Rangers and Celtic have once again hinted that they could leave the SPL. Keith Davidson thinks it might be for the best
This autumn, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell and Rangers equivalent Martin Bain once again raised the issue of their clubs quitting Scottish football for more financially lush pastures – England or a North Atlantic League involving sides from the Netherlands and elsewhere.
National tensions are expressing themselves through Belgium's two biggest clubs. John Chapman looks at the latest instalment
Anderlecht’s Marcin Wasilewski has twice made the front cover of Belgium’s leading football magazine in recent weeks: once when he was using his elbows to great effect against Standard Liège and then being stretchered off against the same club.
Belgium’s linguistic and political split between Flemings and Walloons is now affecting its football, writes John Chapman
Belgium holds a unique place in western Europe as it’s the only country that is anywhere close to be being roughly equally divided along linguistic lines. The two halves – Flemings (Dutch speaking) and Walloons (French speaking) – are rarely united these days; there has not been a national show of unity since 1996 when 300,000 Belgians took to the streets in protest against the police’s apparently mishandled investigation into a series of internationally reported child murders by Marc Dutroux. Prior to that, there are memories of an outpouring of grief at the death of King Baudouin in 1993 and the 1986 return to the Grand Place of the “Red Devils” after they had reached the World Cup semi-finals in Mexico.
Black Africa produces many great players, but the powerbase of club football in the continent lies elsewhere, says James Copnall
The coach, of a sub-Saharan African team expected to challenge for the African Champions League title most years, was getting more and more depressed. He kept pausing the tape of his side’s last meeting with the reigning African champions, Al Ahly, then rewinding it to revel in his misery once more. “See that? See that Egyptian right-back?” he said, almost angry. “Look at the way he gets that cross past his man under heavy pressure, and it lands right on the attacker’s head. I love my boys, but I don’t think many of them could do that – let alone my right-back!” The game – like so many of late – ended in an Al Ahly victory. Coaches all over black Africa are getting used to losing to the Egyptians – and to north African sides in general.
Just what the game needs to reconnect with its traditional fan base: a football-branded motorsport franchise. Al Needham witnesses the inaugural outing of Superleague Formula
It’s an obscenely crass and overblown spectacle that wastes millions of pounds a year on something that its detractors claim is nothing more than a season-long procession that clogs up the TV on Sundays, mainly decided by which teams have the most money. So why would motorsport want anything to do with football?