Saturday 2 The sensible sensation comes off the bench to score as England draw 1-1 in Paris. “Michael was disappointed to be left out but he provided the answer,” says quizmaster Kev. Michael, however, is appropriately huffy: “I don’t think I have anything to prove in international football.” Arsenal and Chelsea players on both sides are involved in scuffles during and after the match. Sadly, no one is injured. In World Cup qualifiers, Scotland beat Latvia with a last minute goal from Neil McCann (“I can only describe our first half performance as pathetic,” says Craig Brown), Wales lose 2-1 in Belarus, Northern Ireland survive a few scares in a 1-0 win over Malta. Best performance comes from the Republic of Ireland, who take a two goal lead in Holland before drawing 2-2. Roy Keane is cross: “We should have won. I am sick of hearing that the Irish have a good time whatever the result.” Walsall hold a four-point lead in the Second Division after their fifth successive win, 2-0 over Wigan. Relief at Oxford, where the last pointless team in the League break their duck with a home draw against Cambridge.
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
The dispute over the steamlining of non-League football is producing more bad blood than solutions, reports Gary Boswell
Observers of politics will be familiar with the ambiguous answer from a minister who has not been involved in the policy changes on which he is being questioned. There is a distinct feeling of such woollyheadedness in the current dispute over streamlining the Conference and its feeder leagues.
Doug Everitt is a typical grey-haired accountant – and the chairman of Grimsby Town. Ian Rodwell takes a deeper look at the man who looks odds-on to oversee another relegation
Distinguishing features A typical, grey-haired, middle-aged accountant. Vice-chairman Bryan Huxford, who seems to think of himself as a local celebrity, has most of the contact with the media.
Everyone insists scrapping transfer fees would mean chaos. But, in the first of two articles, Pierre Lanfranchi and Matthew Taylor argue it might finally bring the industry up to date
Imagine football without transfer fees. Journalists, financial analysts and sports lawyers – not to mention directors, managers and players – have apparently been doing little else since the European Commission’s “shock” announcement that the present system of clubs profiting from the movement of players must come to an end. In Britain at least, predictions have tended towards the catastrophic: take away transfer fees and small clubs would die, top players would earn even more and all manner of chaos would ensue.
French clubs, heavy expoters of talent, are pleading with their government for help. Neil McCarthy believes it's an opportunity to make some serious reforms
The threat to the transfer system has come as a blow to French clubs just as they had found new confidence. Nicolas Anelka’s £22 million return to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer was the prime symbol of the new euphoria and, more importantly, the new money in French football. Behind the scenes, club presidents had begun to believe they could actually catch up with their English, Italian and Spanish rivals.