WWW.FIFA.COM/THEWEEKLY

ENGLISH EDITIONISSUE 21, 14 MARCH 2014

SEPP BL AT TER PUT OUT THE

FLARES

WORLD CUP TROPHY ON TOUR

IN SWEDEN

DIDIER DESCHAMPS TOUGHEST

MISSION YET24 YEARSIS LONG

  ENOUGH

Manuel Neuer

Germany

C O N T E N T S

North and Central America 35 members www.concacaf.com

South America 10 members www.conmebol.com 6

The 24-year wait There are 17 weeks to go until the World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro. But who would win if the tournament took place right now?

Brazilians think the answer is obvious, but the reality could easily be different. Germany were outstanding in qualifying and have arguably the best team in their history. Are they ready for their first World Cup triumph in 24 years?

14 Prague spring The Czech championship trophy may well be on its way back to the capital for the first time in three years. Sparta Prague have been top of the Gambrinus Liga since September 2013 and are undefeated in their last 21 matches.

16 “Let’s be realistic” Didier Deschamps and France only made it to the World Cup via the play-offs, and “Les Bleus” duly go to Brazil as an outside bet. “We’re not among the favourites,” former midfielder Deschamps declared in our interview.

18 Blatter: Put out the flares! Week after week incidents involving pyrotechnic devices at football stadiums provoke heated debates. FIFA President Blatter lays down the law and insists fireworks have no place in football.

24 The Trophy on tour

Former greats such as Diego Maradona, Franz Beckenbauer and Zinedine Zidane famously laid hands on the original. The World Cup Trophy is currently on a global tour. We caught up with it in Sweden.

29 FIFA Ranking: Belgium back in the top ten Belgium have returned to the top ten at the expense of the Nether-lands. Uruguay also move up a spot and have overtaken Switzer-land but there is no change at the top where Spain lead Germany and Argentina.

33 Brazil: How it all began The seed that yielded the world’s most passionate footballing nation was sown by a European; a railway worker with British roots. Charles W. Miller was the father of football in Brazil.

36 “Bin i Radi, bin i König” Serbian goalkeeper Petar Radenkovic was one of the first overseas players in the German Bundesliga. A single he released in 1965 took the German charts by storm and achieved sales in excess of 400,000.

37 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Just when the Dutch forward’s promising career seemed to have stalled, his decision to drop a division paid off. Schalke striker Huntelaar told us how he took one step back, and then two forwards.

Charles William Miller The father of Brazilian football

Didier Deschamps The big interview

Thierry Henry Artificial turf off-limits

U-17 Women’s World Cup15 March to 4 April 2014, Costa Rica

Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup28 to 29 May 2014, Zurich

Cov

er: M

ike

Hew

itt /

FIF

A v

ia G

etty

Imag

es

Inha

lt: I

mag

o, G

etty

Imag

es, A

FP, S

ven

Sim

on, R

ex F

eatu

res /

Duk

as

2 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

T H I S W E E K I N T H E W O R L D O F F O O T B A L L

Europe 53 members www.uefa.com

Africa 54 members www.cafonline.com

Asia 46 members www.the-afc.com

Oceania 11 members www.oceaniafootball.com

Sami Khedira German World Cup hope

World Cup Trophy 4.9 kilos of gold enroute across the cold North

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Step back to success

24 years are enough Manuel Neuer has now gone 49 games unbeaten with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. He wants to write his name in international football history with Germany this July, and bring the World Cup Trophy back to Germany for the first time since 1990.

Petar Radenkovic Goalkeeper and pop star

FIFA World Cup12 June to 13 July 2014, Brazil

U-20 Women’s World Cup5 to 24 August 2014, Canada

FIFA Club World Cup10 to 20 December 2014, Morocco

Youth Olympic Football Tournament15 to 27 August 2014, Nanjing

Cov

er: M

ike

Hew

itt /

FIF

A v

ia G

etty

Imag

es

Inha

lt: I

mag

o, G

etty

Imag

es, A

FP, S

ven

Sim

on, R

ex F

eatu

res /

Duk

as

3T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Tomorrow brings usall closerTo new people, new ideas and new states of mind. Here’s to reaching all the places we’ve never been.

Fly Emirates to 6 continents.

emirates.com

U N C O V E R E D

Thomas Renggli

“King football rules the world”, sang the German national team in 1974, before climbing all the way to the top of the World Cup charts. The words of the chorus (“Ha! Ho! Heja heja he! Ha! Ho!”) should have been

given a red card, but the sentiments in the song may be due for a revival. Germany currently rule the world of football. The Bundesliga is the most watchable league on the planet, the most recent Champions League final was an all-Ger-man lockout, and the national team is setting new standards in the international game. Long gone are the clichéd virtues of physical strength, endurance and clever tournament tactics, to be replaced by invention, creative attacking and inspiration. Ottmar Hitzfeld, the German-born Switzerland supremo and one of the most successful coaches in footballing his-tory, thinks his home country are a shoe-in for next summer’s World Cup: “I regard Germany as favourites. I think the current team is stronger than Brazil. This is a fantastic gener-

ation, and Germany have an outstanding team. I’d even go so far as to say there’s never been a Germany team with more quality than the cur-rent one, with its young, very well trained, technically and tactically outstanding players.”

Hitzfeld’s words are hardly open to misin-terpretation then, but in Brazil they beg to dif-fer. After triumphing in the Confederations Cup and with the bonus of home-field advantage, A Seleção believe they are in pole position. From Manaus to Porto Alegre, public opinion is unan-imous: Brazil will hoist the World Cup trophy for the sixth time on 13 July 2014 at the Maracana.

Home advantage, you say? In the 83-year history of the World Cup, hosting the tourna-ment has more often proved a hindrance than a help, albeit not in the first two editions. Host nations Uruguay in 1930 and Italy four years lat-er certainly benefited from being on home soil, if only for geographical reasons. For the inaugu-ral World Cup in Uruguay, the only European teams who could be persuaded to participate were Yugoslavia, Romania, Belgium and France. The voyage to the New World by steamer took three weeks.

Come the second edition and some of the favourites were still conspicuous only by their absence: holders Uruguay took tit-for-tat re-venge on the “ignorant” Europeans for their refusal to travel four years earlier, and England were embroiled in a prolonged spat with FIFA.

Since the Second World War, the host nation has only prevailed on four occasions - England in 1966, the Germans in 1974 with their irresisti-ble football and highly resistible singing, Argen-tina in 1978 and France in 1998. However, home advantage may well be a factor again next sum-mer. The American continent has proved an im-penetrable fortress for European nations so far. The closest any of them came was Italy, who lost a shootout to Brazil in the Final at USA 1994. Twenty years later, it is conceivable that this omission might be rectified, not least due to Ger-many’s current footballing strength. And the three-time winners will not exactly be hampered by the logistics as they mount their latest assault on the coveted world crown. The journey from Berlin no longer takes three weeks, but a mere 12 hours and 40 minutes. No more “Ha! Ho! Heja heja he! Ha! Ho!” this time around ... Å

The perennial favourite

The German chorus in 1974 Bernd Franke, Gerd Muller, Uli Hoeness (back row, left to right), Jupp Heynckes, Josef Kapellmann, Franz Beckenbauer (front row, left to right).

dpa

/ SZ-

Phot

o

5T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Penalty hero. Bodo Illgner paved the way for Germany’s 1990 semi-final penalty triumph against England by saving Stuart Pearce’s attempt. Illgner is the third most-capped German goalkeeper in World Cup tournaments (12 caps in 1990 and 1994), behind Sepp Maier (18 caps in 1970, 1974 and 1978) and Harald “Toni” Schumacher (14 caps in 1982 and 1986), but ahead of others such as Oliver Kahn (8 caps in 2002 and 2006).

G E R M A N Y

199

0:

Bo

do

Ill

gn

er

G E R M A N Y

German Football Association (DFB)Founded28 January 1900Joined FIFA1904Men’s team honoursWorld champions: 1954, 1974, 1990 European champions: 1972, 1980, 1996Women’s team honoursWorld champions: 2003, 2007 European champions: 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013 (record)Homepagewww.dfb.de

In 17 weeks, the eyes of the world will be on Rio de Janeiro as the next world champions are crowned at the Maracanã - and history could be rewritten in the process. No European team has ever lifted the trophy on the American continent, but Germany are ready to be the first.

ADVANTAGE GERMANY

7T H E F I FA W E E K LY

G E R M A N Y

Thomas Renggli

Imagine the scene in the Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, on 13 July 2014, shortly be-fore 6pm local time. Brazil captain Thia-go Silva hoists the World Cup trophy into the night sky. A Seleção are crowned world champions for the sixth time. Confetti falls from the sky, the champagne flows and it’s carnival time in mid-summer. “It’s everything I dreamed of every day,” the overjoyed Silva tells reporters. That Brazilian hap-py ending is just a dream, of course, but

the organisers’ script for the World Cup next summer is non-negotiable: Brazil must claim the trophy and finally erase the bitter memory of the 2-1 defeat to Uruguay in the 1950 final on home soil. The word “Maracanazo”, roughly translating as “the Maracana shock”, is part of the vocabulary, and the defeat remains a bur-den on the Brazilian national soul even now. The association’s emergency response at the time was to change the colour of the national shirt, consigning the traditional white to the dustbin of history.

The facts support GermanySince then, Brazil have won five World Cup ti-tles in canary yellow and blue, adding a fourth Confederations Cup to their collection last summer to go with previous triumphs in 1997, 2005 and 2009. However, victory in the World Cup dress rehearsal can be interpreted as a bad omen, at least according to Franz Beckenbauer, the Delphic oracle of German football: “The winners of this tournament have never gone on to win the World Cup. If we are to believe the record books, it’s not looking good for Brazil.” Beckenbauer, himself a two-time World Cup winner, as a player in 1974 and as coach in 1990, laughed as he delivered these words but added a more serious prediction on top: “Only Germa-ny and Spain can run Brazil close for the tro-phy.”

