Book reviews

Football has a longer history and bigger support in a rugby-infatuated region than most people give it credit for. Grahame Lloyd reports

Welsh rugby fans might not like it – some probably won’t believe it – but Wales are currently the best-supported team in European football. Even though they lie 108th in the FIFA rankings, an average attendance of 63,000 for the last three internationals at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff has put the Welsh ahead of Italy, Germany, Spain and co-Euro 2000 hosts Holland. Cheap tickets – £10 for adults and a fiver for children – and a magnificent setting have combined to satisfy the huge appetite for football and given the lie to the longstanding but often overstated claim that the national sport of Wales is rugby.

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For 100 years, Bradford City battled boardroom conservatism, economic decline and rival clubs of two codes – and won.  Mike Harrison wonders when Leeds will notice

For a city with a metropolitan population of nearly half a million (more than Manchester and nearly twice the size of Newcastle), Bradford has rarely come close to fulfilling its potential as a football centre. In some ways the figure is misleading, including as it does the rural suburbs of Ilkley, Addingham, Menston and Burley. In addition, Bradford has had a growing Asian population since the 1960s, working in what remained of the wool industry. Very few have become regulars at Valley Parade, even though the ground lies in the heart of their community. While that does not reflect well on the club’s efforts to draw them in, it does help to explain why City, even in the Premier League, struggle with a relatively modest fan base.

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Keith Butterick took on the job of persuading Halifax to keep a football club and invest in its shabby ground. Here's how he got on

You have always needed a sense of humour and irony to be a Halifax Town fan. The club is currently on the verge of having one of the finest grounds in the lower divisions and has never been so rich, the recent wind­fall of some £700,000 after Fulham sold Geoff Hors­field adding to already swollen coffers. Yet we are languishing at the bottom of the League and, at the time of writing, looking for a manager

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Sam Hammam's desperate bid to create another crazy gang may not be changing Cardiff City for the better, says Grahame Lloyd

Is Sam Hammam the saviour of Cardiff City or just a showman with a flair for self-publicity? Post-Wimbledon, Hammam was desperate to become involved in football again. He picked up his new club for the bargain base­ment price of just over £3 million in August and was wel­comed with open arms by supporters. Eye­brows were raised, however, when Ham­­mam suggested City should change their colours from blue to green and their name to Cardiff Celts. The bluebird symbol would be replaced by a Celtic cross and the club would come to represent Wales.

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Sacked Chelsea coach Gianluca Vialli will most likely continue his managerial career in England, not Italy, reports Filippo Ricci

What does the future hold for Gianluca Vialli after his sacking by Chelsea? He didn’t need an official coaching licence to work in Eng­land, though it will be mandatory in the future, but it is already compulsory in Italy and Vialli doesn’t yet have one.

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