Search: ' Bermuda'

In the past decade, the quest to find Scotland's 'Third Force' has become an increasingly vain one. Gary Panton runs the rule over the brief contenders

Just months after completing their meteoric rise from the lower rungs of Scottish football to a third place finish in the top flight, the critics are claiming that Livingston’s bubble has already burst. Ten games into the season, an im­pres­sive 4-3 UEFA Cup victory over Sturm Graz could not dis­guise the fact that the Livi Lions had slump­ed to the bottom of the SPL.

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In the aftermath of the controversy over Neil MacNamara, Mark Rowe argues that new legislation will do little to improve club stewarding while the pay and training attached to the job is so poor

So what if Neil MacNamara, the minder of Sam Ham­­mam, turned out to be a convicted football hooligan? I would argue it would have made a better front page headline in the Sun if Sam’s minder had not had a criminal record – bearing in mind that one in four British men born in 1968 had a conviction by the age of 25, and every event security manager needs at least some staff who are not afraid to mix it.

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Dear WSC
Your piece on the delights of terracing in Germany (WSC 171) provided a stark juxtaposition with the book I am currently reading, Nick Varley’s Parklife, where remorselessly he denies the reader any es­cape from the fact that Hillsborough is the pivotal moment of modern English football. For a moment I bathed in a tide of nostalgia, wistful for the excitement and overwhelming passion of terrace culture. Seats were for spectators, not fans. I also recalled the crush amidst the Tottenham fans at the Leppings Lane end in 1981 referred to in Varley’s book as the disaster that nearly happened. Last month I watched another semi-final, this time sitting in the Stretford End with my children. I’m proud they share my undiminished enthusiasm for the game, but we would not be together, either at Old Trafford or in the Members end at White Hart Lane, if we had to stand. We go to every home game in perfect safety and the view is excellent. Earlier that day they had for the first time been exposed to a fraction of the experience of the old days, and the famous adage that clubs never learn. Several thousand fans arriving for the official coaches formed an orderly queue round the ground. Well past departure time the random arrival of coaches, no stewards, no information and only three police meant that we joined everyone else roaming up and down the High Road. The best informed copper had not been told where the coaches would pull up and advised us to wait and “scramble for a seat”. The club were sufficiently organised, however, to open up the club shop from 5am. Thanks to the fans there was no trouble. My kids were bewildered at this lack of organisation because their experience of supporting their team is so utterly different, and I am glad this is the case. They already know about the contempt with which football treats the fans (left home 4.30am, back home 12.45 am). The game remains indifferent to Hillsborough and the Taylor Report in so many ways, but if terraces return we will still be sitting down.
Alan Fisher, Tonbridge

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Clive Charles, one of the most sought after coaches in the US, says he benefited from leaving Britain. Mike Woitalla reports 

British coaches in American soccer are as easy to find as fast-food restaurants on Main Street. In a nation long dependent on foreign teachers, who more likely to dominate the tutorial corps than expatriates from a land of the same language?

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Suggestions of selling their promotion place and moving to Dublin are just two of a number of outrageous plans outlined by the current Clydebank owners writes David Munro

In WSC No 134, the proposed move of Clydebank to Dublin was described as “one piece of franchising too far”. Little did we know then that the next 12 months would see the club’s fate take even stranger twists, leaving its board hopelessly divided, its future home no clearer and its fans consumed with rage.

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