The Archive

Failure to gain league status can have an impact on all levels of a club. One area it affects is youth development funding, which is only allocated to clubs in the Football League. Matt Ramsay questions whether this is fair and highlights a non-League director who is trying to raise awareness of the problem

Last May’s Conference play-off final between Torquay United and Cambridge United represented a clash between two sides seeking to return to League Two after periods of non-League exile. Yet there was more at stake for the winner than just promotion and a considerable increase in television income.

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They weren't very popular but Don Revie's Leeds United side were certainly effective. James Calder takes a look back at their first League success

The long-term significance
This was Leeds United’s first League title. Developing what Geoffrey Green of the Times described as a “cult of collective anonymity”, the meticulous Don Revie shaped a resilient yet ruthless side that had won few friends since gaining promotion in 1964. But among the grit were regular flashes of brilliance. That, and their ability to absorb punishment and counter-attack to great effect, earned them general recognition as worthy champions. After their near-misses in previous seasons, championship success allowed Revie’s side to adopt a more expansive style. And though the “dirty” tag remained and only one more League title would follow, their consistency and organisation provided a blueprint that other less gifted teams tried to copy, Arsenal among them.

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The bosses at Major League Soccer in America thought it necessary to spend millions on a new web presence. Ian Plenderleith points out why it has been a disaster

“The days of the 800-word think-piece are over,” a football journalist recently told me as we discussed the state of internet writing. With all that content being condensed into ever shorter formats, readers want easily browsed headlines, Twitter snippets, news-based blog entries that end with a question, controversial quotes and a space at the bottom where they can launch in with their opinions. Those long paragraphs just give us a headache and take up time better spent watching that shaky YouTube clip where the loco ref scores with an overhead kick in a Paraguayan Fourth Division game before taking a out a handgun and opening fire on the crowd.

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Rob Hughes wonders why so many football-related dramas fail to strike the right tone, especially in their action scenes

Lord knows they’ve tried. Ricky Tomlinson as England manager. Sean Bean tanking around in a Sheffield United strip. Sylvester Stallone between the sticks. Even Adam Faith as pint-sized proprietor of – oh yes – Leicester Forest (from a script by Jackie Collins, no less). All of them as inept, unconvincing and downright embarrassing as each other. So just why is it that films about football never work? Certainly not through lack of an audience. It’s a sport, lest we forget, adored by millions the world over, one with its own in-built dramatic arc. A ready-made fantasy in which slumdogs really can become superstars. Never mind Mike Bassett or Jimmy Grimble. Where’s our Raging Bull, our This Sporting Life? Even a Seabiscuit would do.

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Taylor Parkes sits through a British comedy about Gillingham fans on a road trip

Pre-release publicity for The Shouting Men makes much of the fact that despite being a football film, it’s not about football violence – well, that’s something I suppose. It is, however, about beery laughs and mawkish sentiment, which is surely the next worst thing. Gillingham are drawn away to Newcastle in the Cup; a mismatched band of Gills fanatics make the trip in a clapped-out minibus, with much calamity along the way. Into this hollow shell of a plot almost any kind of comedy could have been poured, but a slack script, some non-performances and too much soapy slop make this a pretty trying experience.

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