Steve Menary reports on a conflict of opinions between UEFA and G-14
Vision Europe sounds like a new chain of opticians, but is actually UEFA’s attempt to address an increasingly short-sighted approach to football in the game’s commercial heartland.
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Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Ron Atkinson gets a shot at redemption reporting on the Milan derby. But, as Simon Tyers reports, it didn't all go according to plan
British television’s attitude to the continental club game used to be so simple – apart from the odd European final on Sportsnight, it would be an occasional goalkeeping error on Football Focus. But the weekend before Christmas a Sky and Setanta subscriber could have watched league games from seven different nations. Not all the coverage enjoys the greatest production standards – France’s Le Championnat goes out in Monday’s very early hours on Channel Four and features the same person on presentation and commentary, as if production company TWI had a particularly savage round of cost-cutting just before it was commissioned – but the two most obvious leagues at least have live slots with decent profiles, even if the thought put into them has not all been well directed.
Macclesfield Town have found themselves in hot water over their new stand. Mike Whalley reports
The News of the World didn’t foresee what a traumatic time lay ahead for Macclesfield Town when tipping them to win League Two at the start of the season. But then not even the most pessimistic fan foresaw the financial penalty that has threatened the club’s existence.
The FA Cup final should be back at Wembley in May, but what was once the English game’s great showpiece is now almost a sideshow, argues Jon Spurling
On the eve of Leeds United’s defeat of Arsenal in the 1972 FA Cup final, captain Billy Bremner said: “I’ve won a Championship medal, a European medal and countless Scotland caps, but sometimes I think I’d swap the lot for an FA Cup winners’ medal.” A few hours later, Bremner professed delight “with my new prized possession”. How attitudes have changed. In his autobiography, Roy Keane described the showpiece occasion as “little more than an afterthought”, and Patrick Vieira admitted that Arsenal’s triumph in the 2005 final “can’t possibly make up for the disappointment of losing the league crown”.
The Curva Nord extremists are backing Paolo Di Canio’s right to be a fascist but, as Matthew Barker reports, some Laziali are up in arms. What will the chairman do?
Lazio must have the worst PR in world football. The continuing fallout following Paolo Di Canio’s Roman salutes is the latest in a long line of far-right associations that have plagued the club over the past 25 years. Di Canio, who saluted the travelling support twice in the volatile atmosphere of a game at Livorno and then repeated the trick a week later during a home match against Juventus, seems determined to take on both the Italian FA and now FIFA, as he prepares to contest charges of inciting racial hatred and violating the governing body of international football’s code of ethics. And, for the time being at least, the club seem happy enough to back him.