The Archive

The Football League play-offs present altering patterns in hooliganism, writes Tom Davies

If there’s a World Cup in the offing, one thing you can always rely on in the preceding weeks is the “spotlight” falling on “fears of hooliganism”. With it comes the obligatory bout of documentaries on “the problem that never went away”, as a seemingly endless stream of ageing young men queue up to tell us about where and why it’s kicking off. Proclaiming yourself to be a former football hooligan must surely be the easiest way to achieve TV fame these days – such people make the contestants on Pop Idol look like dues-paying footsloggers by comparison.

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Ian Plenderleith discovers a Swede with an addiction to Slough Town, what Colin Addison's main failing as a manager was, and where the Jail End can be found

How far would you travel to watch Slough Town? It’s one of those questions consistently posed in philosophical and political de­bating salons across the nation. In the case of Mats Tallqvist, leader of the Slough fan group the Swedish Rebels, the answer is “all the way from Halmstad”, and with great regularity, jud­ging by the diary accounts on his Unofficial Slough Town Web Page.

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No one else would do it, so Neil McCarthy felt compelled to hand out some awards to the French presidents who have so enriched the past season

Each season, the French Players’ Union stage Les Oscars du Foot, televised live and attended by the squads of all 38 professional clubs. This year, Bor­deaux’s striker Pauleta won player of the season and Djibril Cissé won best young player. For some reason, though, none of the 38 club presidents turned up for the Oscars and only two sent apologies. France Football magazine remarked on this and suggested that per­haps the organisers would have more success in at­tracting them if they awarded an Oscar for president of the season.

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Letters, WSC 184

Dear WSC
While Ian Kelp (Letters, WSC 183) makes some valid points about the bizarre soft spot banks have for football clubs in allowing them to trade on nought but pro­mises year after year, I fear that he is too pur­it­an­ical in his approach to business planning. Page one of the Company Treasurer’s Handbook tells us about cashflow planning and a seemingly valid contract pro­m­­ising revenue at fixed future times is a reasonable thing to make plans on, or, if necessary, borrow against. No business waits until the money is in the bank account before planning how to spend it, or indeed actually spending it. Would Marks and Spencer wait until it had a queue of unsatisfied customers waving bunches of tenners in the branch until it ordered a batch of knickers from its sup­pliers? Where the clubs have probably been naive is in what appears to be a less than watertight contract. If it is true that Carlton and Granada can walk away without liability for their little joint venture, the clubs should be looking at the quality of their legal advice. The fact that the share prices of both Carlton and Granada rose once the situation became public is a pret­ty depressing sign of what the City thinks of that contract.
Jonathan Gibbs, via email

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Huw Richards gives us an update on  life as a Swans fan

Are Swansea fans in favour of a move to a new stadium or would some prefer to stay put?
The Vetch is a dump, but it is a much loved, highly at­­mospheric dump in which a 4,000 crowd can sound like a packed Colosseum on a bad day for Christians. We all recognise the possible econ­omic benefits of a move to the Morfa Stadium, but can’t help worrying about the possibility of rattling ar­ound in an atmosphere-less 20,000-seater tin­ can.

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