By Tony Attwood The British media, alone in most of Europe, have studiously ignored the dramatic series of court cases that have been engulfing world football – probably because they are having difficulty reconciling what we have discovered with all that they have said before in supporting Fifa, and English bids to host the world …
Read More “It’s judgement day (part 1). The result of the first case involving Fifa is due shortly”
By Tony Attwood The Swiss prosecution service has called for prison sentences against the president of beIN and the ex-number 2 of Fifa, Jérôme Valcke. You might recall that Untold, alone among UK publishers has been following these various stories, while the UK media utterly refuses to acknowledge that these cases are even happening. The …
Read More “Swiss prosecutors demand prison for beIN & PSG president and ex-Fifa No 2.”
by Tony Attwood In football reporting, every incident becomes a crisis, because every day needs a story. And yesterday we got two, with the defeats of Liverpool and Manchester United. Such things have happened all the way through football history. There are famous tales told of Arsenal losing 7-0 away to Newcastle in 1925 just …
Read More “Yesterday was great fun, but the scores alone don’t tell us much”
by Tony Attwood A couple of weeks ago Gianni Infantino head of Fifa, a man on trial for corruption in Switzerland, met (not for the first time) with US President Donald Trump. this was when Infantino attended the signing of the agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the White House on …
Read More “Infantino looks sunk; but if he takes down Fifa as well, what replaces it?”
by Tony Attwood The huge Fifa trial currently running is important, I believe, because the FA is a member of Fifa, and pays funds into Fifa. The FA gets its money from the government, which gets its money from the tax payers, like me. Mugs like me who live in England and pay their taxes …
Read More “The Fifa court cases continue, more corruption, more scandals and the FA says…”
By Tony Attwood Qatar was awarded the World cup in 2010. Evidence that has emerged since then suggests very strongly indeed that the award was rigged. One suggestion among many is that al-Jazeera (since then renamed beIN Sports) had signed a TV contract that included a $100m fee to be paid to Fifa if it …
Read More “If all lives matter, if slavery is unacceptable, what is the FA doing about Qatar?”
By Tony Attwood You won’t read about it in the British press, but there is a court case going on involving a villa in Sardinia valued at 5 million euros which was offered by Nasser al-Khelaïfi, the president of PSG to Jérôme Valcke the former secretary of Fifa who was fired on 13 January 2016 …
Read More “The Fifa / PSG / Swiss corruption cases are major news in Europe. But not in the UK. Why?”
by Tony Attwood The key point to note from the latest Uefa rulings on what happens next in relation to football, is first that national leagues will not be banned from European competition if they don’t finish their seasons. That ruling has been overturned. But more importantly from Arsenal’s point of view is that this …
Read More “Following Uefa’s ruling, Arsenal, not Tottenham enter the Europa League”
By Tony Attwood You might not know if from reading the English blogs and newspapers but yes, decisions are being made, and proposals are being put on the table. OK these things have not worked out well in Scotland, where, as we noted last time around, a certain local difficulty has been encountered. But elsewhere …
Read More “Slowly football is changing, but unfortunately not everyone is following the plot”
By Tony Attwood There really does seem to be a feeling among many journalists that a) this season will resume some time soon, b) titles, promotion and relegation will be resolved in the normal way c) next season will happen and all this will seem like a weird interlude of a few weeks. But actually …
Read More “Football ain’t coming back soon, but will Man City come back at all?”
by Tony Attwood According to a report in the Guardian, the president of La Liga has announced that he is certain that Spanish League can be completed by 30 June. It is an issue of course because if it is not completed then the question arises of who gets the places in the next European …
Read More “New football competition sets Spain alight. England will follow.”
By Tony Attwood There are two ways to imagine football as and when the current crisis is all over. One is that everything picks up from where it left off, with the same competitions, the same number of games, the same financial situation, the same funding etc. The other is that this crisis will cause a …
Read More “Arteta warns that players are starting to crack under the pressure. But will anything change?”
