The Archive

Day 19 of the WSC advent calendar and we’re concentrating on the true meaning of Christmas: turkey. In issue 191, from January 2003, Barney Ronay reported on football’s role as an arena for politics in Turkey, and how it could change after the election of a new nationalist and Islamic-leaning government.

In 1985 England beat Turkey 5-0 at Wembley in a World Cup qualifier. Two years later, an opportunity for revenge presented itself when the teams met again. This time the score was 8-0. Yet when Sven-Goran Erik­sson’s men travel to Istanbul next October for their final Euro 2004 qualifier, they will face the team that fin­ished third at this summer’s World Cup. Turkish foot­ball has transformed itself over the past ten years. And now Turkey looks set to follow suit.

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Tuesday 1 “We’re in the qualification comfort zone,” says Sir Alex, lolling in his hammock after a 4-0 win over Olympiakos. Newcastle lose again, 2-0 at Juventus, though they have a goal wrongly disallowed for offside when one down. Sir Bobby isn’t sure whether he’s given up yet: “It’s almost impossible, but we won’t say that at the moment.” Oxford Utd make the headlines in the Worthington Cup, beating Charlton on penalties after a goalless draw at The Valley. West Ham are also taken to spotkicks, finally beating Chesterfield 4-3. Sunderland treble their goals tally for the season in winning 7-0 at Cambridge. The FA are to investigate a “throat-cutting” gesture made by Eyal Berkovic to a Man City fan who had allegedly been barracking him during the team’s 3-2 win over Crewe.

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Despite the shocking racial discrimination experienced in Bratislava, the FA do not have the right to start pointing fingers when it comes to the issue of racism

Imagine you’re a Football Association official. In the space of a couple of weeks you will have experienced two very different attitudes towards race prejudice. In Bratislava for England’s Euro 2004 qual­ifier with Slovakia, you will have seen and heard a large section of the crowd, the mid­dle-aged people with their children in the expensive seats as well as the skin­head nationalists, join in abusive chants aimed at black England players. The fol­lowing week, you might have attended a “Kick Racism Out of Football” event at an English League ground where you will have seen the crowd applaud the anti-ra-cism banners carried around the pitch by teams of schoolchildren.

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When the World Cup ended, many thought Japanese football would slump but, as Justin McCurry reports, the exact opposite has happened

Strange things are happening at Gamba Osaka. It isn’t just that the perennial underachievers are closer than ever to winning J-League hon­ours; they are doing so in front of crowds not seen since the heady days of the league’s launch ten years ago.

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Ian Plenderleith goes looking for football collectibles and comes back without any bargains, but with an insight into a weird world where Eva Perón rubs virtual shoulders with middle-aged Surrey saddos

At DC United’s final home game of the season you could have your match ticket punched in exchange for a Bobble Doll of Un­ited and US defender Eddie Pope. Eddie is modelling the black kit of his club side, who that evening finished bottom of the US professional league, and has a star-spangled banner draped around his neck. He is also, according to the box, “genuine” (meaning the doll is eith­er honest, or is the actual Eddie Pope), “hand crafted and hand painted”, and his oversized head jerks around on a spring like he’s having some sort of a seizure. What’s more, he’s col­lectible.

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