1. 30SPORTS
Saturday, November 2, 2013 log on to thegoan.net
The argument that the African
and Asian confeds are in the WC
underrepresented is ludicrous
I believe the whole of German football is
annoyed and should be annoyed
– Bayern Munich chief Rummenigge
Possession football by de�nition is
the most di�cult approach
as that: there is a need to create
a global spectacle and to o�er en-
couragement to football regions
that are still developing – while
still possessing su�cient qual-
ity that the tournament retains
a competitive edge. The CAF
president Issa Hayatou’s whines
that only a tenth of his members
qualify while half of Conmebol’s
do would carry a lot more cred-
ibility if �ve of the six CAF teams
hadn’t been eliminated in the
group stage in South Africa while
four of Conmebol’s �ve made it to
the quarter-�nals.
But what about the practicali-
ties? What would a 25% increase
in the number of teams, a shi�
from eight groups of four to eight
of �ve with the top two going
through, mean in real terms? The
early rounds are already packed
with matches featuring moder-
ate sides gamely holding out
against better teams – and doing
so relatively successfully because
a defensive system is easier to
organise than an attacking one,
and the better side hasn’t spent
the time together that it would
have had at club level to �nd the
slickness and precision to outwit
a massed rearguard. So we go
from 48 group games to 80. Many
would be stodgy, many would
be dead rubbers and, because
one team would have �nished
its games before the other four,
the possibility of collusion in the
�nal round would be enhanced.
Platini says the extra 32 games
could be accommodated in just
three additional days. In Brazil,
the group stage will be played
over 15 days. There’s one game
on the �rst day, one day of four
games (the �rst Saturday) and
nine days of three games before
the �nal group games, when
teams in the same group play si-
multaneously – four games a day
but only two kick-o� times.
Extrapolate that and, assum-
ing the same arrangement for the
opening �xture and �nal group
games,youwouldneed21daysto
cram in the other group matches
–soatotalof26days.Maybethey
increase the pace, so there are
four matches every day. That’s
possible and it would mean the
group stage could be completed
in 16 days – actually just a day
longer than will be taken in Bra-
zil (although you wonder how
many people would have the pa-
tience for the day’s fourth game).
Except it would increase thepres-
sure on stadiums. Assuming a
pitch needs three days to recover
a�er a game, you’d need 16 stadi-
ums; 12 will be used in Brazil.
And that’s when the logistics
start to become a little hazy. How
many nations, realistically, have
16 World Cup-standard stadi-
ums? Obviously it’s great news
for the building industry but
given the white elephants that
already stand as decaying monu-
ments to FIFA’s gigantism in Ja-
pan and South Africa, you might
have hoped they’d have sought to
avoid throwing up others.
Perhaps the ultimate plan is
to move away from a single host
– that romantic ideal of a festival
in which players, coaches, fans,
journalists and scouts could min-
gle while watching games – and
to host the World Cup in multiple
centres, as will happen at Euro
2020. That would at least have
the advantage of allowing small-
er nations to bid for chunks of a
World Cup, and the logistics of
travel could hardly be worse than
they are now, but it’s a solution
for a problem that need not exist.
Perhaps Platini really does be-
lieve the upheaval, the dilution
of the tournament, is worth it to
ensure that we can get a game
on between Venezuela and Ar-
menia or Panama and Scotland .
It seems far more likely, though,
that he is toying with what ought
to be the world’s greatest sport-
ingeventforthesakeofhispoliti-
cal career.
S
o Barcelona won the brag-
ging rights from the �rst
Classico of the season last
weekend. They beat Real
Madrid 2-1 at the Nou Camp with
the visitors scoring a consolation
goal at the very end. Apparently
Barca had their lowest percentage
of possession since the beginning
of the season, 82%, which is still
an incredible �gure and epitomises
Barcelona as Kings of the Posses-
sion Game.
