that is more mature and settled; in other words they play more like Europeans, with a style that puts a high regard on brute force. Today, football players run on average two and a half times more in the course of a game than they did in 1970, so they cover a lot more ground. In doing so, football has been transformed: there is more physical contact, more fouls, more interruptions and less skill. And skill is what we miss most, because although we still marvel at the best players, they are more limited than those of 30 years ago. Teams’ defensive strategies now far outweigh their meagre attacking concerns. A goal in football today, if I can make a comparison with the circus, is like a trapeze artist failing to catch the swinging bar. They may have trained so much that they hardly ever make mistakes but when they do make a mess of it a goal is scored. That is what happens in football today. Goals come from mistakes or accidents. Early Difficulties When I was a kid we lived in a big house that unfortunately did not have a yard or a garden where we — my brothers and I — could satisfy this fascination we had for football. The solution we came up with was to use the garage for our young confrontations. The problem was that the garage door was made up of rectangular panes of glass that offered little resistance even to shots from our skinny legs. For a long time, our parents used to replace any broken panes straight away but it was inevitable they would get smashed again and there came a time when they gave up and the front of the house was protected not with glass but with interlocking ironwork. Later on, after we developed our basic skills, we spread our wings and fled the family nest to the streets around our house. But as the city grew, playing football on the street was a dangerous pastime and we decided we had to face up to the Roman Catholic priests who lived in a church nearby. Right in front of the church’s main entrance was an extraordinary playing area almost the size of an indoor football pitch. For the first few months, the priests tried to chase us off so we wouldn’t keep coming back, but when we insisted on turning up every afternoon they opted for more drastic measures: they planted dozens of concrete blocks all over the area and surrounded it with a wall that was almost a metre high. Even with those obstacles we did not give up playing football. The only real difficulty was trying to avoid those new traps or, worse, inadvertently kicking them; something that would cause cuts and bruises on our toes and get us a row or a slap from our mothers. In trying to keep our eye on the ball at the same time as having to worry about what was scattered on the ground, we developed a greater vision. When we didn’t have a ball, or something that could pass as one, we opened an avocado and used the stone. It wasn’t very resistant and in a few minutes it split or fell apart. I can’t imagine that European children have had similar experiences. But, in general, human beings only develop their senses and their potential when they are obliged to. Someone who is blind can hear much, much better than someone who has perfect sight. I firmly believe that the more uneven the surface we play on when we are developing our skills — even if it is extremely tiring and dangerous playing under such conditions — the more technical answers we find. I also believe that I became such an exceptionally gifted player because of my absurd lack of muscle mass and because I didn’t have time for the training sessions that would have built me up. In that respect, I lost many years, the most important ones in the life of any athlete. But I gained a lot in skill. Racism and the Importance of Blacks While European football is an expression of scientific method and collective sport in which personal actions are mechanised and subordinate to the overall team ethic, in Brazil it is individual brilliance that stands out. And the negro really does have, in my view, a prevailing role not only in the racial question but also in the way the Brazilian plays: informally, irreverently, creatively, joyously and even, at times, irresponsibly. I believe that even in the more unusual art forms, the negro has this in him. In dance, music, sports in general — and football in particular. Who has never compared the movements in football with ballroom dancing, or with the Carioca malandro and his loose and lazy swinging and swaying? It was with those characteristics that we modified the English style of play. We added some mischief and creativity, natural characteristics of Brazilians in general and blacks in particular. But even having established themselves as important new protagonists they were still subject to bitter discrimination and the majority of the country’s sports clubs kept their doors closed to blacks for a long time. One of the clubs I went to always fielded good amateur teams. However, the players were only allowed to use the facilities set aside for football. There was no using the pool, the restaurant or the function rooms. Those areas were only for use by full members. It seemed to me to be clear that they were establishing a distance between the rich and the poor, which unfortunately in our country is a synonym for Afro-descendants. One time, when we lost a Brazilian league game because of a supposed mistake by our keeper Jairo, the club president come out with the totally racist statement that such a mistake happened only because he was black. We reacted immediately. We stood united against him and made public our opposition to his ridiculous opinion. In the next game I had to opportunity to show how I felt. When I scored my first goal of the game from a long range shot I ran the length of the pitch to celebrate with Jairo and all my team-mates ran after me to join in.

