Search: ' World Cup 2006'

The FA's permanent fixture, David Davies, has been left in charge of the shop again. Philip Cornwall reflects on a career that defies logical explanation

Amid the swirl of crisis at Soho Square, with the dep­artures of Adam Crozier, Frank Pattison and How­ard Wilkinson and the (so far false) rumours about Sven-Goran Eriksson, one man still stands. David Dav­ies’s second term as acting chief executive of the Foot­ball Association, this time in joint control with Nic Coward, marks him down as a great survivor.

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Stephen Wagg offers a revisionist view of Adam Crozier's time in charge at the Football Association

When Adam Crozier left his job as chief executive of the Football Association, I was in­trigued by the language in which this was rendered by the football media. It seemed for all the world as if some tribune of the people, having heroically held the line against “commercialism” in the game, had now de­parted the stage. In his wake the fat cats of the Premier League would now continue to boost their own financial power at the expense of ordinary football folk. When one con­siders the circumstances of Cro­zier’s appointment and the key events of his comparatively short tenure at the FA, this seems more than a little absurd.

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Sepp Blatter is promising Oceania automatic entry to the World Cup, again. Matthew Hall thinks this time he may actually come up with the goods

To be or not to be? That’s the question for the Oceania Football Confederation as FIFA promises the qualifying process for the 2006 World Cup will be decided in Madrid this December. The proposal, from none other than the president Sepp Blatter, is that Oceania takes the guaranteed qualifying place freed up by the decision that the holders will no longer qualify auto­matically for future World Cups.

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Football can bring out the best in people. Is this really the motive of Libya's notorious leader? Alan Duncan discusses a potentially unfounded change of tack

Seen from the outside, it’s an intrigue that could perhaps be adapted to an Austin Powers movie. After decades of championing international terrorism, Dr Evil and his cloned son finally decide to go down the straight and narrow. They shock the world through their new-found sense of tolerance and magnanimity of spirit rather than their erstwhile moral depravity. The reason for such a drastic transformation? The sudden realisation that football can provide them with the unlimited access to the fame and power they have long failed to achieve through criminal deeds.

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Football and the rising sun simply don't mix, says Al Needham. The 2002 World Cup was all well and good, but it should never be allowed to take place at that time of the morning again

Once upon a time, the World Cup was like a dog. A big, fluffy, waggy-tailed dog who would wait for us to come pegging it out of the school gates. It would wait patiently for us. We would make time for it. All our friends loved it, and would talk about it incessantly. It was heartbreaking when the dog went away, but we knew it would be back another day, wagging its tail and licking our faces.

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