The Archive

With the commencement of the World Cup imminent it remains to be seen whether Germany 2006 will show us something that we haven't experienced before

It feels as though the World Cup started several months ago. The hype that surrounds every tournament seems to have been that bit more insistent and frenetic this time. Partly that can be put down to the mounting media anxiety over Wayne Rooney’s “fight for fitness” and the possibility that one of England’s very few undeniably world-class players may not take part. More generally, though, the immense outpouring of guff and stuff about Germany 2006 – the proliferation of dire songs, documentaries of wildly varying quality and St George cross products choking supermarket aisles – just shows that football has become an easily exploitable cultural product.

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Cameron Carter explains that although we all know and love the FA Cup, John Motson can always be on hand to remind us of this

Spring is a time when wet-nosed lambs and weak young sitcoms stumble into the world. Yet May began and ended with the spectacle of grey-faced middle-aged footballers in sluggish pursuit of the charity pound. On May 1, the Marina Dalglish charity match on Sky One featured most of the Liverpool and Everton teams who contested the 1986 FA Cup final. Now, most charity events involve the entertainment operating at about 30 per cent below par, but these people were really trying. They just couldn’t do it any more. An injured Gary Lineker turned up briefly to kick off, like a vicar at a fete with another parish to get to, after which the 90 minutes crawled by in a pageant of zonal marking, square balls and limping, quickly regretted runs off the ball. Fortunately, a goal was scored just before the end – at least a yard offside, but hotly undisputed as its annulment would have meant extra time and, presumably, a slowing of the pace.

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Anti-catholic chants from Rangers fans left UEFA unsure what to do, but their softly-softly approach could force real change in Scotland. Diane Millen reports

The endless, tawdry saga of sectarianism in Scottish football took an interesting twist earlier this month, with UEFA stepping in where the domestic authorities have declined to act and charging Rangers with “discriminatory chanting” following their fans’ behaviour in the Champions League tie against Villarreal. 

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Every tournament's the same – not enough tickets. But as Mark Perryman explains, it's far from a uniquely English problem and thanks to FIFA it's getting worse

The last time England qualified for a tournament hosted in Germany, the 1988 European Championship, just 7,500 fans travelled from this country. Two years later not many more were there to support the team when West Germany beat England in the World Cup semi-final in Turin. In 2004 an astonishing 45,000 England fans helped pack out Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz for what was just the opening group game at the European Championship, against France.

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Mike Ticher reports on the unbelievable control that FIFA exercises over all aspects of World Cup ticketing

For those who are too young to remember the Soviet Union, the distribution of World Cup tickets offers a rare chance to get a taste of life as a consumer in an authoritarian society that does not match supply with demand.

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