Day 18 of the WSC advent calendar and we are joining Leicester City’s journey following a star. As they prepared, in October 2000, issue 164, to visit Red Star Belgrade, Dragomir Pop-Mitic reported on the civil unrest in Yugoslavia

“We are ready to organise the match and all Leicester City supporters will be welcomed and completely safe,” said an official from Red Star Belgrade after the UEFA Cup draw was an­nounced. Whether Leicester are able to trav­el to Yugoslavia remains to be seen, though UEFA have insisted they will forfeit the game if they don’t. The British government may not be prepared to grant permission and the Mil­osevic regime will be nervous too, since the match will take place a few days after a domestic election which it cannot afford to lose

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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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His takeover was welcomed, but the bubble has been bursting since.  Anthony Hobbs takes a deeper look at QPR's chairman Chris Wright

Distinguishing FeaturesLooks a bit like a hippy version of Roger DeCourcey (of Nookie Bear fame), or Richard Branson’s unkempt, chubbier brother. Has the facial expression of someone who may have inhaled during the Sixties. Allegedly.

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Football's new money needs to be managed sensibly to keep the game sustainable, says  Matthew Garrahan

When Alan Sugar spoke of the “prune juice effect” in his address to the Oxford Union in 1997 he was not talking about how his stom­ach felt after seeing Darren Anderton limp off the field for the umpteenth time. Sugar used the term – cogently and correctly – to describe the inability of professional football clubs to manage the huge amounts of money coming into the game.

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Oxford United have shirked their responsibilty on reprimanding a player convicted of a racial offence, reports James Beard

A promising young footballer was recently con­victed of a racial offence. The case involves a footballer at a Second Division club and, al­though it touches on issues which have been at the centre of public debate, has received scant media attention. It deserves more.

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