By Nick Harris 21 January 2014 Barcelona produce more first-team footballers across Europe’s elite ‘Big 5′ divisions than any other club in the world, according to new analysis by the CIES Football Observatory and published today by Sportingintelligence. The Spanish giants have developed 44 players currently with top-flight clubs in Spain’s La Liga, England’s Premier […]
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World Cup prediction special: ‘The BBC will flood the airwaves with Gangnam Style and fat men everywhere will pretend to lasso women’
* By Jonnie Baker 6 December 2013 Anticipation is obviously reaching fever pitch over the unspeakably complicated group-stage draw for the 2014 Fifa World Cup (TM), which hasn’t been obsessing too many people at all. Certainly not to the extent that anyone would come up with a draw simulator, like the one linked here, […]
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‘Fluke or finance, the title processions in Europe in 2012-13 should be a serious concern’
* EUROPE’S major leagues delivered a string of titles by procession in Spring 2013 as a group of the biggest, richest clubs across the continent romped to runaway victories. Most leagues have always had one or two dominant clubs but is there something else afoot now? And what if anything does that say about the […]
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Villains and Saints promote youth as Hammers and Fulham help the aged
By Brian Sears 13 September 2013 If you win nothing with kids then Aston Villa and Southampton will win nothing – but their fans might appreciate they are trying to succeed with promising young players. There’s a huge contrast in the age of Premier League starting line-ups so far this season, from nippers Aston Villa (average […]
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REVEALED: Qatar hoaxer – a cautionary tale of delusion, fantasy and lucre (DFL)
By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 25 March 2013 The story of Robert Beal, also known as “The man who hoaxed The Times,” might be amusing if it did not […]
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Premier League goals record on track thanks to United, Arsenal, City and Chelsea
By Brian Sears 10 January 2013 Premier League goal scoring is still on track to achieve record levels for a third season running, but only just and mainly thanks to the recent free-scoring exploits of the Manchester clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea – and especially two recent freakish scores from Arsenal and Chelsea. Up to today, […]
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Messi business: Five thoughts on a number-crunched Ballon D’Or
By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 8 January 2013 So Lionel Messi yesterday won the Ballon D’Or for the fourth time in a row, having had a stellar year in which he won the Copa del Rey. And scored 91 goals. The brilliant Argentinean, 25, collected the award – deservedly […]
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Sportingintelligence: international digest
. This page, updated from time to time, contains a range of coverage of stories broken by Sportingintelligence . STORY: Barcelona produce more players for ‘Big 5’ Leagues than any club in the world (from 13 December 2012) Zing (Vietnam), Maccabi Haifa (Israel), Le Parisien (France), Slate.fr (France), TV2 (Norway), Globes (Israel), B92 (Belgrade), Daily […]
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Live radio and TV links
. 2 September 2013: LIVE Gareth Bale unveiling at Real Madrid And find out by clicking on this LINK what Bale is REALLY worth 31 Jan 2013: Beckham’s unveiling press conference at PSG was LIVE here. LIVE PSG TV by PSG Radio 5 Live (via studio camera) .
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This bubble ain’t bursting yet: all the details you’d ever want to know about the Premier League’s new TV deals
By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 17 June 2012 Jaws dropped, mine included, when the Premier League held a press conference last Wednesday at the Landmark Hotel in London to announce they had sold their UK live TV rights for 2013-16 to Sky and BT – for £3.018bn. This represented a […]
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