The Archive

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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Any new football books out? Yes. Any good? No

Good news for tree-lovers. Stung by all the bad publicity generated by Roy Keane’s score settling, Manchester Un­ited are to ban their players from producing books that don’t have the official stamp of approval. The millions keenly anticipating David Beckham’s planned autobiography needn’t fret as it seems set to escape the cull, contracts having been signed some time ago, but we may be de­prived of the raw insights of Paul Scholes (working title: Ginger!) and Nicky Butt (Kicking Butt).

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No luck for the Irish. Paul Doyle studies the basic flaw in the joint bid to host Euro 2008 by Scotland and Ireland

It was only ten years ago that I wrote furiously to UEFA, asking them why they were going to allow England, with their city-trashing “fans”, to host Euro 96. My dismay was real, my pro­test, of course, ignored.

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With China beckoning, Paula Cocozza checks on the development of England's feminine side

When the whistle blew on England’s 1-0 win over Iceland at St Andrews on September 22, the coaching staff and subs ran on to the pitch and the players hugged each other as one. It was the way almost every positive result that had taken them this far – to the brink of the 2003 World Cup in China – had been greeted. In the press room afterwards the England manager Hope Powell searched for the right words. “I think it’s… it’s relief,” she said.

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The North Korea team that took the 1966 World Cup by storm are returning to England, as a new film documents  their triumph. Harry Pearson has a preview

On Friday October 25 a worker from a North Korean textbook factory will return to the scene of his greatest triumph. Pak Do Ik has not been back to Middlesbrough since his goal set up what remains arguably the greatest shock in World Cup history, his country’s 1-0 win over Italy in 1966.

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