The Archive

Andy Lyons spoke to Jaz Baines, the author of a survey that has challenged some myths about Asian footballers

“There’s a theory they don’t like open changing rooms, their ethics don’t allow it. They do have a problem with their build, which is very slight, and they don’t like the physical element. Their eating habits are also a problem.”
 
The comments are from two League club youth coaches – one of whom went on to become a First Division manager – offering suggestions about why there aren’t more professional footballers from Asian backgrounds. The quotes are from an article in the Sunday Times, reprinted in Asians Can’t Play Football, a report due to be published in April.

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Monday 1 Spurs win the battle of the reserve XIs, beating Man Utd 4-1. Peter Schmeichel, injured in the warm up, misses the second half and will be out for a month, reportedly. "We're up against it," says Alex Ferguson. Liverpool come back from two down to beat Forest 4-2 and are now three points clear in third place. An exchange of views between Joe Royle and Sam Hammam after Everton's 3-2 win at Wimbledon, during which the home side have two penalty appeals turned down, ends with Joe being pursued onto the team coach by Sam and his brother. Their Dads should sort it out.

Tuesday 2 "We have just buried the ghost of Old Trafford," says Kevin Keegan after Newcastle's 2-0 home win over Arsenal takes them seven points clear again. David Ginola scores the first inside a minute. Roy McFarland is sacked by Bolton. Co-manager Colin Todd, left in sole charge, says, "It is nothing to do with me." Uh-oh – FIFA's international board are considering a suggestion to widen goal posts by the diameter of two balls and increase the height by the diameter of one ball. The changes would be introduced after the 1998 World Cup. Plenty of time for petitions.

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Few people have spent more time studying the Bosman Judgment than Glyn Ford, Labour MEP for Greater Manchester East, and he thinks that a lot of what has been said has missed the point. This could turn out to only be the beginning

Pages and pages have been written on the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in the Bosman Case. And they’ve all been wrong. Jean-Marc Bosman took two issues to the Court. Firstly, that of the transfer system, and secondly, limitations on ‘foreign’ players. He won both arguments, but not in the way it has been commonly described. The European Court did not outlaw the foreign player rule – three foreigners plus two assimilated players. They ruled instead that under Article 48 of EC law it was illegal to discriminate against nationals of other Member States, thereby making all EC citizens domestic players.

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Responding to the article in last month's WSC about Wimbledon's proposed relocation to Dublin, Colm McCarthy insists that such a move would be welcomed by many football fans in the Republic of Ireland

Robert Rea, in WSC No 108, voices opposition to the proposed move of Wimbledon FC to Dublin. The FA, he writes, should say “. . . loudly, clearly and immediately, that they will be opposed” Robert would love the FA of Ireland, who have said precisely that. But the proposed move has no shortage of supporters in Dublin, and I am one of them. There is a crisis in the senior professional game in this country, and it has its origins in the structure of league football presided over by various national associations and UEFA.

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Should an award be created for the world's most badly-organised football tournament, 1996 Concacaf Gold Cup would be a front-runner, as Soccer America's Mike Woitalla reports

It’s immigrant-bashing season in the USA. 1994 saw the launch of ‘Operation Gatekeeper’ – a massive border patrol build-up designed to keep out those Mexicans we otherwise welcome to baby-sit our children, clean our houses, pick our fruit and go to our soccer games. 1996 is election year in the USA and the demagogues are raising the level of immigrant scape-goating to another level. The building of the ‘Tortilla Wall’ – a triple fence with razor-blade barbed wire – is part of political discourse.

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