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.
Chester v Wrexham, a threat to national security? Mark Howell investigates
Five years ago, Chester City were struggling at the foot of the Conference, and had American despot Terry Smith picking the team. City fans were running an official boycott, standing right throughout the winter months in shocking conditions outside the Deva Stadium, 12 hours a day, six days a week. Eight miles up the A483, that season our arch rivals Wrexham were rebuilding their ground and a team that would eventually be promoted to what is now League One the following year.
Have Roman's billions bought Chelsea millions of fans? It depends what you mean by "fan", as a sceptical Adam Powley explains while calculatng which are our best-supported clubs
Of all the many eyebrow-raising comments Chelsea’s chief executive Peter Kenyon has made in his eventful career as a football mover and shaker, one of his more surprising claims barely caused a ripple. Last spring, when welcoming Chelsea’s new sponsorship deal with Samsung, Kenyon proclaimed: “In the last 12 months, our domestic fan base has increased by 300 per cent to 2.9 million.”
The European champions won't be in Germany after a dismal World Cup campaign but, as Paul Pomonis writes, Otto Rehhagel isn't throwing in the towel just yet
On July 9, 2004, five days after winning the Euro 2004 trophy, coach Otto Rehhagel announced that he had turned down a €5 million (£3.4m) offer from the German FA in favour of leading the Greece to the 2006 World Cup finals. Although this unprecedented vote of confidence to Greek football was greeted with universal enthusiasm (“It is a second victory within a week,” commented Stelios Giannakopoulos) many questioned the wisdom of King Otto’s decision. Having just masterminded one of the biggest upsets in the history of international football, Rehhagel had voluntarily undertaken the task of proving that Greece’s Euro triumph was no fluke. Mission Impossible II, an Athens newspaper called it.
Harry Kewell's hair might be pony, but after 32 years Australia are back at the World Cup and, as Mike Ticher reports, it's not just soccer diehards who are celebrating.
Some things are hard to forgive. For example: planning a ticker-tape parade to celebrate winning one World Cup qualifier, on penalties; inviting John Travolta on to the pitch and into the dressing rooms; 80,000 people booing the visitors’ anthem; banners and chants proclaiming “U R gay”; Harry Kewell’s double ponytail; playing Men at Work at full volume after the final whistle.