Friday, 17.02.2012
After a long break continental football - Champions League and European Football League - has returned to Europe. Congratulations everybody! However, club news can't force out national teams news from information field yet.
Victims of crisis
Greek national football team can fall outside of Euro 2012! The reason is the law on the state control over financial activity of football clubs accepted by the Greek parliament yesterday, on February, 16th. Deputies consider such control a logical part of measures on overcoming the deep economic crisis by the country. The problem of Greeks is that the international football organizations call it absolutely otherwise – government intervention in football affairs.
In the history of football the dictatorship countries often practiced such things, and the result was “bubble” successes of the teams, loyal to the authorities or to the concrete manager. Therefore non-interference is not the recommendation (as separate mass-media write about it), but the requirement of football officials! And the breakers of this important UEFA and FIFA principle are punished very strictly – without long trials and exceptions all in one: association, clubs and teams are ejected from the international football life. Therefore exception of Greek national team even from the final tournament of European championship is quite a realistic outcome.
Fortunately for Greeks, the parliament decision hasn't come into effect yet (it is not confirmed by the government), and the local football federation has alarmed in time about potential danger.
Interestingly, that in case of disqualification of Greeks for Euro 2012 most probably their place can be occupied by…Georgia! The team which has appeared on the third place after Greek and Croatia national teams in elimination group. Though it may happen that the UEFA will find necessary logical grounding intentionally for participation of more eminent and strong national team.
10 million for Redknapp
While some countries are not easily parted from their money spent by their football clubs, the others are going to pay ten millions per one coach.
This surely refers to the desire of England’s football association to gain for a post of a national team coach the current manager of “Tottenham” Harry Redknapp. The latter “dallies” less and less – recognizing that he is one of the main contenders, and not hiding the interest to change his job. And David Bernstein, the FA chairmen, already tells without disguise that his organization is ready to give 10 million pounds of “compensation” to “Tottenham” and subsequently to pay to the coach the salary not lower, than Fabio Kapello used to get, who was considered rather an expensive specialist.
The complexity is that neither FA, no Redknapp himself talk about what to do with English national team now – the matter in question is just Euro 2012 and the World championship of 2014. What in that case is to be done with productive preparation of Englishmen for the nearest tournament, football functionaries hold back.
In this connection Alan Shearer, the ex-forward of “Three Lions” national team, has already predicted a failure in June to his compatriots: “It is possible to play good during European championship even without serious preparation. But to appoint a new coach a month or two before the beginning of competitions is too much!”
Listen, is Redknapp indeed so good?!
Italy waits for Cassano
Jan Huntelaar, the striker of Dutch national team, recently has noticed that the “dark blue” have remarkably increased the quality of their game in last matches. The truth is that Italians had what to “increase” – in the qualifying tournament they looked colorless enough. However, many draw quite good prospects for Italians on the future tournament: they are (as earlier the team of Huntelaar) even more often named among those who can “butt” with the main favorites of Euro 2012 tournament – Germans and Spaniards.
Meantime the Italians wait for an outcome of the unpleasant story which has happened to Antonio Cassano, the striker of national team and “Milan”. It is to be recalled that in November the player withstood heart surgery. Therefore his participation in European championship matches will remain uncertain for a rather long time. The Italians’ coach Cesare Prandelli has declared that he will wait for recovery of the team’s key player until the very last day of the term for submitting the applications for Euro 2012: «Antonio has contributed greatly to successful performance of Italian national team during the qualifying tournament, and we shouldn't forget about it».