The world protests but Fifa won’t listen THE SUNDAY TIMES 08-06-2014 In the seven days since this newspaper revealed — as part of a huge cache of emails and other documents — the illegal payments, favours and backhanders that lay behind Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup, several things have happened. Few people around the world — the story went global — can now be unaware that there was something rotten at the heart of Fifa’s 2010 decision to award the tournament to Qatar. There is a sense of deep unease among the people inside and outside football about the corrupt financial wheeling and dealing that helped this energy-rich nation, lacking a football tradition or a suitable climate, to secure the World Cup. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, put it well when he said: “The Sunday Times has brought to light startling evidence that the decision to make Qatar the host for the World Cup in 2022 may have been corrupted. If these allegations are verified, there will be an overwhelming case for the bidding process to be reopened immediately. But few people will have much confidence in the investigation being conducted by Fifa unless it takes full account of the evidence uncovered by The Sunday Times.” This goes to the heart of it. One predictable response amid the outcry over our revelations has been Qatar’s insistence that the activities of Mohamed bin Hammam, the Qatari former vicepresident of Fifa who used slush funds to build support for Qatar’s bid, had nothing to do with them. Yet today we reveal that the links between the official bid team and Mr Bin Hammam were close, frequent and undeniable. The other predictable response has been from Fifa. Sepp Blatter, its president, who was in charge of this corrupt network of dodgy dealing, even if he was not personally involved, has been reminding everybody of a March statement from Fifa’s executive committee in which it said the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was “not in question”. Although the committee will wait until this week for the corruption report it had commissioned on the Qatar bid from Michael Garcia, an American lawyer, the omens are not good. Mr Garcia, having cut his investigation short, will not be considering the Sunday Times emails and other evidence. He has not interviewed Mr Bin Hammam. This is not good enough from Fifa, particularly in the light of today’s additional revelations. Qatar, one of the world’s leading gas producers, has the ability to use the energy weapon. Today we reveal close links between Thailand’s football representatives, its energy officials and the Qatar authorities. Worawi Makudi, the president of Thailand’s football association, and his adviser were involved in a meeting, facilitated by Mr Bin Hamman, about a gas deal with Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar’s energy and industry minister. We also reveal, after last week’s report of vote-influencing payments to African football officials, a similar pattern in Asia. Bank transfer slips and emails reveal that Mr Bin Hammam made payments totalling $1.7m (£1m) from secret slush funds to senior football officials across Asia. Fifa seems to think this scandal will go away. Yet the outrage is growing. The vote for the 2022 World Cup needs to be rerun as soon as Fifa’s executive committee is capable of doing it in a fair and transparent way. Mr Blatter has further demonstrated his unsuitability for the role of Fifa president. If ever an organisation needed change from the top, this is it.

Una novità rosea: le classifiche vengono stravolte pro Internazionale. Per la Gds i campioni del mondo in nazionale juventini sono 23, quelli tristi nerazzurri 21. Per una rivista seria come The Blizzard (ed altri organi d'informazione) gli juventini sono 24 e quelli tristi 20. Come ventunesimo nerazzurro hanno quasi sicuramente conteggiato Fabio Grosso (Mondiale 2006; Palermo). Chi avranno spuntato dalla lista juventina?

Posto che Beha è violaceo (con simpatie pure interiste) e dunque anti-juventino nell'animo, qui in effetti lascia molto perplessi per la caduta di stile. Sarà rimasto malissimo per il taglio di Peppe Rossi, non si spiegano altrimenti le castronerie... Che Bonucci sia sempre un rincalzo nella eventuale difesa a 4 (persino per A.Conte) è notorio. Se poi gli si preferisce un altro nell'altrettanto eventuale difesa azzurra a 3 dev'essere proprio per emergenza e non certamente per pressioni dell'imbelle dirigenza juventina. Per quanto riguarda il codice etico prandelliano poi, lui stesso l'ha sempre ridicolizzato ed ora lo ri-valuta per s*****are Chiellini e Prandelli... no dai! E' rimasto davvero deluso per l'esclusione di Rossi (e la Juve non c'entra assolutamente nulla con gli attaccanti di questa nazionale). P.s. Tre anni trionfali hanno rinnovato i più beceri luoghi comuni del tifosotto medio. Qui Beha scrive proprio da tifosotto e non da giornalista accreditato: febbre rara in lui spec.nell'ultimo decennio.

Riuscirà il ns. AA ad entrare nella stanza dei bottoni? Non dico in consiglio federale al posto del simpaticone Pulvirenti, ma almeno al posto di Cellino, Guaraldi (e/o Ghirardi) in Lega. Vediamo se fa solo finta di combattere.

L'etica della FIGC rivista e corretta da Guido Rossi fa danni anche tra i pulcini

Son tutte "brave" persone... ricercate P.s. Aggiungerei lo stimatissimo Sabatini ds romanista, un vero fenomeno: ha ricevuto una proposta di radiazione dai ranghi sportivi ad un'età in cui Moggi giocava ancora coi trenini però non conta a fini giornalistici, in senso negativo/spregiativo.

E' ancora poco quel che è capitato al Parma. Si fregiano di titoli vinti in maniera sporchissima grazie all'ill.mo Cav.Tanzi ed ora lamentano l'applicazione delle norme tributarie.