Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
James Eastham attends a star-studded charity match and feels that a similar situation would look very different in England
May 25, 5pm. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez’s private jet touches down on the tarmac at Marck aerodrome, 183 miles north of Paris. Out steps a smiling Zinedine Zidane. He strides over to greet 200 or so supporters eagerly waiting for an autograph or photo.
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.
David Bartram gets a sense of perspective on outlandish claims about a country competing in their first World Cup for 44 years
It’s July 11, 2010, and they’re celebrating on the streets of Pyongyang. North Korea have just won the World Cup. Well, not quite, but at least the people celebrating think they did. In reality, government officials have spent days tinkering with footage, editing out anything that reflects badly on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The 6-0 drubbing of the US in the final was particularly tricky, given that both sides crashed out in the group stages.