Wednesday 1 Leicester's Tony Cottee and Andrew Impey are charged with misconduct by the FA after an investigation into how tickets for the 1999 Worthington Cup final ended up on the black market. A further 25 players and officials at Leicester have been charged with failing to assist the inquiry. "It's an absolute farce," says Neil Lennon. "We were given forms and asked to write out who we gave our tickets to but no deadline was given." The average age of the creaking Middlesbrough midfield will be lowered significantly with the return of Juninho, back on loan from Atletico Madrid until the end of the season. The Rep of Ireland beat Yugoslavia 2-1 in a Euro 2000 qualifier.
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Though considered a relatively recent phenomenon, Matthew Taylor throws light upon the role agents have played in football through the years
Alf Common didn’t make much money when he moved from Sunderland to Middlesbrough as the first £1,000 footballer in 1905. In fact, it is not clear that he benefited at all. The Teesside club acquired a powerful centre-forward who helped to keep them in the First Division and the Wearsiders received a hefty cheque in return. Restricted by the maximum wage law, all Common officially made out of the transaction was his £10 signing-on fee. Things would have been different, one suspects, if he had had an agent.
Jamie Rainbow checks out non-league on the web, plus a look at some of the more interesting unofficial club sites
The Non-League on the Net site was recommended by someone who feared it was in danger of closing down due to lack of interest. It shouldn’t do, as in terms of content and appearance it’s got more to offer than your average club site. Furthermore, if you follow a non-League side, you’re more likely to find out information about them here than anywhere else. There’s plenty of it, too, not just on the Conference but on the feeder leagues and beyond.
After looking painstakingly through all the surveys our readers sent in, Roger Titford explains the results
In an unusual turnabout, this year’s WSC survey gives Sepp Blatter a helping hand. Ever anticipating the key issues, we asked what damage you thought the number of foreign players was causing the game today. Of the first 900 questionnaires returned, 50 per cent said the England team was suffering, 45 per cent saw damage in the Premiership, 35 per cent in the Scottish Premier League and 30 per cent to the Scottish national side. Only 29 per cent felt the number of foreign players causing no damage anywhere in the game. Thirty-two per cent felt, like Sepp, the restrictions should be tightened, but 51 per cent thought they were about right.
Dear WSC
Geoff Leonard (WSC 152) shouldn’t dismiss his Murphy’s Mob theory so hastily. Consider this: from 1982 to 1984, Murphy’s Mob was filmed at Vicarage Road. In that time, Watford were promoted to the First Division for the first time in their history, finished second in their first season there and reached the FA Cup final. From 1984 to 1997, Watford achieved little of any great note. From 1997 to 1999, Sky One’s Dream Team was filmed at Vicarage Road. In that time, Watford won the Second Division and then went straight up to the Premiership. Coincidence? You decide. Sadly, Dream Team’s Harchester United have now moved to the Theatre of Dreams, aka the New Den. Bad news for us Hornets fans, but a glimmer of hope for the Millwall faithful?
Tim Turner, London N4