Neil Wills reads Tom Finney's book from 1958 and cannot help but think that, despite certain differences, parts of the game remain the same

An evil press fabricates stories to provoke trouble. Players are paid to throw games. England’s administrators are out of touch with reality. Italian football is dogged by too many foreign signings and the chican­ery of top industrialists. The skewed allocation of Cup final tickets leads to a healthy market for touts. Fans invade the pitch to assault players, and talk of a Eur­opean super league continues unabated. Welcome to 1958.

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As well as looking at sad stats for transfers and appearances, Jamie Rainbow takes in unofficial Stoke City and official Accrington Stanley

You get what you pay for, we’re often told. Not in the world of football you don’t, where, according to a site devoted to the transfer market, Transfer News, financial outlay bears little or – in the case of Newcastle – no relation to success. Since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, the three heaviest spending clubs have been Newcastle, Liverpool and Everton, none of whom currently show any signs of justifying their massive investments. 

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Italy have tried the idea of two referees. Richard Mason tells us why he is impressed

The second round, first leg matches of the Italian Cup, played on October 12-14, saw the start of an experiment that could have far-reaching consequences. For the first time in an important competition in Europe, matches were controlled by two referees.

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Referees have clamped down with a series of red cards, but as  John Williams finds out, it is not just them who should shoulder the blame

Forget just for a moment all the argy bargy about the standard of refereeing, the alleged in­crease in viol­ence in the English game and Patrick Vieira’s recent disciplinary charge for spitting at Neil Ruddock. Con­sider this instead: Vinny Samways, remember him – impish little midfielder, quite skilful but a bit lightweight, much too faint-hearted for the English game? Spurs and Everton fans will probably recall the urgings from the stands that little Vin­nie should cease fannying around and “get stuck in”.

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Despite interference from NATO among others, Yugoslavia made it to Euro 2000. Dragomir Pop-Mitic looks back at an extraordinary campaign

“All games for the coming weekend are postponed.”

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