Match-fixing has always been in football. Simon Craig looks at the murky history
The lights went out at Upton Park and at Selhurst, and might yet have followed suit at The Valley and up to eight other grounds over the country.
WSC Readers share their encounters with footballing stars past and present
One lunchtime I needed to get some of my work clothes cleaned so I carried them around to the nearest dry cleaners. In front of me was a large blond guy. I wasn’t paying much attention to him until the person behind the counter asked for his name. “Gottskalksson” he replied. Looking up, I suddenly realised that I was standing next to the Hibs goalie. The dry cleaning man handed him his change, which Ole promptly spilled onto the floor of the shop. Just the sort of performance that relegated Hibs that year. Doug Bell
Frustration is growing among Leicester fans as they continue to try to find a site for their new stadium. Simon Tyers explains his and the fans' disgruntlement
There’s a lot of us Leicester fans about. Which may surprise the casual observer, as Filbert Street currently contains just 21,500 seats, with 20,469 of them filled on average last season. It’s not for the want of trying that the figure is so low – five years ago, the Carling Stand was opened, having cost £5.75 million to develop. The club promptly put the TV camera gantry right at the top, meaning that Britain’s viewing public see as much of Leicester General hospital as they do of the paying spectators.
Alex Ferguson has always let his political views be known, which is why Michael Crick is confused about the lack of it in his book
It’s an interesting test. Just who in public life today could ring Downing Street at 7.30am and be put straight through to Tony Blair? Gordon Brown, Robin Cook or Jack Straw? Certainly. Rupert Murdoch? Undoubtedly. Middle-ranking cabinet members like Stephen Byers and David Blunkett? Pretty marginal, I’d say. As for ministers like Chris Smith or Clare Short, they’d probably be fobbed off by the switchboard whatever time of day it was.
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.