The Kaiser’s opinion is backed up by the facts. Spain have won the last three major tour-naments on the world and European stage, while Germany are level with Brazil on seven appearances in the World Cup final. Die Mann-schaft have recently patented a new brand of high-octane, attacking football. What Germans call the “summer fairytale” of 2006, and which they feel still lacks its final chapter, saw the hosts throw off the cliché of muscular, robotic, results-oriented football once and for all. Bare-ly any other team attacks with such inventive flair and readiness to take risks. Germany’s 36 goals are a European qualifying best. Only 34-goal Holland and England’s tally of 31 come

close – and in the case of England, it is largely due to the somewhat feeble resistance put up by the San Marino defence. No less than 13 of England’s goals came against the landlocked microstate’s keen but limited amateurs.

Memories of 1974If we add current trends in club football to Beckenbauer’s opinions, the Germans must be regarded as favourites. The Bundesliga supplies Europe’s most dominant team in Champions League winners Bayern Munich. Pep Guardio-la’s team have broken every record, remain un-beaten in 24 championship matches and, by beating Wolfsburg 6-1 last weekend, notched their eight win of the season in which they scored four goals or more. Borussia Dortmund, Bayern’s primary challengers and opponents in last year’s Champions League final, may only be battling for the virtual title of second place in the Bundesliga, but their spectacular attack-ing style of play is keeping them in the Cham-pions League race.

The national team is directly profiting from this position of strength in German club foot-ball: the Bayern starting line-up against Wolfs-burg included five Germans while Borussia Dortmund fielded seven of Jogi Low’s men in last weekend’s game against Freiburg. The two-club split brings back memories of the all-con-quering 1974 West Germany team. At the time, the outstanding Bundesliga clubs, Bayern and Borussia Mönchengladbach, provided the bulk of the squad and the foundations for the hosts’ second global triumph. England coach Roy Hodgson can only dream of such a scenario: 67 per cent of the players in the Premier League are not eligible to play for England. The Three Lions line up lacks quality and depth in almost every area – and in goal, the man once hailed as the new Gordon Banks, Joe Hart, has be-come more of a liability than a solid last line of defence.

The Sami Khedira factorWhile England seek to tackle their notorious fear of penalties by enlisting the help of a sports psychologist, Germany coach Joachim Low is “battling” with a different kind of prob-lem. To prevent complacency and create com-petition for the 23 places in the World Cup

During the “summer fairytale” of 2006, Germany

consigned the cliché of physical, results-oriented

football to the dustbin of sporting history once

and for all.

8 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

The Cat from Anzing: Josef “Sepp” Maier was part of West Germany's 1974 World Cup winning side and made 95 appearances for the national team - a record for a goal-keeper. He was a formidable presence in the German goal during the 1970s and one of Bayern Munich's key figures during that time.

G E R M A N Y

1974

: Se

pp

Me

ier

G E R M A N Y

squad, Low expanded the number of selection candidates ahead of the friendly against Chile nine days ago. The squad included debutants Shkodran Mustafi of Sampdoria, Freiburg’s Matthias Ginter, Hamburg striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga and Augsburg’s Andre Hahn, and omitted established stars such as Marco Reus, Mats Hummels, Julian Draxler or Ben-edikt Howedes, all rediscovering their rhythm after injuries. Despite this, the performance against Chile only served to boost the pros-pects of those that were absent, and whistles could even be heard as the match in Stuttgart ended in a narrow 1-0 win for the home side. This situation does not fit with the “Bereit wie nie” (“Prepared like never before”) World Cup campaign launched by the DFB only recently. In addition, the one selection issue that is of most concern across Germany is not yet clear – namely the fitness of Sami Khedira, who formed such an effective partnership with Bas-tian Schweinsteiger in central midfield in 2010. The Real Madrid midfield general’s recovery from a crucial ligament injury sustained in No-vember is “right on track”, but it remains to be seen whether he will return in time for the World Cup. Either way, Low is leaving the door open for Khedira and pledged to include him in the squad even if he is only “80 or 90 per cent fit”.

Reality trumps theoryNevertheless, Germany’s coach is determined to keep the pressure on his team: “In theory, we’ve got a top team, but the reality is some-what different right now. And at the World Cup, reality trumps theory.” However, his predeces-sor and opponent in the group stages, US coach Jurgen Klinsmann, sees things completely dif-ferently: “I think the time is right for a German win. Now they’ve got to prove it by winning the title.” Bayern Munich’s Brazilian defender Dante agrees: “Germany are the big favourites for the title, together with us, Spain and Argen-tina. I’m hoping Brazil will meet Germany in the Final.”

For those who believe in statistics, the signs are not positive for Die Mannschaft. No European team has ever prevailed when the tournament has taken place on the American continent. The only nations to win the trophy away from their home continent are Brazil (1958 in Sweden and 2002 in Korea/Japan) and Spain (2010 in South Africa). As for the Span-ish, coach Vicente del Bosque’s team have looked a shade more vulnerable in qualifying and less invincible than in recent years, but they remain head and shoulders above the rest in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Furthermore, in the EURO 2012 final against

Italy, the Spanish delivered a blistering riposte to detractors of the Tiki-Taka style and proved their competitive spirit remains as deadly as ever: their 4-0 victory was as convincing a show of strength as ever seen in a major final.

That leaves just the “Messi factor” and the question as to whether the dominant player of the age can gild his outstanding talents with a triumph on the international stage. Argentina became the second South American team to qualify for the finals, and their psychological advantage compared to the hosts should not be underestimated: the pressure is fairly and squarely on Brazilian shoulders. By contrast, Argentina arrive in the coveted role of chal-lengers. The same goes for Uruguay. In the 2010 finals, the two-time world champions made it as far as the semis before narrowly losing out in a turbulent meeting with the Dutch. Now they have a chance to spoil Brazil’s party for the second time and trigger a repeat of the Ma-racanazo.

Bookmakers backing GermanyA glance at the odds currently being offered by the world’s bookmakers is relatively unambig-uous: they unanimously declare Brazil as fa-vourites at odds of 4-1, followed by Germany and Argentina on 6-1 and Spain on 7-1. Italy, the Netherlands (both at 21-1), France (23-1) and England (26-1) rate only as long shots. And of course, in the opinion of England strike legend Gary Lineker, the course and outcome of the World Cup are already clear. Now a noted TV pundit, the former player once coined a famous phrase no Englishman wants to hear: “Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end the Germans win.” Å

“I think the time is right for a German win. Now

they've got to prove it by winning the title.”

Jurgen Klinsmann, USA coach

10 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

The goalkeeper at the heart Germany's World Cup triumph: In 1954, Anton "Toni" Turek was the defensive rock in the Miracle of Bern. At 25, he was also the oldest player at the tourna-ment when Germany played the final versus Hungary.

G E R M A N Y

195

4: To

ni Tu

rek

game onor game over

all in or nothingadidas.com/worldcup

© 2

014

adid

as A

G. a

dida

s, th

e 3-

Bar

s lo

go a

nd th

e 3-

Stri

pes

mar

k ar

e re

gist

ered

trad

emar

ks o

f the

adi

das

Gro

up.

+132000_Ad_FIFA_WEEKLY_Samba_collection_SS14_Boot_combined_215x289.indd 1 03.02.14 16:55

O N T H E I N S I D ET A L K I N G P O I N T S

to himself and pursues a football philosophy akin to that of Marcelo Bielsa. An assistant to Roberto Sensini during his spell in charge at Colon in 2012-13, Osella moved to Chile to broaden his coaching experience before returning to the club.

Adopting a low-key approach and showing no little belief, which is appropriate given that Colon hail from the city of Santa Fe (“fe” meaning “faith”), Osella has put together a combative side that makes up for what it might lack in inspiration with plenty of perspiration.

Their last win, a 1-0 victory at Rosario Central was proof of that. Though their hosts carved out most of the chances and dominated the game, Los Sabaleros converted their first opportunity through Carlos Luque and defended their lead tenaciously, making only one other attempt on goal, deep into injury time. Two consecutive draws have since checked their momentum, but they remain outright leaders ahead of their next game, away to defending champions San Lorenzo de Almagro, a testing assignment that will reveal much about the longevity of the Colon phenomenon.

A r g e n t i n i a n L e a g u e

Osella rekindles the faith

Jordi Punti is a novelist and the author of many football features in the Spanish media.

How long will happiness reign in the house of the poor men?

That is the question fans in Argentina are asking themselves at the moment, the poor men being Colon de Santa Fe, who unexpect-edly lead the Torneo Final after seven rounds of matches and are content for now to take each game as it comes. Defeated in the open-ing match of the year, the surprise frontrun-ners won their next four and have drawn their last two, collecting more points in the process than they managed in the whole of the Torneo Inicial.

As one sportswriter commented, “Colon’s players are making up for all the running they failed to do last season.” Though still not safe from relegation, which is decided by a points average calculated over the previous three seasons, they have every chance of avoiding such a fate should they continue in their current vein. If nothing else, they have given themselves the right to dream.

Colon’s residence at the top of the table is a remarkable achievement given the crisis in which the club has lately been immersed. After going seven months unpaid last year, the players could take no more and decided not to turn up for the league match with Atletico Rafaela in November. In response to their dramatic protest, the Argentinian Football Association awarded the game to their opponents and docked Colon points, consigning them to the bottom of the table.

While the club’s economic situation has improved little since then, with various debts awaiting repayment, some equilibrium has at least been regained elsewhere. The arrival of former player Eduardo Vega as chairman following the resignation of his predecessor, which was triggered by the Rafaela fiasco, has ushered in a wave of optimism, with the club shifting 10,000 season tickets in the last few weeks alone.

