By the way...

A pulse of steel

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino

(Bild: Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

For "Krone" columnist Harald Petermichl, not getting angry about Gianni Infantino and his FIFA would not be the best resolution for the new year. The boss of the world governing body has too many targets for that.

With two days to go, mankind will once again be making all kinds of New Year's resolutions. But watch out! Experts, especially those in cognitive self-reflection, warn that this can go wrong if they do not reflect an inner need and lack motivation. It would therefore be more than unwise to start the new year with the resolution "Stop getting upset about Infantino and FIFA", because the likelihood of successful implementation would not be too great. Instead, we should set ourselves reasonably realistic goals, which in our case means simply focusing on things that Infantino has not yet had a hand in, such as the early history of soccer.

Specifically with Sheffield, the English metropolis and former steel town that is not only home to Joe Cocker, but also to the oldest soccer club in the world, FC, founded in 1857. Awarded the "Order of Merit" by FIFA in 2004, the club's sporting performance is rather modest and FC currently ekes out its footballing existence in the seventh division with the beautiful name "Northern Premier League Division One South", while city rivals Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday perform successfully in the second division. United, currently top of the table, play their home games in the oldest stadium in the world where professional soccer is still played, at Bramall Lane in the north of the city. Deep in the south of Sheffield, however, there is a street called "Bochum Parkway", which is surprising at first.

But only briefly, because a glance at the city map of Bochum shows that there is a "Sheffield Ring" at the junction of Castroper Hellweg; the two cities have been on friendly terms since 1950 because they used to play a major role in the steel industry. Yes, in the past, when Herbert Grönemeyer's song lines "Du bist keine Schönheit // Vor Arbeit ganz grau" or "Du hast "n Pulsschlag aus Stahl" would have fit both cities perfectly. But that was a long time ago and the Grönemeyer romanticism has long been industrial history. Even less romantic is the fact that Sheffield United has been under the sole ownership of Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Musaid Al Saud since 2019. I wonder if he might be working with Infantino...? No, let's leave it at that and look forward to a peaceful new year and a prosperous 2025. That's better. Good luck!