In this exclusive WSC Supporters’ Club edition of the podcast, magazine editor Andy Lyons, writer Harry Pearson and host Daniel Gray discuss celebrity investors in football from Tommys Cannon and Trinder to Uri Geller and the Rake of the Riviera. There is discussion of Chicos, a terrible version of Subbuteo and notable football merchandise, and Record Breakers takes us to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Tokyo. Plus, Luca Toni, Ron Webster and a bevy of other late blooming players.
Search: 'Andy Webster'
Stories
From a sunny trip to Tow Law and many unexpected winners to a seemingly endless number of scandals, our writers’ give their highs and lows of 2016
Gordon Cairns reports on a player who made transfer law history, but who now finds himself back where it all started
The career of Andy Webster to date could read as a morality tale for the modern footballer. As this year’s winter transfer window closed, the centre-half was quietly released by Rangers and rejoined Hearts, a reunion which only a month previously seemed as plausible as Paul McCartney welcoming Heather Mills back with open arms. It wasn’t that Webster had left Hearts that had made him persona non grata at Tynecastle, it was the manner of his going. He was the first player to invoke clause 17 of FIFA’s transfer regulations which states that a player can buy himself out of a contract three years after the deal was signed, leaving Hearts with no transfer fee.
Dear WSC
Howard Pattison (Sign of the times, WSC 286) wonders why there are so few official plaques to footballers in London, but goes on to answer his own question: most of the big names from the pre-war era were based in the north-west, and all the more recent players mentioned in the article died less than 20 years ago. The “20-year rule” – which applies to all suggestions made under the London-wide blue plaques scheme – is designed to ensure that the decision to commemorate an individual is a historical judgement, made with the benefit of hindsight. I could agree that Bobby Moore is as good a case as any for making an exception – but where, then, would you draw the line? The blue plaques scheme is run almost entirely on the basis of public suggestions. In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to increase the hitherto small number of nominations that have come in for sporting figures, including footballers. This has brought some success – Laurie Cunningham and Ebenezer Cobb Morley, the FA’s first secretary and author of the first football rulebook, are now on the shortlist for a blue plaque. As time goes on, more outstanding players and managers will become eligible for consideration, and surely join them. In view of this – and, among other projects, the involvement of English Heritage in the Played in Britain publications and website – the charge that “those who administer our heritage simply don’t see football as part of it” seems about as close to the target as a Geoff Thomas chip.
Howard Spencer, English Heritage
Neil Rose looks at a ruling which looks to have given clubs some power back from the players
When Andy Webster used an obscure FIFA rule to buy himself out of his contract with Hearts for a relatively nominal sum and then sign for Wigan, it was seen as a contract-breaker’s charter. But a recent ruling involving Brazilian Matuzalem appears to have restored some balance in the never-ending power struggle between players and clubs.