The Archive

Brian Barwick is just getting settled at the FA HQ, so John Morgan has decided to find a little bit more about the man charged with managing English football

After the tabloid mishaps of Mark Palios’s tenure and the glitzy extravagance of Adam Crozier’s reign, the Football Association will hope that the appointment of Brian Barwick as chief executive heralds an era of quiet competence. But when Barwick moves into his office at Soho Square, the last thing he will find is quiet. As the FA come under increasing pressure over the next year, he may find that his main task is to justify the organisation’s very existence.

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Sepp Blatter can try all he like, according to Ben Lyttleton, the FIFA World Player of the Year award is still a farce

Ronaldinho’s success in becoming FIFA’s World Player of the Year was sealed the day before the announcement, when FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Thierry Henry deserved to win the award. Blatter was pre-empting claims that he and his cronies work behind the scenes to give the prize to his chosen player. It’s a clever wheeze: Blatter publicly backs Henry and then – shock horror! – that rascal Ronaldinho pips him to the crown. Sepp then spends the rest of the night trying to look surprised.

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Paul Casella of fanzine The Lion Roars believes that Millwall fans are used to false accusations being made against the club, but a recent article in the Sun took the level of misrepresentation to new levels

As the nearest club to Wapping, a disproportionate amount of senior newspaper journalists visit The Den on a regular basis. It is not rare for the press box to see stars of stage and screen; or at least, stars of Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement. Indeed, judging by the amount of media coverage, Millwall are by far and away the “biggest” club that has 10,000 fans in the country.

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He may have failed to make a career in his native north London, but the Arsenal reject is riding high in the land of his forefathers, writes Gavin Willacy

Like many a mid-ranking European club who hope to snatch a UEFA Cup place come spring, Turkey’s Denizlispor have pinned their hopes on a combination of local talent and a handful of obscure foreigners, including a Slovakian defender, Czech, Finnish and South African midfielders, and a German striker – none of whom you will have heard of. And only the most ardent Arsenal fans will remember the English guy playing up front. After all, Omer Riza played only once for Arsenal – a few minutes as a sub for a second-string Gunners side in a League Cup win at Derby six years ago. Among his team-mates that night were current internationals Freddie Ljungberg, Alex Man­ninger and Matthew Upson, while a very young Ashley Cole was left on the bench.

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Selling a star striker was the worst mistake Scunthorpe ever made. George Young recalls how the Iron threw away their best chance to reach the top flight

Last season West Ham were disappointed by their fourth place in the First Division. Their failure to go up was linked to the sale of their best striker, Jermain Defoe, by an unpopular board. Which is pain­fully familiar to any middle-aged Scunthorpe United fan, since that fourth position, achieved in 1962, still represents the pinnacle of our achievements. Not only that, but the club’s best striker, Barrie Thomas, was sold mid-season – a decision that still has re­percussions for the Iron today.

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