The Archive

Simon Tyers discovers the new weapons that Sky's Andy Gray has added to his artillery

As seasons change and Alan Shearer’s hair recedes at a rate unseen since Ray Wilkins, we can at least rest safe in the knowledge that from year to year some things never change. David Beckham will make a fleeting visit to his coaching school and be interviewed on every single TV outlet, the Football Focus panel will attempt to grapple with a big concept underpinning a major news story and completely fail, and Sky will have a big conceptual technological idea that only they think works.

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In its third full season the Bundesliga produced another different champion, Paul Joyce reports

The long-term significance
This season, the third of the Bundesliga, continued the trend that lasted till 1968 of different clubs being champions. TSV 1860 Munich and Eintracht Braunschweig claimed their only league titles in this era and 1.FC Nuremberg won in 1968 – only to be relegated the next year. But the next nine titles were shared by two sides promoted in 1965 – Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach. The fluent possession football espoused by Bayern coach Zlatko Cajkovski and Gladbach’s Hennes Weisweiler would also bring success to the West Germany team.

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With the Champions League grossing more money than ever, Steve Menary learns how it is distributed to its clubs

The Premier League is often held up as the primary example of how Sky’s millions have distorted football. They certainly started the process. But, in recent years, with up to four clubs per country and many millions going to every group-stage participant, the Champions League is having a far greater impact.

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In his home town of Burton Mark Rowe discovers the FA's latest "white elephant"

My home town of Burton upon Trent has few claims to fame. It once had two teams in the League. I was at junior school with the younger sister of Garry Stanley, who played for Chelsea. Last season Burton Albion took Manchester United to an FA Cup third-round replay. You can still see the commemorative scarves at the Pirelli Stadium, no doubt complying with all intellectual property laws, half in United ­colours, half in Burton’s yellow and black.

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Panorama caught a few people making embarrassing statements, but David Stubbs wonders if the producers should have done better and if they were looking at the right targets

The way the BBC flagged up Alex Millar’s exposé of bungs in football like an overexcited linesman may have been an attempt to reflate the reputation of the beleaguered Panorama, or because they had struck serious dirt. The lack of advance tapes heightened the air of expectation. It was enough, evidently, to unnerve Harry Redknapp, who protested that he was an astonishing “one million per cent” clean as a whistle and any attempt to suggest otherwise would incur his legal wrath. In the event, all they had on Harry was footage of him putting up a jowly stonewall as he was offered a free trip to the 2006 World Cup to view some players. “Sounds fantastic,” he remarked, non-incriminatingly. What could he possibly have been worried about?

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