The Archive

Steve Greenfield and Guy Osborn discuss the latest findings from the government to tackle hooliganism 

The recently announced Home Office Review of Football-Related Legislation makes 29 recommendations for changes in the law, including a new raft of specific measures to deal with hooligans. Although the government has invited comments, it seems the measures may come into force earlier than anticipated, since the Conservative MP Simon Burns has published a private member’s Bill that contains many of the recommendations and this may be pushed quickly through parliament with government support.

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Some regular WSC contributors weigh up the best and worst things to have happened to football in 1998, and look ahead to 1999

Ian Plenderleith

Ups
– Soaring wages in the Premier League – it makes me feel warm inside to watch players and know at the same time that they will be secure in their old age.

– England’s World Cup exit – God save us eternally from Englishmen on top of the world.

– Scotland fans once again annoying the English by showing them how to enjoy a football tournament.

Downs
– The desecration of once-wonderful European club competitions.

– The failure of self-appointed fan-of-the-people David Mellor to drown in his own grease.

– Overall, too much hype and too little substance.

Hope
That football will eat itself and then we can all do something worthwhile with our spare time.

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A quick football history lesson on York City with Chris Forth

1922 Current club formed and elected to League in 1929 without even playing on its location as a railway city.

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Tony Christie describes an odd encounter at a public exhibition of the FA Cup

It was in the North Country that I encountered him. At Doctor Pit Welfare Park, Bedlington, on a night when the darkening sky sat heavy on the ancient chimneys and the air was silent save for the occasional deranged hoot from a flock of Northern League urchins which had alighted in the blackness behind the away dug-out. Before a silken banner of richest cerulian blue and ivory embroidered with the runic slogan “AXA”, upon a velvet cloth there sat a great chalice of burnished silver.

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Davy Millar looks at  examples of football becoming caught up in the politics of Northern Ireland

There are those who will argue that there should be a firm demarcation line between the worlds of sport and politics. They believe that the average altruistic politico is ill-prepared to survive contact with the rampant megalomania, corruption, cynicism, ex­ploitation and downright thuggery of modern professional sport. Or have I got it the wrong way round? It’s hard to tell these days.

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