Possession football is of course
one of just three fundamental tactical approaches that a football
team can take. The others are counter-attacking football, which
Real Madrid used successfully under Mourinho, for one season
anyway, to deal with Barca’s tika-taka. The third is the direct or
long ball game, a favourite of various British teams of past and
present, who when faced with opponents with superior technical
abilities, play a percentage game by hoo�ng the ball into danger
areas hoping for a favourable knock-down or rebound.
Possession football by de�nition is the most di�cult approach
to take as it requires keeping hold of the ball for lengthy periods of
play. It needs technical skill, close ball control, accurate passing
under pressure and good movement o� the ball to make the space
for those passes. It relies on the patient playing of low risk passes
to team-mates in safe positions until the opposition loses concen-
tration or tires or both. Then a team like Barcelona will launch an
incisive attack to score a goal.
Many fans consider this the most
attractive style to watch as it can re-
sult in sequences of many passes
where a top drawer team can score
beautiful team goals; much like Ar-
senal did against Norwich two weeks
ago and famously when Cambiasso
of Argentina �nished o� a 24 pass
move against Serbia and Montenegro
in the 2006 World Cup.
Counter-attacking teams, on the
other hand, have con�dence in their
defence abilities combined with pace
in their attack. Absorbing pressure at
the edge of their box then scoring at
the other end within 4 passes having
exploited the gaps le� at the back.
Counter-attacking teams spend a lot of time breaking up play but
when in full �ight a counter-attack can be one of the most exciting
sights in the game.
Just think of Ronaldo’s goal against Barca at the Nou Camp 17
months ago which sealed the title for Madrid. Wenger has dis-
played his mastery as a manager by being able to also adopt coun-
ter-attacking as his main tactic in the Arsenal team which was
spear-headed by Thierry Henry in his prime.
The long ball game is o�en derided but can prove very e�ec-
tive for teams of limited technical ability. Players dreaded play-
ing teams like Wimbledon who were intent on “putting it in the
mixer”. Meaning defenders lacking skill on the ball would hoof
the ball into their opponent’s penalty area in the hope that alpha
male centre forwards like John Fashanu would then cause havoc
by terrorising defenders. Wimbledon won the FA Cup in 1988 beat-
ing Liverpool in the �nal so something was working for this crude
tactic based on power rather than technique.
However the third option tactic is hard to watch, so much so
that Stoke �red Tony Pulis from his long career there as manager
despite �rmly ensconcing a modest club like Stoke as English Pre-
mier League mid-table regulars. But the board got bored of the
long ball style and brought in Mark Hughes to change things.
A good example of the long ball game being successful at inter-
national level was the Republic of Ireland lead by Jack Charlton
who took them to their �rst ever major �nals at the Euros of 1988
and again in the World Cup in Italia ’90.
Brian Clough, the former Derby County and Nottingham Forest
manager won two European Cups with the latter club always cre-
ated teams who played eye-pleasing football. He said “If God had
meant us to play football in the sky; he’d have put grass up there!”
Funny but simplistic, as I think the best team would be able to
move between all three styles even within one game in adapting
to di�erent opponents and circumstances. Just like the great Hol-
land team of the 1970’s for whom `Total Football’ meant just that.
� Neil Dougan was a youth player for Glasgow Celtic
Boys Club and is a British Series Producer and Direc-
tor for all the major UK broadcasters: BBC, Sky, Chan-
nel 4, and ITV. He recently scripted, produced and
directed `The Boss: 25 Years of Sir Alex Ferguson’ for
Manchester United TV. He spends his time between
Goa and the UK, with his wife and son.
� In ‘Eye on the ball’ Neil Dougan will put his foot-
ball expertise to paper –history and punditry with a
generous pinch of personal experience
Possession, counter
attackorlong ball?
EYE ON THE
BALL >>
NEIL DOUGAN
�Possession football
by de�nition is
the most di�cult
approach to take as it
requires keeping hold
of the ball for lengthy
periods of play. It
needs technical skill,
close ball control,
accurate passing
under pressure and
good movement o�
the ball to make
the space for those
passes
BERLIN/AFP
H
o�enheim have decided
not to appeal against the
German Football Federa-
tion’s (DFB) decision to validate
their ‘phantom goal’ 2-1 defeat
at home to Bayer Leverkusen,
the Bundesliga club said Tues-
day.
