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Racist chanting across Europe continues to be met with feeble punishment, while glacial progress has been made at home on increasing BAME representation in boardrooms and dugouts
Fluffed penalties, late goals and becoming the first nation to be eliminated from the World Cup finals without losing – Scotland are the best at missing out
Visiting teams complain about the pitch, but the Luzhniki Stadium deals with the Russian weather, writes Sasha Goryunov
In May 2008, Chelsea and Manchester United contested the Champions League final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. There was something unusual about the playing surface: it was grass. For one match only, turf was brought in from Slovakia. In fact, this was the second set of imported grass. The original failed to take root and had to be replaced just two weeks before the game. John Terry might wish they hadn’t bothered.
Football managers do the game no favours when they back their own players at all costs
In a tumultuous year of revolutions, natural disasters and financial crises, one of the most shocking moments came in the final fortnight of 2011 when Chelsea showed some common sense. That is rare at a club whose officials have to pretend it is run as a regular business rather than at the whim of a billionaire. In December, however, they emerged from their cocoon to show an awareness of the world around them. Chelsea players were apparently keen to wear T-shirts showing their support for John Terry after it was announced he will face criminal charges in February for alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand. Manager Andre Villas-Boas had already declared that Terry will get his full support “whatever the outcome”, whereas his employers took a step back, saying: “We did not think that the wearing of T-shirts was an appropriate or helpful show of support.”