An overview of the prevailing standards in the Football League, with Reading fan Roger Titford describing what he saw from the wrong end of the First Division

By general consensus it has been a bad year for the First Division. Its lack of quality has been characterised by “the widening of the gap”. At the time of writing it looks quite likely that all last year’s promoted teams will come back down and the three relegated teams will return to the Premiership. If it happens it will probably be a fluke never to be repeated but it comes at a very bad time for the image of the Football League.

Read more…

Ian Plenderleith recalls an usual cup tie consisting of flares, invading fans and a surreal amount of goals

Have you ever had your home stadium taken over by away fans? I don’t just mean being outsung by supporters of a victorious opponent, or having your end steamed in on by a bunch of future novelists. We’re talking here about an occupying army, a cacophonous, flag-waving force running on the adrenalin of new-found nationalism, a rabble which banged, bayed and basked in its superiority of numbers for 90 minutes and more while the awe-smitten home supporters barely squeaked.

Read more…

In Germany the debate over players' wages has been conducted in public during Bundesliga matches, as Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger describes

On A day in late March, Schalke 04’s business manager Rudi Assauer stormed through the corridors of power at UEFA headquarters. Grey-haired functionaries ducked out of his way, detecting a take-me-to-your-leader glint in the man’s eyes that heralded trouble. And they were right: Assauer was on a mission to save the world of football all by himself.

Read more…

Patrick Harverson examines the furore that followed the publication last month of a report that detailed huge rises in footballers' wages in the past year

Are footballers paid too much? It is a simple enough question, but one that evades a simple answer. It can be, and often is, argued that footballers are paid too much in relation to the amount of money their clubs earn, or in relation to the performance they deliver on the pitch, or – as several tabloid newspapers suggested recently – in relation to the amount of money a nurse earns.

Read more…

A controversial game in New York provided a taste of what we can expect from referees at the World Cup, as Nick Patience explains

Watching the New York/New Jersey Metrostars play the San Jose Clash on April 25th, it quickly became apparent the referee – literally, for once – was watching a different game to the rest of us. There were seven goals, three red cards, eight yellows and 17,380 fans in Giants stadium wondering what would happen next, and why what had happened previously had happened at all. In a game that swung one way then the other, the much-maligned Alexi Lalas, in his first season with New York, scored the winner with just 11 seconds to go, which in most fans’ opinion was the only thing he did right in the entire game.

Read more…