The Archive

Richard Mason and Christoph Biermann study two countries where there is a significant gulf between big and small clubs

ITALY
In overall charge of the whole game in Italy from top to bottom is the FIGC (Federazione Italiana Gioco Calcio) under its president, Luciano Nizzola. Although the FIGC is the umbrella, the various leagues are and always have been separately administered. Serie A and B are run from Milan, Serie C 1 and C2 from Florence, and Serie D from Rome.The other categories are run by regional or provincial committees. Separate administration means that they have their own referees, their own disciplinary committees and procedures, their own version of the Coppa Italia.

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Colin McPherson recalls his horror at taking a friend along to a Scotland game

The end of the Cold War; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the collapse of the Soviet Empire. What could all these great and momentous events have to do with my most humiliating night watching Scotland attempting to play football? They were the reasons for my embarrassment.

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Don't judge your opponents before the match, warns Jeffrey Prest as he remembers the embarrassing defeat suffered by his university team

“It’s a theology college,” said our captain, and the mood among Cripps Hall Thirds visibly lightened. We had lost often that season, yet narrowly enough to believe that just one thumping victory would be the enema for our potential.

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As a Luton Town supporter, John Earls knows a thing or two about heavy defeats

Anyone like me who grew up learning to read mainly from football books will probably have gone through a phase of reading too many Rothmans Football Yearbooks, and actually become briefly interested in the game’s statistics. Mine came when I first started going to watch Luton’s games during our 1981-82 promotion season and – subconsciously needing to prepare myself for the grim years ahead – I cooled down after 3-2 wins over QPR by learning as much as I could about the club’s history.

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Australia have once again failed to qualify for the World Cup. Mike Ticher questions what will become of football in the country after their latest elimination

Australia have lost to some curious teams in their efforts to qualify for previous World Cups – Kuwait, Indonesia, Fiji – but France ’98 was surely the worst beating they had ever handed out to themselves.

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