Adam Powley asks who is to blame for Tottenaham fans obtaining tickets for the Leicester end at Wembley and what are the FA are going to do about it?

Since the trouble at the Worthington Cup final, attention has focused on how Tottenham fans got seats for the Leicester end. The root of the problem seems simple: someone, or a group of people, almost certainly with connections to Leicester City, sold tickets either directly or indirectly to Spurs fans, thus at a stroke negating the effectiveness of any segregation policy. The big question is “who dunnit?”

Read more…

Rumours of the death of hooliganism may have been exaggerated. Adam Powley sees signs that it is making a comeback – though not in the newspapers

Remember the Worthington Cup final? Neutrals and even committed spectators could be forgiven for failing to recall anything memorable from such a grim game, but there was one incident that stood out for those at Wembley that day.

Read more…

Cris Freddi trawls further through the dustbins of 20th century football by selecting champion crap sides from the merely awful

This is a category you know you’re not going to be able to cover properly. For a start, there are so many poor teams around, at every level. Selkirk losing 20-0 in the Scottish Cup, Hyde 26-0 to Preston in the FA Cup, the Austrian club who lost every match in a season except the one in which their opponents didn’t turn up because they’d folded. There’s always some schoolboy side cheerfully conceding dou­ble figures in every game. We could all make acceptable lists and none would look the same.

Read more…

Paul Sunter runs the rule over the Darlington's foreign policy

When the children of the world lay down their heads at night, many probably dream of playing for a great football club. Recently several have achieved that dream, by turning out for Darlington.

Read more…

Csaba Abrahall explains how Mauricio Taricco went from unknown to hero during his time at Portman Road

When John Lyall was in South America in the summer of 1994, searching for new recruits to join Ipswich Town’s impending relegation battle, some national papers suggested Gabriel Batistuta was set to arrive at Portman Road. Those of us who knew better laughed off this fanciful notion, yet, had Town some­how found the millions to persuade Batigol and his flowing locks to swap the Ponte Vecchio for the Orwell Bridge, it’s unlikely he would have been as popular as the unknown full-back Lyall brought back for £175,000.

Read more…