Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Steve Menary wonders when it became so difficult to simply build a stadium
Why can no one build a national stadium in this country without the entire project becoming a total embarrassment? A date has finally been set for a £20 million high court dispute between two firms rebuilding Wembley and this showdown will take place next April – a month before the first FA Cup final at the rebuilt stadium.
John Chapman recounts the year Wigan Athletic won promotion via the ballot box
The long-term significance
Before 2004-05, this was the last time Wigan Athletic finished second in their league. Like last season they went up, but on this occasion the champions didn’t. Despite winning their fourth title in six years, Boston United’s ground was failed by the Football League inspectors, just four years after it had hosted Derby County and 11,000 spectators. So Wigan, 12 months after their worst ever season but on the back of a good FA Cup run, got put forward for election to the League. After tying 26 votes all with Southport in the first ballot, they won the second 29-20. They were to be the last side promoted to the league in this way.
Ben Lyttleton tells us how Iran forgot their troubles for one glorious night
The celebrations throughout Iran after they beat Bahrain 1-0 last month to become the second team to qualify for the World Cup, one hour after Japan, passed off peacefully in spite of the country’s security forces abandoning their duties and joining fans in the streets.
Some people are grateful that football pauses briefly in the summer, but not Cameron Carter. Join him on his quest to find meaning to his life on balmy days
Even those among us who are not numerologists can confidently state that years ending in odd numbers are inauspicious. This is because their summers are deserts of non-football. It is barely a month since Liverpool brought last season to a shocking close and already the days, especially the weekends, are feeling pitilessly long. There are three alternatives for the football fan between late May and August in 2005: skirmish like a seagull with a bin liner for any scraps of football-related activity; find another sport to take football’s place temporarily; or – and this is the big one – try to find another form of human activity that can fill up the time.
Euro 2005 ended early with disappointment for the hosts, but this opening win highlighted – rather noisily – the growing enthusiasm for the women’s game, writes Helen Duff
One-second pause. Two-second pause. HONK! One-second pause. Two-second pause. Three-second pause. HONK! HONK! One-second pause. HONNNNNK! (Repeat, unrelentingly, for two hours.)