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Stories
He never won a trophy in English football, but the free-kick specialist is fondly remembered at the City Ground for his ability to always find his way out of a tight spot
The continent’s richest clubs are attempting to wrestle wealth and influence from more traditional places, reports Alan Tomlinson
In the context of Sepp Blatter’s stated intention to push through reform of FIFA practices, various groups have been claiming to be the true voice of football, none more robustly than the European Club Association (ECA). This is the self-proclaimed “nuclear family of the football society”, the successor to the elite G-14 group established in 2000, which was expanded to 18 in 2002 and disbanded six years later.
Derek Brookman looks at how a Champions League experiment fared (and failed) in the Netherlands
The play-offs were introduced in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 2005-06 season for an initial period of three years, with the intention to extend this if they proved successful. The second- to fifth-placed teams would scrap it out to determine who would be the second Dutch representative in the Champions League (the champions qualified automatically), while the next four sides would contest qualification for the UEFA Cup.