The Archive

Cameron Carter revisits The Big Match

Nostalgia is such a beautiful, furry thing that even the mundane and irksome, when viewed from the impossible distance of the future, can bring forth the smile of regret. Many years after the first sacking of Rome, and some time before the final collapse, there were probably some older citizens who became wistful about how one didn’t hear much about Visigoths these days. That is how it is with The Big Match Revisited (Thursdays, 4pm, ITV4), hidden away in the netherworld of daytime digital TV.

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Dear WSC
As a supporter of a smaller club myself, I sympathise with Luton’s current plight, but Eva Tenner’s letter in WSC 253 has brought out the devil’s advocate in me. To her list of those not responsible for Luton’s woes, she should also have added Liverpool FC’s board. Liverpool gave Luton quite a bit of help anyway by playing badly enough in the first tie to allow Luton a replay at Anfield. If you add the attendances at the 32 third-round ties and 12 replays together, only three pairings had a greater audience than Luton v Liverpool, so Luton arguably did as well as they could financially out of this season’s FA Cup. If Luton had been drawn away to my team, Tranmere, for example (average attendance around 7,000), would there have been a similar call for Luton to have all the gate money? I think not. Or what if Luton had faced another smaller team and lost in 90 minutes? Would a replay have been ordered to try to boost the Hatters’ coffers that way? No. I genuinely hope Luton find their way out of their current difficulties, but the fact is that meeting one of the Big Four should be seen as a helpful stroke of luck for them, rather than a reason for their fans to moan about Liverpool’s supposed meanness.
Tristan Browning, Reading

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Andy Brassell looks at the fallout in Portugal four years after they hosted the European Championship

Fans may complain that the Swiss and Austrian stadiums to be used in Euro 2008 may be a little on the small side, with only those in Basel and Vienna having room for significantly more than 30,000 spectators. And you can imagine by how much those dissenting voices would have been amplified had England, or indeed any of the home nations, managed to qualify for the finals. However, there is at least little doubt over the sustainability of the grounds post-tournament.

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After seven titles in ten seasons St Etienne failed to go onto greater things, but Michel Platini's star would keep rising by James Eastham

The long-term significance
St-Etienne, the swashbuckling side of the 1970s, won their third consecutive title and seventh in ten seasons – but this triumph marked the end of their dynasty. A single league title followed, in 1981, when Michel Platini was their talisman – and then nothing since. In their famous green shirts they became the first French club since Reims in 1959 to reach the European Cup final, losing 1-0 to Franz Beckenbauer’s Bayern Munich after hitting the woodwork twice.

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Declining attendances but still little movement on ticket prices. Bruce Wilkinson discovers why

When the then minister for culture, media and sport negotiated with the EU in 2005-06 to save the Premier League’s right to retain collective TV bargaining, there was supposed to be a payback. Richard Caborn believed that part of the money the clubs would get from the next huge TV deal would be used to reduce ticket prices. A couple of football seasons and sports ministers down the line and we are yet to see much evidence of the Premier League members fulfilling their part of the bargain.

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