The Archive

After the death of a steward following incidents at Aston Villa's Carling Cup tie with QPR, Dave Woodhall wonders if it is time for the police to increase their presence at games

If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked the question: “Is football violence on the way back?” I’d be a lot better off than I am now. The answer, of course, is that it never entirely died out. The average Premiership attendance is around 35,000 and in a crowd of that size there will inevitably be some undesirables. Hooliganism happens, but it’s rare and the chances of getting caught up in the type of pre-planned violence that forms the majority of skirmishes loosely based around football is so small as to be not worth worrying about.

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Hooliganism and obscene chanting have reached such a level in Holland that a recent Den Haag game against PSV waas abandoned, as Ernst Bouwes reports

I first met a Den Haag sup­porter in the flesh in 1983. They had been relegated from the top level and were playing my club, EVV Eindhoven. This rather small away fan came over to me and claimed that the hand in his pocket was holding a knife. No one would be hurt if I handed over my blue-and-white scarf. I declined. A stand-off followed, until my team came to the rescue. His side’s first goal made my assailant run to his mates to join in the celebrations. In the remaining hour there were another seven goals – celebrating an 8-0 win didn’t give Den Haag fans much time for hostilities.

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Today Cambridge United would need a mad tycoon to get into the Premiership, but John Morgan remembers when a tactical eccentric almost managed the impossible

First Division tables from the 1970s and 80s now look like relics from a bygone era. They are filled with unfamiliar and unexpected names: Bristol City, Brighton, Notts County, Swansea, Carlisle and Wim­bledon. Clubs who had chanced upon the talent of an exceptional manager or group of players were able to suddenly spring to the top from the depths of mediocrity. Even the most desperately unsuccessful lower-division teams could take solace in the dream that one day they might reach the same heights.

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Once upon a time, Manchester City fans sang that every run that Kinky made was blinding but, as Dan Brennan reports, the Georgian now just heads for dead ends

When Gio Kinkladze rejected Derby County’s of­fer of a new contract and a 50 per cent wage cut in the summer of 2003, there was little doubt in his mind that a return to the Premiership was just around the corner. What followed instead was an increasingly forlorn and humiliating attempt to secure employment in Britain and abroad. Plagued by injury and fitness problems at Derby, he only showed glimpses of the skills that had made him the darling of the Kippax at Manchester City, but he was only 30 and still possessed the dancing feet and quick brain to compensate for any decline in speed and increased girth.

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Few World Cup qualifiers can have been more politically charged than October's visit of Serbia & Montenegro to Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Djordje Nikolic reports

Nine years have passed since the end of the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Apparently it’s not long enough to hold a football game against the former compatriots, now neighbours, Serbia & Montenegro under normal conditions.

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