The man responsible for breathing new life into the ailing club on the pitch is their new coach Diego Osella, who likes to keep himself

What makes Colon’s start to the campaign all the more remarkable is that they sold many of their experienced players during the close season to raise much-needed funds, replacing them for free with a clutch of unattached youngsters. The star acts in the revamped squad are Carlos Soto, Ezequiel Videla and Lucas Landa, though Osella has sought to fashion a balanced side capable of passing the ball, creating chances and, first and foremost, sticking together as a unit, a quality that has served them well on and off the pitch.

“Order is the key,” he said when asked about the secret of his team’s success. “What we’ve done is put our fast players in areas of the pitch where they can win the one-on-ones. That way we can hurt opposing sides.” Osella’s method seems to be working just fine at the moment. The Torneo Final has forever been a season of change in Argentinian football, a time for some coaches and players to try their luck in Europe and for others to return with points to prove. While their rivals try to plot the right course for the second half of the championship, Colon are one step ahead, having already identified the essential need to run, pass, defend and, above all else, ride the blows thrown at them. Å

Looking up Despite the crisis at Colon de Santa Fe, confidence is steadily returning for Marcelo Meli (right) and Co.Mar

tin

Zaba

la /

Phot

osho

t

13T H E F I FA W E E K LY

G a m b r i n u s L i g a

Triumph among the tower blocks

Sven Goldmann is a football expert at Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin.

The football year has only just begun in the Czech Republic,

but the domestic season is already all but over. Although this is bad news for those who crave excitement, it is music to the ears of fans from Prague, particularly those of the city’s historic club Sparta. The championship trophy now seems certain to make a long-awaited return to the capital after spending three years in the Bohemian provinces, after Sparta’s 1-0 win over Viktoria Plzen in the 19th match of the Gambrinus Liga season on 9 March. Tomas Prikryl scored the only goal of the game after just eight minutes, and Plzen responded by pressing hard for an equaliser – perhaps a little too hard. Shortly after the break, Tomas Horava was dismissed for a second yellow card offence, with Michael Duris following him down the tunnel in the closing minutes of the match. The nine remaining Plzen players stood little chance against the league leaders.

With just 11 games left to play, Sparta now sit eight points ahead of defending champions

“ The championship trophy is set to make a long-awaited return to the capital af ter spending three years in the Bohemian provinces.”

Plzen, with 2012 champions Slovan Liberec an enormous 19 points adrift of the lead. There is no sign of the Reds entering the kind of lengthy slump necessary to unseat them at this stage. The team have topped the table since mid-September and are now undefeated in 21 games this season. It is an impressive tally by any league’s standards, particularly when you consider that Europe’s biggest teams have only been occasional visitors to the Prague’s Lower Eastside in recent years. It is here that the Czech Republic’s most successful side ply their trade, far away from the capital’s tourist attractions, beyond the Cechuv Most and the elegant Art Nouveau bridges separating the Old Town from the working-class Letna district. AC Sparta’s stadium sits wedged between grey 1960s apartment blocks and the railway line to-wards Dresden. Star footballer Tomas Rosicky grew up here before playing for his local team in the Champions League against Barcelona

and Porto at the start of the century. Sparta faced Europe’s most formidable sides for another year, but played their most recent Champions League match back in 2005.

Since then, Viktoria Plzen have emerged as the dominant force in Czech football, win-ning the domestic championship in 2011 and 2013 and twice finishing third in the Champi-ons League group stages – an extraordinary achievement for a club forced to wait exactly 100 years to win its first league title. In December, the architect of this success, Pavel Vrba, left the club he had coached since 2008 to oversee the Czech national team. His successor, Dusan Uhrin, once again secured the club a place in the Europa League by finishing third in the Champions League group stages. Plzen overcame Shaktar Donetsk in the last 32 and now face a last-16 encounter with Olympique Lyon. Å

Prague regains its footballing pride The derby between Bohemians (in green) and Sparta gets underway.

Mic

hal C

izek

/ AFP

Ann

e-M

arie

Sor

vin

/ USA

Tod

ay /

Reue

rs

14 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

M a j o r L e a g u e S o c c e r

How bad are the artificial turf

pitches?David Winner is a London-based author and journalist. His books on football include ’Brilliant Orange’ and ’Dennis Bergkamp: Stillness and Speed’.

Non-natural surfaces caused distortions in the first round of matches when the new MLS season kicked off last Saturday. And condi-tions under foot provoked an argument between two of the league’s leading coaches before their teams had even met.

Four out of the 19 sides in the MLS play in stadiums with “fake turf”. Three are in the Pacific North West: Seattle Sounders, Vancou-ver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers. The other is at New England Revolution’s Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts. Critics say the pitches – each one a different mixture of rubber, plastic, sand and other materials – absorb shock less well than grass and lead to injuries such as muscle strains, sprained ankles, friction burns and damaged knees. On Saturday the particularly controversial field at Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium – likened by some players to playing on concrete – helped decide the fixture with New York Red Bulls before a ball was kicked.

The Red Bulls finished last season with the league’s best record, winning the Supporters’ Shield. But on Saturday, fear of turf-induced injury forced them to play without their most influential player, captain Thierry Henry, the 36 year-old former Arsenal, Barcelona and France forward, and key defender, the 32 year-old Colombian Jamison Olave.

Fully supported by their coach Mike Petke, neither man is willing to risk long-term injury by playing on artificial pitches (though Henry played twice on Portland’s pitch in his first seasons). Without the two stars on Saturday, the Red Bulls collapsed to a 4-1 defeat. That some stadiums are too dangerous for the league’s best-ever player seems extraordinary enough. But the turf causes problems for many others too.

Earlier on Saturday, the season’s marquee curtain-raiser between Seattle Sounders and

Sporting Kansas City (last season’s MLS Cup winners) turned into a drab affair in pouring rain with both teams struggling to control the ball and judge passes on the grey-green field. Until the Sounders grabbed a late winner their all-singing and drumming fans were pretty much the only source of enter-tainment.

Artificial pitches do have advantages, of course. They can bring commercial benefits, be used almost continually (unlike fragile natural surfaces) and have proved invaluable as training and community pitches and in countries where grass does not grow easily. Nevertheless the non-grass pitches are widely regarded as deeply problematic. Bruce Arena, the LA Galaxy coach, has described the MLS artificial pitches “disasters” with even Port-land only “somewhat acceptable”. David Beckham, during his time with LA Galaxy was a strong critic, though he did play on them. International sides and prestigious visiting club teams like Manchester United routinely refuse to play on artificial surfaces, insisting on grass overlays.

Plans to play next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada on synthetic turf have prompted petitions and protests with US star striker Abby Wambach even alleging “gender dis-crimination”. As she put it: “would they ever let the men’s World Cup be played on an artificial surface?” Part of the MLS problem, says US soccer journalist Grant Wahl, is that

the teams in Seattle, Vancouver and New England share their stadiums with American [gridiron] football teams which require a harder playing surface and owners are unwill-ing to pay for separate, purpose-built soccer stadia. Wahl has canvassed the views of dozens of America’s soccer players and seen their turf-damaged bodies. The pitches have few admirers. The nearest to a compliment he has heard from those who play on them regularly is: “I don’t have a problem with them”. Wahl observes: “No matter how much some owners would like us to think fake-turf fields are OK, the clear view of the players is simple: They’re not.” To emphasis the point, this week Toronto’s Ryan Nelsen warned that he may follow the Red Bulls example in the second round of matches and protect his stars by refusing to play them on Seattle’s Centu-ryLink Field. “It’s not just an artificial field,” he said. “It’s a bad artificial field”.

In response, instead of robustly defending his own pitch, Sigi Schmid, the Seattle coach, said there were no good artificial turf fields in the league: they were all equally bad. Even Port-land’s purpose-built pitch is affected by heavy use. He said: “I think we all prefer to play on natural grass, but playing on bad natural grass … is dangerous as well.” He added: “A good field is a good field. A grass field is ideal – a good grass field. A good turf field is not more dangerous than a bad grass field necessarily.” Å

Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other – Vancouver’s Mattocks (left) tussles with Sanchez of New York.

Mic

hal C

izek

/ AFP

Ann

e-M

arie

Sor

vin

/ USA

Tod

ay /

Reue

rs

15T H E F I FA W E E K LY

NameDidier DeschampsDate and place of birth15 October 1968, Bayonne (FR)Playing positionDefensive midfieldClubsNantes, Marseille, Bordeaux, Juventus, Chelsea, Valencia (as player) Monaco, Juventus, Marseille, France (as coach)National team career103 appearances, four goals 1998 World Cup winner European champion in 2000

Sabr

ina

Lam

blet

in

16 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

T H E I N T E R V I E W

Didier Deschamps, is French football in crisis?Didier Deschamps: No, I wouldn’t say so.

We’re not among the favourites for the World Cup, but I don’t think we can call it a crisis.

But 14 years have passed since French football’s glory days.

People often forget that France made the World Cup Final in 2006. There will always be good times and bad times, it’s the same for every nation. Just look at Spain. With the exception of the 1964 European Champi-onship Spain had never won a major trophy. They explored every possible reason for this persistent failure, but suddenly Spain’s time came in 2008. Eras come and go.

With the backing of wealthy investors Paris St Germain and AS Monaco are dominating the domestic league. Is that helping French football?

French football is back in the interna-tional spotlight thanks to these two clubs, which is obviously very nice. But many of our players are still with overseas clubs, perhaps too many.

It was a close run thing but France scraped into the World Cup finals. Has battling through the play-offs instilled new momen-tum?

The play-offs don’t give you any kind of edge in terms of the World Cup. But beating Ukraine in the return leg and the very fact of qualifying did us good...

...because it sent France to the World Cup.Not just that. The return, the 3–0

victory at Stade de France was fantastic.

Didier Deschamps was a member of a French golden generation and is a World Cup and European Championship winner. But he faces arguably his toughest challenge yet as boss of the Les Bleus, because the nation yearns

for a return to trophy-laden days.

