The Archive

For day 12 of the WSC advent calendar we’re looking at on of the gifts given to baby Jesus; gold. In April 2002, issue 182, Bobby McMahon attempted to explain why South Korea took part in that year’s Concacaf Gold Cup and suggested a way to put the tournament out of its misery

On the world football scale, winning the Gold Cup is tantamount to winning the world’s tallest midget competition. Not only is it contested by teams from one of the weakest regions, Concacaf, it receives min­imal fan support and attracts almost no media interest. Ostensibly created in 1991 to help promote the 1994 World Cup in the US as well as to help the home country’s preparations, the competition replaced the Concacaf Championship which had been contested under various formats and with a vary­ing number of participants since 1941. Costa Rica dom­inated until 1989 with ten wins, while the Mex­icans, who you would have perhaps expected to lead, won only three.

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Cris Freddi's regular series continues with a look back at a famous win over Spain in 1985 that had Welsh fans dreaming of the World Cup finals

You’d kill for a playmaker. Just one. In the last 30 years. But this is Wales, and they don’t make them here. Rugby, yes. Even now. A second division country but still producing the odd Arwel Thomas. But foot­ball? Forget it. No world-class creative midfielder since Ivor Allchurch, who peaked in the Fifties. And Scot­land and Northern Ireland think they’ve had prob­lems.

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The League of Ireland has yet to reap any benefit from the national team's success. But plans are afoot to revive the domestic scene. Paul Doyle reports

In the Irish High Court in early February, a man was sent to prison for rape. Two minutes later, the judge re-emerged from his chambers to rule on a case between the Football Association of Ire­land and Shelbourne, one of the country’s biggest clubs. You could understand if the judge found it all quite trivial, but most League of Ireland fans were in raptures when he found in favour of the FAI.

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He was a brilliant winger in a team on the rise under a manager who loved a bit of flair. But, as Adam Powley reports, that's when it all started going wrong

You know that story about the brilliantly talented kid at school who was so good, he seemed born to be a footballer? Invariably, there’s no happy ending: the precociously gifted youngster fails to make the grade for a variety of frustrating reasons – poor coaching, a lack of application, or simply bad luck – and it all ends up as a case of what might have been.

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Partick Thistle fan Chris Fyfe sets out his side's promotion plan to the Premier League, rivalry with Airdrie and the club's 'tablecloth' kit

Have Thistle’s derby rivals changed over the years?
Our main rivals tend to fluctuate between Airdrie, Clydebank, Clyde and Killie depending on our res­pective fortunes. At the moment Killie’s prolonged SPL run takes them out of sight. The rivalry with the other Glasgow club, Clyde, came to a head when they lodged at Firhill for five years, due to their locals preferring to watch dog racing.

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