The False Nine’s David Dodds previews Group D in the African Cup of Nations…
Ivory Coast
This is the so-called Golden Generation of Ivorian football, and it’s little surprise that this is the case given how stacked their squad is with players who have European pedigree. Continue reading
False Nine Russian correspondent, Andy Shenk, looks at the problems facing Russian clubs in their efforts to persuade fans to come to games ahead of major improvements being made to stadiums all over the country, with one eye on the 2018 World Cup Russia hosts…
Russia is on the cusp of a football stadium boom. The new venues are sorely needed: 12 of the country’s 16 Premier League teams play in Soviet-era arenas with minimal comfort, poor lighting, and inadequate drainage on the pitch.
Sometimes football rivalry can go further than just fans’s distaste for other clubs and their traditions. False Nine Russian correspondent, Andy Shenk, looks at the Caucasus region in Russia and how the area’s recent success in football has exacerbated further tensions between ethnic Russians and their mountainous compatriots…
For many in the United States, Russia brings to mind only cold Siberian steppes and grey old women in frumpy grey overcoats. The stereotype is as propaganda-driven as Russia’s perception of America as one big dissolute reality TV show. Continue reading
As part of a series of articles on Russian football during the Winter break, False Nine Russian correspondent and debutant contributor, Andy Shenk, pores over the latest scandal in a saga of incidents that have brought match-fixing to the forefront of the squabbling authorities’s attention…
Russian football rumbles often with news of match-fixing, from the lowest to the highest levels. In 2009, Kryliya Sovetov lost 3-2 to Terek in Grozny in a Premier League encounter that reeked of corruption. Though neither team suffered any consequences, Leonid Slutsky, Kryliya manager at the time, commented several years later on the suspiciousness of the match: “I understood that the substance of that history was known at all levels – from Mutko [head of the Russian Football Union then] to the journalists. It’s just that no one’s yet to write the truth of the match in Grozny.” Continue reading
False Nine editor, Andrew Belt, assesses the front-runners of the Russian Premier League in the first of three 2012-13 review pieces of the campaign so far as the teams ease into the winter break…
Two weekends ago, the Russian Premier League broke up for the safety of warmth during winter as harsh weather comes to the country. Continue reading
False Nine editor, Andrew Belt charts the rapid progression of Anzhi Makhachkala ahead of their away trip to Liverpool in the Europa League. The third and final part of a trilogy previewing the game, comparisons are made between the evolution of the club and the growth of a rare type of swan…
Misanthropic TV critic, Charlie Brooker, blew the whistle on a particularly vulgar American TV programme on his Screenwipe review several years ago. Called The Swan, supposed ‘ugly ducklings’ were transformed into ‘beautiful swans’ via painful plastic surgery. Continue reading
False Nine co-editor James Dutton provides the second part of a trilogy previewing Anzhi Makhachkala’s trip to Anfield this week. The subject, the highest paid player in world football…
Samuel Eto’o is enjoying a prolific twilight to his glittering career in the Russian Premier League
Think of Anzhi Makhachkala and the first thing that comes to mind will probably be Samuel Eto’o; the Russian club’s marquee signing during the 2011 summer transfer window has become the poster-boy for one of the most ambitious clubs in European football. In return the iconic Cameroon striker has become the highest paid player in world football, earning a reported £350,000 per week – equating to roughly £16 million over a year. Continue reading