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The Archive

Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.

 

Winners meddle

Nigeria look odds on to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in spite, rather than because, of their organisation off the pitch, as Osasu Obayiuwana explains

Perhaps like nowhere else in the football world the recent history of the game in Nigeria is one of odd but intriguing contrasts, a showcase for both excellence and mediocrity. “A foreign manager with no backbone and an aversion for conflict cannot work as coach of the national team in Nigeria,” says Clemence Westerhof, the Dutchman whose five year reign came to an end after the 1994 World Cup Finals.

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TV times

John Perlman got a glimpse into the future when he went to see the Highbury screening of Arsenal's match at Newcastle – and it left him worried

Idiot. Cheat. Bastard. We are screaming at referee Graham Barber, who has just sent Tony Adams off. And all because he just happened to be in the neighbourhood when Alan Shearer decided to launch himself on another dive towards the penalty area. We have quite a bit to say to Shearer too.

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December 1996

Sunday 1 Leeds jump up to mid table after two early goals, including Ian Rush's first for the club, see off Chelsea at Elland Road. Civil war within the Premier League is being predicted after the announcement that Rick Parry is to leave his job as chief executive to take up a similar post at Liverpool, where one of his first tasks may be to negotiate the club's first pay-per-view TV deal. "I believe there is stability and vision at the top of our great game," he says in signing off. He may have been laughing. Tabloid coverage of Parry's departure includes reference to the "so-called Big Five" of which Newcastle now appear to a member, to the exclusion of Spurs. That should swell Alan Sugar's postbag.

Monday 2 Liverpool are second after a 2-0 win at Spurs, their second a tame McManaman shot that takes a freak bounce over Ian Walker, almost identical to a Collymore goal at Blackburn last season. "It was lucky we brought that portable divot with us," says Roy Evans. Arrigo Sacchi leaves his post with the Italian national team to return to AC Milan. It is thought likely that his successor (under-21 coach Cesare Maldini is favourite) will restore some of the players omitted by Sacchi, including Baggio, Vialli and Signori. But probably not Silenzi.

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Impaired vision

Simon Kuper explains why the collapse of a pay-per-view channel in Holland is likely to have an effect on the relationship between football and television in the UK

I happened to be in Amsterdam on the Saturday in February when the chairman of the Dutch FA famously announced “We’re going to start something new.” He revealed that Holland’s clubs had sold the TV rights to their matches to a new cable channel.

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A gulf in class

Alan Tomlinson and John Sugden report on how the 1996 Asian Nations Cup Finals proved to be a massive disappointment to the hosts of the next World Cup but one

The 1996 Asian Nations Cup Finals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw the home side go one better than England in Euro 96, reaching the tournament final after a penalty shoot-out. In the final, in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City, neighbours UAE and Saudi Arabia sparred their way to a goalless two hours, and into a penalty shoot-out. The Saudis came out on top, with four penalties to the Emirates’ two, reasserting their recent domination of this tournament – they were winners in 1984 and 1988, and losing finalists in 1992.

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