The Archive

Boavista, the second club in Porto, have broken the domination of Portugal's big three. Phil Town tries to work out how they did it 

The old David and Goliath cliche was wheeled out for some heavy use by newspapers, TV and radio stations to describe Boavista’s title triumph, but it was a cliche well employed. Boavista are indeed dwarfed by the big three of Benfica, Sporting and Porto. In the week before the game against Aves which decided the title, Boavista proudly announced that their subscription-paying fan base had risen to a club record 15,000. This compares to Porto’s 60,000, Sporting’s 80,000 and Benfica’s whopping 115,000. Those three clubs had budgets for this season of £25 million, £20 million and £25 million respectively. Boavista’s was £4.5 million, of which just £1 million was spent on players.

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David Harrison endeavours to find out exactly who Haig Oundjian is, and discovers more than just a football man 

Distinguishing features Extraordinarily well-preserved and unquestionably handsome, but in possession of distressingly big hair. Generally, every bit as smooth as a chocolate sandwich. Better looking – hell, younger looking – than the entire back four. And that can’t be right, can it?

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Roger Titford looks at the progress of Supporters Direct, the government scheme set up to help fans play a role in running their clubs 

“Who rules the game?” In an attempt to answer that age-old question, here are two extracts from the leading football fanzine of the day. “It is clear where the way to democracy lies but it will only be followed as part of the road to socialism as a whole… Eventually I would like to see democratic supporters’ associations withdraw paying support at the turnstiles in order to force financial crises on the boards until democratic control is handed over to them.”

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New Labour came to power in 1997 riding shamelessly on the football bandwagon. Steve Greenfield and Guy Osborn take a critical look at their record in office. 

Even before the Labour victory in May 1997, football had a prime position in the political landscape. The Labour Party had launched its Charter for Football in 1995, detailing how they would respond to what Tony Blair called “the critical problems now associated with the game”. The rise of the Premiership and the the prospect of Euro 96 had helped make football socially acceptable and many clubs suddenly found themselves patronised, often literally, by the great and good (as well as some MPs).

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Africa's ambition of hosting the World Cup lies in ruins, writes Alan Duncan

The wailing outside Accra’s Military Hospital in the hours after the May 9 clash between Ghanaian giants Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak confirmed the worst – 126 fans killed fol­lowing a stampede sparked by security forces who had fired volleys of tear gas into the popular Ade Coker Stand.

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