An Old International

No remorse? No job!

News broke late last week, over the weekend that Jerôme Boateng is about to return to Bayern Munich to gather work experience as a coach. While this is laudable as he has won a few trophies throughout his career, the news nonetheless sheds a dubious light on the club and poses serious questions to German society in general.

We remember, Boateng was accused of having hurt a former girlfriend, yet escaped being sentenced. This in itself represents a slap in the face of women and the woman in question. The trial has been dragging for more than five years now and initially the player had to face the fact of having a criminal record. However, several instances at various courts later and Boateng was acquitted but has to pay €100000 to organisations that help kids. And should he ever be reported to the police for violence against women, he will face severe charges. In football parlance: he is booked and next time he’ll be sent off.

Football is way too lenient when it comes to domestic violence. A few years ago, a former player in England was hired by a club after having assaulted a woman. Boateng was accused of having beaten his girlfriend while they were on holiday. The former couple have been arguing for several years about the custody of their kids and it appeared that it is before this background that the argument escalated with both sides getting physical; yet Boateng appeared to have hit harder which led to the investigation in the first place. Initially, he faced charges of €1.5m and a conviction but he escaped either for different reasons.

He got away with it and it’s not fine. It throws a terrible light on football and the German society at large. Will we accept someone without showing any remorse as a coach in football? It may just be possible he coahces kids or a women team! Will they feel safe in when near him? While it is clear that people make mistakes, it is vital that they live up to them and learn from them. This clearly seems not to be the case with Boateng. This is terrible news for football and sports in general.

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Magdeburg: 1-0-7, 7:19

Here we are: the autumn internationals are behind us and FC Magdeburg have parted ways with their coaching staff in a move that appeared overdue. With a quarter of the season played, Magdeburg are thoroughly rooted at the bottom of the table with three points from eight games and a goal difference of 7:19. This is relegation form. We have been there twice. Once in 2018/19 and the story did not end well as Magdeburg were relegated. In 2022 the season started similarly but somehow the team managed to turn things around and avoided being relegated straight away. How have things come the way they are?

The main reason is surely the departure of Christian Titz in June just after the end of last season. He left behind him a team that had missed out on promotion by a few points only. Who knows, though, Titz may have seen something among his former players that made him look for an exit strategy. A home defeat against Preußen Münster ended all dreams of promotion in spring; Magdeburg couldn’t be further away from the top spots in autumn 2025.

In all fairness it must be added that Magdeburg are not that bad, their statistics demonstrate a good percentage of ball possession and the mileage the entire squad has done during those eight matches up to this point, isn’t too far behind that of their opponents. Last season they had a lot of luck and simply had a goalscorer who was there to score. The departure of Martijn Kaars surely left a gap but in the first match after his departure Magdeburg lost 4:5 in a freak match at home to Greuther Fürth. That day they showed that they are no pushovers. However, it was the last time they scored in a league match. Since then a goal in a friendly against Aue was the only goal scored in the league since 31 August! That’s more than 450 minutes without a goal! And while they do create chances, they are just a bit off the mark.

Yet, the overall impression is that of a team deeply insecure about its potential and that is the task of the coaching team. It is here where Markus Fiedler and his assistants have been out of their depth and lacked a strategy to address these issues. Hence the decision to part ways with the coaching team.

There is however, the question whether this decision comes too late and whether this scenario may have been avoided by hiring a different coach in the first place. If things go wrong, it is the coach who will be sacrificed yet the players remain and need to find a way out of their situation. It is therefore questionable whether a change of coach will make a difference. It has not worked in 2018/19 but back then the sacking of Jens Härtel simply came too late and the squad was not strong enough for Bundesliga 2.

Here we are, Magdeburg have parted ways with their coaching staff, hoping that a new coach will turn around the fortunes of the club in just a few weeks time.

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UCL Qualification: Paris FC (F) – Austria Vienna (F)

And before you can count to two, summer has gone: the evenings are still light but the temperatures have dropped to more enjoyable levels after almost three months of summer heat. It also means the start of the Champions League and other European Cup Competitions.

A rainbow over the stadium, of which we can see an empty tribune.

Today the women of Paris FC were hosting their counterparts from Austria Vienna in the qualification for the group stage. The sky presented itself with sunshine and a rainbow just after kick-off. And immediately it was Paris who took the initiative. Yet their fluidity brought no rewards other than being pleasant to watch.

