The Archive

In the aftermath of the controversy over Neil MacNamara, Mark Rowe argues that new legislation will do little to improve club stewarding while the pay and training attached to the job is so poor

So what if Neil MacNamara, the minder of Sam Ham­­mam, turned out to be a convicted football hooligan? I would argue it would have made a better front page headline in the Sun if Sam’s minder had not had a criminal record – bearing in mind that one in four British men born in 1968 had a conviction by the age of 25, and every event security manager needs at least some staff who are not afraid to mix it.

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Recent incursions that sparked alarm in the media are trivial (so far) compared to the trouble that led to fences going up in the 1970s. Mike Ticher looks back

While “friendly” pitch invasions had been relatively common for decades (Kenneth Wolstenholme was famously unconcerned) the late Sixties and early Seventies saw a rash of high profile incidents that eventually led to the erection of fences at almost all big English grounds.

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The headlines were about English infiltration after trouble at Pittodrie. But the Scottish game would do better to take a long, hard look at itself, says Dianne Millen

Never mind Afghanistan – hold the front page for the Battle of Pittodrie, billed as the biggest Scots skirmish since Culloden. The coins had barely been picked up from pitchside before SPL chief executive Roger Mitchell had fallen back on that old stand-by, blaming the violence on “mindless morons”, a description later repeated by the police, press and both clubs. Idiots there most cer­tainly were at the game, but not all of them were throwing things.

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Radio 5 Live gives football fans the chance to air their views on their post-match show 6.06 but are such shows just outlets for inane opinion?

Yes ~
You end up feeling sorry for the presenter. By the end of every football phone-in, I just want to hold the hand of the caged beast, as he has had a combination of heavy fatalism and non-punchlined anec­dote poured into his ear for hour after hour.

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Martin Gambarotta takes a look at the growing debt in Argentinian league football and the AFA's initiatives to deal with it

As a full-scale popular revolt was toppling the Argentinian president Fernando de la Rúa in December, a considerable number of people were kicking up a fuss about something else: tickets to see Racing Club’s bid to clinch its first league title in 35 years. The game was post­poned because of the turmoil that left at least 27 dead, but eventually – with a new head of state in office and much cajoling – the game was played a week later. Racing won the title.

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