The Archive

Amazingly, not everyone in Europe has welcomed the proposed super league. WSC correspondents sum up reactions in three of the key countries

Germany
When the plans for a European super league were first presented in the German media, reactions were as vague as the proposals themselves. Most Bundesliga club officials grieved over the loss of morality in sport in a rather populist manner, knowing that the vast majority of German teams would be excluded from the feeding troughs of the ESL and may have their very existence threatened. But even for those who will be involved in it, the new era may bring about just as many problems as advantages.

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Andrew Fraser explains how a recent court case involving a Stockport steward highlighted widespread concern about ground safety

Football safety experts fear a renewed smug-ness about stadium safety, plus financial restraints on clubs outside the Premiership, could threaten a new Hillsborough in English grounds.

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A summer of unprecedented World Cup hype has done nothing to slow down the football juggernaut. We invited three critics, Simon Inglis, Alyson Rudd and John Williams, to ruminate on the shape of things to come

The onset of the football boom in Britain is usually dated from the 1990 World Cup. Two tournaments on from there it still appears to be racing ahead at ever greater speed. Are there any indications that the boom is nearing its end?

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Dear WSC
There wasn’t room on the questionnaire (WSC No 138) to record my favourite World Cup moment. Given the paucity of the “entertainment”, the presence of the Paraguayan defender, Arce, was a blessing. Credit must be given to Barry Davies, who never slipped up with his pronunciation, as the rest of us surely would have. Thus, Arce was constantly announced as “Ah-Say!” in the grand manner of the blustering cartoon rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, and never once degenerated into “Aaaarse” like the yokel in The Fast Show sketches.
Martin Callaghan, Wakefield

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Powder puff ideas are making the dreaded Super League a laughing stock before it's even begun

Be mightily afraid, there’s a super league a-coming and damned if it doesn’t keep changing shape. One day it’s going to be a midweek league involving 16 clubs, or two divisions of 16, or 20 clubs. Then it’s going to be an invitational end of season tournament running through the close season. It might be a sealed competition with no promotion and relegation, or it might be opened up to new members after the first two years.

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