“It’s always the same. France expects too much”

We hadn’t seen anything like it in France for years. None of us will forget the eupho-ria and the atmosphere in a hurry. And the evening in Paris was extremely valuable for our younger players who experienced it for the first time. We’ll all benefit from that.

Can France win it?We have to be realistic. For the time

being we should all be happy about making the World Cup in the first place. We’re not among the big favourites for the trophy. The best teams like Brazil or Argentina are much more likely candidates.

Would the French nation agree? It’s always the same. France expects

too much before every tournament. We’d hardly booked our place in Brazil before the same old questions came up again, whether and how France can finish as world champions. We need to approach the World Cup project with the utmost care. Our first match against Honduras will be crucially important. You gain a lot from a good start.

The recent 2–0 friendly victory over the Netherlands had people talking.

The Dutch were without some key players. They were badly affected by the absence of Arjen Robben in particular. Louis Van Gaal’s team aren’t the same without him. But I was pleased we turned in a good performance. The crowd turned up with high expectations, largely based on the Ukraine match, and we didn’t disappoint. We have the momentum on our side and that’s important.

You’re only 45 but you boast impressive credentials at club level after spells with Monaco, Juventus and Marseille. Which do you enjoy more, coaching a club or your country?

You can’t compare the two. As national coach I have much less time with my players. I only see them ten days at a time at most. You have to be very efficient and I need to get deeper into that. But I really enjoy the work. Å

Didier Deschamps was talking to Alan Schweingruber

Sabr

ina

Lam

blet

in

17T H E F I FA W E E K LY

T H E D E B A T E

The weekly debate. Anything you want to get off your chest? Which topics do you want to discuss? Send your suggestions to: feedback-theweekly@fifa.org

acceptable. Despite it all, some fans refuse to leave their fireworks at home.

Daum is sceptical about proposals for or-ganised pyrotechnic displays, a solution de-manded by some politicians. “I could agree to tolerate the controlled use of flares to create an atmosphere, but how ’controlled’ will it actual-ly be? That’s extremely difficult. We can be re-lieved we’ve had so few really serious incidents up to now.”

In fact, the notion there are no serious in-cidents is open to doubt. The trail of damage left by football’s pyromaniacs is a still-smoking scar on the face of European football.

Last December Dynamo Dresden support-ers attacked Bielefeld police with blazing torch-es and stones. The upshot was 17 injured police officers, 22 criminal charges, and (only) three arrests.

In late January a mid-season friendly be-tween Djurgarden and Union Berlin in Sweden was abandoned after so-called fans of both sides repeatedly ignited pyrotechnic devices.

At the Bundesliga meeting between Hoffen-heim and Düsseldorf a year ago a four-year-old boy was injured by flares let off by Fortuna

fans. The lad required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation and an eye irritation.

In October 2011 the Zurich derby between FC Zurich and Grasshoppers in the Swiss Super League was abandoned after an FCZ fan threw a smoke bomb. The points were later awarded to Grasshoppers.

Merely the tip of an icebergHowever, it is generally difficult to identify the culprits, often because the perpetrators cover up for each other, as self-appointed guardians of fan culture often claim: “Fireworks and cho-reographed displays are all part of the packa-ge,” they say. And some supporters patently believe the rule of law is suspended once they are through the turnstiles. Å

All part of the atmos-phere or a danger to life and limb? The subject of fireworks and football is literally a burning issue. From a safety point of view flares cannot be tolerated.

Thomas Renggli

Former Bundesliga coach Christoph Daum, currently in charge of Turkish top-flight outfit Bursaspor, sees a positive side to pyrotechnics in stadiums. “Flares do pro-duce a wonderful atmosphere, but they’re unacceptable because they’re so obvious-

ly dangerous,” he mused.This seemingly contradictory opinion sums

up a complex subject in a nutshell. It is a very fine line between a red-hot atmosphere and the red heat of an inferno – too fine for flares to be

Fire in the hole!

Bundesliga burning Flares and fireworks ignited by Berlin fans caused the suspension of a relegation play-off in Düsseldorf on 15 May 2012.

Imag

o

18 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

T H E D E B A T E

Best wishes, Sepp Blatter

Football is thrilling and moving. Action and drama are as much a part of the game as the ball and the goal. The fires of passion engulf

the players and fans. But football cannot be misused and degraded by arsonists. I am tal-king about the excrescence that unfortunately afflicts so many stadiums week after week: the letting off of pyrotechnic devices in the middle of crowded grandstands.

When I encounter these situations I’m overcome by incomprehension. We drum the dangers of fire into every little child but self-styled, grown-up, so-called football fans still ignite flares and let off acrid smoke bombs generating temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius. Where’s the sense in shrouding your-self in a fog and placing others in acute danger?

Football matches are social occasions and a shared community experience, but grossly neg-ligent behaviour like this means they degenera-te into a platform for fanatics and pyromaniacs. They turn from a fun family day out into a stage for shameless self-promotion by a regrettable minority. I can quite understand parents stop-ping their kids going to football grounds after seeing this kind of thing on TV. Responsibility lies with the clubs. They know the culprits by name. But often enough the fear of losing a pay-ing customer is greater than the readiness to act decisively against the unruly element. Fan liai-son must mean working with the real fans, not covering up for troublemakers.

Football offers spectacular mass entertain-ment. Watching Messi, Ronaldo or Ibrahimovic is to witness authentic sporting fireworks. All of us are fired up and ignited with passion for football. But we don’t need fire and flames in the stands.

Put out the flares!

P R E S I D E N T I A L N O T E

Taking pyrotechnics into stadiums is a massive security risk and is completely pointless. Anyone who tries to just brush it under the carpet is equally as guilty. The perpetrators should be punished with stadi-um bans.

Paul Dietrich, Vienna

I’m in favour of using flares in a controlled manner. Accidents happen when people are forced to hide in large crowds in order to light them and when they have to use magnesium powder instead of the normal flare lighters as it’s easier to smuggle them in. The blanket ban on flares only increases the risk of some-one getting hurt when one is lit.

L. Adler, Bochum

I think flares are part and parcel of fan culture and are an important part of the atmosphere inside stadiums. However, too many fans are too careless when using them.

Alberto Tomasini, Genoa

If people absolutely have to set off flares in a full stadium they should at least do so either at the front of the block they’re in or

on top of one of the fences, but never in the middle of a large crowd of people. Unfortu-nately controlled use of pyrotechnics isn’t possible as the people in charge don’t believe there is any reason for them to be allowed. As long as they’re banned, it’s crazy for people to light them.

Sebastian C., Gelsenkirchen

It’s always dangerous to set off flares in a crowd of people, as happens in football stadiums sometimes. I can’t bear to think about what could happen, but by now every-one must have seen what images of mass panic look like. It’s precisely because of that danger that pyrotechnics are banned in stadiums.

Daniel Lindvall, Goteborg

There are considerably more numbers of sensible football fans than pyromaniacs so I don’t understand why self-regulation doesn’t work better in stadiums.

B. Wolf, Augsburg

My family was sitting with me in the south stand at a St. Pauli game and my parents didn’t like the use of flares at all. The older people behind us all just shook their heads. Everyone in the stadium could see that flares have no place in football when one was thrown down on to the children marching on to the pitch a couple of minutes later.

W. Heinz, Hamburg

Zero tolerance is the only answer in the fight against using flares. Anyone who lights flares puts the other spectators at risk and ruins the game. The increasing numbers of interruptions to matches should open everyo-ne’s eyes to that. But I have the feeling that some fans take themselves too seriously and put their own performance above what’s happening on the pitch.

S. Baumann, Basel

“Zero tolerance is the only answer.”

“I’m in favour of using flares in

a controlled manner.”

Imag

o

19T H E F I FA W E E K LY

First Love

P l a c e : O u r i n h o s , B r a z i l

Da t e : 2 4 A p r i l 2 0 1 3

T im e : 5 . 5 1 p m

T H E F I FA W E E K LY 21Christopher Pillitz / Prestel Verlag

Trim: 268mm

Safety: 17mm

Trim: 210m

m

Safety:

19mm

Trim: 268mm

Safety: 17mm

Trim: 210m

m

Safety:

19mm

TRACKING NUMBER n/a

USAGE Usage is (12) months unlimited WORLDWIDE use in all print and electronic mediums, including but not limited to: consumer and trade print/digital advertising, Out of Home, retail/wholesale, POS, collateral, industrial, PR/events, video, internal, textbook, and online/digital/new electronic media.

JOB SON BRV G13002TITLE BRAVIA PRINTCLIENT SonyFILE SONBRVG13002_Bravia_FSL_SP_Adkit_0418OFFICE PDXECD Susan Hoffman/Mark Fitzloff

CD Chris Mitton/Danielle FlaggAD Patty OrlandoCW Dan KroegerSA Janine ByrneSM Lis MoranPM Danna Bubalo

AE Toby HusseyAP Amy CarletonPHOTO Carlos SerraoILLUS n/aDESIGN Patty OrlandoCOLOR Kyle Pero/Greg Radich

PUB n/aISSUE n/aBLEED 216 x 274mm TRIM 210 x 268mmSAFETY 172 x 234mmDMAX 300

Feel the BeautyBE MOVED

E V E R Y G A S P

E V E R Y S C R E A M

E V E R Y R O A R

E V E R Y D I V E

E V E R Y B A L L

E V E R Y P A S S

E V E R Y C H A N C E

E V E R Y S T R I K E

E V E R Y B E AU T I F U L D E TA I L

S H A L L B E S E E N

S H A L L B E H E A R D

S H A L L B E F E L T

“SONY” and “make.believe” are trademarks of Sony Corporation.

T H E N E W 4 K L E D T V

The weekly column by our staff writers

F R E E K I C K W E E K LY T O P 11

1 Brazil 3–2 Italy, 1994 World Cup. Brazil are crowned world champions after the unfortunate Roberto Baggio misses the final penalty.