Stefan Kiessling’s ultimately
decisive counter for Leverkusen
came when he headed the ball
the wrong side of the post, only
to see it slip in through a hole
in the side-netting, with the
referee awarding a goal. The
DFB decided against ordering
a replay of the match originally
held on October 18, choosing
instead to let the result stand.
“A�er a period of intense reflec-
tion, we’ve �nally decided not
to appeal to the High Court,”
said Ho�enheim’s chairman Pe-
ter Rettig, according to German
agency SID, an AFP subsidiary.
“This decision doesn’t change
the fact we consider the tribu-
nal’s decision constitutes a bad
signal for the whole of football.
“Nevertheless, we accept this
sentence because we don’t
want to launch into a hopeless
process.” The DFB’s decision
has come in for severe criti-
cism in Germany. “I believe the
whole of German football is
annoyed and should be an-
noyed,” Bayern Munich chief
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told
another German agency, DPA.
The victory has helped Leverku-
sen remain on league leaders’
Bayern’s coat-tails, just a point
behind the reigning champions.
Local press called the decision
a “joke”.
AFP
IN ATTENDANCE: UEFA president Michel Platini at The Football Association’s 150th
Anniversary Gala Dinner at the Grand Connaught Rooms in central London on Saturday
Why a 40-team World Cup?
Platini believes that the dilution of the World Cup is worth it, critics believe otherwise
JONATHAN WILSON/
GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA LTD
Another day, another wearying
proposal to ruin football. This
time it was Michel Platini, the
Uefa president who long ago
surpassed Sepp Blatter as the
global game’s greatest nonsense
machine, who shook the kalei-
doscope of self-interest and came
up with a proposal to expand the
World Cup �nals from 32 to 40
teams. More games! More coun-
tries! More fans! More money!
More votes! Hurrah!
Let nobody be in any doubt
what Platini’s proposal, revealed
on Monday in the Times, is
about. It’s about the FIFA presi-
dency, whether in 2015, when it
seems increasingly likely Blatter
will stand again, using the issue
of the Qatar World Cup in 2022 to
pressure Platini (the main cheer-
leader for Qatar outside of Asia),
or in 2019. Blatter’s pre-hustings
jockeying last week saw him
promising extra places at the
World Cup for Asia and Africa,
and so Platini replied by suggest-
ing more places for everybody,
something he presumably hopes
will gain him support in Africa
and Asia without losing votes
back in Europe.
The argument that the African
and Asian confederations are
underrepresented at the World
Cup is ludicrous, as explained in
detail here. To sum up the argu-
ment, though, at the 2014 �nals,
there will be 13 teams from Uefa,
5.5 from Conmebol (South Amer-
ica), 5 from CAF (Africa), 4.5 from
the AFC (Asia), 3.5 from Concacaf
(North & Central America) and
0.5 from the OFC (Oceania). The
Fifa rankings show the top 32
teams in the world consist of 20
from Uefa, six from Conmebol,
threefromCAFandConcacafand
none from the AFC or OFC. Or,
to take the Elo rankings, which
many deem a better system, the
top 32 comprises 18 from Uefa, 6
from Conmebol, three from CAF
and Concacaf, two from the AFC
and none from the OFC.
This raises the issue of what a
tournament is. If the World Cup
is aimed at gathering the best 32
teams in the world to battle each
other for the right to be consid-
ered supreme, it turns out Uefa
is already under-represented and
AFC and CAF over-represented.
But of course it’s not as simple
‘PHANTOM GOAL’ STAYS PUT
Kiessling’s goal through the nets stands, as Ho�enheim decide not to appeal
This decision doesn’t
change the fact we
consider the tribunal’s
decision constitutes
a bad signal for the
whole of football.
Nevertheless, we accept
this sentence – Rettig