The Archive

Cris Freddi looks back at France 98 and experiences a definite touch of déjà vu

I thought it was just me at first, but it’s all right: everyone else is still waiting for the tournament to take off too. Actually it looked as if it had, and at the stage it was supposed to, the last round of group matches. Morocco-Scotland and Norway-Brazil, Paraguay-Nigeria and Spain-Bulgaria, Mexico-Holland and Belgium-South Korea. But even then we got Yugoslavia v USA, Germany v Iran and Jamaica v Japan – and although we had some memorable matches at the knockout stage (Brazil v Denmark, Argentina v England and Holland) there were still too many dull teams left: Germany, Romania, Norway, France up to a point, Yugoslavia, Croatia.

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Tuesday 2 Sir John Hall resigns from the board of Newcastle Utd and its parent company. Two directors of the plc stepped down last week, apparently in protest at the impending return to the club board of Freddie Shepherd and Douglas Hall. Stan Ternent leaves Bury to become manager of Burnley. Romario is out of Brazil's World Cup squad having not recovered from injury. "We had a similar situation with Gary McAllister so things have evened out," says Craig Brown.

Wednesday 3 Terry Venables criticizes Glenn Hoddle's decision to drop Paul Gascoigne: "I think I would have been a little more patient."

Saturday 6 Hoddle summons Teddy Sheringham for a chat after the tabloids find him drinking in a nightclub in Portugal. "If people read that I was out until 6am I admit that it sounds disgraceful," says Teddy. Slough Town are thrown out of the Conference for failing to upgrade their ground. Telford, who finished in the third relegation spot, are reinstated.

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Matthew Roche went to France eager to report the penetrating insights of national managers, but only found one who had any. No surprise that it wasn't Glenn Hoddle

It was enough to make any self-respecting journalist scream. Glenn Hoddle had just been asked at a  press conference whether he thought the heat might be a problem during the game with Romania. “I don’t know about that, but it’s certainly hot enough in this room,” he said with a witless smile, prompting a respected member of the accompanying media circus to put away his notebook. “It’s at times like this that I want England to lose so I can go off and cover someone more interesting,” he admitted. Wanted: Manager for national side. Must be able to provoke thought.

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John Sugden & Alan Tomlinson put forward their view of the transition from Havelange to Blatter, who became FIFA president in 1998

At FIFA’s 51st Congress in Paris, on the eve of the World Cup finals, Sepp Blatter – the man most responsible for outlawing the tackle from behind – felled Lennart Johansson with a late challenge that Tommy Smith would have been proud of. After a secret ballot, Blatter swept to the FIFA presidency by 111 votes to 80. The result stunned Johansson’s supporters. Only days before they had been confidently predicting a comfortable victory for the man who for the past four years had been tirelessly promoting a campaign to reform FIFA based on principles of democracy and transparency.

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Saturday 2 "I hope it's not too late," says Colin Todd as Bolton move out of the bottom three with a 5-2 home win over Palace, managed for the day by Ron Noades, who may become Brentford's new owner next week. Barnsley are down after a 1-0 defeat at Leicester – "The first half of the season was a steep learning curve for us," says Danny Wilson. Spurs are almost safe after thrashing Wimbledon 6-2 at Selhurst Park with J®πrgen Klinsmann getting four. Newcastle are in the clear after a 3-1 win over Chelsea, though the FA are likely to charge Alan Shearer with misconduct over the Neil Lennon incident. In the Second Division, Watford are champions after a 2-1 win at Fulham, who just squeak into the play-offs . At the other end, Brentford drop down to the bottom division for the first time in 20 years after losing at Bristol Rovers, Burnley stay up through beating Plymouth 2-1. In the Third, Lincoln take the third automatic promotion place after beating Brighton while Torquay lose at Leyton Orient. In Scotland, Rangers cock up again, losing at home 1-0 to Kilmarnock.

Sunday 3 Arsenal are champions after beating Everton 4-0 at Highbury. "I thought I had to keep my emotions until now in case we did not win the title," says Arsene. And you thought he was just shy. Everton now need to beat Coventry next week and hope that Bolton don't win against a probably under-strength Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Man City go down to the Second Division, despite winning 5-2 at Stoke, who are also relegated. Middlesbrough are back in the Premiership. Celtic miss a chance to wrap up the Scottish title, conceding a late equaliser at Dunfermline. Justin Fashanu is found dead seemingly having committed suicide.

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