The Archive

Beginning our European Championship reports from writers in Portugal, Philip Cornwall offers an upbeat assessment of the England experience, where expectations were met on the pitch and exceeded off it – even if the portents for 2006 are shakier

C autious optimism, last month’s WSC editorial sug­gested, was in order on and off the pitch for England at Euro 2004. I should have paid attention. Ten min­utes from time against Portugal I was edging nervously past caution and starting to dream. Then again, what happened next was a long, long way from the England nightmares of the past. The national team have won two European quarter-finals: in 1968 against Spain in a home-and-away tie, and against the same opponents in 1996 when, as hosts, they won on penalties after the opposition had had a goal disallowed controversially. Any sensible analysis of England’s exit has to have this context: it rarely gets any better than this and could so easily have done so.

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Tuesday 1 England scrape a 1-1 draw with Japan, who should have won after Shinji Ono equalised Michael Owen’s first-half goal. Sven’s not flustered: “The game today was not important. We were superb for 30 minutes but then we got tired.” Rafael Benítez resigns as Valencia coach and will shortly takeover at Liverpool. Inverness are turned down for promotion to the Scottish Premier League after failing to get the required two-thirds vote.

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Portugal resident Phil Town watched the local reaction to the national team's efforts change from despair to delight and back again over the course of Euro 2004

Well, it was, according to UEFA chief Lennart Johan­sson, the best-organised European champ­ion­ship ever. It did not have any cases of doping, and terrorism of any kind was thankfully conspicuous by its absence. It was also, of recent editions, the least scarred by hooliganism. Banning orders slapped on around 3,000 of England’s “finest”, plus a similar number from Germany, will have helped that, but so will a general sense, on the ground, that having a good time might just be better fun than kicking heads. And the mild-mannered and relatively non-aggressive nature of the Portuguese gave this mood a valuable helping hand.

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A century of football history has been needlessly cast aside for some, while for others the reorganisation of the non-League game is long overdue. John Carter reports

 T he glum knot of red-and-black-clad fans huddled in the main stand intrigued spectators at the Isthmian League play-off game between Bedford and St Albans. Could they be rossoneri supporters nostalgic for the atmosphere of the San Siro while visiting relatives in the south midlands? In fact the gloomy little group were from Lewes, in Bedford to watch their own team take on the hometown Eagles. Unfortunately the players were back at Lewes’s ground beating Kingstonian. Until late the previous day Isthmian League of­ficials insisted the Rooks would indeed be playing Bedford, contrary to all other indicators. It took a Football Association announcement to override their stubbornness and correct the error. To date there’s been no word of any apology from league officials.

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One man has changed the face of sponsorship in non-League football. Craig Ellyard explains the Victor Gladwish phenomenon

In the world of non-League football, Victor Gladwish is making as big an impact as Roman Abramovich has done in the Premiership. In a matter of months Gladwish has become non-League football’s biggest financial benefactor, his clout being felt all the way from the south coast up to east Yorkshire.

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