Search: ' Chile'

An extract from a new book about the 1966 World Cup looks at how exotic visitors to that tournament inspired England’s own fans to travel abroad

29 June ~ The England squad that travelled to the 1962 World Cup in Chile had to endure a flight with two separate changes to Lima where they played a warm-up game against Peru before moving on to Santiago, then Rancagua where they would play their group games and then bus to their base at the Braden Copper Company staff house in Coya, some 2,500 feet up in the Andes. The journey of over 7,500 miles would have taken them more than twenty four hours. Hardly an ideal preparation for the tournament.

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Simon Tyers tries to get his head around some strange happenings in football broadcasting

This was a strange month. After Sky’s build-up to the second leg of Arsenal’s Champions League tie against AC Milan seemed to assume a comeback was inevitable, Rob Hawthorne reckoned Massimiliano Allegri would “put his faith in his team holding onto what they have”, as if he might have considered letting Arsenal score as many goals as they fancied instead. There was Harry Redknapp on Match of the Day after the league defeat at Everton letting his chirpy pragmatist mask slip by framing every statement as a question – “What can you do? We battered them second half?” – while considering any query about the game as a personal affront. Interviewer Guy Mowbray nearly burst out laughing, which seemed an appropriate reaction.

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Cameron Carter analyses the different reactions to football’s many controversies

Just as there must statistically be teatime programmes on the BBC that do not feature Alex Jones or John Barrowman, so we must assume that there are gay footballers out there somewhere in the universe. In Britain’s Gay Footballers (BBC3, January 30), Amal Fashanu, niece of Justin, daughter of John, quested for a gay man among the 4,000 professional players registered in the UK.

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The Spanish national team are preparing for Euro 2012 with a series of taxing, but lucrative, friendlies. Dermot Corrigan explains

It was understandable that many England fans would happily celebrate last November’s 1-0 win over the reigning world and European champions at Wembley. There was, though, at least some recognition that Spain have not been at their best recently. Since winning the last World Cup, La selección have qualified for the summer’s Euro 2012 finals with a 100 per cent record. But they have also lost 4-1 to Argentina, 4-0 to Portugal and 2-1 to Italy in friendlies, while also drawing with Mexico and Chile. A number of reasons have been put forward for this, including less motivated players, highly motivated rivals, inter-club politics and the idea that extra substitutions helps opponents counter Spain’s tiki-taka style. A further factor should be added – money.

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