The Archive

Scotland's trailblazing fanzine The Absolute Game is making a comeback. But, wonders Tom Davies, has the printed word had its day as a tool for fans?

The welcome return of The Absolute Game seems bound to induce bouts of premature nostalgia in fans of a certain age and attitude; a throwback to the days of co-ordinated campaigns against ID cards and dodgy policing, to when the floor of Sportspages bookshop in London would be covered in inky outpourings of anger and calls to arms; to the days when jokes about haircuts and bad away kits really did seem like the cutting edge of radical humour.

Read more…

Co-editor Paul Hutton  mulls over The Absolute Game's revival and concludes the market for articles about Luncarty Juniors remains untapped

Sometime in April, presumably fairly early in the morning, a few hundred lovers of Scottish football will have had a bit of a fright. And that’s before having seen Craig Brown’s squad for the Poland game. Leafing through their morning mail they will have found a copy of The Absolute Game. Perhaps they gazed in a bemused way at the throwback design, wondering where they had last seen its like. And maybe they afforded themselves a wee smile as they realised their subscription money hadn’t been invested in some ropey dotcom after all.

Read more…

Gonzalo Anton's is a typical rags-to-riches story. Phil Ball tries to establish exactly who he is

Distinguishing Features Tubby but tough, slicked-back hair with blazer and tie – more British Legion than Savile Row. With the flattish nose of an ex-boxer, not the sort of chap you’d cross too often. Cuts a respectable figure, without looking as though he’s been dressed by his wife. Anyway, he’s divorced.

Read more…

FIFA's favourite marketing company, ISL, is in trouble. Alan Tomlinson assesses the damage its demise may do to the world governing body and its leader.

Jean Marie Weber is a tall, imposing man with a mane of white hair. At most big world and European football tournaments and a number of Oly­mpic Games he’s been there, patrolling in the back­ground, making sure the big sponsors are secure in the swankiest hotels of the world’s glitziest cities. He looked pleased in the Paris convention hall in 1998 when Sepp Blatter strolled to election victory to take the FIFA presidency.

Read more…

Greece escaped a FIFA threat to throw them out of the World Cup at the end of April. Paul Pomonis explains how they got in such a mess

When the newily appointed junior minister of sport Giorgos Florides declared his intention “to intervene institutionally and dynamically in football” in March 2000, few people took notice. A year later the Greek FA was seriously threatened with expulsion from FIFA. Florides, a 44-year-old lawyer, took over his post with the aim of achieving the often announced katharsi (cleaning up) of Greek football. It soon became obvious that for him katharsi meant the removal of Victor Mitropoulos, head of EPAE, the Greek FA.

Read more…