The Archive

Roger Titford takes the pulse of our readers again and finds they have cut down on football slightly, but are unhappy at their increasingly sedentary lifestyle

In WSC 187 we asked for readers’ responses to a ques­tionnaire we had first used way back in 1991, before the start of the Premier League and the all-seater era. How much had changed? Eighteen per cent of our respondents actually recall answering that questionnaire and another 37 per cent thought they might have done. So, although the two surveys were 11 years apart, we’re looking at a lot of the same people’s views on the same issues. Not that surprisingly, a lot of the answers were the same too.

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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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