2 Bishop’s of La Jolla 21–19 San Diego, 2012 High School play-offs. The longest ever shootout took place in the USA. Fifty spot-kicks were taken before Bishop’s eventually triumphed.

3 Italy 5–3 France, 2006 World Cup. France lose the final on penalties after Zinedine Zidane is sent off for violent conduct in extra-time.

4 Japan 3–1 USA, 2011 Women’s World Cup. Japan register their first ever World Cup title after goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori saves two spot-kicks.

5 Argentinos Juniors 20–19 Racing Club Buenos Aires, 1988 Primera Division. The highest-scoring shootout in top-flight football. Forty-four were taken before Ar-gentinos claimed victory.

6 Haka Valkeakoski 2–1 HJK Helsinki, 1985 Finnish Cup final. Only three of the twelve penalties were dispatched - fewer than any other shoot-out in history.

7 KK Palace 17–16 Civics, 2005 Namibian Cup. Forty-eight kicks are taken before KK Palace are declared the winners.

8 Czechoslovakia 5–3 West Germany, 1976 European Championship. Panenka chips the deciding penalty down the middle af-ter Sepp Maier had dived to his left.

9 West Germany 4–3 England, 1990 World Cup. Germany get their revenge for 1966 as England’s penalty-shootout woes begin.

10 Ukraine 3–0 Switzerland, 2006 World Cup. Switzerland fail to score a single spot-kick as Ukraine advance to the quar-ter-finals.

11 Liverpool 3–2 Milan, 2005 Champions League final. Liverpool trail 3-0 at the break, but level the score with three goals in the space of six second-half minutes before winning on penalties.

Can you think of any shoot-outs we’ve missed? Let us know at: feedback-TheWeekly@fifa.org

The most infamous penalty shoot-outs

Perikles Monioudis

The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ will soon be upon us. With the hosts’ opening match against Croatia less than two months away, the football world is eager-ly anticipating another thrilling chapter in the rich history of the sport’s showca-

se event. Football, history, and Brazil go hand in hand. The five-time world champions have long since cemented their place in the record books and are desperate to add title number six this summer. It would be a complete catastro-phe, an utter humiliation, if another team were to beat the Brazilians to the title on home soil. That said, there are several possible candidates.

Whether or not Brazil lift the famous tro-phy in July, the tournament in South America is certain to serve up glorious victories, painful defeats, personal tragedy and euphoria in equal measure and will undoubtedly make for many memorable moments – just like the 19 World Cups that have gone before. It brings to mind a story told by Queen Scheherazade in the Ara-bian Nights: One day, a fisherman stumbled across a brass jar, which he promptly opened. A plume of smoke poured forth into the sky, before taking on the form of a terrifying genie who, furious at being imprisoned in the jar for a near eternity after disobeying the word of the King, had vowed to kill the first man he laid eyes on after his release.

The genie sought retribution from the fis-herman, but the latter, doubting the genie’s tale, asked him how he had managed to fit in-side the bottle. Deeply insulted, the genie im-mediately placed himself back inside the bottle to demonstrate his abilities.

Much like the genie in this particular story, a defeat in football takes on a life of its own which is often difficult to tame. For Brazil, an

early World Cup exit would be one such horror scenario – albeit an unlikely one, as hardly anyone expects A Seleção to miss out on quali-fication in a group containing the Croatians, Mexico and Cameroon.

The spectre of defeat becomes much more terrifying, however, as the semi-finals and final approach, and would loom larger with each pas-sing day – even once the tournament is over – if Brazil were to lose the World Cup final on home soil.

Brazil need only remind themselves of their proud tradition: Football, history, Brazil. If a sixth World Cup title were to elude them this year, then it is surely only a matter of time be-fore they lift the trophy once more.

The genie has returned to the jar for now. How long it stays there remains to be seen. Å

The spectre of defeat

23T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Sarah Steiner

On a cloudy Saturday morning in Stock-holm, the only dash of colour in sight was the bright red World Cup Trophy Tour aeroplane on the runway at Arlan-da airport. It was about to embark on a journey to the northernmost point of

its round-the-world trip, to Kiruna, a small Swedish town lying within the Arctic Circle. Kiruna does not normally grab many headlines, which is why the town’s 18,000 inhabitants were so excited to be part of the Trophy Tour. For months now, they have been counting down the days to see the trophy that is the source of hopes and dreams the world over. In just 17 weeks, the same trophy will be hoisted heaven-wards by the captain of the victorious nation, 11,340 kilometres away in South America.

The world’s most famous 4.9 kilograms of gold goes on tour.

F I F A W O R L D C U P T R O P H Y T O U R B Y C O C A - C O L A

This is the third time the World Cup tro-phy has gone on a global tour. It began by visiting 28 countries in 2006, and will have taken in 88 nations by the end of its current journey. It set off from Rio de Janeiro last autumn and will return there in April after giving thousands of fans the opportunity to have their photo taken alongside the prize most footballers will never get their hands on. In order for a player to do so, at least 630  minutes of football stand in his way, against 77 opposing players who have exact-ly the same objective. And even if he manag-es to make his dream come true, he will not have long to savour holding the prize in his hands, as it is replaced by a replica after ap-proximately ten minutes and returned to a secure location. The risk of theft or loss is far too great.

It is 41 years old, weighs 4.9 kilograms and has already been held by the Hand of God. The World Cup trophy is currently on a global tour, and we were in Sweden to witness the latest leg of its voyage.

From theft to ransom notesHistory has made such prudence a necessity. For example, the Jules Rimet trophy, the pre-decessor of the current prize, was given to Brazil outright in 1970 but it was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football Associa-tion on 20 December 1983 and has never been recovered. The trophy was also lost in the build-up to the 1966 World Cup after be-ing taken from an exhibition hosted by the English FA. A ransom demand was sent in but the trophy itself may never have been discovered without the help of Pickles, a black and white mixed-breed Collie who found it in the front garden of a house in South Norwood in London. Of course there are risks involved in the current World Cup Trophy Tour too, but the organisers are well prepared, with measures in place to protect Jo

el R

obis

on

24 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

F I F A W O R L D C U P T R O P H Y T O U R B Y C O C A - C O L A

their valuable cargo. The beefy security guards that accompany it are also deterrent enough to any would-be thief.

Highlight of the year in KirunaThe icy runway in Kiruna was surrounded by an idyllic snow-covered landscape. Count-less children were waiting in the relatively warm temperatures of minus seven degrees Celsius for the plane to arrive, eyes glowing with excitement and waving flags of the World Cup participants. “When I was told that the World Cup Trophy Tour would be coming to Kiruna I thought it was a joke,” said Gustaf Sixten Inga, president of the lo-cal football club, Kiruna FF. “Normally events like this go to Stockholm, Goteborg or Malmo. Up here we’re forgotten about most of the time.”

Sixten Inga appeared to be even more nerv-ous than the children are. An hour after the plane arrived the youngsters were given the chance to showcase their skills in the club’s stadium, under the watchful eye of French world and European champion Christian Ka-rembeu and former Sweden international Han-na Marklund. The children, all eager to play the perfect pass, score the best goal and demon-strate their dribbling ability, provided a non-stop commentary: “Can I have your auto-graph?”, “Did you know that he played for Real Madrid?”, and “One day I want to play for my country too.” The large number of girls strut-ting their stuff on the pitch was noteworthy, the growth of the women’s game in Sweden very much in evidence this far north. Indeed, football has now overtaken ice hockey as the favourite sport among Swedish girls.

World Cup enthusiasmCheeks flushing red with cold, Sixten Inga

stood outside the stadium speaking to parents, greeting officials and giving high-fives to pass-ing children. The club, which boasts around 500 players, first learned of the visit last November and were well-prepared on the day. “The fact that the children have the chance to meet these great players and see the World Cup trophy up close is just fantastic,” said Sixten Inga.

Sweden may not have qualified for the tournament this summer but the country’s football fans remain as enthusiastic as ever. “Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the best, irrespective of whether or not we’re at the World Cup,” continued Sixten Inga. With Sweden absent from Brazil in June, FIFA were at least able to bring a bit of Brazil to Sweden, if only for a little while.

On your marks Youngsters sprint to be first to see the famous trophy up close.

Unveiled The 38.8cm high World Cup trophy from 1973 still fascinates millions of football fans across the globe.

Joel

Rob

ison

25T H E F I FA W E E K LY

F I F A W O R L D C U P T R O P H Y T O U R B Y C O C A - C O L A

FIFA World Cup

Date of manufacture1973Weight6175 grams (of which 4927 grams are pure gold)Height38.8 cmBase diameter12.5 cmMaterialsGold, with two malachite rings adorning the baseManufacturerBertoni GDE Srl., Milan (Italy)DesignerSilvio Gazzaniga, Italy

A taste of Brazil Despite Sweden failing to qualify for this year’s tournament, football is hugely popular among girls.

Best foot forward The young players were eager to impress World Cup winner Christian Karembeu at a training session.

The aim of the World Cup Trophy Tour is to promote the tournament across the globe and to give fans the chance to see the trophy first hand, while also learning about the com-petition’s history and being introduced to the Brazil 2014 mascot Fuleco. In total the tour will cover a distance of 149,577 kilometres, three times the earth’s circumference.

Brazilian f lavourThe town of Kiruna also organised a Bra zilian carnival for the occasion, with South Ameri-can melodies ringing out across the snow-filled streets and colourfully made-up dancers add-ing to the throng in the crowded town square. “We’ll never forget this day for the rest of our lives,” said Sixten Inga.