Both teams had their Ultra groups present; Vienna putting Paris to shame as their ten man crew was respectable compared to the home side‘s fifty. It gives an idea of the support for women’s football in Paris.

Within the opening 15 minutes Paris had outplayed the Vienna keeper but the ensuing corner brought nothing. It was Vienna who grafted themselves into the game with grit and determination. Their passes lacked precision. This was emblematic when their number 5, Tatjana Weiss crossed way too early. This was a waste of a rare opportunity to push Paris back.

The Parisian keeper showed some insecurity when the team had a goal kick: Vienna pressed and applied pressure and Paris almost cracked. They had a lucky escape.

Speaking of which, Vienna rode their luck: the post and the cross bar saved them as well as Paris placing a number of well played balls wide.

The second half began in the same manner as the first half ended: Paris FC were dominating possession and the pitch yet created too little. This was largely due to Vienna now appeared to be better organised in defence, thus allowing less chances for Paris to get through on goal. Vienna were more physical now but could not make it count, i.e. create their own chances. It was somewhat telling that they had their first chance of the match after almost 75 minutes! Not long after, it could have been 1-0 for Vienna but a very good tackle prevented it from happening.

It was now a typical 0-0 match: both sides started their moves promising only to be frustrated by the tip of the foot, a body, a leg in they way. On the other side, this was entertaining for the crowd as the game, though now largely taking place in midfield, ebbed back and forth.

Advantage Vienna? Maybe as the return leg will see them play at home. However, they need to improve their attacking prowess, or rather need to show that they possess something like that. Paris on the other side will know that one goal will suffice to see them through – yet they need to be more clinical, less wasteful.

Sadly, with some time still to play, people started leaving the ground. The ground, the Stade Jean Bouin, in Paris’ 16th arrondissement, wasn’t even halfful, a sign that the women’s game outside the top clubs still has a long way ahead to develop. For the neutral observer though, it was trip down memory lane: cycling to the game, arriving five minutes before kick-off, no stress, no police.

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The mysterious affair of the drawn window blinds

The football establishment had something to mull about at the end of last week (August 25-29). An email from St. Pauli to FC Magdeburg was published online; it’s phot has been taken through a drawn window blind, adding some spice to the entire affair. The mail was sent from St. Pauli‘s sporting director about the transfer of Martijn Kaars from Magdeburg to the Hamburg club. It requires some criminal energy to go to these lengths to get such a photo taken. Rightly so, Magdeburg have forwarded the case to the police for further investigation. It’s likely that nothing will come off it and no one will be charged for breach of privacy and theft.

There’s two things here that make this affair stand out. First, is the fact that people really don’t seem to care about privacy and really wanted to get this information published. This could only have been people with knowledge of this email having been sent, thus acting intentionally, or the action was planned and the outcome was pure coincidence. Either way, the damage is done.

Second, it leaves Magdeburg with the urgency to find a solution, i.e. a replacement for Kaars. During last season he scored 19 goals and was thus an integral member of the team that only lost out on promotion during the final two or three matches of the last campaign. And this is where the upset begins. Magdeburg have already played three league games this season, lost two of them, but beat Dynamo Dresden away. They have additionally reached the second round of the German Cup. So far, he has scored two goals in the league and one in the Cup. This is already a very good performance, showing that Kaars has potential. St. Pauli coming in and buying him, therefore only logical. Yet, the league is already underway and the summer transfer period about to close. To find a replacement and hoping that this player will be just as impactful seems difficult if not impossible. The home made solution may be Rayan Ghrieb who has been signed from the French Ligue 2 club EA Guingamp and who already has scored twice: in the Cup against Saarbrücken.

However, there needs to be a better ruling for those cases. The Bundesliga starts tradionally later than the second division in Germany, so the clubs have more time to prepare and to assemble their squad. However, there should be a ruling which prevents such late signings unless the player or the coach is a free agent, particularly from lower league clubs.

The whole affair leaves an aftertaste: Magdeburg have lost a very good player while the season is already underway. The circumstances have left many damaged reputations on either side. While Kaars made it clear ‘to take the next step’, his departure nonetheless forces his ex-club to bolster their squad.

