Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Confused about who shows what on TV? You will be if the Office of Fair Trading wins its case against the Premier League. Steve Greenfield and Guy Osborn explain the issues.
The most important match of the season for the armchair football fan is not a top-of-the-table clash in the Spanish League or Serie A, or one of the endless run of Old Firm games, but is being played in the Restrictive Practices Court in London. It kicked off on January 12th and is expected to last several months.
Jamie Rainbow sees all things John Collins related and more as he reports on the latest football developments on the web
There's a site devoted to the career of John Collins. Nothing remarkable in that you might think, until you discover that the site is run by a Brazilian – suggesting that Walter Smith was not the only person to be seduced by a penalty converted in the World Cup finals. Although for future reference Walter, perhaps it would be more prudent just to set up a website. There’s plenty of worthwhile input here, much of it from Collins himself. For instance, he relates the story of the Rainier family attempting to persuade him to stay with Monaco. Firstly, Prince Rainier’s nephew spoke to him, enabling Collins to smugly admit: “Prince Albert also asked me not to leave. I didn't like letting either of them down.” Well, you don’t, do you. He also admits he’ll miss evenings like the private reception held in honour of Monaco’s title win in 1997. Fear not John, I understand Everton’s annual ‘beat the drop’ parties are rumoured to be fun.
Karsten Blaas explains why a proposed new citizenship law could have major repercussions for football in Germany, at both professional and amateur level
Last September, the Germans got themselves a new government. After a few months in charge, however, the envisaged red and green restructuring of the country turned out to be not much more than old Helmut Kohl with a few squirts of fresh paint. In fact, the only real reform likely to be passed in the near future is a modernisation of Germany’s citizenship law.
Phil Tanner grinds his teeth over the Welsh FA's hypocrisy and says they may have jeopardised the national team's status
Declaring interests has not been a central theme of Lancaster Gate-gate (or Westgate-gate as it might be termed on the other side of the Severn Bridge), but what the hell. I support a Welsh non-League club which in 1995 had to go to court to establish its right under restraint of trade law not to be forced into the League of Wales. The pillar of the Welsh FA’s defence was that national associations outside the UK were stepping up pressure over the so-called home nations’ independent status and that even minor anomalies such as three clubs, each with a few hundred supporters, playing on both sides of the border might ultimately threaten the existence of the Welsh national side. (For some reason the fact that three much larger clubs did likewise was discounted, but we’ll skip that.)
Once again, FIFA president Sepp Blatter courts controversy in regards to his ambitious plan for world domination
Elswhere in this issue, WSC contributors offer their impressions of their favourite and least favourite moments of the year just past, with the 1998 World Cup featuring prominently among the positive memories. However much like a corporate jamboree it has become, it is still a momentous occasion enjoyed by millions of football fans around the world and there is absolutely no good reason to change it. Or so you might think.