BAD DAY FOR GREAT BRITAIN AND ITS ECONOMY

Judging by the successful nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker to head the European Commission, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of Great Britain has chosen the wrong battle. The European Union states voted 26-2 to appoint the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg to be the next president of the European Commission. It appears that instead of obtaining concession from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Cameron has brought Great Britain closer to secession from the European Union. Unfortunately for Mr. Cameron and the United Kingdom, the secession would cost the latter approximately 3 million jobs. David Cameron forced a vote in an attempt to block the selection of Jean-Claude Juncker, seen as a backer of closer political union, which U.K. vehemently opposes. But EU states voted 26-2 to appoint Mr. Juncker to the presidency. Apparently, Mr. Cameron's strategy had "totally failed" and he has been "comprehensively and humiliatingly" outvoted, as per the words of Labour leader, Ed Miliband. Only Great Britain and Hungary voted against the appointment. Another victory for Angela Merkel and the concept of closer political union in EU, another defeat for David Cameron and his model of loose ties binding the members of EU. I have to admit that in light of the United States disengaging itself more and more from the European matters as it switches its attentions to Pacific Ocean countries and starts to deal with growing China economic power, there is not much choice for the Europeans but to bring to a closer union its member states even if those states would cede some of their sovereignty to the EU. In fact, in light of Russia's recent actions and the United States looking toward the Pacific, the European Union should create their own rapid units of military forces to counteract growing might and appetites of Putin's Russia. To me, born in Poland, the country which experienced so much suffering and destruction from both Russia and Germany commencing with the partitions of Poland in the second half of 18th century, through 19th century uprisings and World Wars of the 20th century, until the victory over the communism brought by the Solidarity movement, there is no other way but to embrace a closer EU. The U.K. has a choice, it can always go its own way.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City attorney writing on legal and other important community topics. You can contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

ENGLISH MEDIA AND FANS HAD A GOOD WORLD CUP 2014 - LUIS SUAREZ HAS BEEN EXCESSIVELY PUNISHED FOR THE GLORY TAKEN AWAY FROM THE FALLEN EMPIRE

The whirlwinds blowing around Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan football player (or soccer player, if you are an American), do not seem to decrease in power. English football commentators, journalists, pundits and fans at large are satisfied with the FIFA Disciplinary Committee's ruling which imposed on the 27-year-old a ban of nine international matches as well as the four-month ban from all football and, in addition, a fine of 100,000 Swiss Francs. One might imagine that Luis Suarez will lose much more in advertising deals which would be either terminated or not renewed. Yet, there are present many voices protesting, if not the idea of punishment levied against the player, than its severity. Even the victim of Suarez's latest biting attack, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini, has been offended by the severity of the punishment and making the player a celebrity pariah. As an attorney, I do not have a problem with disciplining Luis Suarez, although I have major problems with the severity of the punishment which would be unconstitutional, in my opinion, in the American legal system for it appears that various properties and/or rights were taken speedily away from Luis Suarez, without providing him with sufficient opportunity to be heard. The biting incident has brought a lot of sadness around the world, yet it seems that in England it resulted only with joy and satisfaction, judging by review of English press, comments to digital newspapers articles and blogs. Even though English national team has been eliminated from the World Cup in the first round (the group stage), without being able to win any match for the first time in history, the English football journalists, commentators and pundits, as well as the football fans, are quite happy and satisfied: Luis Suarez, a brilliant footballer and England national team's tormentor on the football pitch, has been punished not only for biting an Italian football player but, in English national psyche, for all their miseries including for daring to eliminate England from the World Cup, for ending another dream of World Cup glory for the Anglo-Saxon football empire, for 48 years of barren football years and mediocrity of England's national team, for having the temerity of being the best player in English Premier League, for being the top scorer in the Premier League, for his long known desire to abandon the riches of English Premier league for the Spanish football giants FC Barcelona or Real Madrid, for speaking Spanish, the language of hated former Spanish Empire and hated nowadays Argentines, crouching around, in English psyche, and awaiting for the best moment to pounce on the Falklands, which, oh my, they dare to call Malvinas, for the thorn of Scottish independence movement and the referendum, for Jean-Claude Juncker's presidency of the European Commission and for the European Union's existence, daring to silence, with cacophony of its everyday bureaucracy, the not so roaring lions of yesteryear British Empire.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York based attorney, writing on legal and other important community subjects. You can contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

WORLD CUP 2014: WILL USA V. GERMANY MATCH IN RECIFE BECOME A REPEAT OF NON-AGGRESSION PACT FROM GIJON 1982?

