Yearly Archives: 2011
Jimmy Burns – Barca: A People’s Passion
FC Barcelona is much more than a football club- it is a social and political phenomenon.
Qatar and Barca
I remember back in the summer of 2003 attending a press conference organised by the Elefant Blau during the FC Barcelona presidential election campaign at which the then candidate Joan Laporta sat side by side with his running mate Sandro Rosell. There was a sense of positive expectation. The Elefant Blau had made huge a huge advance on the collective consciousness of football fans worldwide as a grassroots movement that believed in democracy , transparency , and financial accountability. A new era was beckoning after decades during which Barca ‘s …
Lourdes revisited (with thanks to Fr Nicholas King S.J.)
A week away from one’s daily existence seems all that much longer a break when it has been spent in Lourdes and I write this now while the experience is not only still fresh in my mind but also hopefully resistant to old habits settling in again. Pilgrimage is a journey and a discovery, and how ever many times I return to this holy enclave in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the process endures- each trip providing both renewal and a fresh encounter in most unexpected ways. It is in …
La Liga: Another two horse race
There are many months ahead filled with potential pitfalls-not least injuries and general exhaustion brought on by an increasingly manic schedule-but the opening La Liga games have provided some tantalising clues as to what awaits us. Building on their performances in the Super Cup, both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have got off to an impressive start that suggest not only that La Liga will be a battle royal between them, but that they will also prove difficult to beat in the Champions League. But first let us not forget …
Rediscovering The Common Good
Rediscovering the Common Good One of my favourite stories- and you don’t have to be a Christian to identify with it- is that of Saint Peter caught in a terrible storm while out fishing, and with Jesus seemingly far away and up a mountain. With no fish and his boat flooding, Peter throws himself into the water and starts sinking, convinced that God has abandoned him and all is lost. Then he sees Jesus reaching out his hand and he is rescued. I guess I am not alone in feeling …
Barcagate
If the media empire of Rupert Murdoch has its hackgate, Spanish football has its Barcagate– or does it? One of the longest serving football club presidents in the history of the game, Jose Luis Núñez, has just been condemned to a prison sentence of six years by a Spanish court after being found guilty on charges of bribery and falsification of documents. Also found guilty, and condemned to a prison sentence of eleven year years was Josep Maria Huguet, the inspector of taxes in Catalonia between 1985 and 1994 who …
Mr Murdoch’s Vatican connection
An interesting twist to the ‘Hackgate’ saga is to be found in the latest issue of the excellent UK based international Catholic weekly The Tablet which points out the Vatican connections of the besieged Murdoch Empire. The magazine ‘s editor Catherine Pepinster( formerly of The Independent on Sunday) recalls her surprise and that of Tony Gallagher, editor of the Daily Telegraph last September when they spotted James Murdoch in the pew behind them during a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XV1 at Westminster Cathedral. But perhaps it shouldn’t have been …
Diego & Messi
That there are Argentines beginning to demand that Maradona is brought back as national coach while at the same blaming Messi for the failures of the nation’s team says something about a country, and a lot about a club. Maradona was once probably the best player in the history of football but it’s also true that his personal and professional decline as a player began after the World Cup in Mexico 1986, and that in South Africa 2010 this overweight drug addict was entertaining as a coach but a disaster …
Diego y Messi
Que algunos Argentinos empiecen a clamar por el retorno de Maradona mientras que le echen a Messi las culpas de los fallos de su selección nos dice algo sobre un país, y mucho sobre un club. Maradona en su momento fue tal vez el mejor jugador de la historia del futbol pero también es cierto que su declive personal y profesional como jugador fue en aumento a partir del Mundial de México 1986, y que en Sudáfrica 2010 este ex drogadicto gordinflón fue entretenido como entrenador pero un desastre en …