The Archive

John Toshack’s reorganisation of Wales’ youth teams under Brian Flynn has paid dividends, as Paul Ashley-Jones explains

It’s typical that when Wales finally escape a qualifying group it leads to a play-off rather than the tournament itself. It’s also typical that, despite finishing top of our group, we draw a side as strong as England in the play-offs. Nonetheless, being so close to the 2009 European Under-21 Championship finals is a huge moment, for players and fans. Participation in such a tournament would help towards changing a losing mentality that Welsh players, at all levels, have had for a very long time.

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Who stands to gain from the brouhaha at West Ham?

The summer sales at West Ham that triggered the departure of Alan Curbishley were explained in a splurge of back-page headlines in late September. Hammered! said the Daily Mail, who were a day ahead of the pack in reporting that the club had anticipated a huge fine for their illegal dealings with Kia Joorabchian of the MSI agency, suppliers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. The tribunal that examined Sheffield United’s claim for damages for having been relegated while West Ham stayed up won’t decide on compensation for several months. But United’s claim for over £30 million, made up principally of the TV and merchandising income they lost after relegation, is likely to be met. Indeed, unless West Ham are relegated this season and Sheffield United come up, £30m seems like light punishment. Most of the coverage sympathised with the claimants, with Neil Warnock telling the Times that he’d still be at Bramall Lane if the club had stayed up. “It knocked us back no end. Relegation is on my CV, which it shouldn’t be.”

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Dear WSC
I write to you concerning Simon Creasey’s fascinating article Parting Shots (WSC 259), in which Ignacio Palacios-Huerta of the London School of Economics describes that, in penalty shootouts, the team that taking a penalty first wins 60.5 per cent of the time. He then goes on to say that the team kicking first “has a 21 per cent greater probability of winning the shootout”. I don’t cast doubt on Mr Palacios-Huerta’s abilities as a statistician, but it is possible that he meant 21 per cent more probability of winning. If Team X has a 60.5 per cent probability of winning, then Team Y therefore has a 39.5 per cent probability. Team X’s probability is [(((60.5 / 39.5) -1) x 100) =] 53 per cent greater than Team Y’s of winning the shootout. Or, in other words, that Team X wins 21 per cent more matches means that their chances are 53 per cent better than Team Y’s for any given shootout. We can be sure that this is precisely what was going through Rio Ferdinand’s head after extra time in Moscow.
Patrick Finch, Eskilstuna, Sweden

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With the media unhappy after another abject performance, Capello gave an honest assessment of what his team can do, but the press weren't so sure

After England had done the bare minimum in beating Andorra, the press were fearing the worst. Fabio Capello risked a joke following the 2‑0 grind in Barcelona: “I will be happy if Croatia play like Andorra. But I don’t think that is going to happen!” If anyone in his audience found that funny they kept it to themselves. The general mood wasn’t improved on the day before the match, with Capello suggesting that his players play better away from home: “At Wembley, the crowd whistle after the first mistake.” “It was not much of a vote of confidence in the England fans,” huffed the Independent, while Matt Law in the Daily Express was concerned that “it will also dismay the FA, who spent £757 million and seven years building Wembley”.

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The J League started to flourish after two seasons, recalls Mike Tuckerman

The long-term significance
The Japanese championship had been contested by the sports division of large companies until the creation of the J.League in 1993. Verdy Kawasaki, from an industrial city in the greater Tokyo area, had won the last two titles under the old system when they were attached to the Yomiuri media conglomerate. Under their new name they also took the first two J.League titles. However, they began a steady decline after losing the Championship play-off in 1995, a crippling wage bill and declining attendances bringing about a relocation to the capital in 2001 as Tokyo Verdy. Kawasaki has since acquired another professional club, Frontale, who were J.League runners‑up in 2006.  Yokohama Marinos’ 1995 title was the club’s sole domestic success in their original incarnation. An economic downturn saw the Nissan-backed Marinos merge with city rivals the Flügels at the end of 1998, to form the Yokohama F. Marinos.

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