The Archive

Damien Blake looks back on the last season when a win meant two points and the FA Cup holders played outside the top flight

The long-term significance
This was the final season played under two points for a win. The addition of an extra point was one of the recommendations made in a document called Soccer – The Fight For Survival. Put together by a group of club officials and managers, including Terry Venables and Graham Taylor, the report had been triggered by concern over a variety of issues, notably falling attendances. This was also the last time to date that the FA Cup holders played outside the top flight. West Ham had won the trophy in May 1980, beating Arsenal 1-0 (with a rare Trevor Brooking header that was still a source of mirth to his Match of the Day colleagues 20 years later) but they had only finished seventh in Division Two, six points off a promotion place.

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World renowned names arrive at Stamford Bridge with the added confusion as to who's signing them. Oh and England have a new man at the helm

Summer is usually spent finding ways to fill time before the next football season starts. No such problem this year, of course, with just four weeks between the end of the World Cup and the Football League’s opening fixtures. It may be an effect of the heatwave, but we’ve thought of a few reasons to feel optimistic about 2006-07.

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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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