John Duerden covers the growth of the Asian Champions League, currently held by Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma thanks to their manager known as “the Korean Mourinho”
If José Mourinho was still manager of Inter he would be in with a chance of meeting his eastern equivalent at December’s FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi. The Italian club are likely to play the newly crowned champions of Asia, Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, who are led by Shin Tae-Yong, aka “the Korean Mourinho”.
Analysis of John W Henry’s controversial ownership takeover at Liverpool
As the Guardian headline Enter Americans Exit Americans suggests, it is difficult to tell what has changed at Liverpool and what remains the same. After a long and complex legal battle, John W Henry finally took ownership of the club from the outgoing Tom Hicks and George Gillett this month. The takeover seemed to dominate the news for days on end.
Taylor Parkes reads a controversial and much-delayed book on England's key player and tabloid star. And then wishes he hadn't
It’s known on the back pages as a “moment of madness”. Probing the Church of Scientology on behalf of the BBC’s Panorama, John Sweeney – investigative journalist of some repute – is harassed by sharp-suited goons. No surprise to anyone familiar with that organisation, but too much for Sweeney, who blows his top.
Ian Plenderleith bursts the bubble of naive writers and big corporations who claim that football can cure the world's ills
“The beautiful game of football is a religion that unifies the people of the world,” Anand Datla of Indian website the Sports Campus blogged a couple of weeks prior to the World Cup. Once every four years this candied, candle-holding view of football enjoys an airing from all quarters of the game – its fans, writers, players and officials. Oh, and its sponsors too.
The Tragedy of Robert Enke
by Ronald Reng
Yellow Jersey Press, £16.99
Reviewed by Mike Ticher
From WSC 297 November 2011
Considering young men are a group at high risk of suicide, the number of active footballers who have taken their own lives is surprisingly small. Dave Clement, Alan Davies and Justin Fashanu are perhaps the best known in Britain, all in their declining football years. That makes Robert Enke a rarity among rarities: the Hannover 96 goalkeeper was at his peak, in a season that should have led to the World Cup, when he walked in front of a train in November 2009.