Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Relegation is always seen as a financial blow as well as a football disaster, but parachute payments are giving sides an edge in their new divisions and some teams may even be better off. Tom Green explains
Your tears have dried. The echoes of abusive comments at your team’s woeful defence have faded. Your season ticket has, in all probability, been renewed. But, if your team are relegated, how much will it cost them in the coming year?
Does money talk loudest in the Championship? Csaba Abrahall
reviews the 2006-07 season in what should surely be called Division Two
Derby’s play-off victory averted the worst-case scenario, but the season was none the less a worrying one for the majority, as only West Brom’s failure to prevail at Wembley prevented all three of the sides relegated from the Premiership in 2006 securing an immediate return. With parachute payments set to rocket, Championship clubs without a recent top-flight history could be forgiven for questioning whether striving for success against such financially advantaged competitors is worth all the bother.
Was League One completely unpredictable? Huw Richards reviews the 2006-07 season in what should surely be called Divisions Two
There may be somebody, somewhere who predicted this division’s outcome. If they had money on it, they’ll be very happy. Not many saw it coming. Of the teams promoted only Bristol City picked up any votes to go up in WSC’s pre-season predictions. Between them Scunthorpe and Blackpool got 12 votes for relegation. But that’s League One – wild, unpredictable and more fun than you might expect. While the yo-yo was back in fashion elsewhere, none of seven League One new entries returned whence they came.
Would you rather have a night out in Boston or Wrexham? Pete Green reviews the 2006-07 season in what should surely be called Divisions Three
“Oooh, isn’t it a poor league this year?” This is a phrase recited annually, by supporters in every league, regardless of any real variation in standards. And so it was in the fourth division last season. True, the best weren’t half as good as Carlisle last time and poor Torquay looked set for the drop as the leaves fell from the trees. But, for the most part, the sides on the bottom rung plodded on much the same as ever. Darlington and Notts County failed again to fulfil the unreasonable expectations of sides with gates of four to five thousand, and Lincoln broke their own embarrassing record by losing in the play-offs for the fifth year in a row.
Playing football 2,500 metres above sea level can be a shock to the system if you’re not used to it. But, argues Chris Taylor, FIFA’s ban on internationals is a victory for double standards and the major powers
You would think that FIFA’s medical department would have better things to do. Player burn-out, drug-taking, even dangerous play – all are areas where world football’s doctors might have something useful to chip in. Instead, they have provided the justification for FIFA’s executive committee to announce on May 27 that henceforward all international football above an altitude of 2,500 metres would be banned.