When Saturday Comes | The half decent football magazine

Getting into Europe: The 1973 Common Market Match

When Britain joined the European Economic Community a celebratory game was held at Wembley, revealing split opinions on the move

18 August ~ Two days after Britain formally joined the European Economic Community (EEC) on January 1, 1973, a Wembley crowd of 36,500 watched an international friendly. The teams were “The Three”, comprising the home nations and fellow Common Market newcomers Ireland and Denmark, and “The Six”, from existing EEC nations Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, West Germany and France.

Thursday, August 18th, 2016 - Stories

Löw’s doubters get louder after lacklustre Euros

Germany’s five semi-finals in a row and a World Cup have not placated a vocal section critics

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14 July ~ On Tuesday, Joachim Löw finally confirmed that he has every intention to honour his contract as Germany head coach, running until the 2018 World Cup. Not everybody is celebrating. In spite of guiding Germany to five semi-finals in a row (six, if you insist on counting 2006 in which Löw served as an assistant to Jürgen Klinsmann), with one World Cup trophy thrown in, Löw continues to polarise opinions: is he the tactical magician responsible for those triumphs, or an addicted tinkerer whose butt continues to be saved by the extraordinarily gifted bunch of players we currently are producing?

Thursday, July 14th, 2016 - Stories

Growing pains

If Matt Nation could relive his youth again he would like to be as mature as young footballers

As anybody who has ever read about footballers letting off fireworks in their bathroom, visiting nightspots midweek or doing any number of things involving shopping trolleys and trousers round the ankles knows, it is down to their “lack of maturity”. Footballers, who are often “cocooned” in “bubbles”, will simply not grow up because the clubs will not let them.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Champagne supernova

A man with new ideas and a “clean” reputation could have a major football future, writes Steve Menary

On October 21, FIFA president Sepp Blatter unveiled a series of plans to combat the seemingly endemic problem of corruption in international football. Blatter proposed to reopen an investigation into the collapse of former marketing partner ISL, raising the possibility that senior FIFA figures could be shown to have taken bribes. Last year, FIFA paid CHF 5.5 million (£3.9m) to settle the case, but Blatter has now said: “We will give this file to an independent organisation outside of FIFA so they can delve into this file and extract its conclusions and present them to us.”

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 - The Archive

Golden balls

Paul Kelly looks at how the award for the world’s best player has evolved since 1956

In Paris three years ago, after Cristiano Ronaldo became the fourth Manchester United player to win the Ballon d’Or presented by France Football magazine, Alex Ferguson was asked which Old Trafford legends he considered unlucky not to have lifted the prize. “Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs,” he replied. No Roy Keane? No David Beckham? Ferguson’s wrong side is a lonely place to be.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 - The Archive

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Stories

Getting into Europe: The 1973 Common Market Match

When Britain joined the European Economic Community a celebratory game was held at Wembley, revealing split opinions on the move

Löw’s doubters get louder after lacklustre Euros

Germany’s five semi-finals in a row and a World Cup have not placated a vocal section critics

Growing pains

If Matt Nation could relive his youth again he would like to be as mature as young footballers

Champagne supernova

A man with new ideas and a “clean” reputation could have a major football future, writes Steve Menary

Golden balls

Paul Kelly looks at how the award for the world’s best player has evolved since 1956