The Archive

Futsal has become a professional game in some countries and improves the basic skills of players but England is still not interested, writes Jon McLeod

It is the game that produced Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Yet despite it having fostered some of the world’s finest talents with skill, ingenuity and tactical astuteness, England has neglected futsal. From its constricted origins on the streets of São Paulo and Montevideo in the 1930s, this five-a-side version of football has spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and across the rest of Asia. In 1989 FIFA confirmed it as the official small-sided form of the game and, in the internet age, players such as Brazil’s Falcão (aka Alessandro Rosa Vieira) are becoming YouTube regulars, rivalling the most flamboyant exponents of 11-a-side football.

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For years Sepp Blatter has proclaimed how wonderful his organisation is, but a report  has highlighted how unaccountable FIFA are and a court case in Switzerland is hearing allegations that a collapsed marketing firm paid bribes to members of FIFA committees. John Sugden sorts through the murk

Two developments are raising serious questions about the way Sepp Blatter and the organisation he so prominently overlords go about their business. First, in a recently published “accountability” league table comprised of 30 of the world’s most powerful international organisations, it will come as little surprise to those of us who have been investigating world football’s governing body to discover that FIFA are languishing fifth from bottom.

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These are changing times for Match of the Day, with the BBC struggling to hold on to TV rights but launching a new mag for kids with a design so busy you contract motion sickness if you even glance at its cover. Roger Titford compares this and other titles aimed at boys with those of his youth

My eyes hurt. I’ve sustained an industrial injury through reading Shoot, Match! and Match of the Day magazine in less than 90 minutes. It’s the visual equivalent of downing two litres of fizzy blue pop and half a dozen Boost bars. Yes, suddenly and unexpectedly the boys’ football weekly magazine market has burst back into life, with the three titles all competing at the £1.80 mark.

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Declining attendances but still little movement on ticket prices. Bruce Wilkinson discovers why

When the then minister for culture, media and sport negotiated with the EU in 2005-06 to save the Premier League’s right to retain collective TV bargaining, there was supposed to be a payback. Richard Caborn believed that part of the money the clubs would get from the next huge TV deal would be used to reduce ticket prices. A couple of football seasons and sports ministers down the line and we are yet to see much evidence of the Premier League members fulfilling their part of the bargain.

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No other coach has won as many Serie A titles as Giovanni Trapattoni – and that includes England’s coach. Paul Doyle looks at the reaction to the appointment of the Republic of Ireland’s new boss

And so, with the appointment of ­Giovanni Trapattoni to replace Steve Staunton, the Republic of Ireland team prepare to leap from one extreme to the other: from the era of the bungling novice to the reign of the revered veteran.

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