Football

Photo: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images If there were a World Cup for Being Sanctimonious, Ireland would qualify every time. So, mind you, might Scotland. The aftermath of last night’s match in Paris has been predictably entertaining. One refereeing blunder (though it’s quite pssible the referee was unsighted and so did not, in fact, “bottle” the decision) has provided ample opportunity for cant and humbug. Thus, the Irish demand that the match be replayed. Good idea! Let’s have another go at the 1966 World Cup Final while we’re at it! FAI President John Delaney complains: “There’s a team that should be in the World Cup today and that’s us. We should be

Sure Barack Obama won the Presidential election last year. But he wasn’t the only big winner. Nate Silver, the number-cruncher behind FiveThirtyEight.com was another victor, having predicted the result with uncanny accuracy. Silver is a sabermetrician, which is to say that he began his public life as an analyst for the brilliant Baseball Prospectus years before he brought his statistical nous to politics. Using regression analyses, among other tools, to predict political outcomes is one thing; trying to create a predictive rankings system for international football is quite another. By “quite another” I mean vastly more difficult. Nonetheless, Silver has attempted this. So, as a rival to FIFA’s rankings (which

Argentina’s coach Diego Maradona celebrates his team’s goal against Uruguay during their World Cup qualifier in Montevideo. Argentina won 1-0 and qualified in fourth position for the World Cup. Photo: Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images. Well, they did it. In the end Argentina didn’t need to win in Montevideo yesterday since Chile’s victory against Ecuador ensured that, whatever happened by the River Plate, Argentina would still have a chance of qualifying for the World Cup next summer. Happily the Selección will be in South Africa. Maradon’a reign as Argentina’s manager has, of course, done more than just flirt with Calamity; it proposed to her and for some time Calamity seemed inclined to

Scott Brown #6 of Scotland celebrates after scoring the opening goal, with team mates Kenny Miller and Darren Fletcher during the  2010 World Cup Qualifier match beteween Scotland and Macedonia at Hampden Park. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images. Oh dear. Scotland won a football match today. Ordinarily this is occasion for huzzahs and trebles all round. But, really, we all know that it’s simply a matter of Delaying the Disappointment. To recap: for 50 minutes or so Scotland were dire. Against Macedonia. At home. Now all that’s needed is victory over Holland on Wednesday, results elsewhere to fall into place and the trifling matter of a play-off against a better

Roddy Forsyth deserves our congratulations for revealing this: One of the unforeseen consequences of Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi’s incarceration in Greenock Prison was that, by his own account, in whiling away the hours by watching live football on the now-defunct Setanta network he became a Rangers supporter. No surprise that a man convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity in British history would forsake his local team – Morton – to support one of the Gruesome Twosome*. He and Rangers deserve one another. This, mind you, could run and run. Just as Celtic and Rangers supporters have co-opted other conflicts for their own ends (Huns** Rangers waving Israeli flags; Tims** Celtic sporting

Left Back in the Changing Room and More than Mind Games have already commented on Simon Kuper’s* article in the FT that argues that football managers have no real impact on their teams’ fortunes. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a say too! Kuper writes: The obsession with football managers is misguided. Hardly any of them make any difference to results. The institution of manager is something of a con-trick. Ferguson and Ancelotti are best understood as marketing tools. The fact is that players’ salaries alone almost entirely determine football results. Stefan Szymanski, economics professor at Cass Business School, studied the spending of 40 English clubs between 1978 and

Sir Bobby Robson’s death yesterday left one wondering just what has happened to English football management. Or, to be more precise, what has happened to English football managers? Of the top ten sides in last year’s Premiership just two – Fulham and Tottenham – were led by Englishmen and in the last 25 years Howard Kendall (Everton) and Howard Wilkinson (Leeds) have been the only Englishmen to helm Championship winning sides. What happened? True, Alex Ferguson has had a lot to do with this, while Arsene Wenger’s residency at Arsenal has prevented another of the top jobs from coming open. Equally, Chelsea’s desire for superstars with a europe-wide reputation doubtless

Like any sensible person, I shall be supporting Barcelona this evening, even if that does also require one to endorse the insufferable Thierry Henry. Nonetheless, give me wee Lionel Messi over Christiano Ronaldo any and every day. Alas, I fear the worst and suspect that Manchester United will prevail and that they may do so more comfortably than might be expected. Not that I have too much against United, even if Sir Alex Ferguson did once, inexplicably, scoff at my suggestion* that he could only further secure “legend” status by returning to Scotland and guiding Heart of Midlothian to their first league championship since 1960. Anyway, consider this an open

Jim Henley had a great post a while back naming names and shaming those people who blog too much. As Jim rightly put it, these days you need to be a professional blog reader just to keep up. On the other hand, there are those people who don’t blog nearly enough. My friend Kerry Howley is one. Blimpish is another. And so is James Hamilton, whose More than Mind Games has been in a kind of extended winter break for some time. Happily, however, there are signs of the green shoots of bloggy recovery. Happily James is back to remind us how grateful we should be that Barcelona did the

So, Scotland host Iceland tonight in the latest “crucial” World Cup qualifier. The loser will have almost no chance of making it to South Africa so tonight’s tussle is effectively an elimination contest. Just as importantly, the losers will assume the official, undisputed title of Worlds’ Worst Bankers. The Scotsman’s David Maddox runs through the line-ups here. Given the importance of the occasion it was reasuring to see the Scotland skipper prepare for the match in traditional style  – by getting bladdered in what the Daily Record called a “marathon booze session” after the team returned to their Loch Lomond HQ following Saturday’s 3-0 drubbing by the Dutch. Anyway, consider

Lord knows, we all blunder from time to time. Still, this is pretty impressive: “Each year, in my last Economic View before Christmas, I try to shed some light on economic events of the previous 12 months by comparing what has actually happened with expectations published here in early January. This year, even more than usual, reading back through January’s predictions has been a shock. Almost all have turned out to be wrong”. Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 18/12/06.“My last article of every year looks back on the predictions I made in early January to shed some light on the economic and financial events of the previous 12 months. This tends

Small guest-posting at The Plank on taxpayers’ football. We have Newcastle United and Northern Rock, the Americans get AIG and Manchester United. Sums up the “Special Relationship”, you might say… [Link corrected. Thanks NDM]

More evidence emerges that England selected the right man when they asked Fabio Capello to rescue their football team. From the Times today: On another issue – Wayne Rooney’s smoking habit – Capello was curiously indifferent, a stance that brought out sweat beads on the foreheads of his FA employers, fearful of their manager unwittingly being cast as the spokesman for a generation of English butt-heads. Capello later returned to clarify his position and the moral guardians were headed off at the pass… Capello’s lack of interest in making a judgment revealed that the difference between football people in Europe and Britain is not merely a matter of tactics or

There’s no need for the Scottish football league to kick-off on Saturday. Cancel it. The season can’t* get better or more more amusing than this. *OK, it can. It would be too perfect, even too much to hope for, if Celtic were also turfed out of europe in their first match. Ah, sweet, sweet schadenfreude how I love you so…