Friday 1 David Moyes is to sue the Daily Mail over claims that Wayne Rooney said he was “forced out” of Everton by the manager. Bristol City’s Bradley Orr and Scott Brooker and a former team-mate, David Partridge, now at Leyton Orient, are jailed over a nightclub brawl last October.
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Stories
In the wake of the David Unsworth saga John Williams & Sarah Gilmore examine how football treats women who are married to, or linked with, players
In football’s “good old days”, way before 30,000-quid-a-week contracts and multi-lingual team talks, players’ wives were seen by the canniest managers mainly as a means of keeping their prized young performers indoors, out of the papers and off the bevvy.
Owen Oyston saved Blackpool from the brink of bankruptcy. David Blundell looks at the controversial businessman
Distinguishing Features Take the Emperor Ming, dress him in the archetypal football manager sheepskin and stick a six gallon hat on his head. You now have Owen Oyston. At least, that was Owen a year ago. Now, denim shirt and trousers with arrows are more his line (he is now in Pentonville prison for the unusual crime of using undue influence to talk a girl into sexual congress).
Tuesday 7 Barry Fry is sacked as manager of Birmingham City. "After three years and 61 players we think someone else is entitled to have a go," says the club's owner David Sullivan, adding: "Barry is a very attractive prospect for a club like Notts County or Luton" (who will both now be desperate to draw Birmingham in a cup next season). "I'd like to think I have woken up the sleeping giant," says Barry. The FA will be looking for a new commercial director after Trevor Phillips resigns due to "differences over overall strategy in relation to commercial policy". Hmmm.
Wednesday 8 It's getting murky. Trevor Phillips' resignation is being linked to police investigations into the sale of Euro '96 tickets to unlicensed agencies, many of which were raided last week by police who made eighteen arrests. The FA had authorised corporate packages to be sold through two companies but Phillips seems to have encouraged others to apply. As many as 50,000 tickets may be involved. lvano Bonetti is to sue Grimsby manager Brian Laws over the dressing room fight that led to Bonetti having a steel plate inserted in his face. The FA haven't yet found a date for their inquiry into the incident. Paris St Germain win the Cup Winners' Cup, beating Rapid Vienna 1-0 at the new Heysel Stadium.
There are now women working within the game at almost every level apart from team management. Anne Coddington spoke to several who have made football their full-time career
This year’s Carling Report provided the clearest view yet obtained that growing numbers of women are following football. Thirteen percent of supporters are now women and of the fans who started watching football regularly since the change to all-seater stadia five years ago, women represent one in four.