La Repubblica regrets that violent fans and the lack of economic transparency are discouraging financially strong investors from buying Italian football clubs. "After the various takeovers, the British Premier League is now the richest in the world. ... Why are rich oil sheiks and Russian oligarchs not interested in Italian fooball clubs? ... Investors in Italy must fear they will not be able to control what they have bought. The clubs are held hostage to the so called organised supporters, comprising in part real criminal gangs whose acts of violence can do irreparable damage to property and society. Underlying these collective acts is an economic intent for which it is difficult to find and prosecute individual perpetrators. Added to that is the powerful role of football managers, and last but not least conflicts of interest. Italian clubs get their money almost exclusively from the rights to television broadcasts. The people conducting the negotiations often pursue their own private interests, in conflict with those of other clubs. In a word, football suffers from the same ills as the entire Italian economy." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Tito Boeri

Commenting on the sale of Manchester City football club, The Guardian bemoans the fact that football clubs are no longer dominated by fans but by financiers: "The saga is merely the most spectacular example of an irreversible shift in the top clubs which communities and fans seem powerless to control. Last time it was Chelsea. Now it is Manchester City. Soon it will be another club, possibly Arsenal or Newcastle. It is a spectacular process and it fuels tremendous entertainment. But it is a collective delusion not to see that it is all a classic live-now-pay-later Faustian pact. For football fans, a season or two's bought glory may feel like a prize beyond price. But in the end it is all another example of the headlong sacrifice of our way of life and our planet to oil profiteers who respect neither laws nor traditions. Maybe that's life. But football fans always prefer innocence to experience." (03/09/2008)

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The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung expresses concern about the influence exerted by wealthy investors on Europe's football leagues. "In total 450 million euros were spent on Italy's transfer market and - thanks to the oil and gas reserves in Abu Dhabi and Russia - even more in England. The Spanish league and the [top German division] the Bundesliga cannot keep up with this - perhaps because they do not have the advantages of a head of government like [Italian Prime Minister] Silvio Berlusconi. He invited Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich to lunch on the Island of Sardinia on a blue August day. ... Two days later [striker] Andre Schevchenko was signed up with AC Milan again. The Italians have been able to keep foreign investors in football at arm's length so far. ... Only Berlusconi and Inter's [the Milan football club] petrol tycoon Massimo Moratti can ... hold their own with Abramovich, but the much poorer competition doesn't want to be left behind. ... No matter what the cost." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Birgit Schönau

Grave accusations were recently made against Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša on Finnish television. He was accused of accepting bribes in exchange for purchasing Finnish tanks for the Slovenian army. Darjan Košir, editor-in-chief of the daily Delo, writes that regardless of the outcome the affair will have an impact on the elections in September. "Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Janša no longer has a choice: either he sues Finnish television for damages for making false accusations against him and the Slovenian state or he confesses to the 'deal of the century' and retires from politics before the voters take him out of circulation on September 21, because they will have trouble digesting the bribe accusations. ... If it becomes more or less clear in the next few days that Janez Janšas is guilty, he is dead politically. If nothing becomes clear he will either easily win the parliamentary elections in September (as a victim) or suffer a quashing defeat (for being considered guilty)." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Vlado Miheljak

The operator of an oppositional Internet magazine produced in the Russian republic of Ingushetia was shot by Russian authorities on the weekend as he was being arrested for "extremism". The daily Latvijas Avīze criticises Russia's policy in the Caucasus: "Russia claims to guarantee the independence of smaller nationalities. The events in Ingushetia show how unfounded this claim is. Often enough Moscow itself provokes ethnic conflicts and separatist movements, in order to subsequently cast itself as problem-solver. The Kremlin's minority policy is a vicious circle: to impose its idea of order on the Caucasus, the areas are given over by Putin to leaders who act as they please and exacerbate dissatisfaction among the populace. This in turn leads to even more arbitrary action on the part of the police. It is significant that the Ingush opposition figure who was 'accidentally' killed was not an armed warlord, and did not even belong to a political organisation. His sole weapon was the popular website www.ingushetiya.ru, which dared to publish uncensored information and critical commentary on the situation in Ingushetia." (03/09/2008)

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The EU Commission has drawn up an action plan for the reform of business law which stipulates among other things a stop to exempting European non-profit organisations from paying value added tax. Denmark has rejected the Commission's request, a move applauded by Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper. "If non-profit organisations are no longer exempted from paying value added tax, it would have a dire effect on charitable organisations like Church Emergency Aid, ... Africa Mission and the Red Cross, and cost them millions. ... The Commission's plan to cancel the exemption may well look good through technical or economic spectacles. But you should not judge things solely from this perspective. The EU Commission's action plan ... is a graphic lesson in how far the body is removed from the reality of EU citizens." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Jakob Holm

The Transylvanian journalist Béla Bíró deals in the Hungarian daily Népszabadság with the diplomatic offensive led by Romanian President Traian Băsescu in the Caucasus crisis: "President Traian Băsescu has chosen to bring all his international authority and political farsightedness to bear. ... According to Băsescu one of the main causes of the crisis in South Ossetia is that the Ossetians were not prepared to be part of the Georgian state on the basis of individual rights. ... In Băsescu's opinion nothing could be easier than to deprive the minorities in Georgia of their collective rights without further ado. ... The fact that it is precisely for this reason that the minorities want to break away from the nation states has not even occurred to Băsescu. ... At an international level the 'solution' à la Băsescu would lead to precisely the opposite of what our wise leader wants to achieve. But at present no one can convince either him or the majority of his European partners of this. It seems it will take more blood and more destruction to convince them." (03/09/2008)

