Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Owen Amos reports on how the FA Vase provides an opportunity for smaller clubs to have their moment in the Wembley sun
To understand to whom the FA Vase matters, look at the list of winners. Since 1974-75, the Vase’s first season, 20 of the winners have been suffixed “Town”: from Brigg and Bridlington, to Whitby and Wimborne. By contrast, just two winners – Truro and Winchester – have been Cities.
With the current laws preventing independently run sites from showing clubs fixture lists it looks unlikely to change any time soon. Dave Lee reports
WSC 226 told the story of Watford fanzine Blind, Stupid and Desperate who had their website temporarily taken offline after they listed an upcoming fixture against Leicester City. Four years on, the debate about rights over football fixtures is still red hot. In one corner: Football DataCo, the company responsible for managing licences for the use of football fixtures in print and online. As well as collecting money, DataCo will routinely seek out websites which flaunt these rules. In the other, more crowded corner: the press and football fans.
Eric Cantona stars in two very different films, both released this month. Terry Staunton assesses his performances
Speaking to the Observer Sport Monthly in 2002, Christopher Eccleston lambasted film-makers for casting footballers, claiming it was a novelty practice that took jobs away from “proper” actors. Having recently worked with both Vinnie Jones, in the action movie Gone In 60 Seconds, and – uncomfortably – his own United hero Eric Cantona, in the costume drama Elizabeth, the award-winning thespian’s remarks carried some weight.
Tim Springett looks at the latest edict from the World Anti-Doping Agency and its implications for football
If ever there was a topic that cried out for rational debate, it is the issue of drug use by sports people. Sadly, rationality has long since been buried under a tidal wave of self-righteousness. Even though football has far from the worst record of participants seeking to gain an illicit advantage through drugs, it seems constantly to be first in line for the bile of commentators and opinion-formers whenever the subject is raised. The usual mantra – that football’s procedures for drug testing lag way behind other sports – has been repeated so often it seems almost pointless to question it. To this can be added the well-known fact that every professional footballer is an overpaid prima donna.
Having slid to the fifth tier Fortuna Cologne are looking to a web-based model to revive the club, explains Paul Joyce
Under their dictatorial president Jean Löring, Fortuna Cologne were possibly Germany’s least democratically run club. Löring once fired manager Toni Schumacher at half time during a match in 1999 with the words: “I, being the club, had to react.”