Today, the United States national team in football (or soccer, if you are North American) will meet Germany in match deciding who will advance from group G to the next round of the World Cup 2014. At the same time, in Brasilia, Portugal will meet Ghana. Before the last round to be played today, Germany tops the group with 4 points, USA is second, also with 4 points but with a worse goal difference, whereas Ghana and Portugal have each 1 point. If Germany and USA draw their match today, they would both advance further. If, on the other hand, either one of them wins, either Ghana or Portugal still can dream about the qualification to the next round, although Portugal would have to win by 3 goals margin, at least.
Since USA coach Jurgen Klinsman is German, and he and Joachim Low, the coach of Germany were coaching together Germany in 2006 World Cup, there is a lot of speculation that USA and Germany have a non-aggression pact, similar to the infamous Pact of Non-Aggression between West Germany and Austria at 1982 World Cup in Spain, where after West Germany in their last group match beat Austria 1:0 (W. Germany's Horst Hrubesch scored the winning goal in 10th minute, and then both teams pretended to play football to the end of the match because this score was giving qualification to Austria and West Germany, and Algeria who in other match beat Chile, and earlier W. Germany, was eliminated). That infamous match is known in Germany as Nichtangriffspakt von Gijon (Non-Aggression Pact of Gijon) or Schande von Gijon (Disgrace of Gijon). German ARD television commentator Eberhard Stanjek at some point refused to continue with commenting whereas Austrian commentator Robert Seeger requested that the viewers should switch off their television sets.
Will we have to watch today the replay of the infamous non-aggression pact of Gijon? Jurgen Klinsman indicated USA will beat Germany, whereas to all the experts all over the world the Germans are the favorites and should beat the Americans at ease, with the pool of talent they have at their disposal to which USA can respond only with team spirit, great conditioning and iron will to win. Let's hope that sport and forces of good will claim the win, as they should.

Janusz Andrzejewski is New York City based attorney writing on legal and community important topics. You can contact him by telephone: (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

WORLD CUP 2014: LEO MESSI AND THE LAST MISSING TROPHY

In yesterday's matches at World Cup 2014 Argentina and Nigeria qualified to next round from group F, and France and Switzerland from group E. Already eliminated Bosnia prevented Iran from qualification by beating them by the score of 3:1 whereas in the other match of this group Argentina edged Nigeria 3:2. This match has been a showcase for Leo Messi who gave Argentina early lead by pouncing on a rebound and directing his fierce shot under the roof of Nigerian goal. Argentina did not enjoy the lead for too long as young Nigerian Musa has scored from left side of the penalty area even a more beautiful goal then Leo Messi. Eventually, Leo Messi responded in second half with a beautiful free kick which found Nigerian goalkeeper Enyama frozen on the goal line. Young Musa once again equalized the score with another well taken goal, to which Argentina responded with the winning goal headed from a corner by left-back Rojo. After that goal Messi has been taken off the pitch and Argentina comfortably preserved their lead to the end. As I have been saying all along since January of this year, Leo Messi has sacrificed the Barcelona club season in La Liga and UEFA Champions League just to be ready for the World Cup. He already has won everything with FC Barcelona and was voted four times the best player in the world, yet he had to deal with accusations of not giving it all to the home country, Argentina. When at the end of last year he was sided by injuries, I have predicted that the break in the season will serve him well during the upcoming World Cup. Even though Messi came back from injury in January, 2014, he was playing until the end of the season for Barcelona not like Leo Messi we knew from the past. I voiced an opinion on various forums at football blogs in England (newspaper Guardian, etc.) that Messi sacrificed everything to win the World Cup, or at least to get to the final. Even though he is the greatest footballer in the history of the sport, various detractors did not want to recognize his greatness and were bringing in discussions Diego Maradona casus, claiming that he was able single-handedly to win one World Cup in 1986 with a weak Argentina team, and then to get back to the final in 1990 with even a weaker team. I repeated at football discussing forums on many occasions my theory that Leo Messi sacrificed everything with Barcelona this season just to lead Argentina to the final at the World Cup, yet my opponents in discussions were claiming that Messi is finished, that perhaps he wasn't that good, that Ronaldo is better, what of course made me respond with laughter for Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be put on the same level with Messi. Whereas Ronaldo is a an athletic type of footballer, runner and powerful shooter, though limited dribbler with a lot of unnecessary step overs, who achieved everything with hard-work, Leo Messi is a brilliant technical player who can dribble with ease and lightning speed, with a ball glued to his feet, through whole defenses and shoot unexpectedly or supply other players with brilliant passes or assists. Whereas Ronaldo is petulant and has big ego, and makes his teams weaker (look at Portugal national team or Real Madrid studded with best players for many seasons yet without success except for this season's Champions League) Leo Messi is a player with a vision, who constantly creates for the team and makes it better. When Ronaldo disappears in big games like Champions League final or major international tournaments (except for Portugal v. Sweden playoffs, however, because of his big ego Portugal didn't qualify directly and had to go through back door to the World Cup) Leo Messi scores huge goals for either Barcelona (all Champions League and La Liga successes) or Argentina (qualification to World Cup 2014 and the World Cup 2014 itself, where his goals decided each of the matches played by Argentina so far). When Ronaldo is a child who showcases his muscles and sulks when his teammates score big goals, Leo Messi is still a humble man who doesn't stop the world around when kicked or otherwise fouled (like Ronaldo does) but calmly walks away. Argentina is a long shot for the World Cup which is blessed with teams huge on talent like Germany, Netherlands, Colombia, France, or even Brazil (even if so far it did play poorly), but with Messi everything is possible. In next round Argentina will meet Switzerland, who beat yesterday Honduras 3:0 with the hat-trick hero Shaqiri from Bayern Munchen playing like on fire, whereas France, who drew Equador yesterday 0:0 and topped group E, will meet Nigeria, team playing better and better with each next game. Notwithstanding the valiant opponents, Argentina and France should advance.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney writing on various legal and community important topics. You can contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com


