Dear WSC
If Chic Charnley (Reviews, WSC 281) had had a longer fuse, it’s a racing certainty that he’d have played for Scotland and, in all likelihood, have drawn the attentions of bigger clubs in Scotland and down south. But, in gaining a model pro, we’d have lost a character who inspired love and loathing in equal part (depending on whether he was playing for your club). For a fan Chic was a uniquely interactive experience – if you got on his back he’d react and, as his disciplinary record shows, on 17 occasions that reaction led to a red card. As a fan you knew it. He’d be looking at the crowd trying to pick out his tormentors and on a good day you’d get a gesture. What better motivation could there be.At McDiarmid Park in Perth, on New Year’s Day 1997 Chico had a particularly fine blow-up. With the St Johnstone fans full of New Year spirit (spirits?) the abuse directed at Chic was ripe. With the match at 1-1 the red mist descended, and he thumped one of his team-mates. What followed was one of the high points of the last 20 years for Saints fans – a 7-2 victory over the bitterest local rivals.Equally, when playing for Partick Thistle against Motherwell in 1994 or 1995, I recall the crowd focusing even more relentlessly on the man. My memory says that again he got wound up, launched a kung-fu tackle at an opponent and earned an early bath. I’m less certain of this though and would welcome confirmation that I twice played my part in taking Chico off the pitch, definitely my most significant footballing achievement. At a later date I met Chic in a Glasgow pub. He was holding court to a rapt audience of Celtic fans whose devotion to him was greater than to many of the club’s long-term players. They knew he was one of them and they knew he’d come within a whisker of fulfilling his/their dream of playing in the hoops. Down-to-earth, frank about his errors and damn funny, it’s a shame there aren’t more like him. But if there were, there’d be chaos.
Alistair Smith, Forest Hill
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
New rules announced by both UEFA and the Premier League are meant to curb football's financial excesses. but, as Mark Brophy points out, they might not have that much effect on the big clubs
UEFA’s impending Financial Fair Play regulations have met with seemingly universal approval. Starting in 2012, clubs who fail to comply with the rules laid down will be barred from European competition. Clubs spending more than the income they generate will fall foul of the rules, as will those which spend more than 70 per cent of turnover on wages, have unsustainable debt or fail to pay debts on time. At the same time Premier League rules limiting squad size to 25 with eight places reserved for homegrown players have come into effect for the new season, again to general acclaim.
Dermot Corrigan reviews a highly eventful La Liga campaign, in which Real Betis, managed by an Irishman, defied the odds
The long-term significance
La Liga was formed in 1929, and Real Betis' win this season was the first time one of the initially dominant "big three" of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao did not take the title. The leading clubs all featured players who had starred for Spain in the preceding summer’s World Cup finals. A skilful Spanish team were out-muscled in a quarter-final replay by the more physical Italians, who went on to win the competition watched by Benito Mussolini. Domestic Spanish football was also to suffer from the effects of fascism during the 1930s, with La Liga suspended once civil war broke out in July 1936. During the war separate leagues were organised in the Fascist and Republican controlled areas, before La Liga returned in 1939-40.
Taylor Parkes explains why watching the centrepiece of ITV's primetime World Cup programming was not an enjoyable experience
The separation of football and the intellect isn’t always a wholly bad thing, but too many people make a career of it. Put that thought to the guilty men – including almost everyone who works in television – and the chances are they’ll scoff. “It’s only a laugh – that’s what footy’s all about, isn’t it?” Well… no, that’s not what “footy” is all about, not exclusively.
Roger Titford analyses how the role of the crowd is changing, thanks to television's demands
My abiding memory of the 2002 World Cup is the rhythm, uniformity, noise and collective willpower of the South Korean crowd. In France 1998 the way England fans dominated some stadiums with flags and song was impressive but the South Koreans took it to another level – and reached the semi-finals. South Africa 2010 has been a very good tournament with lots of smiling faces. But it’s been two steps backwards in undermining the role of genuine, traditional support which is about being united and getting behind your team.