The Archive

Adam Powley asks who is to blame for Tottenaham fans obtaining tickets for the Leicester end at Wembley and what are the FA are going to do about it?

Since the trouble at the Worthington Cup final, attention has focused on how Tottenham fans got seats for the Leicester end. The root of the problem seems simple: someone, or a group of people, almost certainly with connections to Leicester City, sold tickets either directly or indirectly to Spurs fans, thus at a stroke negating the effectiveness of any segregation policy. The big question is “who dunnit?”

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Jamie Rainbow enjoys the buffet at Kilmarnock, a lacklustre service at Watford and delves into the unofficial sites of Huddersfield and Blackpool

Those who witnessed the eventful scenes in the final Old Firm league game of the season will have been surprised to discover that Scotland were the recipients of this year’s UEFA Fair Play trophy. Chief beneficiaries of the award were Kilmarnock, who automatically claimed a UEFA Cup spot. According to the official Kilmarnock site, Scotland pipped England; the eventual margin between the two countries being a mere 0.001 of a point or, in lay terms, a Dennis Wise booking. There is much to admire about this site, not because it’s visually impressive (it’s not) nor because the content is especially interesting (it isn’t), but because it is such a friendly, intimate affair, that one instantly feels part of the extended Kilmarnock family. For example, celebrating the anniversary of one of the club’s sponsors, commercial director Jim McSherry notes: “The buffet was the worst spread ever. Two or three bowls of nuts, then Dorothy sent husband Russell up to Hannahs to buy another bag of crisps. The Killie four were fair looking forward to hot sausage rolls.” The site also contains the usual vast array of largely pointless statistics but, despite this, a fleeting glimpse of one of Dorothy’s buffets makes a visit worthwhile.

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Brazil v Guatemala, CONCACAF Gold Cup, February 5th 1998, Miami. Neil Wills witnessed a shock result

Every so often something comes along which imbues life with fresh meaning. Such an occurrence befell several million people simultaneously on an otherwise ordinary day in February 1998. It is sad to recount that the incident in question was of no greater import than a football match, but there you go: some­times you have to take what you can get.

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Dear WSC
“Something inside him broke. It ­wasn’t the inside of his knee this time. It was his heart.” It may seem like a line from a Mills and Boon tear-jerker but it’s actually from the Daily Record’s coverage of Gary McAllister’s decision to quit pla­y­ing for Scotland. Oh how a nation was thrown into mourning. Well, no, actually. About bloody time was the general opinion. The truth is that McAllister has never really been accepted by the Tartan Army. Of course the Euro 96 penalty miss is always mentioned but it started long before then. Since his debut in a glorious friendly defeat against East Germany in 1990 nobody has ever been really convinced by him. As early as 1992 there were calls for him to be left out of the squad travelling to the European Championship.Over the next few seasons there was much talk in the Scottish media of Mc­Allister being tracked by Italian giants. Roma were mentioned, so were Sampdoria. When he did finally make the switch to that home of international playboys, Coventry City, no one was more relieved than Rangers fans who had also had to put up with constant rumours of his impending arrival. But it was the way he was booed from the park in Scotland’s recent defeat by the Czech Republic which convinced Gary to go. Showing a Hoddle-like tho­ught process he whined: “There is an element of the media and the support which has exhibited a negative attitude towards me.” Hang on. What actually hap­pened was as old as entertainment itself. You were rubbish therefore you were booed. No negative vibes, no bad karma. You were no good. McAllister’s attitude seems typical of the modern day Premiership footballer who seems to think we should be honoured to be breathing the same air as them. They expect us to stand like slack-jawed yokels who are delighted that the circus has come to town. Sorry Gary and every other footballer in the world. That’s not how it works. Enjoy your big money contracts, boot deals and multi-million pound transfers, but remember whatever changes about football the fans can still tell when the Emperor is naked.
David Lee

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The rise in players' wages continues to grow at an alarming rate, causing Deloitte and Touche to call for clubs to show a harder stance during negotiations

The strangest publication to arrive at WSC for a long time was a glossy bro­chure called, with no apparent sense of irony, UEFA Champions League: A solidarity system for European football. Published in February this year, it appears to form part of UEFA’s campaign to head off any attempt to challenge the central marketing of TV rights to the Champions League.

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