Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Jonathan Wilson revisits a former footballing preoccupation and laments the loss of a once unique part of any ground
Reading fans’ accounts of their first visit to a stadium, it seems most are struck by two things: the pure greenness of the pitch (which seems odd given how ungrassy most pitches of two or more decades ago look by comparison with modern football) and the intensity of the noise.
Once famous for their success in Europe, Celta Vigo have suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes. James Calder explains
Few areas in Spain are feeling the effects of the economic crisis more keenly than Galicia, its remote north-western corner. As companies go to the wall and the region’s dwindling number of workers try to make ends meet on salaries among the lowest in the country, its football clubs find themselves in an equally parlous state. Fourth-tier Ciudad de Santiago have just gone bust, unable even to pay their laundry bills, and Deportivo La Coruña and Celta Vigo, who were trading blows at the top of La Liga not so long ago, are beset by deep-rooted financial problems.
Itay Goder reports on John Gregory’s move to manage Maccabi Nazareth
“I don’t drink whisky. Never. Ever. Under no circumstance. I’ve been in Nazareth three weeks now and I drink whisky every day.” So said John Gregory reflecting on the pressure of his new job as coach of Maccabi Nazareth in the Israeli Premier League.
Ian Plenderleith wonders why World Cup qualifcation is assumed to take precedence over politics in some countries
Now that Honduras have qualified for the World Cup their people can expect to be the beneficiaries of the usual condescending, quadrennial interest that western sports journalists pay all poor nations who qualify for the tournament. Curtly researched columns and reports from now until June will sagely conclude that life is tough for the majority, but football offers a way out of poverty for a lucky, talented few. For the fans, we will be told, football is an escape from reality, dangling hope and maybe even salvation. For the political leaders, it’s the chance to stoke up patriotism and distract from the country’s real problems. Because people in faraway countries are easily duped into forgetting a life of hardship when faced instead with the possibility of winning a football match.
Some major European countries have received help in the 2010 play-offs. Jonathan O'Brien looks at a controversial draw
Would you bother watching a World Cup that didn’t have Cristiano Ronaldo prancing around in it? What about one that didn’t feature the silky skills of Andrei Arshavin? Or Franck Ribéry? Or even – gasp – Zlatan Ibrahimovic?