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Stories
The Roma stalwart has his critics, and could have won more trophies elsewhere, but his appeal is in his simplicity
While the other World Cup winners celebrated the competition’s first 50 years, England stayed at home, writes Neil Andrews
The Mundialito tournament – or Little World Cup – that kicked off in December 1980 was one of those rare occasions when FIFA managed to get everything right. Designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first ever World Cup, all six previous winners of the trophy were invited to Uruguay, the first hosts in 1930, to contest the title of Champion of Champions. All seven games were to be played at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo and the organisers were determined to set a celebratory tone. However, the English FA seemed to misunderstand this wave of nostalgia and declined to take part, just like they did first time around.
While the big clubs claim conspiracy, Matthew Barker believes that Verona don’t receive enough credit for a famous title in the 1980s
The popular back story to Hellas Verona’s one and only Championship win, in 1985, tends to focus on the introduction of a new public balloting system for the selection of referees. Claims had been repeatedly made that the bigger clubs would block the use of certain unfavoured match officials. Juventus had just won two controversial scudetti in a row. Surely, the argument goes, it was no coincidence that the one season when referee selection was kept in check, a smaller team were able to take the top prize?
Italian bookmakers stopped taking bets on a recent goal-packed Serie-B match in Bergamo which was watched by Geoff Bradford
Monday December 20 was one of the coldest nights of the year in Bergamo. Despite this, 1,400 hardy souls, me included, turned up for the last Serie B game of the calendar year, AlbinoLeffe v Piacenza. With Piacenza at the foot of the table and AlbinoLeffe perilously close to the relegation zone, an open, entertaining game was not expected. In fact we got a see-saw 3-3 draw.