The Archive

Conrad Thomas explains how incidents surrounding Portadown v Cliftonville led to questions about the nature of sectarinism within football in Northern Ireland

In September, Cliftonville were due to play their North Belfast rivals Crusaders in a cup semi-final. This was to be played at a neutral venue, The Oval, in predominantly Protestant East Belfast. The majority of Cliftonville fans are Catholic but we have happily travelled to The Oval on many occasions to watch our team play Glentoran. The route that we take to the ground is strictly decided upon by the police.

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The Kick It Out campaign entered its second season with a presentation of a report, Alive and Still Kicking, produced by three researchers at Goldsmiths College,  Les Back, Tim Crabbe and John Solomos, who offer their views on the progress made by the campain

Monday, 21st October saw the latest relaunch of the “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football Campaign”. With such launches now becoming something of an annual event and the media becoming a little tired of the subject matter, the sceptic might be left asking what new there is to say. Indeed, anyone attending last year’s launch might have been left to wonder whether there was any point to carrying on anyway, given the almost universal declaration from the panel that racism was not really much of a problem anymore.

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Richard Augood tells us what a Champions League night is like in Romania

Queueing at the Steaua Megastore to buy tickets. Should we go for the £20 VIP sofa? Last night's VIP table at Disco No Problem had come with a choice of a fight with a gypsy pool hustler, a 300% special foreigner tax and having to pick up the bar tab twice. So, second category tickets it is. Sector 20, right on the halfway line. 

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West Brom fan Jaz Baines puts the case for his club making more of an effort to recruit players from ethnic minority backgrounds

According to the PFA about one in five professional footballers in the Premiership and Nationwide League are black. To judge by the latest Rothmans, fifteen clubs had no black players on their books last season. Black players will always come and go, of course, and there may be other mitigating circumstances, not least the fact that clubs situated in areas like Yorkshire & Humberside and Tyne & Wear, where the black population is 0.7 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, are less likely to recruit black players than clubs in London or the Midlands. However, while the presence of the likes of Tranmere, York, Grimsby and Hartlepool on this list is no surprise, the inclusion of West Bromwich Albion ought to raise a few eyebrows.

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Mike Woitalla reviews the opening season of Major League Soccer and suggests that football followers in the US may have got what they've been hoping for

For roughly two-thirds of the money that Newcastle United spent on Alan Shearer, Sunil Gulati acquired enough players for an entire league – Major League Soccer. Gulati teaches economics at Columbia University – is there room in the class Mr Keegan? – but is better known as the deputy commissioner of MLS.

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