Playing football is a rewarding profession in Brazil, but being a player’s mother is now a hazardous occupation thanks to a spate of kidnappings, writes Ben Collins
The practice of kidnapping footballers and/or their family members for ransom has been rife in Argentina in recent years, while Levan Kaladze, brother of AC Milan’s Georgia defender Kakha, is still missing almost four years after his abduction. Now the trend has taken hold in Brazil, too.
Celtic’s 'Brazil international defender' lived up to his name, but not his reputation. Dan Brennan explains how the club blew around £9 million for ten appearances
In February, the Maracana was the scene of a humiliating defeat for fallen Brazilian giants Botafogo as they were felled by regional nobodies Americano in the semi-finals of the Rio de Janeiro state championship. Failing to marshal their back-line was a man who, if you’re a Celtic fan, would have prompted flickers of recognition and perhaps an involuntary shudder. Rafael, as they call him nowadays, is a bit older and sports a jazzy new blond hairstyle. But beneath the coiffure, he is still, by all accounts, Scheidt.
UEFA’s quotas for home-grown players could simply increase the trade in teenage players and lead to more switches in national allegiance, argues Michael Dunne
Where, ask those who condemn the record number of foreigners in British football, will the next generation of England players come from if young English talent is not given its head in the Premiership?
While Japan was considering imposing sanctions on North Korea, they found time to have a game of football, writes Justin McCurry
Naive idealists who believe sport and politics shouldn’t mix had best ignore the Asian qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup – that is if they weren’t already. When North Korea played Japan last month in their opening group qualifier, it wasn’t just the prospect of upsetting the best side in Asia on home turf that motivated them. It was also the thought of putting one over a bitter historical enemy.
Has Peter Reid’s departure from Coventry spelt the end of his managerial career? The real puzzle, Andy Dawson argues, is how he has been allowed to work so long
Peter Reid is not a criminal. He has never boiled a child, nor has he masterminded an elaborate bogus pyramid selling scheme. But if he had, it is unlikely that the resulting hurt would be comparable to the distress and anger his decisions and actions in the past decade or so have caused people. Well, maybe apart from if he was a child-boiler. His recent miserable reign at Coventry City, mercifully brought to an end by Monkey Heed himself, should ensure that he will never manage a football club again. Like the existence of a global al-Qaida network, the idea that Reid is a competent football manager is a myth.