 

WORLD CUP 2014: WHAT TO DO ABOUT LUIS SUAREZ?

The third round of group stage matches at the World Cup turned out to be quite eventful. On Monday Brazil disposed of Cameroon by the score of 4-1 and advanced from Group A as its winner. Brazilians played their best match so far at this World Cup, however, their opponent was the weakest team, in fact one cannot call Cameroonian players a team, so devoid of any tactical discipline they were at this World Cup. The score was quite flattering to the Brazilians who still did not convince me, and unless they come up with the goods in the next game, they might be eliminated. Their young star, Neymar, bagged two additional goals and he is the current leader in the golden boot ranking with 4 goals in three matches. In the second match in group A, Mexico continued their good and spirited display by beating Croatia 3:1, but they will have to play in the next round the formidable Dutch team. In group B matches, Netherlands had to play without Robin Van Persie against dangerous Chile, yet they were able to prevail 2:0 over the South Americans, thanks to two goals created by Arjen Robben and scored respectively by Leroy Fer and Memphis Depay, both Dutch substitute players. Thus, Netherlands as the winners of group B will meet in next round Mexico whereas Chileans will play the hosts of the tournament: Brazil. My favorites are Netherlands, even though Mexicans will be very tough opponents, and, yes, I think that Chile can and will beat Brazil, based on the current display of form by both teams. Of course, Brazil have the advantage of being the host and the expected help of the referees, like in their first match against Croatia.
Today, in group C, Colombia crushed Japan 3:1 and won the group with maximum of 9 points whereas Greece advanced also, thanks to shock win over full of flair Ivory Coast 2:1, with the controversial penalty converted by Samaras in the injury time. Colombia before the tournaments was one of my 8 favorites to reach the quarterfinals, and even though they do not have Falcao at their disposal at this World Cup, they play impressive blend of physical and technical football and are unstoppable in their counterattacks. If they can continue like this, I see them reaching at least semifinals. In Group D, England was able only to draw with Costa Rica 0:0, who before the game already qualified as the winner of group D. The "English Lions" left the World Cup for the first time without winning any match. In the other match in Group D, Uruguay prevailed over Italy 1:0 thanks to Diego Godin's header, and controversial red card to Italian midfielder Claudio Marchisio. This match will be part of the World Cup folklore thanks to scandalous attack of Luis Suarez on Italian defender Chielini, just minutes before Godin's winning goal Suarez appeared to bite Chielini on his left shoulder, and then pretended that he was elbowed by Chielini. The referee, who it appears did not notice the bite,  did not react to the attack and failed to eject Suarez from the pitch. Costa Rica, the winner of group D will play in the next round Greece (I stick with the unglamorous Greek veterans) whereas Uruguay will be doubly unlucky to play Colombia, surely without Luis Suarez, who in all probability will be suspended by FIFA for the biting incident, third one in his career. Even though the tv recordings might not be enough to find Suarez guilty in the court of law for his criminal assault, apparently they are sufficient to FIFA Disciplinary Committee to  ban Suarez after the game, provided the referee did not witness the incident.  What a shame! Uruguay is as good as gone from this World Cup without Suarez in their encounter with Colombia in the next round. He is actually much better and more explosive a player than Cristiano Ronaldo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and I rate Suarez currently as no. 2 player in the world, only behind Leo Messi. It appeared that he was about to put his career in the highest gear as Barcelona are interested in acquiring him from Liverpool. Will they be interested in acquiring the genius forward who happens to be a serial biter? What to do about Luis?

