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The annual Inner City World Cup for foreign communities living in London was held earlier this month. Filippo Ricci went along to see if England could make home advantage count

England has just staged a World Cup, though needless to say the hosts didn’t get past the group stage. The competition in question is the Inner City World Cup, a tournament open to London’s foreign communities and held annually since 1994. African teams have dom­inated, Ghana winning two tournaments and Sierra Leone five, including the most recent edition, played on August 12 and 13 in Raynes Park, when Pakistan lost 2-1 in the final.

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Dear WSC
I have no time at all for deposed Ran­gers vice-chairman Donald Find­lay, but Gary Oliver’s article about him (WSC 149) was unfair in two res­pects. Findlay is Scotland’s pre-eminent defence counsel. He has defended sco­res of people accused of rape, murder, etc – including many Catholics. To extract from his long career two cases where the victims were Celtic fans is a distortion. And Findlay’s admittedly ill-judged joke that his birthday should have been on July 12th rather than St Patrick’s Day was a mutual one he had with a Catholic friend whose birthday is on the former date. The good news is that Rangers chairman David Murray has, by getting rid of Findlay, again taken strong action against sectarianism.
Ian McLean, Glasgow

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After years of young Asian players being discarded so readily by clubs, Matthew Brown explains why the next generation just might be the real deal

Jimmy Khan was 14 and full of hope when he signed associate schoolboy forms for Blackburn Rovers. “There we were standing in the office of the chief scout when in walked Howard Kendall, who was the club’s player- manager at the time. I’ll never forget his exact words. ‘What’s this then? Am I witnessing the signing of the first Asian football star?’”

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Alan Tomlinson and John Sugden report on how the 1996 Asian Nations Cup Finals proved to be a massive disappointment to the hosts of the next World Cup but one

The 1996 Asian Nations Cup Finals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw the home side go one better than England in Euro 96, reaching the tournament final after a penalty shoot-out. In the final, in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City, neighbours UAE and Saudi Arabia sparred their way to a goalless two hours, and into a penalty shoot-out. The Saudis came out on top, with four penalties to the Emirates’ two, reasserting their recent domination of this tournament – they were winners in 1984 and 1988, and losing finalists in 1992.

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Andy Lyons spoke to Jaz Baines, the author of a survey that has challenged some myths about Asian footballers

“There’s a theory they don’t like open changing rooms, their ethics don’t allow it. They do have a problem with their build, which is very slight, and they don’t like the physical element. Their eating habits are also a problem.”
 
The comments are from two League club youth coaches – one of whom went on to become a First Division manager – offering suggestions about why there aren’t more professional footballers from Asian backgrounds. The quotes are from an article in the Sunday Times, reprinted in Asians Can’t Play Football, a report due to be published in April.

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