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The Caucasus crisis has its roots in Georgia's excessive nationalism, writes Russian philosopher Michail Ryklin in the German weekly Die Zeit, noting that nationalist trends are also a problem in other post-Soviet countries. "The dreams of the nationalists were dashed when Georgia was left destitute following the break-up of the Soviet Union. ... The possession or lack of property should not [however] lead one to draw far-reaching moral conclusions. ... And who are these 'Russians' and 'Georgians' anyway? Most of them are post-Soviet people who think they have returned to their national niches after the end of the Great Terror - as if the Terror had not left them with deep wounds that would take decades to heal, as if their nation would not feel the phantom pains of the Soviet era. ...  The refusal to confront their own past is bringing wars and conflict to the post-Soviet region. Regardless of the form the rhetoric takes nationalism is flourishing, and democratic rhetoric is no exception here. ... A return to Europe can only be achieved by confronting the recent totalitarian past and those mechanisms that reduced the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kyrgyz and Georgians to the same servitude. Only when this work has been done can our concepts of Europe become more complex, nuanced and - what is more important - realistic." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Michail Ryklin

Columnist Martin Wolf describes the upcoming American presidential elections in the Financial Times as the last vestiges of Anglo-American global hegemony: "They [the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and the Republican candidate John McCain] also reflect divergent elements in the tradition: the instincts for conflict and for co-operation. The first instinct seeks enemies and the latter deals. The former is manichean and the latter conciliatory. ... This presidential election might well determine the character of the next, possibly final, epoch of Anglo-American global hegemony. The question is whether the American people will choose the instinct for conflict or that for co-operation. ... Neither Mr McCain nor Mr Obama will, in practice, embrace just one alternative. Nor will just one approach be the only answer. But the difference in tendency is clear. Is the US girding its loins for another great crusade against evil? Or is it prepared to sit down with the rest of the world and talk. The right approach for today's complex world is not that of those who see agreement and appeasement as synonyms. The choice seems clear. It will shape our era." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Martin Wolf

An increasing number of Eastern European migrants who found work in the Netherlands are returning to their home country. The daily Trouw laments this trend: "Their departure will lead to labour shortages in the agricultural sector, the metal and cleaning branches and the construction sector. ... This is worrying for these sectors, but it is also a sign that Europe is growing up. The European Union had the foresight to expand the free circulation of goods and services and created a monetary union. But the Achilles' heel of economic unity was the labour market. ... It is the member states who refuse to abolish restrictions in order to protect their own people. ... If the workers' rapid migration movements are a sign that Europe is growing up, the Netherlands apparently does not know how to deal with this situation. The Hague appears to be primarily concerned with avoiding giving the impression that people are welcome here. ... The Hague must recognise that as regards migration we should be accelerating rather than decelerating." (03/09/2008)

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Unemployment figures climbed to 2.5 million in Spain last month - half a million more than in August last year and the highest rate in ten years. The business newspaper Cinco Días voices doubts about the government's plan of action: The Spanish head of government "José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has announced ... that he will present a series of measures aimed at creating new employment for those who have lost their jobs in the building industry. ... The government is wise to give this project top priority - particularly if it does not confine itself to the measures that have been announced so far: 100,000 unemployed to be given jobs working for 'the common good' - the renovation of public buildings, forest preservation and social work for marginalised groups. This plan - as long as we are not given the details - falls way short of what is needed and also takes the wrong direction if these jobs are to be financed by the state budget. For this is not the government's task. Its task is to create conditions that serve to produce new jobs." (03/09/2008)

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Philosopher František Novosád regrets in the liberal weekly newspaper Týždeň the comparatively minor influence of Slovakian intellectuals on daily life: "In the 20th century the elites here were all but completely replaced every twenty years. There was no continuity. ... The intellectuals in Poland or Russia have a firmer foothold. No matter what the regime did to Russian intellectuals, they always had Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in their minds and so they saw the world with different eyes. ... In addition, Slovakian intellectuals see it as their duty to be extremely critical and to destroy all the myths they encounter. They have an extremely destructive nature. That is because of the discontinuity. A university, for example, needs 50 or 60 years to function well. And it needs three or four generations of professors who can build on the work of their predecessors." (03/09/2008)

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The Victoria & Albert Museum in London has acquired the original drawing of the famous tongue logo of the British rock band The Rolling Stones for the sum of 92,500 dollars (63,000 euros) at an auction in the US. The Italian daily La Repubblica comments: "Many believed the red mouth with the protruding tongue which has been the Rolling Stones' trademark for 37 years was created by [pop art icon] Andy Warhol. ... Who could have done a better job of giving the rock rebellion synthesised visual expression than Warhol. Yet it was not Warhol but a 24-year-old student at London's Royal College of Art named John Pasche. Now the tongue is hanging in a museum, and this is only fitting considering the advanced historicalisation and museumisation of the rock culture. Nowadays the original texts, musical instruments, clothing, and everything the rock stars touched are all fetish pieces and have become objects of desire for private collectors and, more recently, public institutions." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Gino Castaldo

The American Internet company Google has attacked Microsoft's market supremacy with its new browser Chrome. But the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita doubts that this means the end of the monopolies: "The short history of the development of the computer sector shows that big companies rise over the ashes of other giants. IBM emerged when it showed that the endproduct is more important than the technology inside the computer, and left CBM, Atari and Texas instruments vanquished behind it. Later Microsoft showed that it is not the computer, but what we use it for, the programmes, that are key. ... Now Google has launched a massive attack on what Microsoft has been successfully selling for years: office packages. Almost anyone who has ever come in contact with a computer knows Word and Excel. This next revolution will only have advantages for customers, but it will mean the next set of headaches for Microsoft. And many people will be happy with this change of the guard, for Microsoft has in general met with little sympathy on the part of consumers. But we should not forget that the bottom line is that one monopoly is replacing another." (03/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Hubert Salik