Recent content by Tim Vickery

“One of the biggest blasts of hot air, which I’ve been hearing ever since I was an adolescent, is the idea that top level sport is a good place to learn and develop ethical and moral values. It never was. Ambition, the desire to be a hero and to make lots of money are usually much stronger.” So...

All's fair in love, war and relegation battles - or Palmeiras seem to think so. The Sao Paulo giants, the team of the city's Italian community, are in trouble. Back in July they won the Brazilian Cup, guaranteeing a place in next year's Copa Libertadores, South America's Champions League...

The biggest occasion in South American domestic club football was back on Sunday when River Plate met Boca Juniors in a league match for the first time in almost 18 months. The big Buenos Aires derby is followed all over the continent for a number of reasons. One is the historic role played...

"I was too busy scoring goals to learn how to play football," says Dario, a legendary figure in Brazilian football from the 1960s and 70s. A charismatic character, Dario invents phrases as easily as he used to put the ball in the net. "There's no such thing as an ugly goal," he once said. "Ugly...

A gap has opened up as South America's World Cup qualification campaign reaches the halfway stage. Victories on Friday for Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador mean that three teams have pulled away from the pack. But the round had another winner, who did not even take the field on Friday. It was...

The so-called 'Super-classic of the Americas' descended into the farce that it probably deserved last week. Argentina against Brazil is one of football's greatest rivalries. But the occasion and its tradition are undermined when the matches are staged outside FIFA dates using only domestically...

Colombia's football must come to terms with its past drug problems Tim Vickery says Colombian football's attempts to erase its years of drug-financed success may be a step too far. Veteran Colombian midfielder Gerardo Bedoya came up with something special for his record-breaking 41st...

Little more than a month into the season, new signing Oscar is already a Stamford Bridge sensation. I must confess that I took a bit longer to be won over by him - before making up for lost time by coming to the conclusion that he could be the most important player Brazilian football has...

World Cup qualification in Europe has a few good games along with plenty of mismatches. In South America, meanwhile, every game in the long campaign is resonant with rivalry and relevance. The best development in the history of the continent's national teams was the birth of the Copa America in...

In the context of a league campaign, a resounding win or a heavy defeat never ends at the final whistle. More important than the points won or lost can be the team's reaction. Can it rally in the face of adversity, or guard against excessive euphoria? This is especially true in South America's...

World Cup qualification resumes in South America this Friday, with a question mark hanging over the team which have been the continent's form side over the past two years. Might the London Olympics mark an unwelcome turning point for Uruguay? On the face of it there should be no cause for alarm...

Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini was frustrated when his striker Sergio Aguero was called up by Argentina for a friendly against Germany two weeks ago. And he is exasperated to see Aguero's name in his country's squad for the coming World Cup qualifiers. The trip to Germany came just a...

On Wednesday Neymar helped Brazil to a morale-boosting 3-0 win away to Sweden. The next evening he was back in action on the other side of the Atlantic, in Florianopolis in the south of Brazil, where he played the starring role as Santos came from behind to seal a 3-1 victory against...

In the culture of Brazilian football there are few crimes more serious than losing in a final. The celebrations have been planned and the champagne is on ice. Then, when things go wrong, everyone sees it and the humiliation is complete as you fall from a great height. What kind of landing awaits...

When I fly back to Rio - the host of the 2016 Olympics - my enduring memory of London 2012 will be that of Great Britain's women's football team beating Brazil. Included in a Wembley crowd of 70,584, sitting directly behind me, was a young girl of around seven or eight who had gone along with...