Search: ' Bahrain'

Dermot Corrigan looks at how foreigners bearing gifts are being viewed with increasing suspicion by struggling clubs in La Liga

The fantastically wealthy foreign club owner was until recently unknown in Spain, where clubs have generally either been member-owned, dominated by local businessmen or, most commonly, a mixture of both. Then, last June, Qatar’s Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani bought Málaga, promised to sign at least five new players immediately, announced plans for a new 65,000-seat stadium and predicted Champions League glory within a few seasons.

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With uprisings across the Arab world dominating the world press, can change be sparked in football’s most powerful regime?

The popular uprisings in the Middle East are now receiving more coverage than football in the UK press. Even the Arsenal v Barcelona Champions League tie, apparently regarded by some pundits as the most momentous event in the history of the game, couldn’t keep the revolution in Libya off the front pages. So it’s surprising that no one has yet asked the keen Tweeter Jay Bothroyd for his views on the implosion of the Gaddafi regime.

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A World Cup post-mortem full of recrimination, sulking, blame and self-doubt. Sound familiar? Mike Ticher reports

Picking over the World Cup carcass in Australia is still a fairly new experience, but after the excitement of competing in South Africa the questions remain wearyingly familiar. What are our realistic ambitions? How can we reconcile the interests of the national team with those of overseas-based players and a weak domestic league? What country should the coach come from? And how is Harry’s groin?

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Football in New Zealand is being threatened by the demands of the Asian Confederation. Ed Jackson explains

In December, with New Zealand still celebrating World Cup qualification, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced a move which may spell the end of the Wellington Phoenix – the country’s representatives in the Australian-based A-League.

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From Port Vale to Port of Spain, and now Los Angeles. Andy Fraser charts the progress of a Caribbean cult hero born in Stafford

When Chris Birchall signed for LA Galaxy this summer, it marked a new twist in a once-promising career that seemed stalled in the lower leagues. While Birchall had all but disappeared in the UK following his unlikely World Cup heroics for Trinidad & Tobago three years ago, across the Atlantic his performances for his adopted nation lingered longer in the memory. On signing the Stafford-born midfielder, Galaxy’s coach Bruce Arena spoke of his longstanding admiration for the player Trinidadians hail as a national hero and affectionately refer to as “Me Mum”.

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