The Archive

The biggest problem for the Brazilian champions is how to sustain their recent success. Robert Shaw reports

Fluminense’s Brazilian National Championship success in 2010 was a remarkable turnaround by any standards. In October 2009 the club was reckoned to be heading for Serie B but a spectacular series of victories saved them, creating the platform for a tilt at the top in 2010. Following the end of the season in December the Brazilian FA (CBF) revised the status of previous championships, so Fluminense were also declared “national champions” for 1970 (the national competition only started officially in 1971).

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Known for his eccentric wardrobe and time in Brazil, Miura is now breaking records in Japan. Simon Coterill explains

Now that Shunsuke Nakamura has returned from Europe and Hidetoshi Nakata has retired, Japanese “sakka” is looking for a new leading man. Competing are Borussia Dortmund’s new talisman Shinji Kagawa and CSKA Moscow’s Keisuke Honda, whose World Cup goals, bleached-blond hair and penchant for expensive fashion make him the favourite. Whoever lands the role will be the latest to replace Japan’s first football superstar, Kazuyoshi Miura. Now aged 43 Miura is still playing professionally, seemingly unwilling to relinquish his limelight.

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Mark Poole describes the season in which Celtic won the championship on goals difference

The long-term significance
The year Hearts threw it all away, in one of Scotland’s most dramatic league finales ever. The Jam Tarts last won the title in 1960 and only Celtic and Rangers have won it since Aberdeen in 1984- 85. Hearts, unbeaten in seven months, went into the last day of the season needing just a draw.

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Mike Whalley tells how after an unexpectedly slow start to club existence, AFC Liverpool are in it for the long haul

“We didn’t really have an idea as to what we were letting ourselves in for,” says AFC Liverpool chairman Chris Stirrup. “Everyone had seen what FC United had done. In that first season, we thought we would walk the league.” Two-and-a-half years in, Merseyside’s newest non-League club have learned to temper ambition with realism. They’ve had to, when their home gates in the North West Counties League First Division – the tenth level of the pyramid – are below 150. Considering the amount of publicity they generated on their formation in 2008, it’s easy to wonder why they aren’t doing better.

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Chris Taylor explains that while FC United of Manchester’s FA Cup exploits are exciting, news of a new ground is the best thing to happen to the club this season

My dad used to point at stars and tell me that they could have expired thousands of years ago, and yet we can still see them because of how far away they are. I can now tell him that the away end of the Withdean Stadium is so far away from the pitch, you see events roughly 70 minutes after the rest of the ground.

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