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney who writes on legal and other important community topics. You can reach him by telephone at (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

WORLD CUP 2014: HIGH MARKS FOR GHANA, ALGERIA, COSTA RICA AND USA IN THE SECOND ROUND OF GROUP MATCHES

The second round of group matches has shown how exciting World Cup 2014 has become. It is time to talk now about the perennial lightweights consisting either of poor countries such as Costa Rica, Honduras, Iran, Algeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria or of the rich newcomers, relatively speaking, to the football table such as the United States, Australia, South Corea or Japan. I kind of predicted that CONCACAF countries might have much more to say in this World Cup due to their tropical climate (Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, even U.S.A.) and time zone location, not demanding any acclimatization from their players or any time adjustment, even if they play during majority of the year in Europe). But never I would have predicted that Costa Rica would be able to beat Uruguay and Italy in two consecutive matches! I could have smelled an accidental win, but two in a row? Over the giants of world football? I knew that Costa Rica best players play in solid European clubs, even if not in those from the top shelf, and that they are exposed to high standards of European football on a daily basis. FIFA, the regulatory body of world football (or soccer, if your language is American English) apparently smelled something fishy about Costa Rica wins for they selected seven players from Costa Rica, after the match against Italy, for anti-doping tests. Usually, two players from each team are selected for the routine anti-doping post match tests. FIFA claims that selection for the doping test of so many players from Costa Rica was caused by unavailability of many Costa Rica players for anti-doping tests prior to the tournament. Those who follow doping affairs know that it is common to those using doping during training prior to the competition to disappear so not to be caught by unannounced random anti-doping inspectors (i.e. Jamaican or U.S. track and field athletes). We will see what happens but we all hope that Costa Rica is for real. Regarding African teams, prior to the tournament I hoped that at least Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria would make it to the post-group round of 16. In fact, I hoped that Ghana (or Belgium) might be the surprise team of the tournament. Even though Ghana outplayed USA, and their better footballing skills were clearly visible; they were beaten in the first round of group matches as USA played a smarter brand of football.  But, in the second match against Germany, incidentally so far the best match of the tournament, Ghana showed that they are capable not only of football full of power, but also of flowing, positional play, marked by high technical individual skills of the players. Unless Germany and USA will come to a quiet understanding and draw their final game, I predict that Germany and Ghana would advance from the so called group of death. I have to give high praise to USA team for their second game against Portugal which they drew 2:2. Although they won the first game against Ghana (2:1), Ghana was the more enterprising team, notwithstanding USA great team spirit and killing instinct displayed by the goals of veteran of English Premier League Clint Dempsey and the newcomer John Brooks. However, in the game against Portugal, USA were visibly the better team, creating better occasions and playing consistently, notwithstanding the higher technical skills of Portuguese players. Portugal, on the other hand is a funny team, boasting the talents of Ronaldo, Nani, Moutinho, Veloso or Carvalho, yet unable to play as a cohesive team, overwhelmed by the egos of their players. And Ronaldo does not make them better but worse (except for the occasions such as the pass to Valera which gave Portugal the drawing goal in the injury time). In my comments to articles in English Guardian before the World Cup, I had predicted that Portugal will not make it out of their group. Returning to USA team, it seams that Jurgen Klinsman has gotten it right, by getting rid of Landon Donovan and putting his money on  Dempsey and Bradley (and the only world class US player: goalkeeper Tim Howard)  as the leaders of the American team. The team is cohesive, exhibits killing instinct and never die attitude, even though it lacks still in technical skills department. They should get better. What happened to the national team of Cameroon, only God knows. The indomitable lions of 1982 or 1990 World Cups are just a distant memory, although I would not bet against them in match against unconvincing Brasil (incidentally, I do not rate this Brazilian team highly and do not consider them as capable of getting to the final, notwithstanding the referees help and the best schedule of the matches). Nigeria, now without big names except for Odemwingie and Emmenike, in the game against Bosnia showed that they can be successful with their passing game as long as they are consistent in defense. Against Bosnia, their defense was focused and solid, and it could rely on the goalkeeper. I believe they should advance together with Argentina to the play-off rounds. The complete surprise were Algeria, usually a defensively minded team from North Africa, as they were in the game against Belgium. This time, they changed their tactics and played offensive football, surprising South Korea with the simple directness of their game. South Korea and Japan appear to have regressed since the last World Cup, although they might still pull out a surprise in third game. Australia, relying on good Cahill and Jedinak, clearly the weakest team in the tournament, continuing to play typical British football. I do not see much happening for them in the near future. Iran, on the other hand made visible progress under the tutelage of Carlos Queiroz, relying on good defensive game and dangerous counterattacks conducted by skillful and mobile players. They were particularly dangerous against offensively minded Argentina, and had they won, it wouldn't have been undeserved, notwithstanding that it is easy to park a bus and rely on counterattacks against offensively playing teams. Summarizing, great World Cup for the minnows, if minnows still exist in the world football.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney writing on legal and various community important topics. You can reach him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

