Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
A side rooted in London’s Bangladeshi community will be playing four rungs short of the Conference this season. Matthew Brown traces the rise of Sporting Bengal
As footballing milestones go it probably won’t rank up there with the first FA Cup final or England’s World Cup win, but the acceptance of an east London amateur team into the ranks of the Go Travel Kent League marks a breakthrough of no little significance for one section of the footballing fraternity.
Just one level beneath the Swedish top flight, Assyriska Föreningen are the highest-ranked immigrant-based club in Europe. Marcus Christenson reports
Assyriska Föreningen in Södertälje, south of Stockholm, was founded by Sweden’s Assyrian minority in 1971 with the aim of helping new immigrants settle. The society provided translations and information on the cultural and social aspects of Sweden and created four different sections – culture, youth, women and football – within a few years of its foundation.
Dear WSC
Re Ged Naughton’s query (Letters, WSC 197) as to why the grass was always darker green during the cup final on ITV, the answer is simple: the grass is always greener on the other side.
Andy Hargreaves, Southampton
Blair Liddell on moving to Cumbernauld and rowing with UEFA
How did the move to Cumbernauld affect Clyde’s gates?
Initially, 30,000 fans rolled up in our first ten games at Broadwood, mainly curious Cumbernauldians plus lapsed supporters crawling out of the wood-work. But league reconstruction put paid to any chances of us building on that and our new support dwindled fast. The season we narrowly avoided relegation to the third, our average home gate was 600. We still have a hard-core support from the wilderness years and not all are holed up in the south-east of Glasgow as is commonly supposed. The biggest disappointment is despite our good form over the last three to four seasons, average crowds have stalled at around the 1,200 mark.
David Beckham has done a lot for hairdressing but he’s also brought curlers into fashion. Philip Cornwall considers our changing approach to free-kicks
Free-kicks are about hope. Most chances in a football match arise too late for firm emotions to attach themselves before they are taken or lost. But the attacking free-kick is a transparent opportunity to score yet one which you, your neighbour and the players are given plenty of time to contemplate.