Economic problems for Norwegian clubs have meant they have looked for outside help in financing player wages and transfers. Ole P Pedersen reports
On the face of it, football in Norway is booming. The national team has qualified for Euro 2000, two clubs are in the Champions League and the Premiership remains a popular destination for Norwegian players. However, all is not as it seems.
The various clubs to be affected by Reg Brealey and Steve Morgan
Sheffield United fans will be only too familiar with the reputation of Reg Brealey, the chairman of their club in the 1980s. The one-time jute magnate is now officially bankrupt and has 20,000 luckless shareholders from a previous company failure on his conscience, but he has been far from idle since leaving Bramall Lane. In conjunction with sidekick Steve Morgon he has recently embarked on an unlikely groundhopping tour, sowing further confusion, debt and dissatisfaction wherever he goes.
Manchester City fan Mike McDonald is not the most loved figure at Sheffield Utd as Peter Salt explains
Distinguishing features Big reputation, big ego, big car, big company, big money, big mouth, big cigar, big Man City supporter, big chip on his shoulder. He is, without a shadow of a doubt, Big Mac.
Sheffield Wedneday have problems on and off the pitch. Graham Lightfoot finds out where it has gone wrong
In 1992 Sheffield Wednesday were the third best team in England. The following season they reached two cup finals. The years since those comparatively heady days have been hard to bear for Wednesdayites. The club’s board has been accused of investing in the stadium at the expense of the team since the Sixties, but lately there has been a steady haemorrhaging of the club’s support. Wednesday have no money, little in the way of young players coming through and a playing staff who have yet to convince supp-orters that they care about playing in the blue and white.
A weekly dose of Champions League is not necessarily proving to be a hit in Europe
There’s more than a slight air of desperation hanging around this season’s Champions League, and it’s not just emanating from Bob Wilson. “This first stage of the competition doesn’t interest me,” says Johan Cruyff, and frankly we’d have to lump ourselves in with the thousands of fans who appear to agree with him.