Some regular WSC contributors weigh up the best and worst things to have happened to football in 1998, and look ahead to 1999

Ian Plenderleith

Ups
– Soaring wages in the Premier League – it makes me feel warm inside to watch players and know at the same time that they will be secure in their old age.

– England’s World Cup exit – God save us eternally from Englishmen on top of the world.

– Scotland fans once again annoying the English by showing them how to enjoy a football tournament.

Downs
– The desecration of once-wonderful European club competitions.

– The failure of self-appointed fan-of-the-people David Mellor to drown in his own grease.

– Overall, too much hype and too little substance.

Hope
That football will eat itself and then we can all do something worthwhile with our spare time.

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Responsible for solving the nation's dinner crisis with Pizza Express Bob Allen and Sean Ingham take a closer look at Peterborough's similar sounding chairman

Distinguishing Features Rotund and white-haired, a cross between Rumpole of the Bailey and Private Godfrey of Dad’s Army. Always wears a navy suit. 

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Phil Tanner grinds his teeth over the Welsh FA's hypocrisy and says they may have jeopardised the national team's status

Declaring interests has not been a central theme of Lancaster Gate-gate (or Westgate-gate as it might be termed on the other side of the Severn Bridge), but what the hell. I support a Welsh non-League club which in 1995 had to go to court to establish its right under restraint of trade law not to be forced into the League of Wales. The pillar of the Welsh FA’s defence was that national associations outside the UK were stepping up pressure over the so-called home nations’ independent status and that even minor anomalies such as three clubs, each with a few hundred supporters, playing on both sides of the border might ultimately threaten the existence of the Welsh national side. (For some reason the fact that three much larger clubs did likewise was discounted, but we’ll skip that.)

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Tim Springett examines FA chariman Keith Wiseman's record at Southampton

In addition to holding the position of FA chairman, Keith Wiseman has been a director of Southampton Football Club for ten years, holding the post of vice-chairman until six months ago. He is also a solicitor, the coroner for the Southampton and New Forest area and a high-ranking member of the Hampshire branch of the Lawn Tennis Association. At first glance, he seems a veritable pillar of the community.

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John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson trace the toots of England's international impotence and the shambles at the FA

December’s crisis within the FA, when chairman Keith Wiseman and chief executive Graham Kelly faced a vote of no confidence from the FA Council, can only be properly understood in relation to English football’s recent lack of standing in Europe and in FIFA politics. In the run-up to the 1998 World Cup and critical UEFA and FIFA congresses, Kelly was asked whether the British associations lacked inf­luence in UEFA.

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