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28 November 2008 ~
If you are as fretful as we are about the faltering Respect campaign, you will be delighted to know that barriers have now literally been put in place. Stuart Pearce and referee Howard Webb launched the FA's new anti-rage device earlier this week. Why not send off for one and get some respect back in your life.
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 Badge of the week
Hamburger SV are the only club to have been in the Bundesliga continuously since its inception in 1963, but are probably best known in England for signing Kevin Keegan in 1977. What Kevin felt about the club crest is not documented but that may be because there is very little that can be said about an abomination such as this, except swallow back the bile and move on with one’s life. To think that a team of presumably sentient people sat around for a period of time designing this badge really does beggar belief, to use a favourite phrase of Alastair Stewart on Police, Camera, Action!. But apparently people very closely associated with the club looked squarely at the country’s second city – founded by the Emperor Charlemagne in the ninth century – sifted through its history and, weighing it all up, decided on three black-and-white diamond shapes on a plain blue background. This is either an abstract realisation of the many conquests and liberations of the city over the years or it is three black-and-white diamond shapes on a blue background. It is so dull it is inspired, rather like a Kraftwerk instrumental. The Hamburg players’ hearts must swell with pride whenever they see it. Cameron Carter
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from Chris Front
“On November 21, the Daily Mirror reported Juventus president Cobolli Gigli as saying: ‘Inter are an aircraft carrier with a lot of classy jets at their disposal. Juve are a battleship. They’re younger but with character.’ Are battleships generally younger and more characterful than aircraft carriers? One for Jane's Fighting Ships to sort out, I suppose.”
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Long Players The Glorious History Of Football’s Full Length Recordings  The English Disease Barmy Army (On-U Sound, 1989)
It could be said that The English Disease is the sonic equivalent of Fever Pitch. It captured the essential sense of the game with a devotion, wit and creative touch that runs through both sides of the LP, and it spawned legions of mediocre imitations. It still makes for an enthralling and at times even moving listening experience thanks to Adrian Sherwood’s genius at blending in chants to beats on tracks like Sharp As A Needle and Que Sera, Sera. Anyone with a drum-box and a synth can take commentary clips and terrace singing and mess around with them, but few can throw them all together in a way that makes you remember why you love football – its noise, its thrill, its absurdity. On many Saturdays, sitting at home with this recording would probably be a huge improvement on going to a game. If you follow the doctrine that you only really need to own one football LP (based on a belief that so few are worth listening to a second time), you probably have it already. Ian Plenderleith
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WSC Archive
Tony Adams saw his Portsmouth team let in another late equaliser to deny them a famous victory over Milan last night. But judging from his time at Wycombe, perhaps it’s a surprise he’s managing a top-flight team at all..
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from Chris Lewis
“Scot Gemmill is mocked on Wikipedia for being nowhere near as good as Archie.”
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WSC Trivia ~ No 43
Perk yourself up (should you need to) by repeated viewing of an animation of the WSC staff (circa 1998) as a rock band. We pitched this to the Disney Corporation, MTV and Channel Four – essentially as a fusion of Peanuts and Josie & the Pussycats with jokes about typesetting – but we've not heard back yet.
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Stickipedia
A mine of information constructed from sticker cards
 Carlos Caszely & Francisco Valdez, Chile FKS World Cup 1974
Two weeks after the Chilean military coup of September 11, 1973, the national team drew 0-0 away to the USSR in the first leg of a World Cup qualifying play-off. The Soviets withdrew from the return fixture on the grounds that the national stadium in Santiago had been used as an internment camp for political prisoners. FIFA required Chile to simply turn up for the second match, with the team walking the ball into an unguarded goal. The Chilean captain, midfielder Francisco Valdez, and the team’s star player, winger Carlos Caszely, subsequently made their own protests against the new government of General Pinochet. Valdez announced that he would not take part in the World Cup unless the squad’s doctor, who had been threatened with arrest as a known opponent of the regime, was allowed to remain free. At a reception for the team before the return leg, Caszely wore a red bandana, the symbol of the newly banned trade union federation, while standing in line to meet Pinochet and the other military leaders. Both went on to play at the World Cup with Caszely also featuring in three games at Spain 82.
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