WORLD CUP 2014: LESS BORING BUT STILL MEDIOCRE ENGLAND

Despite many problems with the preparations of World Cup 2014 in Brasil, the sporting event itself has been so far a success. Not only the amount of goals scored has been so far the highest since 1958 World Cup in Sweden, but the level of play has been quite good, to say the least. Moreover, until today, there were only two draws out of twenty-three matches played, and only the match between Japan and Greece did not bring any goals. Prior to the outset of this World Cup, as every football aficionado (I detest the term soccer so I use European English word: football), I chose my eight favorites, among which I could see the future champion: Argentina, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Colombia and Belgium. So far, only Spain disappointed, bowing out of the tournament after two games played. It appears that after eight years of constant successes and three consecutive major titles, the Spanish national team lost its hunger; I believe Spain will quickly regroup and will be among the contenders for Euro 2016 trophy. Out of the remaining teams, my sentimental favorite is Argentina (although I am hugely impressed so far by France, Colombia, Netherlands and Germany), for two reasons: firstly, I would like to see Lionel Messi to crown his outstanding career with the Rimet Cup and secondly, Argentina needs badly some consolation in their current economic situation, complicated by the recent ruling of the United States Supreme Court which took side of the vultures hedge funds in their fight with Argentina's government, stemming from the past monetary crisis and unresolved bond issues, what might cause bankruptcy of the whole country. In my opinion Leo Messi is the greatest player who ever played football, but for the sake of detractors who list Pele and Maradona as the greatest footballers ever, because among other achievements they managed to win the World Cup, Argentina's successful World Cup 2014 campaign would finally shut up all the detractors, mostly English journalists and football fans, denying Messi's greatness. Regarding England, they fared precisely as I have predicted by losing consecutive games against Italy and Uruguay, and just today they were kicked out from this world cup by Costa Rica's win over Italy. I do not know what it would take for the English to realize that they are average footballers, just like Ukrainians, the Poles, Norwegians or Swedes. England happened to be a host of the World Cup in 1966,  and as a host nation happened to win that World Cup 48 years ago, thanks to the referees' help (in quarterfinals against Argentina and then, in the final, against West Germany - when Soviet referee awarded England with a goal that never was, as the ball did not cross the goal line). It beats me how can the English ahead of every world cup ( to which they qualified) herald to the world that this time they are about to win it when their footballers have such limited technical skills that they are unable to stitch several passes together and have problems with basic control of the ball? It is the highest time for the English to learn from the Dutch, Germans, Spaniards, or Belgians how to properly teach the kids basics of technical skills. The English footballing philosophy is to take big and athletic boys and to make them into footballers (tackle, run and shoot), whereas all over the world the policy is to find skillful technically boys and only then those talented are being developed further technically, athletically and tactically. The English support their pretenses with claim that their Premier League is the most competitive league in the world yet they conveniently omit to mention that in the top 7 Premier League teams an English player is a rarity (Manchester City, the current Premier League champion, fields only an English goalkeeper in its starting 11); take out the foreigners from premiership teams and you are left with nothing but mediocrity. Apparently, England had everything they needed to win this world cup: 72 person entourage including psychiatrists, nutritionists, turf specialists, industrial fans, heat chambers and individually tailored recovery drinks. I wonder about the valiant but poor boys from Costa Rica, do you think they had a shrink in their entourage? England, its the time to finish your personal recriminations, leave alone your coach as he is the best and the most experienced you have, stop to blame Steven Gerard and start your basic work with the kids, by copycatting the Dutch or the German models. Then, perhaps in 16 years from now, you can dream again about wining the World Cup or Euro. Good Luck!

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney, writing on legal and other important community subjects. You can contact him by telephone at (212) 634-4250 or by e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com