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Home – where is it and how many are there?

The telegram channel of BBC Sport published a message today informing its subscribers that Evan Ferguson is moving to AS Roma in a season-long loan. His club in England are Brighton & Hobe Albion.

However, there is a little issue with this message. It reads

An Irish man abroad

This is, of course, correct. Born in Ireland and playing for Brighton & Hove he is already abroad, which renders this post recalling his origins outdated.

Save!

Football is a game that is decided by moments of brilliance or failure, depending on which side of proceedings one finds themselves. Sometimes though, admiration transgresses those tribal boundaries that seem to be an inherent part of football. For instance a gravity defying save as seen in the quarter-final match between the German women’s team and their French counterparts. France were better, no doubt about it, Germany had one player sent off with only 13 minutes gone. This save against France is one for the ages.

Ann-Katrin Berger has an interesting biography so far. She is a late comer to the national team: she only became the number one goalie ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. She won the Bronze medal on this occasion. It could have gone entirely different as she had to undergo cancer therapy. Twice.

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I’m running the 2026 Paris Marathon for Mental Health UK and i’m raising funds for this charity. For more info, please visit my fundraising page.

£1.000.000 and 46 years

News stations were reporting that Olivia Smith broke the £1m barrier after signing a contract with Arsenal’s womens team. In men’s football, this sum is peanuts. It shows the gap, no the gulf between either games. In 1979 the English club Nottingham Forest, then managed by Brian Clough, paid more than £1m to sign Trevor Francis from Birmingham City.

The figure one million is immense: many people will earn one million in their entire working life. The current British annual income in 2025 on average is £37.430, which make £374.000 after ten years, not including increases due to inflation and contractual increases. That is one side of the coin.

The other is that it took almost fifty years for the women to catch up. In England, for example, the game was outlawed for most part of the 20th century; only an order by UEFA forced the men’s FA to end its restrictions on the women’s game in 1971. However, a lack of funds and above all, of willingness stunted the growth of women’s football not only in the UK, but globally.

The game in 2025 find itself in robust health: attendances are increasing, the play is excellent and still improving. Yet, as in real live, the women are less paid than their male counterparts./p>
„The inch between us becomes light years now“

This verse by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, if inversed, describes the situation of the women’s game quite succinctly: the light year has become smaller by an inch. Only.

The transfer set a new world record. Her former club, Liverpool, signed her for £250.000 from Sporting CP only last year. It was a record fee for the club then and the increase within a year signifies a very good return of investment for Liverpool.

Bloated

Global football has become somewhat of a joke in recent years. The World Cup was awarded to countries which have to be considered autocracies or oligarchies. The number of teams participating has multiplied since the first post-war edition of 1950, when there were only 13 teams competing in Uruguay. The format with 32 teams appears to be sufficient for several reasons:

    1. It lasts a month – enough time for most players to recover, except for the top nations who are likely to reach the latter stages of the tournament.
    2. At the same time it’s not too long for the spectators to lose interest.
    3. The number of games that are boring is relatively low.

There exists the idea of having a one-off 64-team tournament in 2030 to mark the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup.

Cynically, we could equally ask “why not invite 100 nations?”

Since it’s the 100th anniversary of FIFA’s top tournament, this only makes sense. Yet, there is a catch to this.

An increased number of teams almost automatically means more games that will be boring for the public and therefore may result in falling attendance at the grounds but also and way more important: less spectators on the screens which has a direct impact on advertising revenue for FIFA. Already, some of those group matches and games in the first knockout rounds are tedious affairs.

Yet, as is tradition, once an idea has been born and floated to the public, the latter may become susceptible to the idea and a spiral has been set in motion and the idea may just become reality.

In line with our current times, people like the FIFA president, may go ahead with this idea and may just implement it. Just because he can and there is little to no opposition within the governing body to scrutinise the issue and come up with enough counter arguments and voting power to overturn such an idea. FIFA, like many other sporting bodies have been hollowed out and money has been at the core of it. Money and dependencies.

For now, it is an idea, raised by a member of the FIFA board. If it stays that way remains to be seen.

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I’m running the 2026 Paris Marathon for Mental Health UK and i’m raising funds for this charity. For more info, please visit my fundraising page.

