Twenty years after the start of the Alliance Premier League, or Conference,  Simon Bell asks if it was all a good idea

Good idea at the time: in a certain light it still does. When the “cream” of the English non-League game were brought together 20 years ago as the Alliance Premier League, the agenda was clear enough and the will firm. The annual farce of election and re-election had to end, giving way to meritocratic promotion from a single, national, non-League div­ision com­prising the best and best-run clubs outside the full-time game. At the same time the low­er rungs of the non-League game set about a grand overhaul to form a “pyramid” with the Alliance (subsequently the Gola League and then the Conference) at its pinnacle. It was the way forward.

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A brief guide to football in New York, told by Jack Bell

1626 Dutchman Peter Minuit plunks down $24 in trinkets and baubles and backs his group of settlers against a disorganised band of local Reckagawawanc Indians for the island of Manna-Hatta. It is a precursor to Holland’s Total Football, known locally as Total Rip-off.

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Sky's money has not had a good effect on Rangers' crowds as Ronnie Esplin discovered

Success may breed success, but in the case of Glasgow Rangers it appears it has ultimately bred apathy. Anything less than winning the three domestic trophies this season will be a failure. When you add to that a massive in­crease in season ticket prices (for fewer games than usual, since Scottish Cup ties are not in­cluded this season), saturation television cov­erage and the moving of games to anti-social times, then you have a bubble on the verge of bursting. 

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Updates from clubs in trouble including Chester City and Oxford United

Among the plausible candidates for this season’s spectacular calamity club are Chester City, where Kevin Ratcliffe’s resignation as manager after the first three games of the season has severely dented any optimism generated when Terry Smith, the former coach of the Great Britain gridiron team, took control of the club in July. Understandably, given the mess left by the previous administration, City fans have so far been prepared to give Smith the benefit of the doubt, despite his “colourful” past on the UK ice hockey and gridiron scene. 

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Captain Magpie tells us about Notts County well tanned chairman and the stand he modestly named after himself

Distinguishing features Always well tanned, accompanied by (considerably younger) blonde wife. Looks for all the world like a veteran Hollywood actor – Paul Newman, maybe, or Clint Eastwood – when dealing with bolshie agents or managers.

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