The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Matthew Barker on how one player’s story has offered some respite amid the depressing Last Bet match-fixing scandal
Simone Farina looked a little lost at the Ballon d’Or presentation last month. But the 29-year-old defender, caught blinking under the bright lights of the Zürich Kongresshaus and nervously glancing over at Marco van Basten, sat in the same row, had as much a right to be there as any of the shortlisted superstars.
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Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive
Monaco were Champions League regulars a decade ago but now they are trying to avoid consecutive relegations, writes James Eastham
Eight years ago Monaco reached the Champions League final. They are now battling against relegation to France’s semi-professional third tier. It is a familiar story of decline. Since Didier Deschamps quit as coach 16 months after that European summit against Porto, a succession of managers, directors and presidents have been turfed out or walked away. Each has taken with him a blueprint for success that either failed or was dropped before coming to fruition.
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Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive
Nassos Stylianou on how football, like every other sector of Greek society, has been demaged by the financial, political and social crisis
After a chaotic summer for Greek football, the Super League filled its last two places seven games into the season. The delay was caused by an investigation in match-fixing, which resulted in Olympiakos Volou and Kavala being demoted to the fourth tier. The investigation, which concluded in June, lasted ten months and looked into 41 games from the 2009-10 season.
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Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive
The ungrateful moaning directed at the game’s most successful managers only discredits the grumbling fans
“I very much support Arsenal. But to be honest, Wenger needs to coach another team now and Arsenal needs another coach.” So said Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, after Arsenal’s third successive defeat, 2-1 at home to Manchester United in late January.
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Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive
Steve Menary on how the Great Britain team will have a past triumph to live up to when they take part in the Olympics this summer
A century is a long time for any side to wait to reclaim a trophy that once seemed their own. But should Great Britain’s controversial Olympic team win gold in London this summer, that will be the gap between their titles. Great Britain won the first proper Olympic football event – and the first proper international tournament – in 1908. They had home advantage and faced mostly weak opposition in the six-team tournament. Holding on to the title four years later was surely the GB side’s finest achievement.
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Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive