Phil Town analyses one of the biggest absentees from the upcoming World Cup

C’est fini blubbed the sports daily A Bola. And so it was. Perennial under-achievers Portugal had once again managed to snatch bitter failure from the jaws of certain success. They had been drawn in what seemed on the face of it an eminently accessible group. Second place at least looked a formality behind Germany but ahead of apparent pushovers Ukraine, Armenia, Albania and Northern Ireland. But a weak start against the first two, dropping five points from a possible six, made qualification an uphill struggle from the outset, and the Portuguese were left depending on third party favours which never materialized.

Read more…

Simon Evans explains why the Champions League is the place to make money

There was a time when English fans dreamed of foreign investors, mystery millionaire Arab businessmen or an American caught by the soccer bug, pumping millions into their club. Today Walker, Hall, Harding, Gibson et al have removed the need for the foreign fantasy. But over here in Europe’s poorer half, there are few local heroes capable of turning a club’s fortunes around and delivering the dream and it is here that the romantic ideal of the outsider with his pot of cash is thriving – and believe it or not it is Englishmen they are dreaming of.

Read more…

Roger Titford examines how ground advertising is becoming a much more visible part of the matchday experience in recent times

The move from commercial innocence to commercial overload has radically affected what the fan sees inside a football ground nowadays. All the clutter that is on display now seriously infringes on the beauty of football as a visual spectacle, especially when looking at one end of the ground from the other.

Read more…

Football is the most popular sport in the world, so Matthew Foreman wonders why sponsors aren't earning enough out of it

It seems remarkable given the multi-millions sloshing around the Premier League, but in advertising circles they’re saying the world of football sponsorship is in crisis. Some of the game’s sponsors are seeing sales rise but others are wasting millions, naively thinking that football’s trendy status will help them sell any product they fancy. So what’s the secret of a good marketing campaign, and is there a downside to the advertising upsurge?

Read more…

Roy Hodgson hasn't always managed foreign clubs. Matt Nation remembers his short stint in charge of Bristol City

On turning to the front bit of your Sunday tabloid, you often find pages five to eight plastered with a ‘seedy past’ exposé. The host of a sofa-based chat-show, for example, is revealed to have once visited a topless bar, dropped a couple of tabs and then thrown a cloakroom attendant through a plate-glass window. The nation smirks behind its collective hand for a couple of days, then loses interest, comes over all moral and decides to let bygones be bygones.

Read more…