For two clubs in north-east Italy relegation from Serie A was just the start of the problems. Gavin Willacy saw the trouble unfold
If Sheffield Wednesday, Reading or Ipswich get relegated from the Championship in May, their fans would be safe in assuming that the beleaguered club will kick off next season in League One. And if Southampton stay in the third division, you can at least expect them to be on the starting line again come August.
The Gerry Hitchens Story
From Mine to Milan
by Simon Goodyear
Breedon, £16.99
Reviewed by Matthew Barker
From WSC 275 January 2010
William Garbutt
The Father of Italian Football
by Paul Edgerton
Sportsbooks, £7.99
Reviewed by Matthew Barker
From WSC 275 January 2010
Two books telling the neglected stories of two Englishmen whose reputations and legacies have always been more appreciated in Italy than in their native country. Gerry Hitchens made his name as a striker with Cardiff City and Aston Villa. A goalscoring performance for England against Italy bought him to the attention of Inter and a move to Milan in 1961. After 18 months of mixed success he left for Torino, before moving on to Atalanta and Cagliari. In total he spent eight years in Italy, returning to the UK and Worcester City in 1969. He died in 1983 during an amateur game, aged 48.
Enrico Preziosi has faced bankruptcy and a match-fixing conviction, but Paul Virgo finds he’s still a hero to Genoa fans
For someone supposedly banned from professional football, Enrico Preziosi is not doing too badly as chairman of Genoa. This season Italy’s oldest club have outshone Sampdoria, something of a rare occurrence since their upstart neighbours formed in 1946, and at the time of writing they were challenging AS Roma and Fiorentina for Serie A’s final Champions League slot.
We take playing international football in England for granted but as Steve Menary explains it can be a long fight to be gifted that right
When West Ham signed Valon Behrami from Lazio this summer, he became the club’s first ever Swiss international. His status may change on December 19, when FIFA meet for a second time to consider a membership application from Kosovo, where Behrami was born in 1985.
The J League started to flourish after two seasons, recalls Mike Tuckerman
The long-term significance
The Japanese championship had been contested by the sports division of large companies until the creation of the J.League in 1993. Verdy Kawasaki, from an industrial city in the greater Tokyo area, had won the last two titles under the old system when they were attached to the Yomiuri media conglomerate. Under their new name they also took the first two J.League titles. However, they began a steady decline after losing the Championship play-off in 1995, a crippling wage bill and declining attendances bringing about a relocation to the capital in 2001 as Tokyo Verdy. Kawasaki has since acquired another professional club, Frontale, who were J.League runners‑up in 2006. Yokohama Marinos’ 1995 title was the club’s sole domestic success in their original incarnation. An economic downturn saw the Nissan-backed Marinos merge with city rivals the Flügels at the end of 1998, to form the Yokohama F. Marinos.