The tour continued the next day, with lay-overs in Romania, France, England, Germany,

China and Japan planned before heading back to Rio. Just like the Olympic flame, the Trophy Tour has gone around the world, igniting pas-sions ahead of the World Cup. Brazil, here we come. Å

And

rea

Pagl

iaru

lo /

Buen

a V

ista

Joel

Rob

ison

26 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Mr Gazzaniga, you designed the World Cup in 1971. Do you take pleasure in the fact that your wonderful trophy is the focus of so much attention?

Silvio Gazzaniga: Of course I take pleasure in it. It’s an incredibly suc-cessful piece, one created to fulfil a specific purpose. I also see the Cup as a great triumph for art, even if its significance extends far beyond its artistic dimension.

When the new Cup was commissioned, you were asked to send in some design templates. What happened after that?

That bit was fairly straightforward. I’d submitted two proposals at the same time. Then I realised that I needed to design an actual model in order to convey what shape the Cup would take and what it’d feel like.

Why? A drawing never gives off quite the same

impression as an actual model. The Cup doesn’t just serve a decorative purpose, like British Cups have so often done over the years. The Cup was designed to have its own person-ality too.

Is it true that you shut yourself in your studio for almost an entire week when you were adding the final touches to the design?

More or less. I didn’t want to incorporate too many details in the modelling phase as this would’ve made the sculpture lose some of its value and it would’ve been less effective. So I made it all in one piece and then put the finishing touches on it at a later date.

It was important for you to be happy with your own work, of course, but when did you first realise that it was popular with the public too?

I’d get phone calls telling me that people really admired the Cup. That’s when I under-stood that its appeal wasn’t limited to lovers of art. Perhaps it’s partly down to the fact that it was made with such spontaneity. Football fans understand and admire that.

You wanted to combine sport and the world in the design.

That’s right. As it’s the World Cup, it seemed logical to me that the world would have to feature somehow. Given that the earth’s round, it’s very similar to the shape of a ball. The human figures rising out of the base of the trophy are stretching upwards and supporting the world - which I also interpreted as a ball - in their arms.

The trophy is also supposed to represent hard work, harmony and peace. What does this mean?

And let’s not forget dynamism either. I had the idea in my head that I’d create some-thing that would symbolise the dedication, dynamism and exultation of the victorious footballer, including the overwhelming joy he felt too. The seemingly random shapes lend the whole thing an air of dynamism. But the Cup itself exudes harmonious energy. The figures rising out of the trophy’s rough base all merge together into one single celebration of triumph.

Can you remember where you were when the Cup was lifted for the first time in 1974?

No, unfortunately not. But I still have vivid memories of when Italy won the Cup in 1982. I was at home back then and the streets

were packed full of people. I can still remember it so well because it was such a great triumph for Italy.

Is it true that you once said that the Cup will always have a little bit of Italy in it?

Given that it was designed by an Italian, it probably will always have a little bit of Italy in it. And I hope that the Cup will often return to my home country. Italy have some outstanding players in their ranks. They might not be quite as talented as the Brazilians, for example, but they’re still very much capable of winning the trophy.

It’s quite ironic, then, that you’d never have been commissioned to design this trophy had Brazil not prevailed against Italy in 1970 and been allowed to keep the Jules Rimet trophy to commemmorate their third World Cup title.

That’s sport for you. You can’t have it all your own way all the time. Sometimes you simply have to take your hat off to the oppos-ing team and accept the defeat. That’s a big part of sportsmanship.

Could you ever have imagined that the World Cup would become quite so iconic 30 years after its creation, to the extent that it would be taken on a tour of the world?

Definitely not. I’d never have thought that it would become so important, especially for the younger generations, and that it’d be seen as a symbol of peace. I’m very proud to have played a role in helping sport make the world a more peaceful place. Sport brings both people and nations together and is much more impor-tant than many people think. Å

Interview by FIFA.com

“It wasn’t just for decoration”F I F A W O R L D C U P T R O P H Y T O U R B Y C O C A - C O L A

Sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga created a true masterpiece when he designed the World Cup trophy in 1971. “I never thought it would become so iconic for the younger generations”, admitted the 93-year-old Italian.

And

rea

Pagl

iaru

lo /

Buen

a V

ista

Joel

Rob

ison

27T H E F I FA W E E K LY

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

r3m1_AD_Design_ROUTE_FWCTT.pdf 1 10/24/13 11:22 AM

-209

-167

-125

-83

-41

1

F I F A W O R L D R A N K I N G

RankingRank Team Change in ranking Points

1 Spain 0 1510

2 Germany 0 1336

3 Argentina 0 1234

4 Portugal 0 1199

5 Colombia 0 1183

6 Uruguay 1 1126

7 Switzerland -1 1123

8 Italy 0 1112

9 Brazil 0 1104

10 Belgium 1 108411 Netherlands -1 1077

12 England 3 1045

13 Greece -1 1038

14 USA -1 1017

15 Chile -1 998

16 Croatia 0 955

17 France 1 929

18 Ukraine 0 911

19 Russia 3 889

20 Mexico 1 888

21 Bosnia-Herzegovina -4 863

22 Denmark -2 858

23 Ecuador 1 855

24 Côte d'Ivoire -1 839

25 Algeria 1 819

26 Egypt 12 790

27 Sweden -2 789

28 Serbia 1 762

29 Panama 3 755

30 Czech Republic 1 748

31 Slovenia -4 746

32 Romania 1 740

33 Cape Verde Islands -6 739

34 Costa Rica 1 732

35 Ghana 2 729

36 Honduras 4 725

37 Scotland -3 721

38 Turkey 4 710

39 Venezuela -4 704

40 Peru 1 703

41 Armenia -11 699

42 Iran -4 692

43 Hungary 1 652

44 Tunisia 1 641

44 Austria -1 641

46 Montenegro 6 639

47 Nigeria 0 626

48 Japan 2 622

49 Wales 2 609

50 Slovakia 4 588

50 Cameroon -4 588

52 Iceland -4 582

53 Guinea 9 572

54 Albania 1 569

55 Uzbekistan 2 565

56 Mali 3 561

57 Norway 3 559

58 Finland 7 556

59 Paraguay -10 554

60 Korea Republic 1 552

61 United Arab Emirates -3 550

62 Burkina Faso 0 548

63 Australia -10 545

64 South Africa 0 536

65 Israel -9 526

66 Jordan 3 521

67 Bulgaria 5 518

68 Republic of Ireland -1 513

69 Senegal -3 512

70 Bolivia 0 511

71 Libya -3 508

72 Sierra Leone 1 481

73 Poland -3 475

74 Zambia 1 458

75 Saudi Arabia 0 453

76 Trinidad and Tobago 1 446

77 Morocco -3 443

78 El Salvador 0 438

79 Haiti 0 430

80 Jamaica 0 429

81 Oman -1 426

82 FYR Macedonia 1 421

83 Belarus -1 420

84 Congo DR 7 392

85 Uganda -1 391

86 Northern Ireland -1 388

87 Congo -1 382

88 Gabon -1 381

89 Togo 1 377

90 New Zealand -1 373

91 Azerbaijan 2 369

92 Estonia -1 367

93 Cuba 5 362

94 Benin 3 357

95 Botswana -1 355

96 Angola -1 348

97 Liberia -1 347

98 China PR -10 339

99 Georgia 4 333

100 Ethiopia 1 331

101 Qatar -2 330

102 Zimbabwe -2 328

103 Iraq 11 317

104 Niger 0 315

105 Lithuania -3 314

106 Bahrain 0 312

107 Central African Republic -2 310

108 Moldova -1 303

109 Kenya -1 293

110 Kuwait -1 287

111 Dominican Republic 0 282

112 Canada 1 279

113 Latvia -2 265

114 Malawi 1 260

115 Mozambique 3 258

116 Lebanon 5 254

117 Tanzania -1 253

118 New Caledonia -1 252

119 Equatorial Guinea -1 251

120 Luxembourg 0 242

121 Tajikistan -11 237

122 Sudan 1 236

122 Cyprus 0 236

124 Namibia 0 227

125 Vietnam 18 224

126 Guatemala 0 219

127 Afghanistan 11 213

127 Kazakhstan 1 213

129 Burundi -5 211

130 Philippines -3 200

131 Suriname 1 197

132 Grenada 3 192

133 Korea DPR 3 191

134 Malta -3 186

134 Rwanda 0 186

136 Gambia 1 184

137 Syria -4 183

138 Tahiti 2 179

139 St Vincent and the Grenadines 2 177

140 Belize 2 176

141 Malaysia 9 175

142 Turkmenistan -13 166

143 Lesotho -4 165

144 Antigua and Barbuda 2 159

145 Hong Kong -1 156

146 St Lucia 2 155

146 Kyrgyzstan 2 155

148 Thailand -1 151

149 Singapore 1 144

150 Puerto Rico 7 143

151 Liechtenstein -1 139

152 India 2 138

153 Guyana 1 137

154 Indonesia 4 128

155 Mauritania 4 127

156 St Kitts and Nevis -3 125

157 Maldives 6 114

158 Pakistan 7 107

159 Dominica 7 103

160 Nepal 9 102

161 Barbados 7 101

162 Aruba 10 87

162 Faroe Islands 10 87

162 Bangladesh 2 87

165 Solomon Islands 9 86

165 São Tomé e Príncipe -4 86

167 Palestine -23 85

168 Nicaragua -1 84

169 Bermuda 6 83

170 Chad -8 81

171 Chinese Taipei -1 76

172 Laos -16 73

173 Guam -13 68

173 Myanmar -43 68

173 Sri Lanka -2 68

176 Mauritius 1 66

176 Seychelles 0 66

178 Curaçao 0 65

179 Swaziland 5 63

180 Vanuatu -1 55

181 Fiji 0 47

182 Samoa 0 45

183 Comoros 15 41

183 Guinea-Bissau 0 41

185 Bahamas -1 40

185 Yemen 1 40

187 Mongolia -7 38

188 Cambodia 1 33

188 Montserrat -1 33

190 Madagascar -3 30

191 Brunei Darussalam -1 26

191 Timor-Leste -1 26

191 Tonga -1 26

194 US Virgin Islands -1 23

195 Cayman Islands -1 21

195 Papua New Guinea -1 21

197 British Virgin Islands -1 18

197 American Samoa -1 18

199 Andorra -1 15

200 Eritrea 0 11

201 South Sudan 1 10

202 Macau -2 9

203 Somalia 0 8

204 Djibouti 0 6

205 Cook Islands 0 5

206 Anguilla 0 3

207 Bhutan 0 0

207 San Marino 0 0

207 Turks and Caicos Islands 0 0

→ http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/index.html

Top spot Biggest climber Biggest faller

Oct 2013 Nov 2013 Dec 2013 Jan 2014 Feb 2014 Mar 2014

29T H E F I FA W E E K LY

M I R R O R I M A G E

T H E N

Old Trafford, Manchester,

England

1970

FA Cup meets teapot. In 1970, Chelsea defeated Leeds United in the final of England’s FA Cup. Ordinarily, the London side would have been able to celebrate their triumph at Wembley, but after an initial 2-2 draw, the match had to be replayed for the first time since 1912 at Old Trafford in Manchester due to dam-age to the Wembley pitch. Chelsea won the replay 2-1 and immediately celebrated by taking the Cup for a bath. Here, midfielder Tommy Baldwin holds the trophy aloft, while goalkeeper Peter Bonetti sports the lid of the Cup on his head.

