Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Owen Oyston saved Blackpool from the brink of bankruptcy. David Blundell looks at the controversial businessman
Distinguishing Features Take the Emperor Ming, dress him in the archetypal football manager sheepskin and stick a six gallon hat on his head. You now have Owen Oyston. At least, that was Owen a year ago. Now, denim shirt and trousers with arrows are more his line (he is now in Pentonville prison for the unusual crime of using undue influence to talk a girl into sexual congress).
A new report has been published that analyses the impact of black footballers. Ashley Shaw studies the results
While racism may have largely disappeared from our football grounds, as a recent survey demonstrates the English game is not quite the prejudice-free utopia the FA would have us believe. According to Steven Szymanski, author of Beaten in the Race for the Bell, an economic divide still exists between white and black players in English football.
No Asian footballer has cut it at the highest level yet, but Matthew Brown thinks that could be about to change
Cultural success in Britain was celebrated earlier in the year with the publication of a list of the top 100 Asian businessmen and a flurry of newspaper articles on the country’s Asian millionaires. In December, 2nd Generation, the ‘style mag for Britain’s Asian youth’ celebrated the end of its first year with a list of 1997’s best bands including well-known names such as Asian Dub Foundation, Cornershop and State of Bengal.
Roger Titford gives a unique insight into the proposals for league reform
On December 11th, the Football League Working Party On Structure published its report on the five options for the future structure of the League. By giving each name option the name of a planet, and adding in some extraneous guff about giving points for half-time leads, they attracted a huge amount of (largely) negative publicity and very little critical analysis.
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.