Dear WSC
Trevor Fisher (Letters, WSC 301) is nearly right. When Alex Ferguson was accused of driving on the hard shoulder in 1999, he hired Nick “Mr Loophole” Freeman as his lawyer. They argued successfully that he should not be punished as he was
suffering from an upset stomach and needed to get to the training ground quickly to use the toilet. I have always slightly suspected he got away with it because nobody in the courtroom wanted to spend a moment longer than necessary with that gruesome, messy mental image in their head. Which is now in your head. No need to thank me.
Jim Caris, Prague
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Stories
Amateurs played a major role in professional football well into the 20th century, argues Peter Bateman
Blackburn Olympic’s FA Cup final win over the Old Etonians in 1883 is often seen as a watershed in the game’s history. The Cup was never again won by the amateur ex-public school teams who had dominated the first decade of the competition. In 1885 the FA bowed to the inevitable and sanctioned professionalism. Three years later the formation of the Football League by professional clubs from the midlands and north confirmed the exclusion of amateur clubs from the highest level of the game.
Piers Pennington wants half-time to be less refreshing, less entertaining and less of a drag
Of all the rule changes that FIFA have made over the years in their attempts to brighten up the game, their decision in 1995 to increase the length of half-time to 15 minutes must count as the worst. On the face of it, an extra five minutes might seem neither here nor there, but it has transformed what used to be a brief interlude in proceedings into an event in its own right. You are no longer allowed just to wait for the second half to begin. You are expected, if not obliged, to make your choice between Refreshment and Entertainment.
Andrew Ward tells the story of the 1971 FA Cup tie between Alvechurch and Oxford City, which remains the longest match in the competition’s history
Forty years ago, in November 1971, Alvechurch and Oxford City played six matches in 17 days to decide an FA Cup tie. It was more a World Series than sudden-death. At Villa Park, at the end of the fifth replay, Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis poured champagne for all the players, to celebrate their entry into the Guinness Book of Records. The record will never be broken.
John Duerden on how Lebanon are raising hopes against the odds with a good showing in World Cup qualifying
Lebanon’s German manager, Theo Bücker, was tired of waiting and told the bus driver to leave the Seoul hotel, where the team were preparing for a 2014 World Cup qualifier against South Korea, without one of his players. “If I say five o’clock, I don’t mean two minutes after or two minutes before,” Bücker said. “If a shot hits the crossbar is it a goal even if it had gone in had the shot been two centimetres lower?”