Key

ston

e

Mir

rorp

ix

30 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

M I R R O R I M A G E

N O W

Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam,

Netherlands

2012

Silver plate and flip-flops. The wet room in the Amster-dam Arena looks almost like a spa. With 32 national championships, 18 cup wins and 4 European Cup (or Champions League) titles to their name, Ajax are the yardstick by which all other Dutch teams are meas-ured. In 2012, the Amsterdam side sealed the champion-ship with a 2-0 victory over Venlo and treated them-selves to a collective dip. Here, Jan Vertonghen’s refusal to let go of the trophy means Daley Blind has to make do with a pair of flip-flops.

Key

ston

e

Mir

rorp

ix

31T H E F I FA W E E K LY

http://worldwide.hyundai.com/WW/Experience/SponsorshipActivity/HyundaiFIFAWorldcup/index.html

H I S T O R YH I S T O R Y

How football came to BrazilA dusty pitch in the heart of Sao Paolo Charles W. Miller’s Sao Paulo Railway Team played the first recorded game of football in Brazil right here.

Brazilians’ passion for football permeates all strata of society and A Seleção are five-time world champions. It is a love story with its roots in chilly Britain.

Alo

is G

stöt

tner

33T H E F I FA W E E K LY

H I S T O R Y

Dominik Petermann

When 19 -year-old Charles William Mill-er packed his bags for the journey home to Brazil from England in the winter of 1894 he took with him two balls, a pump, two shirts, a pair of boots and a copy of the Hampshire

Football Association Laws of the Game. Foot-ball had become his controlling passion during a decade of school and study in England, and he was never going to leave the motherland of the game without his football equipment. As a pupil at Banister Court School in Southampton Miller emerged as one of the best players at St. Mary’s FC, a club founded in 1885. His ability as an agile and athletic striker did not go un-noticed: he was invited to play for London’s celebrated amateur club Corinthian FC. We can easily imagine his dismay and disappointment when his ship docked in Santos on 18 February and the Sao Paolo-born son of a Scottish rail-way engineer and his English wife realised that football was as yet completely unknown in the land of his birth.

The sobering discovery meant Miller found his calling in life. For his day job he followed in the footsteps of his father, who had emigrated to Brazil to work on construction of the rail line between Santos and Sao Paolo. Charles Miller worked on the railways and entered a perfect environment for establishing a football team. He set up the Sao Paulo Railway Team with co-workers, who busily set about learning the game on the city’s dusty pitches. On 14 April 1895 the team ran out for their maiden compe-titive appearance. On that chilly autumn after-noon, Charles William Miller and the Sao Paulo Railway Team took part in the first public and documented football match on Brazilian soil. The opposition was provided by a works team from a local gas supplier by the name of Com-panhia de Gás. Miller and his men won the his-toric encounter 4–2. The match was played in a generously proportioned, leafy green park by the name of Varzea do Carmo in what is now the centre of Sao Paulo. Football is still played here today, albeit on a shale pitch known as Dom Pedro II and bounded by two urban freeways.

“It’s still a great place for a kick about, and they even put up new goals a few years ago,” writes author and photographer Alois Gstöttner in his book “Goool do Brasil”, before adding: “Sao Paulo’s development as a city provides a wonderful example of how football reflects the wider social context. The old myth of the street kids blessed with prodigious talent who some-how end up in A Seleçao a couple of weeks later no longer bears any relation to reality,” Gstött-ner traces the history of a vibrant national pas-sion and captures Brazilians’ all-encompassing love for the game in words and pictures. The

images explore a world far beyond the dusty pitches and famous stadiums, and the words are drawn from dozens of interviews. Gstöttner talked to Socrates, charismatic captain of the 1982 Seleção, about the military dictatorship and his democracy movement. He spoke to re-

feree Dourado in the bathroom of a dressing room about the challenge of imposing the laws of the game. He interviewed beauty queen La-rissa about her part in the world’s most exotic football tournament and asked Paulinho, a pri-soner in the Guarulhos state penitentiary, about freedom. During his ocean voyage in 1894, Charles William Miller cannot have known he would become the father of Brazilian football, nor realised what an effect the balls

and the rulebook in his luggage would have on his fellow countrymen. The national team have been crowned world champions on five occa-sions and remain the world’s best in many peo-ple’s eyes.

Charles W. Miller himself ended up playing

in a organised league. After 1896 he was the dri-ving force behind the launch of a Sao Paulo municipal championship, Brazil’s first actual league, won by Miller as a member of Sao Paulo Athletic Club in 1902, 1903 and 1904. Å

Get

ty Im

ages

, Alo

is G

stöt

tner

34 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

“Gooool do Brasil – Kartografie einer nationalen Leidenschaft” [Cartography of a National Passion]Text and photos: Alois Gstöttner176 pages, 17 x 22 cm, 86 illustrationsPublisher: Club BellevueISBN: 978-3-200-03492-1

Honoured and remembered at SC Corinthians Paulista: the square in front of Estadio do Pacaembu in Sao Paolo is named after Charles W. Miller.

Charles William Miller arrived home in Brazil with two footballs and a pump.

Get

ty Im

ages

, Alo

is G

stöt

tner

35T H E F I FA W E E K LY

T H E S O U N D O F F O O T B A L L T H E O B J E C T

Petar “Radi” Radenkovic would have been immersed in the world of music from a young age if it hadn’t been for war, but the outbreak of global conflict in the late 1930s de-prived the boy of his father’s cultural influence in his form-ative years.

It remains the only plausible explanation for the path pursued by young “Radi”, who later haunt-ed the German charts with the notoriously bad “Bin i Radi, bin i König” (I am Radi, I am the King).

Petar Radenkovic was born on 1 October 1934 in Belgrade in the former Kingdom of Yugosla-via. His father was a guitarist and a singer, travelling the world under the name of Rascha Rodell and working in the USA at the outbreak of war. Trapped on the other side of the Atlantic, Radenkovic senior placed the young boy in the care of his grandmother.

While his father spent his days entertaining the noble

guests of the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach with continental classics, “Radi” was learning the art of goalkeeping at OFK Be-ograd. In fact, the young shot-stopper demonstrated such passion and talent between the sticks that he soon became one of the first foreigners to feature in German football, moving to 1860 Munich via Wormatia Worms in 1962.

And it was in Munich that his ability to entertain the mass-es first came to the fore, a char-acteristic he had undoubtedly inherited from his father. His dribbling runs towards midfield were greeted with excitement from the crowd, the goalkeeper’s wonderful reflexes and out-standing ability to read the game seemingly earning him the freedom to do as he pleased. “Radi” won the German Cup with 1860 in 1964, lost the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup to West Ham in 1965 and even won the German league with them in 1966.

It was at this point that “Bin i Radi, bin i König” first came onto the scene, the title for the song coming from a post-match interview in which he had used his broken German to express his opinion on the game. The spirited song was bolstered by the presence of a Bavarian Umpa-Humpa band in lederho-sen playing in the background.

To the astonishment of mu-sic lovers everywhere, the single sold over 400,000 copies, re-mained in the German charts for seven weeks and even made it up to number five. But it may well have been “Radi’s” footballing insights in the song’s lyrics, rath-er than the music itself, that inspired the sale of so many sin-gles: “Standing here in goal/I sometimes stop and think/Fans forget it’s just a game/No sense of humour/Shots fly in like light-ning/Often look quite frighten-ing/But most of them I save/With a smile on my face.” Æ

The King who lost his wayHanspeter Kuenzler

Perikles Monioudis

The latest highly-visible technological achieve-ment in world football is the ball that will be used at this summer’s World Cup in Brazil. Called ‘Brazuca’, the first syllable of the ball’s name stands for the host nation, but you would be better off asking the approximately one mil-lion Brazilians who voted for it online for an exact definition of the ‘zuca’ part. ‘Emotions, pride and warm-heartedness’ are among of the most common explanations.

The Brazuca instantly catches the eye with its bright colours and looping design. When you kick it, it immediately becomes apparent that it moves through the air in a more stable manner than its predecessor the ‘Jabulani’, which would flutter around unpredictably, yet also highly effectively, as many a free-kick tak-er discovered.

In addition to forming a pleasing allitera-tion, the name Brazuca also combines the es-sence of the ball itself. It would not be the same without the lightness of its bounce on the ground and flight through the air or without the weight that pulls it to ground again and permits it to fly in the first place.

