Cultured Football #69
Evolution of Brazilian Cllubs. Portugues Abroad Celebrate. Birmingham City F****d. Crypto Fraud. Football Nomad.
More regular than a French minister blaming fans / fake tickets / anything apart from the truth, Cultured Football is back with our weekly finely curated football stories.
PS - Don’t forget to bookmark one of my favourite pages to scroll through during the summer: the Guardian’s tracker of every deal in major European football leagues.
A Premier League model beckons for Brazilian football
By Neil Fredrik Jensen for Game of the People
It is not something that has made many headlines but big changes are taking place in Brazilian domestic football which has long been riddled with financial difficulties. As clubs start to attract foreign investment and look at ways to earn more money, the Premier League is increasingly being seen as the obvious example for them to look at.
7 minute read
Portuguese Abroad end-of-season Honours List: the full breakdown as Luso players, coaches win trophies in 30 countries!
By Sean Gillen for PortuGoal
I don’t think that there is any European country that exports talent as much as Portugal; certainly not any that can boast such an equal measure of coaches and players working abroad. And, to understand how incredibly successful they are, one only has to read through the list of honours won by Portuguese in this past season.
5 minute read
Birmingham City are pretty much f***ed and it will take something special to rescue them
By Ian King for Football365
The past fifteen years have not been easy ones for Birmingham City and its supporters. What was initially seen as a promising takeover by Hong Kong based businessman Carston Yeung has turned into a nightmare that keeps on getting worse and worse. Relegation from the Championship last season was avoided mainly because points were deducted from others but it is hard to see how they can avoid that fate - and worse - going forward.
7 minute read
Ex-Man City crypto partner linked to alleged £1.1bn+ fraud
By Martin Calladine for The Ugly Game
When crypto-currencies and football related NFTs are featured in these pages it is rarely for positive reasons and so too is it on this occasion. A brilliant piece of journalism has revealed how the people behind 3Key, who were briefly Manchester City's ghostship crypto partner, are the masterminds of a £1.1bn+ chain of alleged frauds.
5 minute read
The Italian globetrotter who’s on a quest in Africa
By Paul Grech (i.e. me) for Football Paradise
“It was a beautiful experience. To this day, I am still in touch with a lot of people from my time in Palestine. And that’s great. Sport isn’t only about winning but about building new relationships and, also, so that when you leave the country, you feel that you’ve managed to leave something behind.” For most of his adult life, Stefano Cusin has been coaching in places many others wouldn’t go, driven by his desire to coach the game rather than the need for fame. His is a wonderful story.
12 minute read
Something Else We Loved This Week
We’re blessed to have so many fantastic football books that cover practically every aspect of the game and the football library keeps on growing with every month.
Glorious Reinvention by Karan Tejwani is undoubtedly a valuable addition to that library. It is the story of how Ajax rebuilt themselves to compete again with Europe's best, a change driven by Johan Cruyff and made reality by other Ajax legends. If this sounds like something you’d enjoy reading, I strongly encourage you to check it out.
Last Week’s Most Read: Who Will be the Next Primeira Liga Export?
By Aaron Barton for The Analyst
We don’t often feature two articles from the same site in one issue of Cultured Football but this one deserves inclusion. The Portuguese league has proven to be incredibly successful at developing players that then move to more prominent leagues and with the transfer window opening up soon, it is particularly interesting to take a look at those who could be the next stars to come out of the Primeira Liga.