Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
James Calder explains how the World Cup winners have benefitted from a change of generation and clever management
Inclusiveness has been a feature of Spain’s World Cup-winning side. While Ángel María Villar, the president of the federation, dedicated the team’s South Africa 2010 success to the “entire Spanish football family”, the players also made a point of celebrating the triumph with the reporters covering their campaign.
There was little sympathy for the losing finalists in South Africa. Derek Brookman laments an effective but aggressive approach
Holland’s first World Cup final for 32 years left a lasting impression, but unfortunately not for the right reasons. Johan Cruyff described his compatriots’ football as “ugly and vulgar”. In Spain, El País talked of “an unrecognisable Holland” and “intimidating behaviour”, while France’s Le Figaro said it “had all the characteristics of anti-football and was of unprecedented brutality”.
A football club set up for asylum seekers in Vienna has found itself pressurised by the Austrian state. Paul Joyce explains
“FC Sans Papiers is a fight against racism and discrimination using modern and elegant means – sport,” explains its president Dr Di-Tutu Bukasa, who founded the side in 2002. Inspired by the French political movement of the same name, the Viennese team offers asylum seekers who lack an Austrian residence permit the chance to play regular lower-league football.
The penalty shoot-out has never been particularly popular. However, as Matthew Knott wonders, if we all dislike the system so much, why has no one come up with a lasting alternative?
As a system it has variously been labelled as “public flogging”, “a lottery”, “gripping drama”, and even “racist”. Even Sepp Blatter professes to dislike its use, yet August 5 marks 40 years since Denis Law stepped up in the first-ever penalty shoot-out in England and demonstrated its potentially humbling effect.
As the Glazers show no signs of selling Manchester United, fans must decide how to respond to this news
For a while earlier this year it seemed as though the Glazer family’s rapacious involvement with Manchester United might be coming to an end. Matches were accompanied by large-scale fan protests against the owners while a group of United-supporting businessmen were said to be preparing a takeover bid. Now, however, it seems the three unprepossessing middle-aged brothers who look after their father’s businesses are going to be around for a while yet.