Just like the ball, Brazil itself - and this is in no way meant disparagingly - combines lightness, in its Samba, with heaviness, from the beats of the bossa. It is impossible to view the ‘ball for Brazil’ as anything other than a symbol.

German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, who believed everything formed part of a series of overriding processes within a system and sys-tems, wrote in his essay ‘Football’ that, “more than other speciality in the modern era, foot-ball lends itself to symbolising both lightness and weight.” Luhmann was talking about the game itself, but his words could easily apply to the Brazuca too: surely there has never been a more fitting World Cup ball than the Brazuca in Brazil. Å

Sion

Ap

Tom

os

36 T H E F I FA W E E K LY

In Turning Point, personalities reflect on a decisive moment in their lives.

NameDirk Klaas Jan HuntelaarDate and place of birth

12 August 1983, Voor-Drempt (NL)PositionStrikerClubs played forHummelo en Keppel, De Graafschap, PSV Eindhoven, Apeldoorn, Heerenveen, Ajax, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Schalke 04National team Netherlands60 games, 34 goals

I’ve always been inquisitive but I’ve never been a dreamer. I’ve stayed a realist throughout all of the incredible moments I’ve experienced as a regular goalscorer and successful striker and that’s why I know my biggest step forward was actually one I took

backwards. I had been a youth team player at PSV Eindhoven, one of the biggest clubs in the Netherlands, since 2000 and in 2002 I came on as a substitute in the 76th minute of a 3-0 win away to Rosendaal in the Eredivisie. But I wasn’t really making much progress there, just as I hadn’t at De Graafschap Doetinchem, where I trained between 1994 and 2000. When PSV loaned me back there on 1 January 2003 I couldn’t really help the club very much: I didn’t score at all in nine games. They were in the Ere-divisie back then but are now in the second division. As I striker I wasn’t at the stage in my development where the goals would seemingly just come by themselves and neither did I have the knack of being in the right place at the right time in professional football.

What helped me was a voluntary step back-wards that I took by going to AGOVV Apel-doorn, who were in the second division back then. It was kind of a turning point in my ca-reer, which hadn’t properly taken off yet. On loan there from Eindhoven, I was desperate to show what I was capable of and I managed to do that. I scored 26 goals during the 2003/04 season and finished as top scorer in the Eersten Divisie. For the first time I felt that I was really part of the team in Apeldoorn and I enjoyed playing regularly. My self-confidence grew and I was finally able to show the qualities that de-fine me as a striker: anticipation, quick reac-tions, decisiveness in front of goal and clinical finishing. For me it was the springboard to a career that kept progressing step by step. When PSV sold me to Eredivisie side SC Heer-enveen in summer 2004 I had reached a point where I was able to score goals and decide games at a high level, and would later do so at the highest level. I was tingling with excite-

T U R N I N G P O I N T

ment ahead of my first league game and I man-aged to score the equaliser in a 1-1 draw in Alk-maar. I think my record of 17 goals in 34 games was ok for my first year at a club where I was still settling in. When I netted 17 times in 15 matches in the first half of the next season I knew that my patience in moving to Apeldoorn had paid off.

I was in demand after that and on 1 January 2006 I moved to my favourite club, Ajax. In the 2005/06 campaign I scored a combined total of 33 goals for Heerenveen and Ajax and finished as the Eredivisie’s top scorer for the first time. I won the award again in the 2007/08 season after scoring 34 goals in 33 games for Ajax. I joined Real Madrid in winter 2009 but I wasn’t as lucky there, even though I still scored eight times in 20 matches during the half year I was at the world’s most famous club. Nevertheless, they sold me in the summer later that year to AC Milan, where I was mainly used as a wide attacker, rather than as a centre forward.

I only really felt at home again when I joined FC Schalke 04 in summer 2010 and got to know the Bundesliga. I’m proud to have fin-

ished the 2011/12 season as the Bundesliga’s top scorer. Going from Apeldoorn into the wider football world I never set myself any limits and I know that I can always do what I do best: score goals, goals and more goals. Å

Interview by Roland Zorn

With Klaas Jan Huntelaar’s early career as a striker stall-ing, the Dutchman’s decision to join second division outfit Apeldoorn proved crucial.

“A voluntary step backwards”

Die

ter

Roes

eler

/ la

if

37T H E F I FA W E E K LY

A FIFA World Cup ™ in Brazil is just like Visa: everyone is welcome.

TM &

© 2

014

Luca

sfilm

Ltd

. All

Rig

hts

Res

erve

d. U

sed

Und

er A

utho

riza

tion

.

AF_221 X 295 - Corte_(215 x 289)_anun StarWars _(FQ)_JOB. 2415 - 1.15 - 12756.indd 2 07/01/14 19:00

1

2

3

4

K M

R

S

F I F A Q U I Z C U PThe FIFA WeeklyPublished weekly by the

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

Internet:www.fifa.com/theweekly

Publisher:FIFA, FIFA-Strasse 20,

PO box, CH-8044 ZurichTel. +41-(0)43-222 7777Fax +41-(0)43-222 7878

President:Joseph S. Blatter

Secretary General:Jérôme Valcke

Director of Communicationsand Public Affairs:Walter De Gregorio

Chief editor:Thomas Renggli

Art director:Markus Nowak

Staff writers:Perikles Monioudis (Deputy Editor), Alan Schweingruber, Sarah Steiner

Contributors:Jordi Punti, Barcelona; David Winner, London; Hanspeter Kuenzler, London;

Roland Zorn, Frankfurt/M.; Sven Goldmann, Berlin;

Sergio Xavier Filho, Sao Paulo; Luigi Garlando, Milan

Picture editor:Peggy Knotz, Adam Schwarz

Production:Hans-Peter Frei (head),

Marianne Bolliger-Crittin, Susanne Egli, Richie Krönert,

Peter Utz, Mirijam Ziegler

Proof reader:Nena Morf, Kristina Rotach

Contributors to this issue:Dominik Petermann, Tim Pfeifer

Doris Ladstaetter

Editorial assistant:Honey Thaljieh

Translation:Sportstranslations Limited

www.sportstranslations.com

Project management:Bernd Fisa, Christian Schaub

Printer:Zofinger Tagblatt AG

www.ztonline.ch

Contact:feedback-theweekly@fifa.org

Reproduction of photos or articles in whole or in part is only

permitted with prior editorial approval and if attributed

“The FIFA Weekly, © FIFA 2014”. The editor and staff are not obliged to publish unsolicited manuscripts and photos. FIFA and the FIFA logo are registered trademarks of FIFA. Made and printed in Switzerland.

Please send your answers to feedback-theweekly@fifa.org by 19 March 2014. Correct submissions for all quizzes received by 11 June 2014 will go into a draw to win two tickets to the FIFA World Cup Final on 13 July 2014. Before sending in your answers, all participants must read and accept the competition terms and conditions and the rules, which can be found at http://en.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/the-fifa-weekly/rules.pdf

The answer to last week’s Quiz Cup was RUSH (detailed answers on www.fifa.com/theweekly).

Inspiration and implementation: cus

Which of these four top flight clubs has the longest club name (and perhaps the longest of any team anywhere)?

Which two teams had never competed in a World Cup qualification match prior to 1957, against either one another or any other team?

What was the name of the white marking that made a brief appearance on football pitches back when these two legends were playing in the same league?

Shaken, not stirred: I turned down an opportunity to play for a club that went on to win the Club World Cup and instead rose to fame in the James Bond films. Who am I?

James Bond’s encounter with one of the world’s top clubs, and the longest team name in football - test your

B 5-foot corner D 15-metre pointS 25-inch posts T 35-yard line

A Serie A E Eredivisie L Ligue 1 R Primera Division

A Uruguay & Argentina E England & Brazil L Spain & Germany R Italy & France

AFP

, Var

io Im

ages

, Uni

ted

Arc

hive

s, G

etty

Imag

es

39T H E F I FA W E E K LY

1269+3139%

61%

T H I S W E E K ’ S P O L LA S K F I F A !

L A S T W E E K ’ S P O L L R E S U LT S

T H E F O R E I G N E R S

The percentage of Inter Milan’s players (including captain Javier Zanetti (Argentina, pictured) that hail from overseas. In Europe’s top five leagues, Chelsea and Udinese boast the next highest proportion of foreign players with 80% each. Of the 15 clubs in Europe with the fewest home-grown players, 14 are Italian or English.

T H E J O U R N E Y M A NT H E C A P T A I N

The number of millions of euro that Carles Puyol could still earn over the next two years at Barcelona. But the “Eternal Captain” has decided to leave the Catalan club at

the end of this season – two years before

his contract expires. It

remains to be seen

whether he will hang up his boots

or make his way to the USA for a year. But

there is no doubt surrounding his success

as a player: 15 years, 593 matches and 21 titles.

88.9 13The number of stops made by Nicola Amoruso on his journey through Serie A, where he played for Sampdoria, Padova, Juventus, Perugia, Napoli, Como, Modena, Messina, Reggina, Torino, Parma, Atalan-ta and Siena. With the excep-tion of his six-month loan spell at Siena, he scored at least once for each team. No other player has scored for so many clubs.

When were footballers first required to wear shinpads? Camilla Petersson, Gothenburg, Sweden

Answered by Thomas Renggli, chief editor: The rule was for-mally introduced in 1990. Before that, many players went without shin protectors, even though today they seem as much a part of the kit as shoes or shorts. Footballing wizards such as Platini or Maradona played with their socks ostentatiously rolled down, a style that would not be permitted in official matches nowadays.

Mir

rorp

ix /

Bulls

Pre

ss, d

pa /

Key

ston

e, G

etty

Imag

es, A

FP

Will Germany win the World Cup?

World Cup bliss: Thomas Hassler, Andreas Brehme and the World Cup Trophy (from right to left) after Germany’s 1-0 win over Argentina in the 1990 Final.

Is there an alternative to penalty shoot-outs? NO YES

40 T H E F I FA W E E K LY