Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Lokomotive Leipzig used to play in European finals; now they are dominating the equivalent of a pub league. Julius Bergmann reports on a remarkable renaissance
When at the beginning of October FC Lokomotive Leipzig overcame Eintracht Grossdeuben reserves at the city’s new Central Stadium, it wasn’t just the world record crowd for an 11th division match of 12,421 that made the game special; it was also the simple fact that Lok were playing.
Dear WSC
Are you aware of the administrative/secretarial difficulties that the English FA headquarters are currently experiencing? Over the past six months I have been attempting to apply for membership of “englandfans”, as the travel club is now known, for the period 2004-06. In July the “englandfans team” announced that packs would be out in August, but in spite of my non-membership I was invited to apply for tickets for England v Ukraine at Newcastle. Presumably, my earlier attendance and behaviour at the pre-Portugal tournament in Manchester had been monitored and found acceptable. I would like to continue to offer my support and the friendly in Madrid sounds attractive, but I am still not an “englandfan” and unlikely to be until January 2005! A letter in October explained that “the club is being restructured” (has Sven been told?) but that away tickets would for now only be available to existing members.Apart from the 76 fans arrested in Portugal, more recently in Baku a group of “englandfans” were reported to be displaying a banner saying “No Asylum Seekers”. I hope the FA find “sufficient evidence” on this occasion to create some vacancies for replacement fans.
Geoff Lord, Chesterfield
Just two points seperated first from fourth at the end of the 1977-78 season, with Keith Burkinshaw's Tottenham returning to the top-flight at the first time of asking, albeit on goal difference. Philip Cornwall reports
The long-term significance
It’s not the winning or the losing, it’s the coming second or third. Bolton, managed by Ian Greaves, took the title, but it would be 20-odd years before Wanderers, led by one of Greaves’ defenders, would become top-flight regulars. Yet the two teams they pipped for the title, Southampton and Tottenham, haven’t been relegated since achieving this promotion. Keith Burkinshaw, the manager of Spurs who had taken them down the previous May to end 27 seasons in the top flight, was given the opportunity to put that right, something unlikely to happen today.
Manchester Utd and Arsenal play out yet another ill-tempered game
“That game, with the baggage that goes with it, is almost becoming an impossible match to referee, and I speak from personal experience.” So said former Premiership referee Jeff Winter after the latest outbreak of hostilities between two implacably opposed foes, an event also known as Man Utd v Arsenal.
Having made £6 million less from last season's Champions League than the previous year, Manchester United chief executive David Gill yearns for UEFA to revert to the second group stage format for the competition
There is a never a shortage of opportunities to despair at how the businessmen who run major clubs do not understand the principles of football. David Gill, chief executive of Manchester United, for example, recently declared that he wants to see the return of the second group stage in the Champions League when the current contract ends in 2006. “I think all the big clubs would have preferred to keep it. There was a higher quality of opposition in the second group phase than the first one.” “Higher quality”, of course, means western European teams containing famous players who appear in Nike ads and would fill all the stadiums for three extra group games with tickets at 30-plus quid a throw.