Andy Ollerenshaw on the non-League club in Surrey with a South American connectionThat club is Corinthian-Casuals. Formed in 1939 following the merger of two English amateur sides, they are the highest-ranked amateur team in the English pyramid, playing four levels below the Football League.
The Brazilian title has just been won by a popular club who are also extending their influence behind the scenes. Robert Shaw reportsCorinthians clinched their fifth Brazilian national championship on a day when one of their former stars departed. Prior to the start of the final day’s fixture against Palmeiras on December 4, the Corinthians team paid homage to Socrates, who died in a São Paulo hospital earlier that day, by clenching fists in his trademark salute. It was a poignant moment for Corintianos but less so for club president Andres Sanchez whose recent stewardship had been slated by the player known as Magrão (the big thin one).
Karsten Blaas explains how indecision over fireworks at German football matches has caused fights between ultras and police on the terracesFor their live coverage of the second round of the German cup, played in late October, the TV station ZDF chose Borussia Dortmund’s encounter with Dynamo Dresden, east Germany’s best supported team, who are now back in the second tier after a decade of decline. What happened on the pitch was as dull as had been expected. Dortmund won a lacklustre game 2-0. The events on the terraces and outside the ground, however, had a long-term impact, raising questions about police tactics and the role of the ultra movement in German football.
Tackling Football and Radical Politics
by Gabriel Kuhn
PM Press, £12.99
Reviewed by Tom Davies
From WSC 296 October 2011
The idea that football and politics cannot or should not mix has always been convenient nonsense. Both continually rub up against and influence each other, without either quite managing to bend the other to its will. The question of how football has been approached politically is addressed here – from an unashamedly leftist perspective – by Austrian activist and one-time semi-pro player Gabriel Kuhn in this collection of essays, interviews and excerpts from journals and pamphlets, interwoven with commentary from Kuhn himself.
A Hamburg club is rising quickly through the regional divisions thanks to a highly professional outlook. Matt Nation feels the need to defend his choice of Saturday afternoon entertainment
A classmate of mine once turned up to school on a Monday morning sporting a pair of sideburns. Although not quite in the family-butcher class, they were bushy enough to attract the attention of the PE teacher, who immediately went up to Mutton Chops, grabbed the offending whiskers, said “You’re too young to have sideburns” and lifted the owner six inches off the ground.