The Archive

Pete Green finds that although everyone wants to see their club on TV it's affecting attendances lower down the pyramid

Supporting a smaller club has always had its consolations. You might not be able to understand a word spoken over your ground’s superannuated PA, but you don’t need to cash in your pension plan for a season ticket and are largely unaffected by TV rearranging kick-offs. But even the humble comforts of a steady Saturday routine can no longer be relied upon at several lower-division clubs, as an increasing number of games are being moved to Friday nights. Chester have rearranged seven of this season’s matches in this way and Tranmere eight. Chuck in two or three Tuesday games and winter postponements, and less than half your home programme could be on Saturdays.

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Daniel Gray discovers that the past of Arsenal's recent opponents Dinamo Zagreb is far from ordinary

While the price of refreshments in their pristine Emirates abode is a more likely cause of protest for Arsenal fans than political events, for supporters of Champions League qualifier opponents Dinamo Zagreb the reality at home games is very different.  This manifested itself most in the final home game of last season, a 1‑0 victory over Hajduk Split on May 13, when, instead of indulging in the now traditional lap of honour, both club and followers celebrated Dinamo’s Croatian championship triumph by publicly lauding an alleged war criminal and demonstrating against his treatment.

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Can you imagine what it would be like to have two referees on the pitch? Well David Wangerin knows just what it's like and is pretty sure it that the proposal is simply yet another bad idea from Sepp Blatter

The Times headline was unequivocal: Two-referee system would stop the cheats. “We all know that in almost every match we see,” asserted the columnist, “there should be three or four penalties, for instance, yet often there are none; that unseen fouls are inflicted off the ball; that forwards are subtly nudged from behind in such a way that the referee 30 yards away cannot hope to detect. This imbalance in favour of defenders and of negative play could be ended almost overnight by the introduction of two referees instead of one.”

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Dear WSC
Where would you say are the game’s real hotbeds? Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham? Wrong! Try Ipswich, Norwich, Gloucester and Wolverhampton, some of the places where there is still enough interest to make it worthwhile printing a Saturday night sports paper. We all know that new technology makes information much more easily accessible, but at least in those places the traditional method of getting the latest football news will still be available. Those towns I have named who still have Saturday “Pinks” (or whatever) have papers owned by local companies, whereas the papers in Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham are owned by the Trinity Mirror group. It seems therefore that while local companies can still find a way to serve their community, Trinity Mirror can’t be bothered. In view of their hostility to football fans and their contempt for the needs of their regional customers, I suggest that we all boycott all Trinity Mirror papers until such time as they either reinstate the Pinks or sell their local interests to local people.
Mick Blakeman, Wolverhampton

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A few years ago reserve games contained a smattering of stars and small clubs could mix it with the internationals, pulling in decent crowds. But rule changes have ended that, as Gavin Willacy explains

This season sees English football take another step towards the sanitised uniformity epitomised by America’s major leagues. Again, it is being driven by the Premier League. For the first time, every Premiership club will only play against fellow top flight clubs at reserve-team level. That sounds logical, but it is far from necessary.

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