Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Clubs are slowly starting to launch their own independent television channels. Patrick Harverson wonders what this could mean for fans
Here we go again. Premier League clubs are falling over themselves in their hurry to sign deals with broadcasters to establish their own television channels, just as they flattened everything in sight in their stampede to the stock market during the past year.
Davy Millar's favourite football landmark is not one that you will have heard of, as he explains
Moira is a small village with very few claims to fame. It is the site of an historic battle but, this being Northern Ireland, the locals decided that their village needed something else to distinguish it from everywhere else in Ulster. So, they planted award-winning floral displays, a novelty in a country normally disinterested in flower beds unless that’s where the Semtex is currently hidden, but these have been surpassed by another local attraction – the roundabout.
Football is changing due to a new breed of chairmen. David Conn, author of The Football Business, outlines how the game is being affected by those who own the clubs
Beneath the high-pitched hype, English football presents some stark realities. Sir John Hall, former tireless warrior of the ‘Geordie nation’, made £100m for himself and his family out of Newcastle United when it floated on the Stock Market in April. He is now living mostly in Spain. Martin Edwards, chief executive of Manchester United plc, bought into United for £600,000 in 1978. He has recently made £33m cash from selling some of his shares, and retains a 15 per cent stake in United, worth around £60m.
Following on from yesterday’s bad Christmas experiences, day 22 of the WSC advent calendar sees us focus on the positives. The festive season always gets us excited about extra football matches and, in issue 131, January 1998, Piers Pennington remembered a great day out
Football at Christmas is all about escaping from the relatives, nursing bloated stomachs and monumental hangovers and showing off those unfortunate new jumpers; and the same goes for the spectators. What you really need, of course is snow (Tromsø v Chelsea reminded us of what it ought to look like); but unless you’re fortunate enough to support Inverness Caley or Carlisle the sight of an orange ball against a sea of white is rare.
Day 21 of the WSC advent calendar and we’re looking at Christmas football. These days it is something to look forward to but, in issue 131, January 1998, Olly Wicken‘s grandad claimed that this wasn’t always the case
I went to my first Christmas game in 1933, at the age of twelve. I’ll never forget it. It was a cold and bright Christmas Day morning (Christmas Day fixtures were the norm in those days). My Christmas stocking was still hanging unopened over the hearth when my father wrapped me up in my muffler, cap and overcoat and walked me along frosty pavements to the ground. Once inside, I was passed over the heads of the crowd down to the front of the terrace. From there I saw the local derby end in a five-all draw. Our inside-left – I forget his name now – scored all five. Then, on Boxing Day afternoon, my father took me to the return match across town, which we won by the odd goal in thirteen, making the aggregate score twelve-eleven over the two days. It was typical of Christmas fixtures back then. Both games were shit.