Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Corruption scandals in the domestic game are overshadowing the national team's fine form, writes Sam Beckwith, our man in a car park with an envelope of cash
Euro 2004 aside, it’s a depressing time to be a Czech football fan. Away from the bright lights and big names of the national team, a year of bribery scandals has offered a shocking glimpse of just how corrupt the domestic game might be, with clubs that don’t bribe officials seemingly the exception rather than the rule.
Sunday 1 Mark Palios resigns, saying: “My action is essential to enable the Football Association to begin to return to normality.” Sven gossip-broker Colin Gibson is also reported to have offered to quit. At this rate Tord Grip will soon be answering the phones.
Dear WSC
I’m sure this is very old hat and we’re just being ignorant, but in a recent pub conversation I asked a Brighton fan which team Charlie Oatway was named after. He had no idea. Oatway does indeed have 11 first names. It’s presumably a 1970s outfit, but we couldn’t get past the goalie, Anthony. The rest is Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James Oatway. Can anyone help?
Jeff Moffat, London NW6
It was the end of football as we knew it. With everything set to change with the introduction of the Premiership the following season, 1991-92 saw us wave goodbye to the days when Division One meant exactly that. Philip Cornwall reports
The long-term significance
Played under the shadow of the FA’s Blueprint for Football that spawned the Premiership, this was the final season that the Football League champions were the champions of England, that Division One was the first division. As it has turned out, it was the last time so far that the champions of England had an English manager. It was also a season of transition: neither of 1991’s top two seriously challenged for the title.
With football supporters regularly lambasted for their fast-changing opinions on their sides' staff and players, it sometimes turns out that the ficklest fans can actually be found in the boardroom – as Sir Bobby Robson has found out of his chairman, Freddy Shepherd
Anyone who has looked at football internet message boards will know the form by now. Alongside the well informed contributors, there are always a few who offer only irate bluster and bombast, often expressed in capital letters. Unfortunately for Newcastle United supporters, one such person appears to be in charge of their club.