Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Adam Powley finds out what changes in the transfer system will mean for clubs
Barely a day goes by without some doom-laden tale warning of financial disaster for football. Welcome news of a sort therefore came with the announcement last month that Premiership clubs have agreed changes in the transfer system that promise to bring much needed stability to a very jittery market.
Monday 2 Manchester City get a UEFA Cup place via that silly Fair Play League. Nicky Butt is helping police with their enquiries into an alleged scuffle in a Manchester nightclub. Alan Buckley is the new manager of Rochdale.
Tuesday 3 A Joe Cole free-kick gives England a 2-1 win over Serbia & Montenegro, during which they use 21 players and have four captains. Sven doesn’t see a problem: “Managers think friendlies should be like this and the public like it.” Northern Ireland lose 2-0 in Italy. Luton’s new owners allegedly offer to reinstate Joe Kinnear and Mick Harford, who were sacked last week.
In these bleak political times, Ori Lewis explains how football stands out as a beacon of harmony, as the promotion of Arab side Ahi Nazareth demonstrates
“I reckon this place hasn’t been the same since Jesus Christ,” uttered an irate Aussie kibbutz volunteer standing in front of me in the queue to pay for his bottle of booze at the Ben-Gurion Airport duty-free shop a while back. Whatever Jesus might have thought of that comment, neither he, nor that Aussie bloke, would have envisaged that those would indeed be prophetic words. For the first time in 2,000 years, Jesus, should he reappear, will have his own football team to support.
In an extract from the new edition of Tor!, his book on the history of German football, Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger explains the ethnic make-up of the national side
On a cloudy Saturday, the first day of September 2001, England came to Munich for a crucial World Cup qualifier. On paper, things looked promising for Germany, who probably only needed a draw to go through to the finals. The country approached the match with optimism, even anticipation, content with the job Rudi Völler had done so far. During his 13 months at the helm, the new national coach had put into action many of the ideas his two predecessors regarded as suicidal. Germany no longer played with a sweeper, although you could still have listed the formation as 3-5-2. However, it was the system Argentina had popularised during the 1998 World Cup, with a flat back three and a crowded midfield that did most of the defending before the opposition even reached the last third of the pitch.
Tom Davies explores the role supporters are playing in saving their clubs
The supporters’ group that has assumed control at Exeter City is facing a sizeable battle to keep the club alive over the summer. Their relegation from the Football League on the last day of the season was swiftly followed by the arrest of chairman John Russell and vice-chairman Mike Lewis over allegations of financial irregularities. The pair, who were bailed to return to police in September, promptly stepped down, leaving the club’s reported debts at more than £2 million with creditors closing in.