By Christophe Jost and Tony Attwood As you may have heard, the UK in general and England in particular has gone its own way in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. And inevitably that has meant a certain amount of uncertainty and worry about what Britain is doing, and what effect it will have. Now that …
Read More “Will footballers actually want to come to England in future?”
By Christophe Jost The virus’s effect on our daily lives is now visible and for the moment all we can do it simply hope people will find ways of avoiding catching it – by taking precautions and helping each other. Regarding the human dramas that have emerged and those yet to play out, football may …
Read More “Football is about to collapse totally. So what happens after that?”
By Tony Attwood Next season is due to start on Saturday 8 August. And according to the standard contracts operated by the Premier League and by the English Football League, players are entitled to “five weeks paid holiday to be taken at a time or times determined by the club – subject to the club’s …
Read More “When will this season end, and when will next season start? It’s not that easy to work out.”
Untold Videos Our videos explore some of these issues in depth – do take a look by Tony Attwood In an earlier piece about Manchester City and FFP, I asked: “How could they have got it so wrong?” Meaning, given the size of Manchester City and their obvious financial clout, how could the club …
Read More “If Man City thought things were this bad, why didn’t they join us in the fight?”
by Tony Attwood Untold Videos Our videos explore some of these issues in depth – do take a look The first rule in business, for many people who run companies, is “treat complaints seriously”. The second rule is “deal with them fully and in a thorough manner”. The reason for this is simple: the …
Read More “How could Manchester City have got it so wrong?”
By Tony Attwood I am shocked, amazed, stunned, bemused. For 12 years we have been plodding away, writing up the notion that the reporting of football is warped by the media to suit their own needs and ends, and those of their powerful allies. Among the many examples found are those suggesting that key stories …
Read More “Few journalists ever criticise the state of football… so why is it starting now?”
By Tony Attwood If you have been reading this site over the years you will recall my little piece on 22 January 2015: Switzerland take a greater interest in Fifa – at last You’ll remember because ever since I have kept on going on and on about it. It reported a change in the law …
Read More “We predicted Fifa scandal in 2015, no one believed us. Now it starts again.”
By Tony Attwood How will Brexit affect the Premier League? See the video When it comes down to it, there are a lot of things wrong with football. There’s the big debate on gambling (and yes I am neither blind to the problems that gambling causes nor to the fact that in order to keep …
Read More “Football: With reporting like this no wonder corruption is rife”
By Tony Attwood Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos: do take a peek at Untold GoonerNews There are still no signs of an agreement as to which footballers will be allowed to play in the UK in the aftermath of Britain leaving the European Union. The initial worry – that the …
Read More “No agreement on transfer regulations as Britain leaves the EU heralds league chaos”
Watch our latest video at: Untold Gooner News: By Tony Attwood “If you have a long nose, you’re offside these days,” said Aleksander Ceferin in a recent interview. It didn’t get much coverage in England (not even the Daily Mirror ran it and it was said in an interview with them), perhaps because historically it …
Read More “VAR is a mess says Uefa chief, which I suspect most of us would agree with”
By Sir Hardly Anyone As you may have noticed, the Africa Cup of Nations has begun. A little later than planned, but it has begun. What it means is that those players involved will not be available at the start of the season since they won’t have had a proper summer rest. In this case …
Read More “What the Africa Cup of Nations means for Premier League players and their clubs”
By Tony Attwood The notion that a lack of English players in the Premier League is bad for England, bad for football, and quite probably bad for Brexit, is standard fare in terms of what England managers say. And it is noticeable that they never give any evidence of why this is the case. It …
Read More “England managers should stop playing into the hands of the extreme right wing”
By Tony Attwood In terms of reporting on football, by and large I doubt that anyone has much expectation that we will ever be better informed about what is actually going on than we are now. Jounalists, bloggers and newspaper editors choose what is and what is not news, and report it in their own …
Read More “How come England are getting better at football all of a sudden”