A Brand New Start

Reputations in football are much quicker dismantled as it takes time to build them. Magdeburg are the latest example in this list. Or rather, their – now – former coach, Christian Titz. Towards the end of last season, Magdeburg were as comprehensively as surprisingly beaten by Münster: 5-0 was the result. The hopes for promotion got big dent; this got bigger the following week at Paderborn. Despite a 1-0 lead after 16 minutes, Magdeburg went home empty-handed and all hopes of going up to the top division were well and truly over. The final home game against Düsseldorf served to cement fifth place.

In the post-season chill rumours broke that the Magdeburg coach, Christian Titz, put in a transfer request straight after either, the Münster or Paderborn games. These rumours were confirmed in the post-season press conference at which Ottmar Schork, sporting director confirmed that Titz wanted to leave. Of course, in late May the club tried to keep their coach. He has become a hero, having secured the club from going to the fourth devision in 2021 and led them to the 2. Bundesliag a year later. After an 11th and 14th place finishes in 2023 and 2024 respectively, Magdeburg only surrendered their chances of going up during those final weeks in May 2025.

What followed was an eerie silence with rumours spreading of possible destinations: Schalke, Köln, even Queens Park Rangers were mentioned. Of course, Hamburg were mentioned where Titz was fired some years previous. Yet, slowly news crept in that none other than Hanover 96 were front runnners in securing Titz’ services. Now this is a farce, indeed. Hanover finished 10th – behind Magdeburg and were out of contention for promotion.

True, Hanover, alongside Schalke, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hertha BSC have the biggest stadium capacities in this division. Hamburg and Köln are now one tier higher; Kiel and Bochum have by far not this capacity. This means, the budget in Hanover may be bigger. Yet, they have not managed to return to the Bundesliga in seven years. Their return does not look likely come the next season.

Yet, a move, a change is nothing new and something that everyone should be allowed to. In the eyes of Magdeburg supporters it feels like a step back, not forward. Moreover, Hanover are a direct rival for a top ten finish next season. This may not go down well with some sections of the fans. The logical step would have been a Bundesliga team, a team abroad or a clear contender for promotion next season, i.e. Fortuna Düsseldorf.

It is tiresome to discuss the ‘ifs’ and ‘whens’ – Titz has gone, he has got his will and Magdeburg have received a recompensation from Hanover 96. It means a fresh start for Magdeburg with a new coach, a different idea of football.

Upwards and onwards!

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I’m running the 2026 Paris Marathon for Mental Health UK and i’m raising funds for this charity. For more info, please visit my fundraising page.

At long last: PSG conquer Europe

The history of the 2025 UEFA Champions League victory for PSG began in 2011 when the Qatar backed investment fund took over Paris Saint-Germain. It altered the French footballing landscape significantly. All of a sudden, Paris were capable of big signings without thinking twice.

For more than a decade the money spent did not deliver the biggest of returns in European club football: the champions league trophy. The amount spent goes into several millions. The hubris reached its climax with the signing of Neymar, for whom PSG, or rather the Qatar Investment Fund, spent €200m.

The names of the players, read now, resemble more like an assembly of brands rather than players: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham, Dani Alves, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar. However, the biggest brand among the players always eluded them: Cristiano Ronaldo.

Upon their return on the big stage, the hopes were immense, yet always the Parisians ended up second best. Often deservedly so, sometimes cruel – the penalty by Marcus Rashford comes to mind; it is said to have had a lasting effect on Marquinhos. Of all the players it is him, the captain who deserves this trophy and victory the most.

On the coaching side, some of the biggest names in football have been hired yet failed to deliver in Europe. Carlo Ancelotti has proven that he can win – and not only once – at Real Madrid. So did Thomas Tuchel and Unai Emery. The latter and his current club, Aston Villa, were eliminated by PSG en route to the final. Emery has also proven that he is able to deliver and win European trophies: he won the Europa League four times, three consecutive times with Sevilla between 2014 and 2016 as well as with Villareal in 2021. Wedged in between is his spell at PSG that saw him wininng the domestic treble in 2018. Thomas Tuchel has won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021 a year after he reached the final with PSG and lost to Bayern. It must be said that the format was adapted in 2020 as the Corona pandemic allowed only limited play from March onwards. This is to show that PSG for a long time were not a functionning team – despite the big names.