The Archive

Players in the "old days" knew how to behave, unlike the overpaid prima-donnas of today. Not at all, says Steve Field

Think of an example of boisterous, drunken or oafish behaviour on the part of a highly-paid football personality. It might be Peter Beagrie’s Great Escape re-enactment in a hotel foyer, Brian Law’s hijack of a West Midlands Travel single-decker, Stan Collymore doing just about any­thing. The alleged misdemeanour could be sex­ual (Pleat, Shilton), financial (Macari, Venables), addiction-related or violent (too many to men­tion). Whatever, you can be sure of one thing. Within hours of the story breaking, pundits will be queuing up to proclaim that such a thing would never have happened in The Old Days.

Read more…

Footballers want the same rights to move around the EU as all other workers. Tim Springett explains how FIFA and UEFA are trying to make life easier for players

There is panic among football clubs, mir­rored by unbridled glee among agents. The Euro­pean Commission believes football’s transfer system contravenes EU laws on free move­ment of labour. Transfers have already seen one major shake-up recently courtesy of Mr Bosman, to which football still has yet to adjust fully and which is currently prejudicing the football authorities’ ability to act rationally.

Read more…

Ken Booth, the current Rotherham United owner, has been trying to sell the club almost since he bought it. Nigel Wilkes tells us exactly who the chairman is

Distinguishing Features Has been described as a cross between Bill “I love scrap” Fraser in the Barn­stoneworth episode of Ripping Yarns and Uriah Heep (the Dick­ensian character, not the ones who sang Gypsy), but I think he looks more a superannuated ferret.

Read more…

  Gary Oliver on a breakaway "SPL2" becoming reality

The skewed values of Scotland’s sports editors were never more apparent than on January 18. While back pages devoted in­ordinate space to Stan Collymore’s declared interest in joining Celtic, in most papers the day’s most important football story was tucked away near the racing form. And the hot tip there was that soon the Scottish Football League would be further weakened by yet another breakaway.

Read more…

In an edited extract from his new book, Morbo, Phil Ball explains how Spain owes its patient style of football to an Englishman, Fred Pentland

Fred Pentland came to manage Athletic Bilbao in 1923, following in the footsteps of another Englishman, a trained masseur by the name of Mr Barnes. The arrival of Pentland, who had played for Blackburn Rovers (among others) in the first decade of the century, coincided with the first clear signs of professionalism in the Spanish game. Pentland had been interned in Germany during the First World War and seems to have spent most of his time training German officers. In 1920 he managed the French football team at the Antwerp Olympics and then spent a year at Racing Santander, whereupon Athletic literally bought him from the Cantabrian club, offering him 1,000 pesetas a month – a decent sum in those days.

Read more…